Amplifier Review: Fender 1965 Princeton Reverb

The original and classic Princeton amp was the studio amp of choice for many famous session guitarists in the '70s and '80s as it offered the Fender "Blackface" tone at a reasonable volume levels. The Blackface amps feature some of the best ever clean and gritty guitar tones, with a natural midrange scoop that allowed a rhythm part to compliment a singer without getting in the way.


The new
The new '65 Princeton is not an exact replica of the original, but features a few updates - the power supply has been changed slightly to comply with modern safety regulations and a modern printed circuit board construction is used, rather than the original hand-wired board to keep costs down. Otherwise, it is the same all-tube, single-channel amp with reverb and tremolo (or vibrato, as Fender always call it), which puts out 15 watts into a 10" speaker.

The valve compliment is three 12AX7 preamp valves, a 12AT7 for the reverb, a 5AR4 rectifier and two 6V6 power valves, which is a fairly typical valve line-up for a Fender-style amplifier. The speaker is a 10" Jensen C-10R, which is also a typical Fender choice and the amp comes complete with a dust cover and reverb/vibrato footswitch, which is a nice touch. So all-in-all, Fender have managed to get what on paper looks like a good reissue of the classic Princeton.

In use
Once warmed up, the Princeton sounded - as expected - like a typical Blackface Fender, with the scooped midrange, sparkly highs and surprisingly big bass that made these amps famous. It is a little bright and clangy out of the box, but I would expect that to mellow out a little as the speaker breaks in, as well as the bass getting bigger and a little looser. In fact, after pounding the amp for a few days, I found that was already beginning to happen.
The simple treble and bass tone controls work very well. I started with all sixes on the dials (a good starting point for Fender amps) and the amp immediately sounded very good. With a little experimentation I found I preferred the controls set high - round eight or nine - which made the amp break up a little earlier, but gave it more of an open tone.

With the volume set on five or six and the tones set on eight, the amp responded very well to playing dynamics and the guitar's volume control, ranging from sparkly clean to a bluesy overdrive - all at small room volume. Cranking the amp higher let me get a more overdriven and compressed sound with only a small gain in volume. At nine or ten on the volume control, the low end started to get a little flabby and the cabinet developed a rattle that would be a nightmare in the studio - probably easy to track down and stop, but annoying in an amplifier in this price range.

One other problem that surfaced was a noisy valve adding in more hiss than was acceptable, but popping in a new valve fixed that immediately. The stock valves are new production and while they work well enough and the amp sounds good stock, the tone could likely be improved even further by going for a good set of NOS valves.

The reverb is gorgeous and pure Fender, with everything from a subtle ambience to surf music excess. The tremolo/vibrato is of the better bias type and gives authentic and tuneful swamp rock sounds. Trying a number of stomp boxes in front of the Princeton I found it accepted them all very well and sounded very good with most.

While this amp is "only" 15 watts, it's still surprisingly loud when turned up and isn't for late night cranked playing at home unless you have very understanding neighbours. Unfortunately it's not quite loud enough to stay clean at gig volumes or hang with a loud drummer by itself - for that, the Princeton's bigger brother the Deluxe Reverb is ideal. But if you want to keep stage volumes down and mic up for the extra coverage, the Princeton will do the job admirably.

Summary
The '65 Princeton Reverb is a very tuneful amp, ideal for those looking for the tone of a good Fender amp at manageable volume levels (such as home studio owners or gigging guitarists who want to keep stage levels down and mic up). The quality built in reverb and tremolo also make it a cinch if that's what you are looking for in a smaller amp. The one downside to the Princeton is the price - at R19,995 retail, it is a fairly expensive amp and only R5,000 cheaper than the Deluxe Reverb.

Thanks to Paul Bothner Music Plumstead for the loan of the review Princeton.
Alan Ratcliffe,
http://www.ratcliffe.co.za

Preamplifiers for Acoustic Guitars

OK, you've just spent copious amounts of hard-earned cash on an acoustic transducer. Now you are told you need a preamp. What are these things? Why do you need one? What does it do? Which features do you need?

What is it?
Simply put, a preamp is a device which processes the signal from a transducer so that it is suitable to plug into a standard amplifier or a mixing desk. Even though amplifiers designed specifically for acoustic guitar transducers are now available (which have acoustic preamps built in), it is preferable to have an on-board preamp.

Why Do You Need It?
Without a preamp, the pickup will sound 'thin' , lacking in bass response and be overly percussive. Cables will need to be as short as possible, and will be prone to picking up EMF interference (Hum, buzz, etc.) Most have equalisation and gain (volume) controls, some even have a feedback reduction control which can be essential for a performance situation.

