These before and after photos show the rough condition that our columnist's '65 Super Reverb arrived in, and the worn-but-dignified look of his restoration. Of course, a shiny red ES-335 with a Bigsby pretties things up, too.
Our columnist shares a love story about his longtime passion for the 1965 heavyweight that’s his No. 1.
Let me tell you the story of my first vintage Fender amp, which I call “No. 1"—the 1965 Super Reverb that I consider the greatest guitar amp I've ever heard and played.
When I was a teenager, in the late '80s, I had a 25-watt Fender Sidekick and a bigger, 2x12, 40-watt Marshall Valvestate. They worked well for the Gary Moore and Jeff Healey blues-rock licks I was into then. When I moved to Trondheim, Norway, in 1998 to study at the university, I went back in time and listened to classic blues from Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Albert King, B.B. King, and Freddie King. I learned they all played Fender amps, at various times, and when I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan's legendary Live at the El Mocambo concert film, where he played a Vibroverb and a Super Reverb, I knew I had to get a black-panel Super Reverb. So I got in touch with a local guitar shop called Tre45, and they helped me find a Super Reverb in the U.S.
A few months later, I paid €1,400 for a beat-up Super Reverb dated January 1965 that came via boat. The amp looked real rough and had large cuts in the aged brownish grille cloth. It had replacement Mojotone speakers with weighty ceramic magnets and large speaker coils. The shop installed a heavy-duty step-down transformer in the back to cope with 230V, making the amp extremely heavy. Despite the weight and rough looks, I loved it. It played twice as loud as my brother's 1968 transition-era Super Reverb with original square-magnet CTS alnico speakers. Back then, volume and punch meant everything, and I hadn't yet developed an appreciation for the CTS alnicos, which later became one of my favorite speakers. Neither did I have much experience with how speakers affect tone. My No. 1 sounded louder, more mellow, and creamy compared to a typical black-panel Super. Because of my amp, my brother sold his precious, vintage-correct '68.
Twelve years later, in 2010, I started trading Fender amps on a larger scale, finding them on U.S. eBay and importing them to Norway, where I swapped power transformers and did basic service like tubes and cap jobs. I eventually developed a taste for vintage-correct tone and pursued amps in original or mint condition. I was eager to learn, and systematically A/B-tested all black- and silver-panel Fender amps, with all possible speakers and circuits. I also experimented with newer replacement speakers from Weber, Jensen, Eminence, Celestion, and WGS, and tried all kinds of circuit mods.
"Because of my amp, my brother sold his precious, vintage-correct '68."
I decided to replace my Super's Mojotones with a set of vintage-correct speakers for an authentic pre-CBS sound. I found a 1965 Super in really poor technical condition and swapped the grille cloth and the factory-original CTS ceramic speakers into my No. 1. Now my amp was restored to original condition, with speakers with matching manufacturer date codes, and, more important, it sounded better! The new-old speakers added more clarity and crispness, which I particularly enjoy with a Strat's out-of-phase, quacky tone in the in-between pickup positions.
Other amps have caught my affection, too. Not surprisingly, I find the narrow-panel Fender Bassman a great amp, but unfortunately it lacks reverb, which is a big deal to me. Same goes with the Marshall JTM45 and JMP50 amps from the '60s. They have great crunch but lack some transparency and clarity when used with closed-back 4x12 cabinets. I've also had the pleasure of owning and playing some popular boutique amps, like the Two-Rock Custom Reverb, Victorias, Headstrongs, Bad Cats, and others. Compared to vintage amps, they are more robust and have high quality materials and components that survive longer on the road. I also like how the solid, thick cabinets in some modern amps produce a tight low end. All the boutique amps I've tried sounded good, different, and had more tone options than my Super Reverb, but when I played those amps for a long time or at gigs, I found myself confused with all the tonal options and I end up dialing in a sound as close as possible to a Super Reverb. I can't help it. That is how a guitar is supposed to sound, in my ears. And nothing sounds more vintage Fender than a black-panel Super Reverb, in my humble opinion.
If you haven't played one, try the huge tone and dynamic response within the big and airy 4x10 speaker cabinet of a Super. It offers a pure, natural, and transparent tone and connects with your guitar in a physical way when you crank the amp a few meters behind you on a larger stage. If you need a little more crunch and early break-up, add an Xotic RC Booster and see my April 2020 column, "How to Get Big Tones on Small Stages."
