Hydra19 wrote:

...not sure what i have in V6

Unless someone else already swapped it, it's a 12AX7. They do wear out though; they're a very busy tube.

I suspect (but do not know) that one of the things that makes this particular amp so popular is that they sorta went backwards toward how they were doing tone stacks, with tapped treble pots that would plow some more treble into the output stage, etc. (Really not noticed until you crank it a bit.) This venture at a reissue probably remains popular 'cause it was way more than cosmetics, not just making a black panel & calling it a reissue.

In terms of clean headroom, Leo was always experimenting, and trying to avoid "overmodulation" - which he viewed as a flaw. So he probably thought a 12AT7 PI as a step (one of many) to mitigate some of that, hence its use in the BF series.

Lovely trem in your amp btw.

Wes
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DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Last edited: Dec 24, 2015 21:14:00

Hydra19 wrote:

I had a Princeton Reissue before and all my tone controls were totally different. Treble and Bass were dialed back to about 1-4 and on the VVRI they are at least at 5-6, when I pushed the treble up to 10, it sounded a little more blackfaced. On the PRRI, the reverb was enough at 4, total surf but with the VVRI even on 10 it's not very surfy. Maybe because I'm driving it with a 12AT7?

Princeton Reverb is a different animal, 6V6's, pretty standard circuits, and they actually got that one pretty close on the reissue. The 12AT7 is fine as a reverb driver; combo amps seldom get what you're going to want out of an outboard tank when you think 'surf' and 'drip', etc. (A 12AT7 is actually the driver for the single power tube in an outboard unit.)

I wish the trem on the VVRI could go a bit slower too but I either have to change the bias or some caps so I leave it on slowest speed and make the best of it Both the PRRI and VVRI are wonderful amps though, I can only imagine what the originals must have been like.

That lack of being able to just slowly pulse is a common ailment in combo amps. Not a bias thing really; my understanding is that it has to do with the filter network that is used in order to get a wave back in phase after it's flipped, the cap & resistor values. It can be done by someone who really knows what they're doing as there's some serious math going on to both change the slowest frequency and get the wave flipped back in phase to plow it back into the tube handling the trem circuit, from what I've been able to learn. Probably why one of the first things folks check on a trem pedal is how SLOW it will pulse. You can probably buy some pretty good trem pedals for less than the labor to have a tech do that to your amp.

Try your tube substitution(s), turn knobs with an open mind and see what happens.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

From what you describe, doesn't sound like the tube swap is going to get you there for reverb. Those amps share the same pan, so you may have something else going on - unless the reverb driver tube is just plain bad & the swap fixes that whether it's a 12AT7 or 12AX7.

Could be cables reversed (common cause of reverb not perceptible until max'd out), reverb transformer, transducers in the pan. Replacement pans are cheap. It's never going to drip like an outboard unit but that pan is one commonly in use throughout Fender amps and should give you cavernous reverb.

Let us know what happens & Merry Christmas.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Could be volume, hard to judge such things with words. FWIW, when I spoke before of reversing the cables I was just talking about at the pan. Some pans seem to put the input/output at different ends or with different colors & it's a simple human mistake sometimes that they get plugged into the pan reversed from how they should be - just wanted to rule that out.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Hope it's not to late to join the Vibroverb party...

so I took a photo of the SN for posterity.

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Last Fall my VV stared sounding a bit sick, just not right, in particular in the bass range, some unpleasant sounds coming out. I plugged the amp into an extension speaker, and it sounded amazing, so it was clearly a problem with the speakers. They are replacements: EV 10" that I bought used some years ago. In January I finally got around to pulling the speakers out and getting them to Weber (who are located less than 20 miles from my parents' house in Indiana) for recones. I got them back a few weeks ago and finally got them back in the amp today. A HUGE improvement! Wow, what a sound! Just stunning. It made me remember why I love that amp in the first place.

I cranked it up to 6 and played it for an hour and a half, full-tilt. Yep, now I'm mostly deaf, but TOTALLY worth it! The EVs are really amazing surf speakers, rivaling or even exceeding JBLs. These are 10" speakers, so not the most surf-correct, but still, a fantastic sound, a big, tight low end and a very sweet-yet-cutting high end, with rich mids. If you're ever considering upgrading the speakers in your VV, I strongly recommend the EVs - though you'll have to search for them on eBay or reverb.com. They're not the most common speakers, but they do pop up from time to time, and they're worth the effort and the patience. (One big downside: all EVs are REALLY heavy speakers, and my VV with these two speakers in it feels like it's nailed to the floor when you go pick it up!)

Ivan
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Congratulations! yummm

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Sweet! Crank it up!

narciso wrote:

Because I have been a very good boy I have bought myself a nice brownface vibroverb. The grill cloth is a little beaten but it sounds very good.

SN AB04436, and it is loaded with two eminence legend 1028k.

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That's probably a good price, John. I've not followed it the past six months or so very much, but the prices I've seen lately range from $800 to $1200. It seems more and more they're at the upper end, though. Two of those amps now on reverb.com, one at $1100, the other at the whopping $1350 - so, you should probably snatch it at $940!

Ivan
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zunrj5 wrote:

Thanks for the reply! That's what I was thinking after looking on reverb and eBay, but I wanted to check with the experts first.

Let us know how you like it!

On a side note - Ivan, thanks for the great music!

Thank YOU, John, I appreciate that!

Ivan
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