About $500 bucksrastaman said:I know nothing about Fenders, what's the difference in a Blackface and a Silverface? If it makes a difference, a Princeton Reverb.
+1...I've heard a TON of great players thru silverfaces. Unnless you're really into heavy power tube distortion, in which case, for fenders, tweed is better than blackface, which is better than silverface.homerayvaughan said:About $500 bucks![]()
Sonically, both can sound very much alike. I have a Blackface, and have tried many Silverfaces that sounded as good if not better. To me it's like a lot of other amps, it will depend on the speaker, tubes (old or new), caps, etc. The Silverfaced amps are underated, and can be changed to Blackface specs with a few reversible changes - some like the Silverface tone better.
Princeton Reverb doesn't sound that much different between original blackface and silverface. On the other hand, Princeton Reverb II has blackface cosmetics, but is a different amp. Of the three, I like the PRII the best.rastaman said:I know nothing about Fenders, what's the difference in a Blackface and a Silverface? If it makes a difference, a Princeton Reverb.
riverastoasters said:Princeton Reverb doesn't sound that much different between original blackface and silverface. On the other hand, Princeton Reverb II has blackface cosmetics, but is a different amp. Of the three, I like the PRII the best.
I don't know if this makes too much difference to you, but since your name is "rastaman"; the Wailers used silverface amps quite a bit, at least going by videos I've seen.
+1 Most of the changes happened starting with the biggest amps i.e Twins and Supers. Deluxes and Princetons changed little if at all. If money is your main concern buy a Silverface because they are basically the same sounding amps except for the faceplate. Im sure somebody will respond and say there is a world of difference but they would be splitting hairs. The wiring may differ some cloth vs. plastic insulation but this will not really matter much. Any Fender amp can sound great or sound worn out and old, it all depends on the particular amp your evaluating. I personally would recommend a silverface for the money. Another amp along the same lines which sounds just as good if not better would be a Tone King Imperial but these might cost a couple hundred more depending on the deal.hasserl said:When it comes to Princeton Reverb amps the circuits really didn't change between the black face and silver face amps, until about '77 I believe, when a Pull Boost was added to the volume. The sf amps used a 5U4GB rectifier tube, the bfPR's used a 5AR4/GZ34 rectifier tube which provides a higher B+ voltage for increased headroom.
There were some differences in the cabs though, with the sf amps using a speaker baffle that was glued into a dado joint. These cabs might also have rabbet joint corners. The bf amps used a speaker baffle that was screwed into place, and finger jointed corners.
Or get something that falls between the two, a brownie. I came to a realization similar to cheesey's, except that it was a brown Deluxe clone http://www.allenamps.com/hotfudge.htmlcheesey said:skip both and get a tweed amp , i was a longtime silver/blackface user and never tried tweed , then i got a 59 tweed super amp replica and![]()
what took me so long!
Agreed. My Silverface Quad Reverb has everything I want in an amp. Since it was pushing 30 years old, I re-capped it with Atoms, and Orange drops, and played it right next to one that had the original caps, with my speaker cabinet and neither my friend (who owned the other Quad) nor I could detect the slightest difference in tone with the supposed "Tone Monger" special caps. With all the hoopla on the net about the caps "warming" the tone, we thought that the amp sounded fine already, so neither of us saw a reason to change anything to blackface specs. Regards, Garybrianf said:I'll never understand why folks mod Silverfaced amps. I have yet to hear one that does not sound great the way they were built.
brianf