Fender '63 Reverb (Reissue)

Standard 60s Fender

Great "Fender Clean" / great dynamics / bias vary tremelo / excellent verb / Fender standard circuit noise / Using it for oranic overdrive is a loser

Logged many hours - no problems

Not produced for many years - but it's a Fender so many competent repair people are out there

I've owned many (20-30) Amplifiers since 1966 this is my favorite.
Sounds great with a my Teles or any of my Archtops just strait in. I've got a couple of multi effect units and it works great to "round off" the modeling sound. It has great "lean on it" dynamics. Super sweet tone. Great harmonic preservation.

I retubed with sovteks and it made a big difference. If your looking for a higain overdrive sound, get something else. The distortion sounds of the multieffect units sound great through it but this version of the vibroverb itself doesn't "dirty up" very well. This reissue has a solid state rectifier and sounds like it.

The reverb and tremelo are fantastic. Because it is a "bias vary" design the tremelo is on both channels. The non reverb input works well on my stereo guitars for the acoustic pickup.

Very good, extended bottom end for 2-10s. The one I have has the stock Oxfords but some folks love Webers in these.

Great tone not too frickin' heavy. I love this thing.

I would give this unit a 10 in ease of use but for more complex set ups problems arise.

I use this unit on my Pevey 5150 because it is the only amp i have that dose not have built in reveb. I love the way it makes that amps sound when it works correctly. I only use it in the effects loop and it tends decress the volume and alter the tone a bit, but i have solved the problem by using a Grapic E.Q. When i first bought this unit it worked great then after about 6 mounths it started to carp out. So i just did not use that for awile. Then i wanted to have that sound again and adressed the problem. Come to find out that puting the EQ in front of the unit was over driving it enough to make it not work. I just replaced the tubes and put the boost after the reverb and it has worked great ever since. I even put back in my original tubes and it works just as good. When i run it with multiple amps at ten i get no problems. This is the second best reverb unit i have ever herd for under $1000. The original sounded better. (or at least the one i tried)

This thing looks like it was made well?? But, before i gave the money for it at my local music shop i tried it out and it did not work any more. So they fixed it and i played on it then i bought it figering any problems that it may have had were gone now. I would also like to metion because it was fixed it did not have crapy tubes in it anymore :) (Read Sound Quality for what those poblems were) For quite some time now it works great and i have put this thing through hell.

Never had to deal with them my local music store always helps me.

For the price i paid i love it i would buy it agin if it were stolen, unless i could get the money for a Matchless RV-1 Reverb witch gose for around $1300 or a Soldano Surf Box Spring Reverb/Tremomo/Vibrato witch gose for $3000. I herd the Kendrick unit was good too but i have never herd one. This unit makes the 5150 clean channal tolerable, witch is a big inprovement from you don't have a clean. I tried countless other digital effects and i always ended up selling or taking them back. Overall, for 400 bucks and easy to find it is a great unit for what I need it to accomplish.

Definitely easy to use. I hate digital units because they have a hundred pre-sets & a dozen knobs.

I use my two different ways. One way is in the effects loop of my Matchless HC30. The second way is between my guitar and front end of my Germino Lead 55. It has a tendency in both cases to soften the top end slightly, which I dig especially on the Matchless. The sound quality is very good, very much like a Fender amp.

This is where I am majorly disappointed. I've owned two of these. The first one I bought used. It worked fine for six months (I gig about 50 dates a year) then it stopped working properly - you would have to turn the dwell & mix all the way to 10 to even get any reverb. I took it to a reliable repair shop, cost me $100 to fix it. Another six months later, it did the same &*!@#$ thing. I sold it as is on EBAY and bought a brand new one. I've had this one maybe a year and now it's screwing up - it you giggle the input 1/4" plug the reverb cuts in and out. Reliability in my experience is zero. I'm looking for a better unit. I had also previously used a Peavey Valverb. It sounded almost as good as the Fender, but I also had to have it repaired once and the springs would feedback from my speakers at gig volume no matter how much I tried to insulate it. I really take good care of my gear and rarely have problems with it other than these reverb units!

I'm going to find out if my new unit is under warranty but you know what who wants to have to fix something once or twice a year!?

Won't buy another one. Please email me if you have other units that sound great and are very reliable!

This is a fairly simple effect to use. Three knobs: Blend (direct signal vs. reverb level); Dwell (how long do you want the reverb to linger?) and Tone.

Aside from the printed circuit board, this appears to be a very faithful reissue. To get the best, most authentic tone out of it, it is essential to 1.) replace the crappy Chinese-made Fender brand tubes with New Old Stock American tubes and 2.) Swap the 6V6GT for a NOS 6K6GT (like the originals had). It comes with the 6V6 because no one makes 6K6's anymore, but they're easy to find and cheap (check out www.tubesandmore.com). Prior to retubing it sounded pretty good, but kind of muddy. After dropping in the "good" tubes, WOW! Whatta reverb! You can get perfectly clear crisp reverb, but you gotta replace the tubes! You can dial in just a touch of splash to add sustain and "air," or set it all the way up to Dick Dale surf heaven. Curiously, it seems to reduce the amp's clean headroom just a tad, too, which is good!

No problems so far and it's 8 years old.

N/A

I bought it to couple with my reverb-less Vox, but it sounds even better with my tweed Fender Pro Junior (w/alnico speaker). Man oh man, this is the ONLY reverb to own!! This is the reverb that all others are judged by!!

