Photo of the Day
Shoutbox

midwestsurfguy: Merry Christmas!
326 days ago

sysmalakian: HAPPY NEW YEAR!
320 days ago

SabedLeepski: Surfin‘ Europe, for surf (related) gigs and events in Europe Big Razz https://sunb...
281 days ago

SHADOWNIGHT5150: I like big reverb and i cannot lie
214 days ago

SHADOWNIGHT5150: Bank accounts are a scam created by a shadow government
214 days ago

sysmalakian: TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!
200 days ago

dp: dude
181 days ago

Bango_Rilla: Shout Bananas!!
136 days ago

BillyBlastOff: See you kiddies at the Convention!
121 days ago

GDW: showman
72 days ago

Please login or register to shout.

Current Polls

No polls at this time. Check out our past polls.

Current Contests

No contests at this time. Check out our past contests.

Donations

Help us meet our monthly goal:

43%

43%

Donate Now

SG101 Banner

SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink Any Premier 90 Reverb unit owners?

New Topic
Goto Page: Previous 1 2

This post has been removed by the author.

Last edited: Sep 23, 2009 16:10:47

andy
Update:

I still have the guts - if anyone needs any replacement parts to bring a Premier 90 back to life, fire me an email as I would like to them put to good use!

btw, I'm very happy with my '64 6G15!

I PM'd you but thought I'd reply to the list too.

We have three Premier 90's and I'm sourcing parts to build a 6G15 over the holidays.

If no one wants the remaining parts, let me know. From your pics, it isn't too pretty :).

Looking for some jazz and a little libations - js

Hey jimmyjazz,
Not sure if there's much there that would be of use for a 6G15 (I don't have the reverb pan anymore) - I sent you an email but it was before I saw this post. I can email you a few pictures this weekend if you want a better look at what parts are there.

Cheers.

andy
Richard - I'm surprised those old units were written off by those techs. Maybe it was a time/cost judgement call on their part? The design of the circuit is decent enough, so it's just a matter of upgrading or replacing parts until it works. As the Premier units don't fetch anything near what Fender unit goes for maybe they didn't think they were worth putting any effort into 'em?

Late reply! The two units I had sounded cool, though they couldn't be played at practice/gig volume because of the high-pitched shriek that came from them. I don't know anything about how circuits are designed...in fact, I barely remember what the inside of the thing looked like. There were two amp techs I took both of mine to, about two years apart, and they both told me that they couldn't be fixed. Since I didn't understand how or why, I eventually sold them.

The Mystery Men?
El Capitan and The Reluctant Sadists
SSS Agent #31

I never played through an outboard tank (use onboard on my Twin Reverb 'cause I'm cheap), but these things look really cool. Never heard one, and they used to get like $150-$250 on ebay, but now they're going for like $450-$550 and it's ridiculous. I guess anything can look like the coolest 50's sci-fi robot thingamajig, but still be a junky $500 paperweight that can shock the hell out of ya. I should've gotten one when they didn't require a loan to buy.

I had one long ago. What I found was the unit was prone to noise. Good tech help can make a huge difference here. My go to amp tech rerouted some of the wires, quieted it down considerably. As to reverb sound, it's gainier, soupier than surf lovers might favor. Really fine for west coast jump blues. It's a more obvious pre-amp type effect than you might be used to in the Fender unit, less precise and even more atmospheric.

For cleaner sounds, probably not your best choice. Still, a really cool reverb if you can find a good one.
MD

IvanP wrote:

I remember reading somewhere that Evan Foster used one of these in the early days of the Boss Martians. I believe he even used it on the song "XKE" which is simply awesome, one of the great surf tunes of the nineties. And the reverb there sounds great.

Ivan

I posted on "XKE!"'s Youtube vid about this where someone else (probably from this board) made the same assertion, but I recently asked Evan about his use of the Premier 90 and his response was:

"Not a rumor at all -- got my first Premier unit in 1994 and used it for about half the tracks on our 1st Dionysus LP/CD, then about 6 songs in I finally got my Oct '64 Reverb unit"

He also told me he used a Fender solid state reverb.

The Mystery Men?
El Capitan and The Reluctant Sadists
SSS Agent #31

I've had the opportunity to play through one. It worked well as kind of a preamp, tube-coloring the tone. It's reverb was somewhere between the one found in Deluxes/Twins/Supers and the 6G15.

Not bad, but if I had to invest money in a reverb unit (and lug around a big box just for the reverb) I would go for the 6G15 (as I eventually did).

https://zakandthekrakens.bandcamp.com/
https://www.dirtyfuse.com

Last edited: Apr 26, 2013 15:28:40

So I'm researching this unit as there is one near me (not near enough to just go try out real soon) for an ok price. Right now I play through an sf super, twin, or pro. I find the reverb to be a little cavernous. I would like a fender unit at some point, but not enough money for that yet. The surfy bear is cool, but I can't put stuff like that together. Hence I'm considering this premier. I have a couple of questions:

Prevailing opinion seems to be that to not suitable for the typical surf sound. But the videos I'm seeing sound pretty drippy. What's the big difference between this and the fender, tone wise?

Are these inherently too noisy for gigging levels? I see reports of them humming, hissing and squealing. But is that just due to not being maintained and old (caps, tubes, etc)? This one has supposedly just been serviced by tech.

Would I be better off trying the mod of putting the amps reverb send into the normal channel on amp? I assume that just gives me the eq options of the channel rather than really changing the qualities of the reverb.

Guitarist for Black Valley Moon & Down By Law

Goto Page: Previous 1 2
Top