[Updated 9/3/21]
Crave big black-panel Fender feel in an amp that doesn’t bust eardrums? This little brute delivers the substance and the sting.
RatingsPros:Delivers big-amp feel in a compact combo. Beautifully well-built. Versatile voicing switch. Effective attenuator. Cons: Lacks the tremolo that many love in black-panel combos. Street: $2,490 Carr Super Bee carramplifiers.com
| Tones:  Ease of Use:  Build/Design: Value:  |
Summoning big-amp tones from smaller, lighter, less-window-rattling amplifiers is now a top priority for many amp builders. For some of these manufacturers, that quest takes the shape of getting convincing high-gain sounds out of a less potent circuit. But Carr's new Super Bee takes on an arguably more challenging task: making the sound, dynamic response, and complex tone nuances of Fender's big Super Reverb into a less hefty whole.
Crank It Down
The original Fender Super Reverb 4x10 is a pretty loud 40-watt amp. So to rein in the power while retaining a Super's thumping push-pull feel, Carr employs a pair of unusual 6BM8 output tubes, rather than 6L6s. They generate only 10 watts between them, but when you push them hard they yield surprisingly full-throated response. The front end includes a traditional 12AX7 preamp tube. A Fender-inspired spring reverb is powered by another 12AX7 and a 12AT7. And because those unusual 6BM8 tubes each house both a preamp triode and an output pentode in the same bottle, they perform phase-inverter duties as well. A 9-pin EZ81 tube takes care of rectification.
Two key features further distinguish the Super Bee from a vintage Fender. First is Carr's fourth generation attenuator, which takes the output down to 2 watts, or a near-silent setting. Then there's the 3-way Sting switch that offers three voices: “64," which is scooped and shimmering; “68," which is a thicker, classic black-panel voice; and “72," which delivers higher gain and greater midrange emphasis.
The solid pine cabinet measures 21"x17.75"x10" but tapers beautifully to 9" deep at the top. The trapezoidal speaker cut-out is a distinctive retro-design touch. And the vertical central racing stripe (our review amp features a tasty two-tone of cream with a Carolina-blue stripe) and the Super Bee name are another cool Carr nod to '60s muscle car culture. The speaker is a 12" Eminence-made Carr Valiant, though a 10" Eminence Copperhead is also available. Inside, the Super Bee is classically Carr: point-to-point wiring, a bundle of high-end components including Jupiter capacitors, and American-made transformers by Chicago's TMI, who have built transformers since 1949.
Sting Like a…
Matched to a Fender Stratocaster, a Gibson Les Paul, and a Collings I-35 LC, the Super Bee fast made it clear how thoroughly Steve Carr attained his design goals. Classic black-panel sounds might seem, for some, an unoriginal jumping-off point. But the Super Bee feels both familiar and full of possibilities. It delivers big, sparkling clean tones, meaty twang, and deep output-stage overdrive—which are all easy to fine-tune via the simple 3-band EQ and the Sting switch voices. The resulting combination of bite, articulation, and compression is positively addictive. It's difficult to switch this amp off once you get into a groove.
Obviously, one of the main attractions of a vintage black-panel Super Reverb is the volume and pronounced low end you get from the 4x10 speaker configuration. But apart from the Carr's essentially lower volume, you shouldn't expect anything less than a genuine black-panel experience. The reverb is lush and full. And though it sometimes feel like it comes on a bit strong at lower levels, you'll never worry about having too little reverb to replicate the surf-ier side of the vintage Fender experience. The amp also interacts with overdrive pedals wonderfully. Even at just 10 watts, full-power mode gives you enough gas to hang with a drummer. But if there's no band to compete with, the attenuated sounds deliver much of the same richness, overdrive characteristics, and stout playing feel at quieter volumes.
The Verdict
On the surface, the Super Bee might seem to do relatively little for the price. There's no channel switching, no effects loop, no high gain switch, and no master volume—yet that's exactly the point: the amp just flat out sounds great, and enables players to rediscover a classic tone and feel that can be hard to achieve in intimate gigging and recording environments that require lower volume. The Sting switch also significantly extends its versatility, delivering three distinctive amp voices in one. When it comes to providing exquisite American-style big-amp tone in a manageably sized combo, the Super Bee is a total success, and one of the most inspiring amps I've played in quite some time.
