Fender Black Face Princeton

Karel-Mars

Hi Amp lovers

I have a beauty in that had to be photographed. Can anyone date this combo? And what does the stamp mark on the tube placement decal mean?

The rectifier tube's pins seems a bit badly soldered. Might have to touch up the solder

The amp is relatively untouched inside. A rare situation for such an old amp!

There is some stamp marks next to the multi section filter capacitor

Power Transformer

Output Transformer

The speaker looks like the original one

domhatch

Hi, don't know much about these things, but here's a page I found. Looks like these were made mid '64 to 67. Yours looks like a (very) early Fall (our summer) '64 (#1 no less!), if I'm reading the production card-thingy correctly. Also, with it not carrying a logo, it's definitely in the first half of the production run. Although the page doesn't mention the details on how to decode the card, have a look at the page anyway:

http://www.ampwares.com/amp.asp?id=73

That's assuming the info on that page is correct, of course. If it sounds as good as its credentials demand it should, I wouldn't part with that for the world.

Hope this helps
dh

AlanRatcliffe

NL = December 1964. The #1 means it was the first amp made in that month (IINM). The very beginning of the AA964 production run, with treble and bass controls (the '63 - '64 6G2 had a single tone and the same circuit as the Blonde Princeton). Speaker looks like an Oxford (will have 465 0n it somewhere)...

Nice amp! Someone is a very happy chappy...

Norman86

Damn.... THATS a sweet amp!

im sure Keira wants to take that right now! lol

MikeM

Norman86 wrote:im sure Keira wants to take that right now! lol

I'm sure 80% of the forum wants to ?

Norman86

Pity Karel stays in the Paarl...
Im sure i could swop the house and car for that amp ?

MikeM

Pity the only Lebanese people I know are up this side.. >☹

Norman86

well, they're south, but not THAT far south hey! lol!

[deleted]

Karel wrote: The amp is relatively untouched inside. A rare situation for such an old amp!

Until now ?
Because of guys like you ?

Beautiful...

makepeace

Lekker Karel, is this what the excitement was about? Interesting to note the curved eyelet board. Maybe vintage parts manufacturers are missing something..

Amazing that those caps have lasted so long..

Keira-WitherKay

Norman86 wrote: Damn.... THATS a sweet amp!

im sure Keira wants to take that right now! lol

damn right . ?

beautiful........... so is that the non reverb model ? or is it the one with reverb and intensity(vibrato) controls...my eye's are too bad to make out the pic of the faceplate controls enough to read it ......

finding something like this in original condition must be a collectors item........... and i'm sure if i'ts stock it should be worth a packet to collectors....... but on the other hand it'll be quite sad to have it just stand in someones 'guitar museum" and not be played.......

so whats the plan with it? you gonna sell it or keep it ......

Averatu

A friend has the exact same one. He likes it more than his Marshal 150 combo(which is niiiice).

Hammeron

Karel...you voted. ?...nice Old Lady!

Karel-Mars

Actually, I only have her for a few days to fix :'( She is working on some days, and some days she does not want to start up at all.

This amplifier belongs to musician that gigs a few times per week. A.F.A.I.K. this princeton is in constant use. Maybe that's why the caps have lasted.

Yes, Keira, no reverb. The negative feedback loop has been disconnected, so this amp is probably loud and breaks up early. It is probably used for blues guitar.

Keira-WitherKay

Karel wrote: Actually, I only have her for a few days to fix :'

ahhhhhhh i thought you had aquired her ...... thats the kind of gem we all dream of finding in some dusty pawn shop ,

well i trust you will have her healthy and back gigging in "two shakes of a lambs tail"

i truly love the fact that an amp this old can still be almost or fully original and still be gigging 40 - 50 yrs after being built... amazing ......

however isn't it a collectors item tho ? especially being original ........maybe the owner can sell to a collector and buy a princeton reissue and maybe a car outa the profits?? cos 60's original fender guitars are worth a packet today ...... if they original .......... so before you change anything maybe inquire about the value .... i'm just guessing it would be valuable to a collector and don't have any knowledge on amp collectorbility ......... but i would make a few calls.. cos i would think what you have there is rare.....

Karel-Mars

She's healthy and playing the blues I guess. Apparently sounding as better than ever 8)

I replaced all the caps and soldered the bad solder joints, and that was that. On a techie note: the amp runs at 360V DC. Quite a bit less than most 6V6GT type amps. I like the sound.

The owner is a veteran muso with a collector streak in him. I think he knows the value. If I'm in the audience, I would rather have him playing through the real thing than some reissue ?

chris77

"veteran muso with a collector streak" - Now there's something worth aspiring to hey.? Especially if it involves playing the blues through vintage Fender amps...