Completely Stupid Amp Purchase - Fender Quad Reverb

El Rey

El Rey

Double Platinum Member
Messages
2,305
Mattbedrock said:
A good friend inherited this beast from his uncle. It has to be the most ridiculous amp I have ever bought. Too big, too heavy, too loud, too stupid. Just like me.



He thought it was a ‘74 based on the chassis serial number (A763xxx), but based on the features, it can’t be. It has the hated pull boost master volume on the front.



And the back panel has a line out jack, output tubes matching and hum balance pot. Oh, and 135 Watts. It has to be an ultralinear from ‘77-78.



Tube chart from these years doesn’t tell me much - no date stamp.




closer look at the speakers - EIA code of 2857807. Rola’s from early ‘78? I suspect they are original, but don‘t know for sure.

I‘ll bust this beast open and see what it is for certain. What I am certain of is I’m glad I own a pickup and a hand truck.

:facepalm:jo
Click to expand...

AWESOME......serious statement!

I'd love to have one!
 
C

Chocol8

Member
Messages
1,747
Mattbedrock said:
Yes - after @hogy ‘s post, I went out into the shop and checked it out. The back panel is labeled 8 ohms. I looked up the OT online (013691) and it has two output taps, green is 8 ohm and grn/yel is 16 ohms. The green tap is connected to the speaker jacks, g/y to the line out and the negative feedback line. And yes, the speakers are wired series on the left, parallel on the right and combined (16 + 4) for an 8 ohm load.
Click to expand...

Interesting. That might have been a change when they went to 135 watts and UL. The earlier 100 Watt ones I have seen have all been 4 ohm with the 4 speakers wired in parallel.
 
C

Chocol8

Member
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1,747
Steppin' Wolfe

Steppin' Wolfe

Member
Messages
6,477
Chocol8 said:
The back of the chassis definitely says 8 and looks original. Given Fender’s long history of not building to the schematic, I wonder if that was a mid production change? This is the first one I have seen that wasn’t 4 ohm, but I haven’t ever paid much attention to the UL era amps.
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as I noted earlier…it is hard to argue with the back panel and the series/parallel wiring. Add that to the OP’s research 8nto the OT model and specs, and one has to accept that this is an 8 ohm amp.
 
J

Jeff West

Member
Messages
1,116
I would guess Fender would wire two pairs , each with two speakers in parallel, then connect each of those two 4 ohm pairs in series, for 8 ohm total load w/four 8 ohm speakers. The other way is two pairs of speakers with series connection in each pair, then put those two 16 ohm pairs in parallel, for 8ohm total load.

with instant switching back and forth, the second way sounds slightly different to me, I like it with Celestions and vintage Marshall’s, but never really explored with Fenders. Not as good if a speaker actually goes open.
 
Strummerfan

Strummerfan

Member
Messages
7,574
Mattbedrock said:
A good friend inherited this beast from his uncle. It has to be the most ridiculous amp I have ever bought. Too big, too heavy, too loud, too stupid. Just like me.



He thought it was a ‘74 based on the chassis serial number (A763xxx), but based on the features, it can’t be. It has the hated pull boost master volume on the front.



And the back panel has a line out jack, output tubes matching and hum balance pot. Oh, and 135 Watts. It has to be an ultralinear from ‘77-78.



Tube chart from these years doesn’t tell me much - no date stamp.




closer look at the speakers - EIA code of 2857807. Rola’s from early ‘78? I suspect they are original, but don‘t know for sure.

I‘ll bust this beast open and see what it is for certain. What I am certain of is I’m glad I own a pickup and a hand truck.

:facepalm:jo
Click to expand...
I had that feeling about my Twin, too big, too loud, too heavy, and that thing is like two twins! A quadruplet! Have fun blowing the windows out.
 
hogy

hogy

Silver Supporting Member
Messages
14,713
Mattbedrock said:
Yes - after @hogy ‘s post, I went out into the shop and checked it out. The back panel is labeled 8 ohms. I looked up the OT online (013691) and it has two output taps, green is 8 ohm and grn/yel is 16 ohms. The green tap is connected to the speaker jacks, g/y to the line out and the negative feedback line. And yes, the speakers are wired series on the left, parallel on the right and combined (16 + 4) for an 8 ohm load.
Click to expand...

Weird, never seen that. Must be a later model Quad, all the one I've seen had 4Ohm Twin/Dual Showman transformers.
 
R

ripgtr

Member
Messages
12,031
Steppin' Wolfe said:
Yes, I saw him here in Lubbock in the late ‘70s in a small club…250+/- capacity. Wonderful night….That long coily cord’s capacitance took some high end out of the Telecaster’s signal…..no pain for me. He knew how to control things, imho.
Wild man!
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Yea saw him with the long cord in San Jose sometime in the 80s.

I saw him in Troy NY in the early 70s (had to be '74 or earlier, I was in high school) at RPI. It was funny I was sitting over on the side and couldn't hear the guitar so great, went over to the sound guy said Can't hear the guitar, he said It's so loud I can't put it in the mains. He was right, standing there, it was loud, lol. So ... I moved over to there. Either he didn't have the long cord then or he didn't going walking, I don't remember him doing that the first time.

Both times were great.
 
smilefan

smilefan

Member
Messages
1,775
Suave Eddie said:
This is what people don't understand about "bedroom" amps and high power. They sound so good at any volume.
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Yup. My favorite practice amp is a Twin. No baloney. Cinematic indeed. It is a very involving sound stage, amps of that power, put out when you sit right in front of one.

If you've never heard one of those Quads live, with the JBL D-120 stock speakers, you haven't lived! Imagine being knocked flat by the biggest, fattest clean tone you ever experienced!
 
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JKjr

JKjr

Member
Messages
1,055
Took one home for a test drive in the seventies. Ever seen your mom racing down the basement steps holding her ears? It went back the next day.
I have a twin with JBLs. It's a great bedroom amp. A friend has it's twin (haw haw) with EVs, the b@dtard. We've learned a couple useful things. Like, both the pull boost and the MV are out of the circuit when turned off. My friend removed his, put it back in. The pull boost sounds awful. There's a well known super easy mod that moves it to a proper tube. It sounds great and is just as easily reversible. He lives with his engaged. I left mine stock and never use it. The only mod I've done to mine is the easiest. Just clip the wire to the vibrato pot. I don't use vibrato on that amp, and I'm told it "unloads the circuit". Whatever it does is cool...it doesn't really change the sound but it feels wonderful. Super sensitive and sweetly sustaining even at whisper volume. It feels warmer if that's a possible thing.
You are gonna have so much fun with that beast!!
IMG_0863.JPG
 
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