fender blackface amps

To mod or not to mod? Three experts tell us what we should and shouldn’t do to our ’70s-era Fender amplifiers.

Fender’s silver-panel amplifiers have a mixed reputation. Some people will happily bend your ear about how they can’t compare to their counterparts from the tweed, black-panel, or drip-edge eras, while others will tell you they simply sound great. And some are in between—admiring the silver-panel amps for exactly the reliable, powerful, and plentiful specimens they are.

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Need more headroom or gain? Spin the bottles.

[Originally published: 9/2/2019]
You might guess from the title of this column that I love Fender amps. And you’d be right. From a musical and engineering perspective, I think vintage Fender blackface amps are the best ever made. With bright, American-style speakers, they deliver pure and natural tone. Their channels, with volume and EQ, are intuitive for any guitar, bass, or keyboard player. It’s impossible to not find a decent tone in less than 10 seconds. From a technical perspective, their handmade tube-based circuits are simple, and they were built with high-quality components. And today, there are easily available parts and schematics, and an abundance of other online technical information, which makes it possible for many techs and players—including you—to service these amps.

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