
A sublime pairing: a vintage black-panel Princeton Reverb and a Jazzmaster. The amp's debut model year was 1964, six years after this offset guitar debuted at the NAMM show.
Let's take a look under this iconic amp's hood and learn about its tonal quirks, easy mods, and more.
Fender's Princeton Reverb is an iconic tube amp that has been in production for almost 60 years. Intended to be a student and practice amp, the Princeton became widely popular among both professional and amateur players. Its strength lies in its simplicity and light weight, and in this column, I'll share my insights on how to get great tone from this model.
The Princeton was introduced in 1964, in the black-panel era of Fender, as a single-channel combo powered by two 6V6 tubes, producing 12 watts. It came loaded with either a 10" Jensen or Oxford speaker, inside a small 9 1/2"x16"x20" cabinet. The amp weighs only 27 1/2 pounds and can easily be carried in one arm with a guitar case in the other. The controls consist of volume, treble, bass, reverb, and tremolo speed and intensity. Its design changed slightly during the silver-panel era, in 1968, and then remained consistent until 1981, when Paul Rivera came along and introduced the Princeton Reverb II, a great but different amp that was produced until 1986.
Princetons sounded very consistent through the '60s and '70s. In 2008, Fender reissued a printed-circuit-board-based Princeton that also cosmetically and tone-wise stayed close to the original. It, too, became very popular, and in 2013, Fender added a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb with the vintage-correct, transition-era aluminum frame. It has a small twist in the circuit design that sounds wilder, with more break-up, which is not vintage-correct but is popular and relevant.
Since I started watching vintage Fender amp prices around 1998, Princeton Reverbs have cost more than Super Reverbs and Twin Reverbs. The most sought-after '64 to '67 models, with Jensen speakers, often cost $3,500. More affordable push/pull boost models from 1978/'79 go for $700 to $800. If you install a good speaker in a push/pull version, you will almost have a black-panel Princeton Reverb in terms of sound.
Unlike most other Fender amps, the Princeton survived the silver-panel era without major changes.
Now, let's look at the differences and similarities between the Princeton and other vintage dual-channel Fenders from the AB763 circuit family. They all share the same tone stack, preamp design, and use push/pull class-AB power amps with negative feedback. These similarities explain why Fender's black-panel and silver-panel amps sound very much alike. There are some differences, though. For example, the Princeton sounds smoother than the Deluxe Reverb's vibrato channel, because the Princeton does not have the 47 pF bright cap. That allows many players to easily find a sweet tone in the Princeton, which pairs well with various guitars and takes pedals splendidly, too.
Another of the Princeton Reverb's departures from Fender's other AB763 amps is bias-based tremolo, versus optical tremolo. Bias-based tremolo is capable of a deeper sweep, since it almost turns the power tubes off by changing their bias level while in use—but only if the bias is set correctly. A too-hot bias will weaken the tremolo. It's also fun to experiment with the tremolo's character by varying GZ34 or 5U4GB rectifier tubes, or changing out the 6V6 power tubes.
All class-AB amps have phase inverters whose purpose is to duplicate and invert the original signal into two separate signal chains that are fed into each of the two (or four) power tubes. In the Princeton, there's a budget-level phase inverter based on only one-half of a 12AX7 tube, compared to a full-current-strong 12AT7 in other AB763 amps. This results in more phase-inverter distortion—particularly noticeable as loose and farty bass notes. This also explains why the Princeton Reverb has only 12 watts of power compared to the Deluxe Reverb's 22-watt output, although both use 6V6 power tubes. So when the Princeton is cranked, it tends to sound a bit browner than the Deluxe Reverb, with more breakup in the lower frequencies and a mid-focused tone. But at lower, clean volumes it still delivers a more typical scooped AB763 sound.
I like to keep Princetons stock for practice and home use, because I want early break-up. Those who use a Princeton onstage and need more clean headroom may consider installing a 12" speaker. This mod is really simple and there's no need to expand the speaker hole in the baffle. You only need to drill new screw holes and make sure the speaker frame does not collide with the output transformer or reverb tank. Most speakers, except those with the biggest ceramic magnets, like the EVM12L or Eminence Swamp Thang, will fit. Another easy mod is to insert a Deluxe Reverb output transformer. This will firm things up even more. Finally, installing a 25k mid pot (or switch) on the back is a must-have mod for all Fender amps lacking a mid-control pot. That'll fatten this literal lightweight up!
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Learn about this iconic guitar's journey, its mods done by Frank, and hear how it sounds in the hands of his son Dweezil.
