Fender Princeton Reverb Reissue

[dellison]

Congrats! Glad you finally got it! I look forward to reading your detailed report and I hope you truly enjoy it!

[Desert Surfer]

Congrats! Glad you finally got it! I look forward to reading your detailed report and I hope you truly enjoy it!

Thanks, Duane.

I tried my new Princeton Reverb RI side by side with my '72 Silverface Twin Reverb on Sunday. This is a very unprofessional and far from detailed report.

First of all, the weight (less than 30 lbs) is much lighter. That's the main reason I purchase this one. It is easy to move around from room to room and can take out the house without breaking my back. I can hardly move my Twin Reverb at all. (must be over 70 lbs)

Wattage: 15 watts is more than enough for me. I very seldom put the volume over "3". 65 watts on Twin Revert is an overkill for me.

It is quiet: I plugged in a few Fenders.... With single coil pickups, it still has a little tiny noise but better than Twin Reverb. But when I plugged in my Les Pauls or other guitars with humbucker pickups, it is extremely quiet.

The sound is very clean and sweet especially on Fender vintage models (like my Nocaster RI). It sounds great with Mosrites and Gretsch too.

Reverb: Very effective. It sounds better than Twin Reverb, I think. The "Pipeline" pizz intro sounded so great that even my wife was impressed.

Tremolo: I haven't figured out the best way to tune it yet. If I leave the Reverb on at high level and push the vibrator button on footswitch, it has a funny sound which I don't like. I had to turn the reverb down or off. As I said, I probably did not figure this out yet.

Distorted sound: I heard from a Youtube demonstration, it would break after the volume is turned over "4". I tried it but did not get the good breaking sound yet. I don't play with distorted sound too often and need more time to figure this out. If someone plays with distorted sound a lot, this is probably not the amp for him.

In general, with only a few hours of playing, I enjoy this amp a lot. This makes my Fender G-Dec30 sounds like a toy (it is a fun toy!) I am glad I've got a sweet deal from my dealer. I think $1050 would be a little overpriced.

Here is the Youtube which I mentioned above:

[dellison]

I tell ya, the weight thing is/was a really big thing for me. My Hot Rod Deluxe (40 Watt) is just big, heavy and very loud. I mean it sounds great but since I don't really have a dedicated location to play it's a pain to move around from room to room. The smaller size of the 65PRRI is just perfect! I would say the only "issue" (if you could call it that) is to get it to break up you have to crank it and everyone else in the house doesn't really appreciate that. So in one sense the HRD was nice because on the 2nd & 3rd channels you could get distortion without having to make everyone's ears bleed!

However, my BOSS GT-10 does a good job of introducing distortion but I don't practice that style of music much so it's not that big of a deal for me.

When I was waiting for it to show up I kept watching that same video over and over again and I am really happy with mine.

Hey, I have a question for you. The power cord that came with mine was a standard "computer" type of cable that plugged straight into the amp. It made putting the cover on the amp with it plugged in a pain. Did your's come with the same type of cord? I ended up ordering a right-angle power cord and then just ran the cable back through the amp. As I mentioned before mine was a new-no-box model so there is a chance I got the wrong cord in the deal.

Well I am really glad you are liking your new amp! I wish our local GC had them on the shelf though for such a sweet little amp I am surprised it doesn't get more display space. Then again it could be that for my area it isn't really the amp-of-choice. Although the Hollywood GC didn't have the PRRI either... They had a bunch of vintage silver face though...

[Desert Surfer]

I use Boss-880 for those modern guitar effects too (there is one for the 60's reverb sound but it is no comparison to this Princeton Reverb)

My electric power cord is same as yours. I have to unplug it when put the cover on. The Silverface Twin Reverb used the old fashioned power cord which is connected to inside of Amp in the bottom cabinet. The Fender Amp covers in the '70s were much nicer than nowadays (those look like leather vs Canvas now) I don't cover amps anyway so it is not a big problem for me.

You are right. For some reasons, Guitar Centers and Sam Ash in our area do not keep these Princeton Reverb in stock. (I found one in Best Buy) Neither does my Fender dealer, so he had to order one for me.

It is a very nice amp. It is just overpriced after Fender's recent crazy new pricing policy. (30% increase in the year of recession?) Maybe that's the main reason why those stores do not like to keep them in stock.

It is very difficult to find an used Princeton Reverb 65 RI on on Craigslist. I see many people selling used Twin Reverb Amps there (normally at $650-800, some went down to $550, in the meantime Fender raised the price to $1699 street price) but not a single Princeton Reverb tube one (solid state ones, yes but not this one)

I am glad both of us have beaten the Fender's crazy pricing increase and got ourselves a good deal.

[dellison]

Check this out, this is what I bought to replace the power cord. So now like I said I run the power cord through the back and when you roll it up and stick it in the amp it's just there. Plus, if you leave it plugged in, but put the cover on it the cord runs down the bottom and doesn't cause a problem. It works like a champ, it's also pretty long too which is kind of nice.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ERG5XK

[jtr654]

If you want to make it a great amp get a baffle board for a 12" speaker( they sell them on ebay) and put a JBL D120 or a Altec 415. I have a 1965 original PR and it was either order with a 12" speaker or modded in the 60's a good sounding amp but it became a great one after I put Altec 415 in it.

[midwestsurfer]

If you want to make it a great amp get a baffle board for a 12" speaker( they sell them on ebay) and put a JBL D120 or a Altec 415. I have a 1965 original PR and it was either order with a 12" speaker or modded in the 60's a good sounding amp but it became a great one after I put Altec 415 in it.

If someone wants to make their Princeton RI more usable for live playing, this is a great suggestion. The amp is perfectly cabable of powering a 12" speaker, and it adds a good amount of bass response and fullness which is helpful when playing out.

The Princeton RI is still great in its stock form (with the 10" Jensen). It was a welcome addition to Fender's vintage series amp line. However their current prices (increased as of Feb '09) are putting off a lot of potential customers.

[Haole Jim]

Beaucoup interesting and thanks for all the posts.

Gotta admit, when the PR RI was announced, it sounded like a gob of fun and the e-chat and demo proves it. Good on those who are happy owners of a hot little amp.

[dellison]

I was bored and I was taking photos - I thought this was cool and the folks here might get a kick out of it!

[MWaldorf]

great picture! that's one hot rectifier!