So... silverface Vibro Champs?

thermionic

A friend may be selling his SF Vibro Champ and I’m tempted. Another friend had one at university so I’m familiar with them although I last played that one many years ago. I’ve seen a couple of photos and it looks very clean but I don’t know how it is electrically or what year it is. I’ve built a couple of kit amps so I’d be happy replacing filter caps etc. if needed.

Would it quell the urge I have for the Fender clean sound? How much do these go for now?

ICBM

Stupid money!

For a very simple 6W amp with an 8" speaker, anyway - even though they do sound wonderful and certainly do have the classic Fender clean sound. The tremolo in particular is fantastic.

Earlier 70s ones are better and worth a little more because they have pine cabinets and alnico-magnet speakers, later ones have particle-board and ceramic. The speaker is the weak point though, whichever type it is.

Most sellers seem to be asking £500+ for good ones now, although I remember - and owned two - when they were £150, so my perception of whether that's value for money may be a bit distorted...

thermionic

Been doing a bit of research on logos etc. and my guess is it’s mid to late 70s - definitely not one of the early ones. Depends how much he wants for it I suppose, if it’s £500+ I might as well save up a bit more for a used Princeton Reverb.

munckee

I think save for the Princeton. Why not check the amps section see if there's any for sale : )

Koa

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/151748/

Koa

Interesting recent thread on Champs link posted 

thermionic

Ah, yes, thanks @Koa, I knew there’d been a recent discussion.

jdgm

I'd also save for the Princeton.

However I have a Vibrochamp.

They are better with a replacement speaker, mine is a Jensen though I'd like another Weber.

https://i.postimg.cc/yWq7dT6g/Vibro-Champ.jpg

goldtop

+1 I bought one from a tFBer a few years ago, and it's the nicest 'small amp' I've got.

I think I paid £300 or so, and with money being so cheap thanks to 10 years of QE/etc, it's no surprise that they've gone up in asking price (value is subjective, of course).

rexter

I had a 71 for years and sold it last year. Great amp, and yes the Fender clean sound is there with beautiful vibrato/tremolo.
I should have probably kept mine but hey... the reason I eventually moved it on is that for a small home amp it was actually really loud and didn't breakup at all until full volume, which weirdly seemed louder than my Princeton Reverb clone (which also breaks up around 4-5). Mine had a weber ceramic speaker in it which I switched back to an original alnico cone one from the same era but this didn't alter the breakup much.

Loved the tremolo, loved the clean sound for recording but eventually started to find the raunchier sound of amps like the older Supro and Silvertone ones more exciting. 

If your friend is sellint it cheap though i'd grab it! I think I sold mine for £440 or similar last year. Bought it for just under £300 about 9 years ago. I could have held out or put it up for a stupid price on ebay or reverb maybe but those really high priced ones seem to just sit there. People taking the piss.

An early silverface Princeton Reverb was my dream but seeing them rocket from around £700- almost double that in the last 5 years put me off the idea 

Stuckfast

I have a silverface Vibrochamp, a fairly late one I think. It has a Jensen speaker, not sure if that's original. They are great amps, especially for recording -- live they can sound a bit small and boxy but that magically works when you put them into a mix, I think partly because you don't usually want a ton of low end from the electric guitar in most genres.

ICBM

Stuckfast said:

I have a silverface Vibrochamp, a fairly late one I think. It has a Jensen speaker, not sure if that's original.

No, but definitely an improvement. Just make sure it’s 4 ohm.

kreggs

hope you can see this. This is a vibrochamp head I built a couple years ago. The chassis and plates were from thailand. I was going for a kind of blonde bassman theme.

kreggs

kt66

Love my 77, clean tones are sublime, takes any pedal so far really well, so it's easy to get overdrive at bedroom levels.
I'd kill for a 2w version of the same amp. 

DJH83004

A few years ago following some fairly serious surgery I couldn't take on any customer work, so decided to add a valve reverb to my SF Vibro Champ to pass the time, it is a lovely addition to the already sweet trem IMHO.