Neil Young’s ’70s hits are some of the most recognizable radio rock jams of all time. But Neil’s guitar playing continued to grow over the ensuing decades, as he traversed styles from blues to country to electronic to rockabilly and beyond, eventually developing one of the most tonally decadent, fully formed improvisational voices in the entire guitar universe.
Neil Young’s ’70s hits are some of the most recognizable radio rock jams of all time. But Neil’s guitar playing continued to grow over the ensuing decades, as he traversed styles from blues to country to electronic to rockabilly and beyond, eventually developing one of the most tonally decadent, fully formed improvisational voices in the entire guitar universe.
Like any discography that’s been growing over the course of more than half a century, it can be hard to decode Young’s work. And with such an adventurous spirit, it could be easy to make some missteps and miss out on his best guitar works. In this episode, Nick guides Jason through some of his hero’s finest moments.
More news from Neil always seems to be on the horizon, so here’s your chance to catch up.
This episode is sponsored by Gibson.
This Japan-made Guyatone brings back memories of hitchin’ rides around the U.S.
This oddball vintage Guyatone has a streak of Jack Kerouac’s adventurous, thumbing spirit.
The other day, I saw something I hadn’t noticed in quite some time. Driving home from work, I saw an interesting-looking fellow hitchhiking. When I was a kid, “hitchers” seemed much more common, but, then again, the world didn’t seem as dangerous as today. Heck, I can remember hitching to my uncle’s cabin in Bradford, Pennsylvania—home of Zippo lighters—and riding almost 200 miles while I sat in a spare tire in the open bed of a pickup truck! Yes, safety wasn’t a big concern for kids back in the day.
So, as I’m prone to do, I started digging around hitchhiking culture and stories. Surprisingly, there are organized groups that embrace the hitching life, but the practice remains on the fringe in the U.S. Back in the 1950s, writer Jack Kerouac wrote the novel On the Road, which celebrated hitchhiking and exposed readers to the thrill of maverick travel. Heck, even Mike Dugan (the guitarist in all my videos) hitched his way to California in the 1960s. But seeing that fellow on the side of the road also sparked another image in my brain: Yep, it always comes back to guitars.
Let me present to you a guitar that’s ready to go hitching: the Guyatone LG-180T, hailing from 1966. The “thumbs-up” headstock and the big “thumb” on the upper bout always made me think of thumbing a ride, and I bought and sold this guitar so long ago that I had forgotten about it, until I saw that hitchhiking dude. Guyatone was an interesting Japanese company because they were primarily an electronics company, and most of their guitars had their wooden parts produced by other factories. In the case of the LG-180T, the bodies were made by Yamaha in Hamamatsu, Japan. At that time, Yamaha was arguably making the finest Japanese guitars, and the wood on this Guyatone model is outstanding. We don’t often see Guyatone-branded guitars here in the U.S., but a lot of players recognize the early ’60s label Kent—a brand name used by an American importer for Guyatone guitars.
With a bit of imagination, the LG-180T’s “thumbs up” headstock seems to be looking for a roadside ride.
Kent guitars were extremely popular from the early ’60s until around 1966. The U.S. importer B&J fed the American need for electric guitars with several nice Kent models, but when the Guyatone contract ended, so did most of the Kent guitars. After that, Guyatone primarily sold guitars in Japan, so this example is a rare model in the U.S.
“Unless you are a master at guitar setups, this would be a difficult player.”
This headstock is either the ugliest or the coolest of the Guyatone designs. I can’t decide which. I will say, no other Japanese guitar company ever put out anything like this. You have to give the Guyatone designers a thumbs up for trying to stand out in the crowd! Guyatone decided to forgo an adjustable truss rod in this model, opting instead for a light alloy non-adjustable core to reinforce the neck. Speaking of the neck, this instrument features the most odd-feeling neck. It’s very thin but has a deep shoulder (if that makes any sense). Totally strange!
Another strange feature is the bridge, which offers very little adjustment because of the three large saddles, which sort of rock back and forth with the tremolo. It’s a shame because these pickups sound great! They’re very crisp and have plenty of zing, but unless you are a master at guitar set-ups, this would be a difficult player.
This could be why the LG-180T only appeared in the 1966 and 1967 catalogs. After that, it disappeared along with all the other Yamaha-made Guyatone electrics. By 1969, Guyatone had gone bankrupt for the first time, and thus ended guitar production for a few decades. At least we were blessed with some wacky guitar designs we can marvel at while remembering the days when you could play in the back end of an explosive 1973 AMC Gremlin while your mom raced around town. Two thumbs up for surviving our childhoods! PG