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• Review

As with Fender's wonderful Deluxe, the Princeton was one of the very first amps Leo made under his own name – dating all the way back to 1946 – and one of the few model names to remain in more or less continuous production, seeing out Fender's less well-known 'Ivy League' amps, the Yale and Harvard.

Everyone has their own favourite version of this wonderful small amplifier, and at the risk of offending some of the tweed fanatics out there, we reckon that with this reissue of the reverb-equipped 1965 variant Fender has probably picked the one that's garnered the most praise over the years. It combines the classic good looks of the pre-CBS 'blackface' with the mis-named Vibrato effect and that great spring reverb.

Originally intended as a smaller, more portable combo for practice and beginners, the Princeton Reverb quickly found its true calling in the hands of studio players and, along with the tweed Deluxe, is probably one of the most recorded amps of all time.

Like the original, this re-issue has a smart, perfectly proportioned cabinet covered in thick black Tolex, combined with a silver sparkle grille cloth and black control panel with six skirted control knobs for volume, treble, bass, vibrato speed and intensity and depth for the reverb effect.

"Classic blackface tone is less midrange-biased than the earlier tweed amps, with a shimmering treble and powerful bass that pushes out of the speaker."

It's the classic 'blackface' style and looks undeniably handsome – less vintage than tweed maybe, but classier; the amp for dinner dates and cabaret as well as those down-home blues or country pickin' gigs.

Construction

Also just like the original, this reissue sports a small but solid steel chassis, to which all the valve bases are directly bolted for strength, reliability and easy changeovers. Inside the chassis, the electronics are all PCB mounted on single-sided boards which are not through-plated – there are two small boards for the input jacks and rotary controls and one large one for everything else, with connections to the valve bases made by short flying leads.

This is quite a bit different from the originals, which used eyelet board construction, where components are soldered into small brass rivets which are in turn strategically hammered into a vulcanised fibre baseboard. This traditional way of building the Fender amplifier survived up until the mid-eighties when the Fullerton production line closed, and is now restricted to Custom Series models like the Tweed Deluxe.

The Princeton's component values appear to be similar, however, the PCB layout is of necessity substantially different from the AA1164 circuit used on original Princetons of this era.

The rectifier valve has also been changed, from what would have been a 5U4 to a 5AR4, which is actually not a bad thing for the amp overall as the latter is more efficient and kinder to output valves because of its controlled slower warm-up time, gradually building up the high plate voltage.

By comparison a 5U4 would lower the voltage a little and reduce output accordingly. However, if you're tempted to experiment with a 5U4 we'd say don't – despite the forbidden promise of more 'sag' at a slightly reduced output, a 5U4 will draw higher filament current which the reissue power transformer probably wasn't intended to handle.

The all-important loudspeaker is a Jensen C10R – a reissue of an original type that was one of several used by Fender on its small amps and so quite authentic, as is the supplied footswitch, which toggles the reverb and vibrato effects.

Sounds

Hear Guitarist's Dave Durban put the Princeton through its paces: