Members Elliott Damage Posted October 15, 2005 Members Share Posted October 15, 2005 I like fender amps but i've always for the most part played blackface and blackface style amps. Do the brownface fenders have a ''signature" sound of their own? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members I Hate Snow Posted October 17, 2005 Members Share Posted October 17, 2005 way off topic but sliver faces are the best bang for the buck.theyre hand wired, can be made back in to black face specs and they have a ground pin on the cable. and if the silverface vibrolux reverb isnt the best sounding clean amp, i give up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zooey Posted October 17, 2005 Members Share Posted October 17, 2005 Browns are an interesting breed. My experience is primarily with the lower powered amps (Princeton and Deluxe). They have really great tremelos and a dark character. The higher power amps (the Concert, the Pro, and the Bandmaster) have solid state rectifiers and are pretty rare. The brown tolex Deluxe is one of my favorite amps. I own a brown Princeton, but haven't found a Deluxe in my prince range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members canucker1981 Posted October 17, 2005 Members Share Posted October 17, 2005 I had a Blackface Deluxe before and the difference is quite noticeable. More noticeable than the difference between a Silver and a Black. Brownies break up earlier, with a much more ballsy, midrangey, marshallesque type of breakup. The trem is great, more character to it than a blackface, deluxes don't have the harmonic trem found in vibrasonics(which by the way is something everyone must hear) but it is still great. Much darker sounding amp, more tones to be had with just the use of a single tone knob than you would imagine. The bright channel can be over the top with Teles but great with Les Pauls and humbuckers in general. It helps to have a Weber speaker in it(I have 12a125a(Jensen P12q). If a kazoo could sound good, this is how it would sound. Cuts through in a band without a hitch probably due to its midrangey voicing. Not a very 3 dimensional sounding amp, more vintage and focused sounding. Hmmmmm, as far as "signature sound"..... definintely yes. A unique mix between a tweed and a blackface. My favourite thing about the Brown deluxe is it gives something great no matter where you put the tone knob. I find most amps, Fenders included fall short at a lot of eq settings. Example: With the treble at zero on my old Black Deluxe it just sounded like mud, unusable to me. With the Brown tone knob at zero it just sounds jazzy. With the Black Deluxes treble cranked up it just pierced. With the Brownies its like adding a nice treble booster in front of it. I guess its just a very well balanced tone section in the amps circuitry. This is my little friend. (My cab is buzzing a little as of late....... Im so sad and annoyed). Its custom built cab built to spec except the handle. Original chassis though!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elliott Damage Posted October 17, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 17, 2005 how would you comprare the larger brownface amps such as a concert to a blackface super reverb or similar blackface amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members canucker1981 Posted October 17, 2005 Members Share Posted October 17, 2005 Ive never had the chance to play a Brown Concert. I have played through a Princeton, Deluxe and a Vibrasonic. All were very similar in tone. The only noticeable difference I found was the obvious speaker size difference and volume. I think when comparing fenders, there is no need to look past the faceplate. Tweeds sound like tweeds, browns like browns, blacks like black and so on. Im willing to bet that a Brown concert with the right speakers would sound like an old non master volume Marshall to a "t" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members elctmist Posted October 17, 2005 Members Share Posted October 17, 2005 To my ears the main difference on all the brown fenders is the trem circuit. Its a very cool sound, more phasey and vibey than BF or silverface Fenders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BmoreTele Posted October 17, 2005 Members Share Posted October 17, 2005 I have an Auralux King Trem on the way. It's supposed to cop the Brownface trem sound. I'll play it through my SF Champ and Bassman and let you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sir H C Posted October 17, 2005 Members Share Posted October 17, 2005 Browns have a presence knob. That is a big difference. Much like Marshalls. I have played a bunch of different browns (Super, Vibrasonic, Princeton, Bassman, Bandmaster) and own a couple. The sound is grittier than the Blacks, closer to tweed but more polite. Crank them and they break up well (the Bassman is the best). To hear the sound of brown, check out Brian Setzer or Dick Dale, that is what they use. Blacks are very similar to the Silverfaces (early). As the years wore on, the silverfaces got more brittle sounding. And that tremolo. They do the highs and lows out of phase to each other and you get a swirl that rivals a