Fender '64 Vibroverb Custom

2003 Vibroverb Custom.Tone wise it can pretty much cover all sorts.Very powerful.All i need!40 or 50 watts,Diaz mod,2 channels,reverb,vibrato,volume,treble,bass,and bright switch,15" speaker.Same as original,except for the modifications.

I use a couple of different strats with this amp.One has Texas Specials,and the other has Vintage Reissues (60's) not near as hot.This amp suits me perfect,for i love Blues and so does this amp.This thing is dead quiet,thats always a plus.It has incredible headroom,you can plug straight into the amp,turn the volume to about 6 or 7 and you will understand why this amp is worth every dime!!Clear as a bell,even on 10 it just blew me away,i was shocked.I havent even really used the Diaz mod yet,i'm using my Maxon 0D808.I will get back to you about the mod later.

I've had this amp for a month or so ,time will tell.I have a couple of other fender tube)amps that were cheaper,no problems.So based on that i feel i can rate this accordingly.

Neverhad to deal with Fender.5 year waranty

I have played for 4 years.If it were stolen,i would have to hurt someone.I not crazy about the power cord,but i can deal with it.I've tried and heard alot of amps,in my opinion this thing will be hard to beat for the money!!!

See above reviews. All you really need to have in an amp is here.

I'm using a Fender Custom Shop Relic '60 Strat and a Gibson Les Paul Standard with this amp.

I play blues, modern rock, and classic rock with this amp and find it is versatile for all the styles I play.

I play through the channel with reverb and keep the bright switch on. I find with all fender amps that if you don't have the bright switch on it seems like the amp has no life. I set the volume on this amp to 4, treble - 4, bass, 5, reverb 2.5

When I first got this amp I found that it sounded incredibly bright for my tastes and no tweaking of the knobs would solve this but after a few weeks of playing it the speaker mellowed out.

I find that the diaz mod is useless - it is very noisy and bright so I just keep it on the stock setting. The selectable rectifier switch is a nice feature. The tube gives a nice compressed sound while the solid state rectifier gives a cleaner, slightly brighter sound.

My dad has a pretty large collection of old fender amps including:

59 Bassman
54 Twin
61 Bassman
64, 65 Super Reverb
65 Vibrolux Reverb
66 Pro Reverb

and many more...

I wanted to compare how the vibroverb sounded to these amps even though they are all voiced through a different speaker sizes.

I honestly feel that the vibroverb tone is extremely competetive with these old amps and better than most. My dad was very surprised with how good it sounded too. Fender got this one right.

Even though I couldn't compare it to an original vibroverb I was pleased to see how good it sounded compared to my dad's collection

When I first bought it the on/off switch was defective but was replaced at dealer. I hope that is the only problem.

It's been okay for the last 4 weeks.

N/A

Two things I don't like about this amp:

1) Diaz Mod - too bright and useless - I use a tubescreamer instead

2) Removable power cord - What a stupid spot for it to be located. It sticks out the back of the amp and could easily be bumped into or damaged by someone pushing the amp back against a wall. Fender should have done what it did on the Deluxe Reverb Reissue and hard wired it into the chassis.

Overall, it sounds fantastic but keep in mind it is a bit too trebly until the speaker is broken in.

One more thing - this thing is fucking loud! Don't let the wattage fool you!

2003 Vibroverb custom, two channels (non-switching), reverb and tremolo. 40-50 watts depending on how you set it up. This is your basic blackface Fender amp and for many of us this is as good as it gets. All handwired and point to point with a 15" speaker.

I use a strat, tele & a Les Paul into this amp and I am pleased with each of the sounds I get. I set the volume between 4-5 and the treble & bass on 6 and can get plenty of volume for big full chords, if you add the tube rectifier then the amp "sags" like you would expect. If you add the Diaz Mods the amp acts more like a tweed amp and breaks up earlier and has a sweeter overdrive. I really like the way this amp sounds, I can best describe it as think of a blackface deluxe reverb that has tons of headroom and volume and has a switch that turns it into a tweed deluxe at 50 watts! This is the best Fender amp I have played on in 25 years, I have owned a vibroking in the past and this amp is much better and more musical in my opinion.