Many people use a floor pedal equaliser to correct the frequency response problem, but this is far from ideal as this is compensating for the problem rather than fixing it at the source.

What does it do?
The signal produced by an acoustic transducer is low current, very high impedence (Z), typically 2-10 Mohm. A typical input for a mixing desk or amplifier ranges from 150 Ohm to 1Mohm (many will only go as high as 500Kohm). The impedence mismatch between a transducer and a mixer or amplifier causes distortion of the frequency response.

A preamp converts the high impedence signal of the transducer to a lower impedence, more suited to the input device, as well as adding functionality such as volume and equalisation.

Horses for Courses
The large variety of preamp makes, models and options available ensure that, whatever your needs there is a preamp out there with your name stamped on it.

Take time to analyse your playing situation - do you need volume control, tone control, anti-feedback capabilities? Do you have a sound engineer on a mixing desk or are you plugging, playing and mixing yourself?

Do you want to leave your guitar as pristine and unmodified as possible? There are preamps whith no controls which are built into the jack socket of the guitar, needing no extra holes cut in the side of the instrument. Others still are offboard belt clip units, connecting to the guitar via a short lead (with the added advantage of  being able to plug into the guitar directly, bypassing the preamp, if your battery dies).

There are even models which allow you to mix the signals of two different transducers (such as a bridge transducer and an internal microphone).

Price is obviously an issue, but in the case of preamps "Buy cheap, Get Cheap" applies with force, as you may be permanently modifying your instrument with no chance for upgrade at a later date. Stick to reputable brands, as they are more likely to have a good  backup service.

Once you have decided what is appropriate for your situation go out and see what is available. Take your time to choose a model with the features you need that fits in your price range.

Final Word
Now that you have decided to spend large amounts on your dream preamp - don't use conventional batteries in it. The cheaper normal (manganese dioxide) batteries have a tendency to leak - and the acid will destroy your investment totally. Alkaline batteries not only last longer, but if they do by some chance leak, the acid crystallises on contact with the air, rendering it inert and harmless.

Alan Ratcliffe
http://www.ratcliffe.co.za

Taming The Volume For Guitar Amplifier

As musicians, we end up playing in different situations and different size venues which require different size amps. The problem is that for most of us, it isn't practical to have multiple amps for multiple situations such as personal practice, band practice and all the different size venues. Small practice amps are relatively inexpensive, so getting a second amp for personal practice is rarely a problem, but it's rarely possible to have a variety of different sizes of quality valve amplifiers on hand to cover all situations. Also, many players have a signature "sound" which may rely heavily on a specific amplifier to create. So there are a few ways you can make a given amp a bit more flexible.

Head and different cabs
If you have a guitar amplifier in a "head" format, where the amplifier is in it's own cabinet, separate from the speakers, it is possible to have a few speaker cabinets of different speaker configurations and to "mix 'n match" as the gig requires. For instance, you could use a 1X12" speaker cabinet for band practice, a 2X12" for smaller club gigs and small stages and a 4X12" (or even the 2X12" and the 4X12") for larger venues.

Master volume
Many modern amplifiers have master volume controls, which let you turn up the preamp (so it distorts) and then use the master volume to turn down the level reaching the power amp. This works particularly well with solid-state, modelling amplifiers and modern high gain valve amplifiers, but many valve amplifiers, particularly the classic models rely on power valve distortion as much as preamp distortion to shape the tone, so fitting them with a master volume usually affects the tone adversely.

Power attenuators
Power attenuators are devices that can be fitted between the output of a valve amp's power amp and a speaker to absorb some of the amplifier's power and effectively turn the volume down after the power amp. This allows you to bring the volume of the amp down while still getting power amp distortion. Some valve amplifiers are now being made with built-in attenuators (Fender Princeton Studio, Peavey Windsor Studio, et.al.).

While they are a great tool to tame an amp that's a bit too loud for a specific application, attenuators are unfortunately not a cure-all, as they work best to bring the volume down by relatively small amounts - so trying to get a Marshall 100W down to bedroom volume (while possible) may affect the tone badly.

Some popular attenuators are the THD Hotplate, Weber Mass and the Marshall Powersoak.

Alan Ratcliffe
http://www.ratcliffe.co.za

Great practice amp from Behringer AT108 15 Watt Acoustic Amplifier / Behringer Ultracoustic AT108 Acoustic Combo Amp (Standard)