Magnatone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members elctmist Posted October 17, 2005 Members Share Posted October 17, 2005 Yeah the EH Wiggler kind of gets close as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wyatt Posted October 17, 2005 Members Share Posted October 17, 2005 It helps to break the amps done chronologically; Leo Fender worked hard throughout his career to make his amps clenaer and brighter with more headroom. Tweed Fenders have their own tone, "Tweed Tone," they don't have any of that signature scooped-mids "Fender Tone" you normally associate with Fender amps. Tweeds are in the Marshall family tone-wise. THey have more aggresive preamps and are midrange heavy, whch gives them a lot less headroom and a lot warmer, fatter, less defined distortion. You run into a lot of used Tweed clones on the web because people though they were getting "Fender Tone" in a cooler package, only to be shocked to get mini-Marshalls. Skip ahead two generations. With the BF Fenders, Leo has dialed out most of the midrnage and tightened up the bottom-end to make it punchier. The result is the scooped-mid, bass and treble heavy, sparkling, twangy "Fender Tone," we hear on so many classic '60's blues, R&B, etc. recordings. These amps still distort, but they have more hot sizzle than fat crunch. The generation inbetween theses is the Brownface. Less midrange and more headroom than the Tweeds, they are starting to develop into Fender tone, but are still fat, distorting rock machines. They, obviously, offer more midrange and earlier overdrive than Blackface Fenders, but tighter tone, more focused distortion tone, and a much faster attack on the note over Tweed Fenders. Silverface Fenders, still have the "Fender Tone," but are even cleaner and more sparkly. I actually prefer a SF Deluxe Reverb over Blackface because I love the cleaner Fender tones for more of an alt. country/rockabilly/etc. tone. -Y. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PB Wilson Posted October 17, 2005 Members Share Posted October 17, 2005 Excellent info here fellas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elliott Damage Posted October 18, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 18, 2005 Thanks for all the input guys!really great info! any recommended sites or books about the different fender amp era's and tones? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fast Frets Posted October 18, 2005 Members Share Posted October 18, 2005 Elliott: Take a look at Fender Amps: The First Fifty Years, by John Teagle and John Sprung, 1995, Hal Leonard Corp. ISBN: 0-7935-3733-9. It covers the amps pretty well describing the changes through the years. Also, The Tube Amp Book, by Aspen Pittman gives information about circuits, dating, and servicing many brands of tube amps including Fenders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ToadWorks Posted October 18, 2005 Members Share Posted October 18, 2005 Originally posted by I Hate Snow way off topic butsliver faces are the best bang for the buck.theyre hand wired, can be made back in to black face specs and they have a ground pin on the cable. and if the silverface vibrolux reverb isnt the best sounding clean amp, i give up. Some don't even even need to be modified... quite a few Silverface amps went out with identical specs to their blackface ancestors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elliott Damage Posted October 18, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 18, 2005 Originally posted by Fast Frets Elliott: Take a look at Fender Amps: The First Fifty Years, by John Teagle and John Sprung, 1995, Hal Leonard Corp. ISBN: 0-7935-3733-9. It covers the amps pretty well describing the changes through the years. Also, The Tube Amp Book, by Aspen Pittman gives information about circuits, dating, and servicing many brands of tube amps including Fenders. thanks alot! i think i'm gonna order it off of amazon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sir H C Posted October 18, 2005 Members Share Posted October 18, 2005 From the first tweed through brown check out "Amps the other half of Rock and Roll" by Ritchie Fliegler: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0793524113/qid=1129640475/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-0219088-0315961?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 They go through all the Fender Pro amps from the woodie to the brown and compare the sounds of all of them. Very interesting. the rest of the book rules too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elliott Damage Posted October 18, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 18, 2005 Originally posted by Sir H C From the first tweed through brown check out "Amps the other half of Rock and Roll" by Ritchie Fliegler:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0793524113/qid=1129640475/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-0219088-0315961?v=glance&s=books&n=507846They go through all the Fender Pro amps from the woodie to the brown and compare the sounds of all of them. Very interesting. the rest of the book rules too. thanks alot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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