I have to be honest here, when I picked the amp up at the store they had just unboxed it and immediately the amp was microphonic, I tapped on V2 and the "brand new Groove tube 12AX7" was ringing like crazy!! The store immediately replaced it with a brand that they carried and the amp worked great. Groove tube makes such an issue out of their testing of all the tubes before they are sold it seems like the system broke down in this case. This is not the fault of fender and the amp is working well and if it is like the blackface amps from the 60's it will be working for the next 40 years.

I don't know since I've never had to deal with Fender, But E. M. Shorts Guitar shop in Wichita, Ks is outstanding and they go the extra mile to make sure your happy with their products.

I've been playing for 30 years and have owned every amp ever made over the years and this is one of the best, I would replace it if stolen or lost.

2003 64 vibroverb custom. I have had the amp for about 4 weeks, have used it to play out 3 times. This amp is LOUD !! too loud to play it
full out in most clubs. I use a tubescreamer to get some grind at
acceptable volume levels, and it sounds great. I feel it nails the
SRV tone. I use only Strats, Tubescreamer,univibe & crybaby. Sounds
mighty fine to my ears.

This amp has a really nice sounding overdrive with the Diaz mod engaged. After about 4 1/2 on the volume knob is when its starts to really sound ballsey.
It has totally replaced my other road amp (Fender custom shop Bassbreaker) I love both amps to death but the vibroverb has a little more 'clarity '

I've only had this a little while so time will tell.
I do have one complant for Fender though...and this is true on
the last 3 fender amps I have purchased. It seems the volume level/knob has no effect until you reach about 3 then POW !! the level just jumps up.....

not yet

Overall a nice amp, but a little pricey, I think 1200 to 1300 would
have been a more user friendly price but hey if ya gotta have it ya gotta have it

New model probably made in 2003. Stock Vibroverb with Cesar Diaz mod. No channel switching. All tube, point to point, with option of mod and tube vs solid state rectifier both by toggle switch. 40 to 50 watts. This amp is not meant to be loaded with all kinds of extras ie. effects loop, channel swithing etc. but it would have been more versitile for a player to at least have the mod foot switchable.

Using a strat type guitar with Harmonic Design 54 special single coils. The stock vibroverb circuit is a bland Fender clean with too much brightness for my taste. Overall the amp seems too bright even with the mod engaged. This is that ice pick treble sound that some amps have. I calmed it down by laying a piece of heavy Marshall grill cloth over the top of the amp but it would probably be better served by changing out the speaker to a Weber or old JBL and some NOS preamp tubes. This amp gets around 85 percent of the SRV tone going on the way it is. The rest would have to be tweeked with a better speaker, NOS preamp tubes, changing the slope resistor, heavier grill cloth, Weber beam blockers etc. But the basic SRV vibe is there. My overall impression is that the amp is good at doing one thing and that is a very loud SRV tone. There is no master volume so you have to crank this thing to 10 in order to get that tone. Not recommended for the bedroom player unless you plan on using pedals and or an attenuator or ear plugs. But that defeats some of the purpose, doesn't it?

Looks fairly well made. Other Fender amps I have owned do have their problems from time to time. I suspect this amp is no different but I am not going to rate this because it is a new style and may take some time for any "bugs" to show up.

The warranty is supposed to be 5 years.

Been playing over 25 years. Have owned lots of Fenders, Boogies, Marshalls etc. This is a good place to start for the SRV tone if you can stand the volume. As usual, there is some hype here. The price tag of approx. $3000 is a little too high to yield just 85%. If you want to really nail that tone with this amp, plan on spending more money on the things I mentioned above. I borrowed this amp for 24 hours to try it out but I didn't buy it. Fender should have spent a little extra on better parts to make this amp worth what they are asking for it. Close but no cigar.

I am making this post to give some preliminary data on this new amp from Fender. I did NOT buy it and haven't decided whether I will or not. So with that in mind here is a preliminary review.