Watch our First Look demo:
This EVM-15L focuses sound at longer distances, which is why it's known as an audience killer. But it can also provide killer tones. For the record, this 1964 Vibroverb powers a Jensen C15N speaker.
Your signature Fender sound could be just a tweak or twist away.
More personal, original-sounding guitar tones enable me to play differently or better, making my contributions to songs inspired and relevant. In my May 2020 column, titled “Like Peanut Butter and Chocolate," we talked about classic Fender amp and guitar pairings that have stood the tonal test of time. This time, I'll discuss finding more unique Fender amp sounds that can help you be inspired and stand out from the masses. Over the years, I've made some surprising tone discoveries trading and servicing vintage Fender amps.
Few amps are love at first sight—or listen—affairs, where you immediately and effortlessly nail great tone. Some really require struggle to find a balanced, sweet sound. An interesting fact is that several of my best tone discoveries have happened with such amps. So my advice is, don't give up too quickly on what might seem like a clunker. When an amp is dialed-in just right, paired with the right guitar, or equipped with the right speakers, you can find new lead and rhythm tones that you didn't even know you were looking for.
Consider the relatively rare black-panel amps with JBL speakers: Twin Reverbs, Super Reverbs, and Vibroverbs. Guitarists either love or hate the JBLs, because of their punch, attack, and treble. The 10" D110F, the 12" D120F, and the 15" D130F all have aluminum dust caps, which makes them quite bright. And the Twin Reverb and Vibroverb are the most difficult to tame, I think.
In my November 2020 column, “The Saga of the Linda Ronstadt Deluxe," I talked about curing that poor-sounding amp with a JBL D120F speaker. I have a similar story about a 1964 JBL-loaded Vibroverb that I bought in 2012 for $2,800 from a father who needed money to buy his son a car. Plugging a single-coil guitar into that amp was brutal. Even with an overdrive pedal, the amp had a dominating and edgy attack.
Frustrated, I eventually tried a Gibson Les Paul through that amp, having no hope or expectations. I pulled out all the stops with a clean volume setting, a high bass setting, low mids, high treble, and the bright switch enabled. Suddenly, I discovered a clean, cool, and funky rhythm tone that I immediately fell in love with.
The massive solidbody and Tune-o-matic bridge on the Les Paul provided great attack and sustain. The amp and speaker delivered clean, thumping bass notes with big air and that good, chunky feeling provided by tube rectifier sag. The smooth humbucker sound had clarity and transparency. The treble strings were clear, but not harsh. When my pick hit the bass strings, there was a metallic snap and sizzle, which I liked a lot. Playing those low strings for Stevie Wonder's “Superstition" had never been more fun. Now—thanks to some adventurous dial settings—I know how big a treat a humbucker-equipped Gibson through a black-panel Fender amp with JBL speakers can be for soul, blues, and funk guitarists. (And remember to replace strings regularly if you want extra clarity from your guitar's bass end.)
Next up: the famous narrow-panel Fender Tweed Deluxe 5E3-circuit from the late '50s. We know that amp can distort a lot and has a loose and farty low end. It can easily become too muddy, particularly with humbuckers or darker-sounding single-coils, in the neck position. I used to have a replica version of this amp that I decided to pair with an old Oxford 12" ceramic speaker. This speaker was bright and lacked a firm low end, so I had low expectations. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a fantastic match for this amp, paired with a Stratocaster. The bridge pickup tone was no longer thin and shrill. It became fat and creamy, and worked incredibly well as a vintage rock voice, for both rhythm and lead playing, with great balance between all six strings. All of which underlines how important the right speaker can be, even it if initially seems, well, kind of wrong.
My last example applies to the black-panel or silver-panel Fender Pro Reverb. This amp is famous for its big, warm tone, yet it can distort when cranked because of its relatively small output transformer. For those of you who want more of the good stuff, try inserting a 25k mid pot on the back. This is a well-known fat-boost trick for Fender amps that lack a mid pot. Increasing the lower mids provides much more distortion. Add a couple of Celestion Greenback speakers, preferably vintage models, and you'll have a roaring transatlantic beast that sonically bridges the best Marshall and Fender amps the world has never heard. Disengaging one of the speakers increases the distortion even more and lowers the amp's volume.
These are just a few examples. There are many more, so go experiment and find your own signature tones.