Real information Fender Princeton 68 V 65 Princeton

Deadman

Good to see you back darcym!
You've made my mind up as I've wanted a Princeton for years now. I will own one before the year is out.

welshboyo

thanks @darcym you have helped me make my mind up too about this, can't decide on the Deluxe or the Princeton though...

But, as @Deadman says, there will be one here too before the year is out...

noisepolluter

good job, squire! That amp looks awesome. I'd be particularly interested to hear about performance with pedals, and noise floor at low volumes?

ThePrettyDamned

That's some really high praise.

I saw one in a store today, and another customer said it was 'a cheap alternative if you can't afford the USA one' or some nonsense like that.  

loolololol

I compared it to a silverface twin reverb, and preferred the twin reverb at all volumes.  That said... Like you, I like my cleans to be very clean.  The breakup on the princeton was really nice, and I thought I only really liked tweed amp breakup from fender. Also, when they were both set clean clean, they both sounded really great - not a whole lot in it for preference, though they did sound different. Also, it's a bit smaller than a twin reverb

It sounds amazing, and actually fills the room really nicely for a small amp - easily giggable, if you don't mind a bit of grit (or especially if you wanted some).  

badlydrawnbanjo

I'm looking at buying a 68 sometime this week. The best UK price I've haggled so far is £719. Is that comparable with what others have paid (if you don't mind saying)?

Thomann have them for just over £700.

p90fool

I paid 759 or thereabouts in January.

darcym

I believe I paid £730 so £719 seems about right

badlydrawnbanjo

I've just bought a 68. I managed to get PMT down to £689 in the end which I'm quite happy with.

BigBearKris

How do you like it? I'm gassing for these since I've tried one out in store but couldn't justify another small combo just for home use. I'm thinking about it again and nearly ordered one last night, but both Anderton's and Peach were out of stock.

Gassage

Mine was 660 as a Thomann return. I concur with all above- it is very very sweet, like a love child of a low watt tweed and a DRRI. The reverb is very lush, overly dominant over 4 on the pot, and the trem pretty good. I run it in stereo with my Clapton twinolux, the latter set at 10w and two speakers. I stack the amps on top of each other and my kind of vision is to have the breakup and grunt from the tweed and the treble and presence from the Princeton- like a woofer and tweeter

badlydrawnbanjo

Just out of interest, can you run an extension cab from a 68 Princeton VM?

ICBM

badlydrawnbanjo said:

Just out of interest, can you run an extension cab from a 68 Princeton VM?

Yes.

Regardless of what it says about an 8-ohm load, Fender designed all their amps to handle an extension speaker in parallel with the main one, giving a safe low mismatch. I wouldn't run a 4-ohm cab from it with the internal speaker still connected, but an 8 or 16 is fine.

EdGrip

I spent too long staring at Princeton circuits last year. They're basically the same thing - as far as I recall, only two differences: One is that the 68 has less negative feedback, which makes it a little bit more scrunchy-hairy. This is one single resistor, so once you've opened the amp up it's as simple as soldering in a different resistor for you or your amp tech if you want to modify one to be like the other. The other is that the tone stack is slightly modded, I think to give it slightly more on the mids. (Princetons don't have a Treble, Mid, Bass control network, only Treble and Bass - the mids value is set by a fixed resistor where the pot should be, and as standard it's a rather mid-scooped sound - and that's why we love it! But it makes it hard to get some dirt pedals to play nicely with the amp.) Again, this is a matter of one single resistor, so it's a doddle to put it back to stock/however you like it. Why not put a secret mids pot on the back of the chassis somewhere? No-one will ever know.  

Other than that, it's all about the speaker - a vintage-style 10" Jensen in the reissue, a 10" Celestion in the 68, which will sound drastically different - I would say that should be the thing that makes your decision, but if you're anything like me you'll end up putting a different speaker in there anyway, regardless, so...

...basically, it's about whether you prefer the dashing good looks of the silverface amp - as all good-hearted people do - or the dour, bleak, un-coordinated looks of the blackface era.

p90fool

@EdGrip , where did you find a 68 Custom schematic?
I had a reply from Jeff Bielke at consumer relations last night saying the tech dept has forgotten to upload it onto the Fender site!

EdGrip

@p90fool - I was going by the vintage schematics kindly hosted at amphaven, as mine is a vintage silverface. The circuit differences have been discussed on other forums, and I was paying attention when the 68's came out as I was all about Princetons. (Mine is now a basket case, since you ask - I'm currently going through the recommended amp techs thread...)

ThePrettyDamned

So you could replace the fixed resistor for mids with a pot?

That sounds like a really worthwhile mod. It shouldn't take anything away from the sound, should it? Surely it's just a variable resistor.

ICBM

A neat mod you can do is to give it a "Vox Top Boost" tone circuit where the bass control is also a reverse mid as it approaches full up. If you also increase the size of the mid resistor as well you can increase the mids below halfway and lower the point on the knob where it starts to cut mids. Not quite as flexible as two separate pots, but no drilling or parts needed (other than a resistor if you want to do that bit of it as well).

badlydrawnbanjo

Finally got round to collecting my amp from PMT today and it's really good but I think I want to get an extension cab hooked up to get a bit more air moving around.  Does any one have any recommendations for a 1 x 12"? The Fender Vintage modified SC112 looks to be too small to sit the amp on top? Hot rod deluxe 112 worth a punt? Or is there anyone who will make to order at a reasonable cost?

EdGrip

@badlydrawnbanjo - you could try Zilla cabs. I know they don't advertise it on their site, but they will make vintage replica cabs and cabs to match other amps if you ask them.

badlydrawnbanjo

EdGrip;369525" said:

@badlydrawnbanjo - you could try Zilla cabs. I know they don't advertise it on their site, but they will make vintage replica cabs and cabs to match other amps if you ask them.

I'll check turn out. Cheers!