Hello everyone. I have a line on a Rivera era Concert amp in clean condition for <700.
Your thoughts?
Hello everyone. I have a line on a Rivera era Concert amp in clean condition for <700.
Your thoughts?
Mark
I have tried a few Deluxe Reverbs and wasn't very impressed with the overdrive sound. It was too fizzy, and the clean sounds weren't as good as the original amp with no drive section.
They sounded good, but I strongly prefer a stock Deluxe over the Rivera model. I can't speak for the Concert model though.
If you're bored, you're not groovin'.
IIRC Fender's Concert Amp was somewhat akin to the Mesa models of the era, with multiple cascaded gain stages, various frequency-band boosts, and some other Rivera-developed tricks. I think they were available as 1 x 12 or 2 x 10 combos, and -- possibly -- as a head.
"When injustice becomes law then rebellion becomes duty."
My first "real" amp! I bought it used from a friend in '82. It was my only full size amp until '90 when I replaced it with a '66 Vibrolux Reverb. It was a good amp, but never really suited me. I was a huge fan of blues and bands like The Fabulous Thunderbirds. The amp looked the part, but wasn't close. The clean channel was too clean and the dirty channel was too dirty.
Plus, it weighed a ton! I think my back problems may be related to this amp!
Was yours the 4 x 10?Originally Posted by Don
My first "real" amp! I bought it used from a friend in '82. It was my only full size amp until '90 when I replaced it with a '66 Vibrolux Reverb. It was a good amp, but never really suited me. I was a huge fan of blues and bands like The Fabulous Thunderbirds. The amp looked the part, but wasn't close. The clean channel was too clean and the dirty channel was too dirty.
Plus, it weighed a ton! I think my back problems may be related to this amp!
"When You're Riding Down the Highway at Night, And You're Feeling that Wild Turkey's Bite" ZZ Top
It was.
When I bought my 69 Super Reverb a couple years ago, I removed the chassis from the cabinet downstairs, and carried them separately up 17 stairs to my music room. The chassis was not too bad, because you could grab it with one hand and keep a hand on the hand rail, but with the cabinet I just lifted it one stair at a time.
"When You're Riding Down the Highway at Night, And You're Feeling that Wild Turkey's Bite" ZZ Top
I had a '67 Super Reverb a while ago and it was quite a bit lighter than the Concert. It actually surprised me- I thought it'd be heavier than it was. According to the field guide, a Super Reverb is 60 pounds and a Concert 4x10 is 72 pounds.
In the end, it was still too heavy and more amp than I'd every used so I stuck with my old faithful '66 Vibrolux Reverb.
My Super Reverb has alnico speakers (CTS). Your Concert must have had ceramic magnet speakers, accounting for the extra weight. Maybe also larger power transformer?I had a '67 Super Reverb a while ago and it was quite a bit lighter than the Concert. It actually surprised me- I thought it'd be heavier than it was. According to the field guide, a Super Reverb is 60 pounds and a Concert 4x10 is 72 pounds.
In the end, it was still too heavy and more amp than I'd every used so I stuck with my old faithful '66 Vibrolux Reverb.
Edit: Perhaps the entire cabinet was made of particle board. That stuff is really heavy compared to pine. I have an 80's Princeton Chorus made of that stuff and it's really heavy, despite being solid state and having 2 x10 speakers.
Last edited by Michael Smith; 07-10-2023 at 01:04 PM.
"When You're Riding Down the Highway at Night, And You're Feeling that Wild Turkey's Bite" ZZ Top
I think the combination of ceramic magnet speakers, a beefy PT, and the cabinet (I doubt it was particle board, maybe plywood, which is still heavier than the pine that Fender used to use) made it heavier. My SR had the original CTS alnico speakers, but they were all blown!
Wow, ALL of them blown! Mine are original per the date codes, but one had been re-coned just before I bought it, according to the seller. The cone material looks darker than the other 3.I think the combination of ceramic magnet speakers, a beefy PT, and the cabinet (I doubt it was particle board, maybe plywood, which is still heavier than the pine that Fender used to use) made it heavier. My SR had the original CTS alnico speakers, but they were all blown!
"When You're Riding Down the Highway at Night, And You're Feeling that Wild Turkey's Bite" ZZ Top
My amp was a mess when I received it. It was given to me for free.
The rear panel, chassis mounting hardware, and jewel lamp assembly were missing, the faceplate was bent because someone removed the chassis carelessly with no jewel lamp assembly in place, the reverb tank was shot, and worse of all, someone had installed the rectifier tube incorrectly because the guide pin had broken off. This caused a short which damaged the centertap on the PT secondary. The wire was burned right off!
Believe it or not, the PT checked out fine, otherwise. There was enough of a stump to attach a new wire to. I repaired everything that was broken, replaced everything that was missing, replaced the electrolytics and power supply resistors, installed new tubes, set the bias, and installed a set of the 10 speakers that THD was blowing out at the time. It sounded great!
The amp looked great too- the cabinet, grill cloth, and chassis were in great shape. The faceplate straightened out well. The repairs went well enough that I would've been happy keeping it. I sold it, fully disclosing the issues and repairs for about $200 more than I put into it.
Last edited by Don; 07-10-2023 at 02:43 PM.
Oops! I just remembered that this was blackonblack's Rivera era Concert thread!
Lol, it's easy to highjack a thread when reminiscing about old amps.
"When You're Riding Down the Highway at Night, And You're Feeling that Wild Turkey's Bite" ZZ Top
Since I've been on a roll binge-watching Psitronic Audio's YouTube channel, I've noticed he's done a few on these amps. I'll post links when I get a chance to find them
Heres part one from a playlist of at least six that he did:
Great info. Highlighted all the things I didn't like about my Rivera Deluxe. I know they're not the same amp, but the problems appear to be the same with the entire line.
If you're bored, you're not groovin'.
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