The year 1968was one of great creativity, turmoil and change.TheTet Offensive sawpublic support for the Americanwar in Vietnam nosedive, Johnny Cash married June Carter,David Gilmour replaced SydBarrett in
Pink Floyd,TheBeatleswent to India,cameback again and recordedTheWhite Album, andJimiHendrix released Electric Ladyland.
Thoughadmittedly less earthshattering than all of the above, late 1967 through 1968 also saw a sea change in the thenCBSownedFendercompany’s amplifier line, with themuchloved‘ blackface’ models giving way to shinynew‘silverface’ designs. Changeswere initially cosmetic, but gradually the circuits evolved, too. Guitarists of a certain agemay roll their eyes, but there’sno denying that,muchlike Stratocasters andTeles with three-bolt necks, early ‘silverface’Fenders have seen their allure increase in recent years due in no small part
to the scarcity of, and skyrocketing price tags commandedby,more traditionally desirable vintage pieces fromearlier ‘blackface’, p ‘brownface’,blonde andtweed eras. It’s alsoworthnoting that whenTheBeatles performed live inpublic for the final time, on 30 January 1969, onthe roof on theirAppleHQat 3 Savile Row, their backline consisted entirely of ‘silverface’Fenders. As artist associations go, that’s not too shabby.
Late 2013 saw Fender revisit the ‘ silverface’ period for the first time when it announced the new’68 Custom Series: a Twin Reverb, Deluxe Reverb and PrincetonReverb that combine the spirit of an era with a few contemporary tweaks, rather than providing exacting recreations of the original models. All three amplifiers
feature silver and turquoise front panels, with narrow vertical black lines separating the control groups–detail that was swiftly phased out after early production runs – along with a ‘drip edge’ aluminium grille cloth trim (abandoned in mid-1969) and period-correct ‘tailed’Fender logo badge, whichwas dispensed with in 1973.
Viewed as a trio, these ’68 Customs are smart-looking amplifiers indeed.On the inside of each, you’ll find typical modernPCBbuild with a similar layout to the company’s corresponding ’65 ‘black face’ reissues, but there are noteworthy differences in the shape of Schumacher transformers, designed to replicate those used in the original class of ’68, and some other electronic tweaks.
Where originalTwins and DeluxeReverbs of the period would have had aNormal channel, sans tremolo or reverb, thenew’68s have aCustom channel with access to those global effects and anewvoicing, courtesy of a “modified Bassman tone stack” that’s billed as beingmore pedalfriendly. Where youwould have found aVibrato channel, there’s nowa ‘Vintage’ channel with amore traditional voicing. All threeamps, including the
single-channel Princeton, are designed to breakupa little earlier than their forebears, and feature reduced negative feedback, whichFender’s marketing blurb claims will offer a greater degree of touch-sensitivity.
Dueto currentEURoHS legislation,Fender is unable to ship amplifiers to theUKthat feature vintage-style opto-tremolo with a light-dependent resistor in the circuit – cadmiumsulphide being the offending material – so the company developed a solution for countries with this restriction in place. This involves the use of additional analogue components on a sub-PCBwithin the chassis, that do the job of the lamp/ photocell arrangement found insideUS versions of the amplifiers. Puristsmay justifiably be offended, but let’s not all rush out to blockade the ChannelTunnel in protest against EuropeanUnion bureaucracy. Despite online grumbles about the possibility of this introducingunwanted noise into the circuit or just generally beingABad Thing, it hasn’tprovided us with any sonic cause for concern during our time with the threeampson test, and the tremolo sounds are nothing short of lush.More on that shortly.
Fender used a variety of different speaker brands throughout the ‘silverface’ era, such as Oxford,JBLandUtah, but never Celestions, so it’s interesting that thecompany should opt to ‘go British’ – albeit via China – with the drivers in thenew’68 Customs. There’s a single CelestionG12V-70in the Deluxe, a pair in theTwin and aTen 30 in the smaller Princeton. It’s time to find out what all these modifications
meanfor the player…
Sounds
Onpoweringupand igniting those turquoise jewel power indicators – another departure fromvintage spec, as the originalswere red–we’re greeted with a level ofhum fromall three amplifiers that says, “Yes, I’m a valveampand you’ve switchedmeon” rather than boding ill; it’s certainly not intrusive. Plugging first into the
little Princeton,we’re immediately remindedhow loud and soulful a small 6V6-poweredcombocan sound, and also exactlywhy so many classic guitar tracks have been cut with theseampsover the years.
