Our Fender Family
We are lucky to have an array of cool Fender amps at our (and your) disposal here at the studio. These classic designs provide go-to sounds we know and love. Engineer Jason Phelps recalls his early Fender amp encounters:
My first “real” amp was a 1973 Fender champ - I would sit in my room and play while fixated on the iconic red light, that beautiful faceted jewel of my dreams. As a young teen I had the chance to buy an original blackface Super Reverb but foolishly bought the "Peavey Bandit” for the same price. I remember the guy at Carroll’s Music in Auburn shaking his head and saying "Dude, you should buy the Fender, it’s waaay cooler!” But my mind was set on that distortion sound and I could not be swayed… Oh well…
1953 Tweed Fender Deluxe
This amp has lived at the studio for many years, it was previously owned by musician and ace photographer Matthew Robbins. We finally purchased it a few years back and it is one of our most treasured pieces of gear. This particular model is a 1953 “wide-panel” featuring the classic 5c3 circuit and a 12” Jensen speaker. It currently has a reissue speaker, but the original is still intact. It sports both an instrument and a mic 1/4” input and simple volume and tone controls. This little gem sounds amazing, and paired with the right drive pedal it is incredible for heavy rock guitar tones. Our Shure Green Bullet plugged into the mic input gives the quintessential dirty harmonica sounds. Les Paul on the front pickup with the amp dimed is pure bliss.
1974 Fender Champ
This sweet little Champ came to us from our good friend Doug Luther. Sporting an 8” speaker and 6 watts of power it’s just a good sounding simple circuit.
My Champ had an RCA output to connect to the speaker. Not knowing any better, I used to run a cable from the speaker ‘s SIX WATT output to the AUX INPUT on my mom’s sweet KLH tube stereo - the resulting INSANE distortion sounded just like “Revolution” by the Beatles. and I could play my guitar along with our record collection if I mashed the phono and aux input buttons just right to hear both signals at once. I dragged that damn stereo to all my buddies’ basements to be loud enough to jam with a drummer for almost a year straight!” - Don’t try this at home kids! - Jason Phelps
1975 Fender Princeton Reverb
Our Princeton Reverb has a 10” speaker and 12 watts of power. It has been modified to add a “Mid” control in addition to the usual Treble and Bass. The built-in vibrato sounds fantastic with our Fender Rhodes, without getting too boomy.
1979 Fender Vibro Champ
Another piece brought to us from our buddy Doug Luther, this 1979 Vibro Champ has the same output and speaker as the Champ with the addition of a vibrato circuit. It is particularly sweet for reamping vocals etc. for a distorted/megaphone-style effect. Also fun to pair up with the Champ for tracking through stereo guitar pedals!
1979 Fender Twin Reverb
Our Twin Reverb is a master volume model, as loud as it is heavy - with 135 watts of power and a pair of 12” JBL D120 speakers.
1991 Fender Vibroverb
This Vibroverb reissue of an original 63’ sounds fantastic. with two 10” speakers and 40w of power these are a pretty solid recreation of the originals, minus the tube rectifier.
1995 Fender Vibro King
This 60 watt beast features three 10” speakers, and a sophisticated tube reverb circuit with a tone and dwell control. It sounds incredible!
2007 Fender Blackface Deluxe Reissue
If we had to name one amp at the studio as our “go-to” it would have to be our Blackface Deluxe Reissue. At 22 watts with a single 12” speaker, this baby sounds great clean and it takes pedals well. We love this amp!