Amplifiers and Accessories

If you read our previous post on the Tweed era amplifiers, you’ve gotten a glimpse of how the demands of rock music were shaping the evolution of guitar amplifiers. While the Fender “Narrow Panel” Tweed amplifiers were extremely popular, there were some specific issues that Fender wanted to address. Although Tweed amplifiers were still available in the early sixties, the short-lived “brown” and “blond” series of amplifiers in 1960-64 foreshadowed what was ultimately to become Fender’s arguably most popular amplifiers: The Blackface series.

Blackface – The first Blackface amplifiers were released in 1963, and featured cosmetic as well as important changes in amplifier design. The controls were front mounted, as most users were now guitar players who played in front of their amps, rather than pedal steel players who sat behind them. The black tolex covering was purely a practical consideration, as the the brown tweed did not wear very well on the road. But internally, changes were made to make the amplifiers louder, cleaner, and with more features such as Reverb and Vibrato. Over time most designs changed over to a fixed-biased design. The fixed bias designs were cleaner, with more headroom, and a brighter sound with greater attack. Furthermore, some of the higher powered designs used solid state silicon diodes in place of tube rectifiers which further increased headroom and attack. Out of Blackface, the classic “glassy” Fender sound was born, and Blackface amplifiers quickly became famous for their clean detailed sound a low volumes, increased headroom, and smooth overdrive when cranked to higher levels.

The Blackface series were clearly up to the task of handling the increasing volume levels of rock music and the larger venues that bands were playing. It would be fair to say that Leo Fender not see distortion as a desirable quality, and the focus of the Blackface series was to be louder, cleaner and more durable inside and out than previous Fender designs. Pro Audio sound as we know it was in its infancy, and often stage volume was the only volume! Anybody who has played a Twin Reverb knows how loud these amps can be, and getting one to break up is an exercise in masochism. Years later as “vintage” amplifiers became popular, the 22 watt Fender Deluxe was one of the more desirable models because at 22 watts it was easy to carry, and the modest wattage meant that very pleasing breakup could be had a reasonable volume levels. In fact, the trend today in amplifiers is definitely smaller, as players realized that the tone they are looking for is best produced by a smaller amplifier, and miking a small amp has become routine. The obvious exception is the wall of stacks seen at big concerts, but most of those are for visual effect and — unless you’re Yngwie — are not even on.

As many know, the Silverface series of amplifiers followed along in 1968. While often maligned for being “CBS” Fenders, Silverface is not synonymous with bad, and for the first few years most Silverface amps were essentially Blackface models with updated cosmetics. Into the 70’s though, more significant changes were made as Fender was not keeping up with the trend of heavy rock and distortion. To keep up with builders like Marshall, Fender added features like a master volume control to many of their models, and some of these sounded pretty awful. To the faithful, this was the beginning of the end until the buyout of CBS in 1985. Many will argue that except for the reissues and custom shop models, Fender never regained their amplifier greatness. Popular “modern” Fender models like the DeVille and Blues Junior series use the ubiquitous British type EL-84 tubes. While these tubes are also popular with many boutique builders, they are tonally very different from the 6V6 and 6L6 tubes that powered the classic Fender products.

Rivera amplifiers tend to be known for their high gain rock capabilities, but that is only half of the story. Most Rivera amplifiers are channel switching, and the clean side clearly emulates the Blackface school of design (Rivera founder Paul Rivera Sr. was at Fender in the early 80’s as their marketing director). Rivera clean channels have plenty of clean headroom, volume, and that sparkly, glassy sound so familiar to Fender lovers. Rivera uses 6V6, 6L6 and EL-34 tubes for their products, and does not use the EL-84 (the EL-34 is clearly not a “Fender” tube, but great for hard rock). Rivera also uses solid state rectification, which boost the clean headroom of the amplifiers. The Rivera Venus series combines Class A operation with the classic Blackface sound resulting nice tight tones with a hint of warmth around the edges. The gain side of Rivera amplifiers is voiced much more in line with would could be described as a classically “British” tone with lots of distortion, thick mids, and a tight bottom end. With ample tone shaping capability and often a “pull boost” knob, Rivera amplifiers can also crank out that scooped midrange hard rock grind popular in a lot of music including modern Nashville country, which these days is essentially the new Pop Rock. Or as a friend of mine puts it, “Recto-Country.” To generalize, Rivera is best described as Fender Clean/British Grind, combining two of the most classic sounds in Rock ‘n Roll.

ValveTrain really has only one model that I would say is faithfully Blackface, and that is the Bennington Reverb. The Bennington is best described as what the Fender Deluxe once was: A moderately powered hand-wired amp with reverb. The Bennington Reverb is a simple affair with just four knobs (Volume, Bass, Treble, Reverb), one channel, bright switch, a nicely hand wired aluminum chassis, and a 12″ Eminence Wizard Speaker. The ValveTrain Bennington has noticeably more gain and headroom than the Tweed-inspired Trenton, and at 20 watts has ample power for clubs. The tone is clean, slightly scooped, and the high end sparkles without any harshness. While some natural breakup is available above “6” on the dial, the higher headroom preamp takes pedals very well. Rather than crank the amp way up for distortion like a Tweed, you can set a nice clean level, and use a good quality pedal for additional gain and distortion. Like the original Blackface, the ValveTrain Bennington provides great sound and versatility in an easy to carry package,

The world of amplifiers is often divided into particular sound “camps” to describe the tonal characteristics. Blackface and Tweed are used to describe two of the classic Fender eras, while “British” is often synonymous with Marshall amplifiers, although it can also be applied to brands like HiWatt that were based on the brawny EL-34 power tube. Vox of course is Vox, but derives its roots from cathode-biased EL-84 based products (like some early Marshalls). For the purpose of this discussion, we are going address the Tweed style, and how this sound applies to some of the amps we carry from ValveTrain and Rivera.

Tweed – The Fender “Narrow Panel” Tweed era from 1955 to 1964 was really the Genesis of mass-produced guitar amplifiers. While there were other brands emerging in the late 40’s and early 50’s, Fender certainly captured the lion’s share of professional endorsements, and what became know as “tweed” amplifiers were commonly found on professional back-lines everywhere. The Tweed era lasted into the early sixties, at which time Fender addressed many of the issues that were seen as deficiencies in the their Tweed designs, ultimately evolving into the what is lovingly known as Blackface amplifiers.

In the 50’s there was no specific guitar amplifier technology, and early guitar amplifiers were essentially schematics taken from standard design handbooks. Often these handbooks were published by tube companies trying to promote their products. As such, a public address amplifier used at a factory or county fair had a lot in common design-wise with a guitar amplifier. But amplified guitar applications were a lot more demanding that just amplifying a voice (not to mention the new electric bass). As bands got louder and players looked for more volume, the limitations of early amplifier designs became apparent: Limited clean headroom and harmonic distortion at higher volume levels being the most comment ailment. The low wattage, cathode-biased pre-amps and tube rectifiers of the day were not always up to the task of delivering loud, clean volume. The earliest bands to electrify were country, swing and dance bands, and distortion was not seen as a desirable characteristic for an amplifier. This was especially true of pedal steel players, which was an important market for Fender at that time. Although the Narrow Panel Tweeds were certainly a step up from the earlier designs, the rapid growth in popularity of rock music was pushing their limits.

As new amplifier models in the 60’s became louder and cleaner — including the advent of solid state technology — some players started to miss that old compressed, warm sound of the earlier Tweed designs. Today, a good portion of the boutique amplifier market is dedicated to reproducing early Tweed designs, and many advertise which old Fender schematic version they use. You literally can’t swing a dead cat without hitting somebody’s latest version of a Champ, Bassman or Super; all in search of that warm top end, soft compression, and musical grind at higher volumes. In fact even Fender themselves has gotten in on the game with the “EC” Eric Clapton series of — you guessed it — Tweed amplifiers.

While Tweed amplifiers are great for many styles of rock music, they do have some limitations. Clean headroom at higher volumes is still a limitation, so if you are looking for that — or are content lugging around a Bassman or Tweed Twin — look elsewhere. The front end of Tweed amps also have limited gain, and can be overwhelmed by pedals. Put a strong gain or distortion pedal in front of a Tweed and you’re likely to get a mushy combination of pedal distortion and front end distortion. Tweed amps are at their best with minimal effects and sometimes the best effect is just a good guitar and cable. Lastly part of the sweetness and purity of the Tweed sound was a product of their simple circuits. Amps faithful to the Tweed heritage typically lack reverb, have minimal tone shaping capabilities, and channel switching is unheard of. Tweeds are not full-feature amplifiers, but part of their beauty lies in their ability to create very pure, organic tones with great texture. For some, that’s all that is needed.

Much of the ValveTrain line is based on the low wattage Tweed designs of the 50’s. The Trenton, Tallboy and really all of their Vintage Series (315, 416, etc) are either Tweed inspired or directly descended from specific Fender schematics. The ValveTrain line are not pure clones however, and several models have an expanded control set that provides features such as half/full power, internally connected normal and bright inputs, and master volume controls. These amplifiers retain the classic tone and feel of the original designs, but increase the flexibility of the amplifier for both gigging and recording. The Rivera amplifier lineup does not really address the Tweed ethos. Generally higher in power, with solid state rectifiers and a full complement of tone shaping options, Rivera clean tones are squarely targeted at the Blackface sound, and will addressed in a companion post on the Blackface era.

The Blackface Sound – Right for You?

The Tweed Sound: Right for You?