Fender Princeton Reverb 1969

Fender Princeton Reverb 1969

This 1969 Fender Princeton Reverb is in excellent condition and in perfect working order. An early transitional “drip edge/black line” example, this amp features the unique cosmetic touches including aluminum trim framing the grillcloth and thin vertical black lines on the faceplate, denoting a Princeton Reverb which retains the same circuitry and components as its Black Panel-era predecessors.

The finger-jointed red pine cabinet features the screwed-in baffle of the Black Panel era amps and a circuit identical to any Princeton Reverb produced from 1964-67, so this amp delivers well-balanced, sparkling cleans and smooth, harmonic-rich overdrive when you dime it out. The Reverb is lush and the Tremolo has a nice pulse with a wide range of speeds.

The circuit retains all of the stock transformers, manufactured for Fender by Schumacher (their primary transformer supplier in the 1960s), dating between mid-1966 and ’67. The preamp features all of the original blue molded Ajax tone caps, an essential part of the Black Panel sound, along with some rarely seen Mallory “tropical fish” caps. All of the original CTS pots are intact, with date codes spanning 1966-67. The tubes include a matched pair of modern, properly-biased JJ 6V6 power tubes, with a vintage (ostensibly original) General Electric GZ34 rectifier and matching USA-made Dumont-branded preamp tubes. The tube chart is present inside the cabinet.

Originally equipped with an  Oxford 10L5 (a driver offering more headroom and bass compared with the 10J4 loaded in virtually all Princeton Reverbs that preceded it) with a clean black frame and blue foil Fender sticker on the ceramic magnet. The speaker retains its original cone, and the stamp on the edge of the frame dates  to the 25th week of ’65.  It is boxed and provided with this amp. However a Weber 10F150T 25 Watt Ferromax vintage speaker is currently installed to preserve the original Oxford Speaker, and sounds awesome.

The amp retains its original smooth black tolex and silver sparkle grillcloth which shows light aging. All of the original hardware is intact, including the raised logo, handle caps, chassis straps, and sphinx glides (feet).  A modern padded cover is included.