While youdon’thave to turn the volume controlmuchpast four before a guitar withPAFstylemedium-output humbuckers, or evena hotTele, starts to elicitsometasty raunch whenplayed hard. Believeus whenwe say that despite its 12-watt power rating and single 10-inch speaker, thisampcould be all youneed for gigging in these volume-limited times, as long as massive clean headroom isn’t a deal-breaker and your drummerisn’t ananimal. There’s certainlymore drive andcompression here than you’dget froma vintage ‘silverface’ Princeton, thanks to the circuit modifications, while the Celestion tightensupthe bottom-end, making for a less
muddybass response than that of the JensenC10R-loaded ‘blackface’ ’65 reissue. Regardless of the internal
shenanigans required tomake theampslegal on this side of the pond, the tremolo provides a warm, suitably retro throb, and the reverb is deliciously musical; with a good microphone in front of it, this compact amplifier sounds huge. Every studio should have one, and iftwangy vintage grit is your thing, so should you.
Over to the Deluxe, then, and predictably, there’s a noticeable jumpin output and headroom. Oneof the all-time classic gigging and recordingamps, in thisnewincarnation the Deluxe Reverb is arguablymore practical than ever, thanks to the extra versatility offered by being able to utilise the tremolo and reverb on both channels. It negates the temptation to snip the bright cap on theVibrato channel, as somanyhave on both the reissue and vintage models over the years in order to get theampto play ball with overdrive pedals.
Compared to the ’65 reissue’s Vibrato channel, the ’68 model here has a little less brightness and headroomon theVintage side, but there’s still a magic sweet spot between4.5 and 6 on the volume control (depending on your choice of guitar),where theampdelivers awonderful, dynamic dirty-clean rhythm sound at stage level thatworks as a brilliant core guitar sound for allmannerof rock ’n’ roll, Americana, blues and classic pop applications. Just add picking-hand dynamics and your guitar’s volume control; there’s somuchrange here.
The Customchannel has considerablymore grit than a vintage DeluxeReverb’s Normal channel, andsome
Tweed-like character, too.Fully maxed – if your ears/spouse/ neighbour/sound engineer permit – there’s a real, grininducingNeilYoung vibe: it’s flabby,compressed and ugly in a thoroughly pleasingway. Again, the onboardreverb and tremolo arewonderful, classicsounding musical tools that push and inspire you to play in
a certainway.Farmore than ameansofmerely amplifying your guitar sound, this is a musical instrument in itself.
Compressed and flabby certainly aren’t adjectives that most playerswould apply to a vintageTwinReverb, and the ’68Customdoes little to dent theTwin’s reputation as a simply colossal-sounding amplifier. Thanks to a solidstate rectifier, a pair of 12-inch drivers and a quartet of 6L6s, there’s headroomto spare and a piano-like bass response, along with a three-dimensional high-end.Youcan drive this thing by cranking itup, of course, but in 2014we can’t think of a live venue that will let youget away with it!
Many players will find the Twin too impractical for everyday use, but if youget all of your drive tones frompedals and crave headroom, or if you are a post-rock player looking for arctic sheets of clean tone
on which to build heavily effected soundscapes, then it’s an excellent choice.
Verdict
While the list prices of all three ’68 Custom amps find them sailing dangerously close to waters occupied by serious boutique competition, both online and on the street it’s a happier tale, with the Princeton readily available for around£750, the Deluxe £910 and theTwin £1,130 frommajor retailers at the time of writing.
In use, theTwin Reverb is every inch a classic, but most players will find that the DeluxeReverb, or eventhe
Princeton, ismore than enough amplifier for their needs. Master volumes?Effects loops? Whenthe playing experience is this musical and immersive, whoneeds ’em?
