Guitar players love tube amps, guitar players love vintage Fender tube amps, and why not ? Thats where it all began. Fender amplifier history began in the late 50's and all of us guitar players have admired that "identifiable" tone for decades. From Fender amps came a birth of other manufacturers and designers of tube amps for Guitar players, Bass players, Keyboard players etc. One only has to review the history of modern era amps and you will find that they probably started life on some sort of a simple Fender design. yes, even those big stacks...
Ok, on to the vintage amps. The market is full of vintage era Fender amps and for the most part they can all be brought back to a very reliable life and offer years of premium "tone to the bone" service.
Lets start here, do not assume you will buy a vintage amp and bring it to directly to the gig. Sure you can actually bring it to your gig but will it be gig ready ? probably not. Blackface amps were made from 63/64 thru 1967, Silverface amps were made from 68 or so thru 81 or 82. This is 2011, do the math . Many of the amps had really fine maintenance done on them so they may be gig worthy, others had some maintenance and may or may not be gig ready, others are virgin with no maintenance done, they are NOT gig ready.
No working musician should bring gear to a gig that is not known or expected to be reliable, bringing a 40 year old amp ( plus or minus) to a gig that you have no clue about , well, it's very unprofessional to say the least. Sure amps can die on the gig but that should be a shock to us rather than an expected dilemma .
So whats involved ? Easy, all of these Vintage tube amps require at minimum an inspection, the majority need some sort of maintenance. Capacitors, tube sockets, resistors, etc, probably tubes and maybe more..then there's the labor involved to get the work done if you are not able to do it yourself .
Cost above the purchase price. If you are able to perform the work, it would be wise to figure on $75 to $150 for parts. If a tech does the work, plan on $150 to perhaps $250 for parts and labor. If you are not familiar with tube amp repair, here's the deal, you have +450 volts or more running around inside the chassis, is this something you want to mess with because you can get hurt...
Acquiring an old vintage amp such as a Fender, Marshall etc is fun and the rewards are great when playing, but there are no rewards from an amp that is not gig worthy, there is no such thing as "those caps look good"...because bad caps look good too ! Also, taking advice from those that say "wait till it fails" before performing maintenance is ridiculous , think about it, your are on the big stage, a few thousand folks out front and your vintage amp that you just purchased dies...or you are on a very small gig and it dies..now what ? It died because you didn't do all you could to prevent it from blowing up. What do you do, call your friend who said " wait till it dies " ?
I have been a tech for over 30 years..my advice, buy the amp of your dreams, plan to spend some additional cash on top of the purchase and get it up to a bandstand ready state, then go out and show it off... One thing us guitar players do is look at the gear, and when we see a really kool old Fender amp in use on the bandstand we recognize it and we talk about it. It's a good thing....A DOA vintage amp on the bandstand because of the lack of maintenance is an "I told you so "
Blackface Fender amp: 1964 Bandmaster
front control panel is black
with white lettering
Fender Silverface amp: 1971 Twin Reverb
front control panel is silver
with blue lettering
Typical vintage Fender amp chassis, this one is the 1964 Bandmaster in the middle of restoration.The first photo above is this '64 Bandmaster with restoration complete. This amp smoked and blew fuses when it was located , then fully restored. Now it is gig ready and "very sweet"
Don't be afraid to make the purchase of a fine vintage Fender amp but plan on extra cost to bring it to a reliable state so you can enjoy it .
Yeah, you don't want to mess with the high voltages in tube amps....really good point to make.
ReplyDeleteI recall a gig with Barry & Holly when her old Fender "tweed" went dead. I found a broken resistor lead at a solder joint. We had no spare amps and absolutely no tools or other supplies to fix it.....a very helpless feeling. Had to MacGyver it with a match and a piece of wire to get it working. Lesson? We needed tools on the gig, especially with vintage equipment. After that I always carried a small suitcase I smagged at Goodwill. It was stocked with soldering supplies, equipment, cables, connectors and everything I could think of to do repairs "in the field". That suitcase went to every gig after that fateful night and it came in handy more than once.
Vintage Amp owners take note! (No pun intended)