Fairly easy.
Also a bit too easy to over indulge yourself in a bath of dripping reverb....Tweak with care...

I use a PTP bassman clone with 2 x 12" alnico speakers but I did this test with my small SS Fender Bronco (tweed) and a Strat with vintage-sounding P/Us.

Read below...

Not the best, not the worst. I don't like PCB but I guess it does its job...
It has worked fine so far, but I am a gentle camper.

no idea

The stock sound was fine but not what I expected from such a expensive item ( or at least, here in Europe ).
I took a look inside and inside there was a neat-ish PCB job. Not the best, but decent enough the thing is that I chnaged the two pre-amp valves for some NOS stuff.
Basically I changed the GT-12AX7 for a General Electric JAN 5751 and the GT-12AT/ for a Philips JAN 12AT7WC.

Massive improvement as the harsh response went traded in for a nice finer tone. I can't wait until I put my Sylvania 6K6 instead of the nasty 6V6 from Grove Tubes...

Do the same and get real !!!!

The sound before modifications is decent. Some people may like the sound of el cheapo tubes and speakers, but they had to go. Fender should have spent a few extra bucks to do this right. This amp with modifications sounds great!! You can get the classic clean Fender sound and the tubes will over drive aroun 6. The 40w can make it over a drummer, so small clubs are not a problem. I play mostly classic rock and blues. If you have a Vibroverb reissue, do your self a favor, buy the $33 Jensen speakers, it's worth it. This amp stock, has a sound rating (IMO) of 6, with mods it has a 9.

The Reissue 63 Vibroverb, brown tolex, wheat grill cloth, looks great.
Normal and bright channels, 40w, 2 6L6GC's and 6 12AX7's, through 2 10" speakers. No channel switching, vibrato and reverb on the Bright channel...
When I first plugged it it I though, well, at least it looks good, because the sound was horrible. Then, after I replaced the tubes,(2 NOS RCA 6L6's, a 12AT7 in the vibrato socket, and RCA 12AX7's) the amp had a little bit of character, but still the low end and high end were not a great sound. I connected 2 of the speakers from my '68 Fender Super Reverb to the Vibroverb, now, there is the sound I was expecting. So the next day I ordered 2 Jensen C10Q 10" reissue speakers from Weber. When I replaced the Oxfords with the Jensens it was like night and day.

Only time will tell....

Haven't tried....

I have been playing for 20 years (damn I'm getting old). I have a '68 Fender Super Reverb, a '94 Lone Star Stratocaster, a '93 Strat, a '84 Strat Plus and a '77 Strat. The modified Vibroverb is a welcomed addition to my collection. I admit, it does not have the punch and not quite the warmness of the Super Reverb, but to call the modified Vibroverb a mini-Super Reverb is about right.
I wish it had a tube retifier instead of the Solid State rectifier. Overall the Stock Vibroverb would get a 6 or 7, my modifications have pushed it up to 10.

Three controls - depth which is how much signal is passed to the reverb, mixer which controls the amount of reverb and tone which affects the reverb only (not the dry signal). On/off footswith supplied.

There's no hum at all using the reverb between guitar and amp (Fender's recommended position). The depth and quality of reverb available is amazing - much better than that found on pretty much any amp I've heard. As well as the Dick Dale surf sound the unit can also produce shorter reverbs of very high quality. Slap back effects are no problem - just increase the depth control.
One thing - it's best used into a clean or nearly clean amp. Passing the guitar through the reverb then a cranked preamp is more than a little weird (unless you like distorted reverb).
The valves in the unit do affest the amp tone a little - if anything I prefer the amp with the reverb on. For some reason it seems to make a valve amp a little more more responsive.
Problems? Only one really - if it gets knocked, even a little, there's an almighty crash, so it really needs to be stood on something solid. And it can feedback if put directly in front of (very) loud speakers.

I've been gigging with it for over a year with no backup unit (apart from the reverb on my Marshall which IO no longer find a need for). No reliability problems at all.

No idea of quality of customer support - I've never had a problem with Fender gear.

If anything happened to this reverb I'd buy another without a second thought. It manages to make everything sound much more classy than the transistor reverbs in most amps.

Quite simple.Has volume,mixer and tone controls.All tube driven A/C powered. Housed in a Tolex (white.brown or black,tweed is extra) cabinet with controls top mounted.Uses printed cicuit board unlike originals.Includes footswitch for reverb kill.Looks cool, like a little head.

Not too noisy but adds a little bit.The sound is amazing. I hear the old ones are even better, but I don't know how. The obvious sound that these are greatfor is surf music, but so much more is possible.I don't understand how anyone can use digital reverb when all tube driven spring reverb is so much better.I play classic pop with Beatles,Byrds, Zomies etc, infloence and it just doesn't get better than this when I need reverb.

I would depend on it. It is probably warranted by Fender. The only thing I could imagine going wrong is a bad tube which is very simple to replace.

Fender will help as much as possible I would imagine, but I have dealt with them concerning purchases or technical support.

I'd buy it again without a second thought. The only thing I wish it had is tremolo and/or vibrato, but a good trem pedal will suffice. Absolutely the best for surf tones with a Fender guitar and amp. Excellent sound,excellent quality makes this unit a major winner. Did I mention they look cool too? Mine's white with maroon grill cloth and white knobs.