This is a new amp from Fender. It is a point to point wired non circuit board amp. According to fender it is the same circuit that was used in the original vibroverbs. The exception being the "Diaz" mods. These are accessed via a toggle switch in the rear of the amp. The mods are either in or out no variations.

The Diaz mods are: The normanl channel and the vibrato circuit are removed from the overall ciruitry of the amp. This creates a "gain" boost in the preamp. So in other words the amp has the extra power that these other features require to run. It is nothing like adding an extra gain stage via an extra preamp tube. See the sounds section for more.

The other mod this amp has in comparison to an "original" vibroverb is the ability to switch between a tube rectifier or a "diode" rectifier, as fender calls it.

The mods are supposedly the modifications that Cesar Diaz made to SRV's vibroluxes (sp?). I never met Stevie or saw his gear up close so I really don't know. According to Fender the way the switching is done for the Diaz mods the additonal circuitry is completly removed via a hard bypass when the mods are engaged. So the normal channnel and the vibrato do not function in the modded mode. Also the mods are not available via the provided two button footswitch. The switch controls reverb and vibrato.

This amp is a 40 watter of the non-master volume variety. I did not notice whether there was an FX loop. It does however have the ability to drive and extension cab, so long as the total impedance does not fall below four Ohms.

I really can't give a rating in this category. To ME this is a very versatile amp and has very good useable "features". Chances are if you are interested in this amp you know what you are considering. If you are looking for lots of bells and whistles ala mesa/boogie this is DEFINATELY not your bag.

I really liked the tone of this amp, both channels. I played a regular three single coil strat, a Suhr w/V60lp's, and a humbucker equipped guitar of the wall of the dealer.

Before I go any further I must state I am a hardcore anti-vintage gear guy. Briefly, this is because not every piece of vintage gear is worth owning and/or paying the kind of money that they fetch these days. I have played MANY vintage guitars and amps, and by far most of them are crap I wouldn't consider owning. A very few are worthy of the reverance that they get.

So with that said....

This amp does not have overly emphasized upper mid-range. The speaker is a 15" Eminence which I thought very worked well. On the whole this amp is to the bright side. With my Suhr strat I got great clean strat tones. I'm thinking Wayne Krantz's "Long To Be Loose" although, I wound want digital verb to really nail the Krantz thing. With the humbucker guitar on the normal channel I was able to coax useable authentic jazz tones. I did not play a hollowbody through it, but with a solid body think early 90's Pat Martino. I am sure that this amp would sound great cranked but, I really could not crank it in the store and if I did all the acoustics would have really negated the ability to fairly evaluate it. This amp is loud... way louder than you would ever be able to get in the average 75 - 100 seater. So if you like to have distortion/overdrive you will more than likely need a pedal of some sort.

So then, if you are vintage gear guy my guess is that you will probably find something to poo-poo this amp for. If you are someone looking for a well made, traditionally crafted amp and you are familiar with traditional fender tones you will really like this amp. I even think that heavy metal guys might like this as a clean amp in a multi-amp setup. If I were to purchase this amp I would use it for jazz and fusion type tones with my solid bodies, with either a barber od of some kind, or a second amp for dirty tones.

I am not a big reverb player so I really didn't do to much with it. I think traditional Fender applies though.

Again no rating here as I just intended for this to be a preliminary review. I will say this This amp is a fantastic value. I think the Bruno CT45 in a 1x15 format would be obviously better in an A/B comparison but it is a thousand dollars more. Other than Tony Bruno I don't really know who else is doing anything with blackface style circuits. I understand that Fender is pretty militant with their attorneys in keeping exact blackface knock offs from coming to market by anyone other than Fender. The Vibro-King gets that clean but not clean bluesy grit much easier than this amp even though is is twenty watts more powerful.

Unless you get a lemon, this amp should serve you well with proper maintanence. It does come with the standard 5 year fender warranty. It also comes with a schematic for DIY'ers or to provide to your service tech.

I have no direct experience in dealing with Fender.

For me this amp rates an 8 in this category a real solid value. I think a Bruno CT -45 would come out on top in a A/B shootout, particularly when pushed into heavy overdrive. The Bruno is half-again as expensive. So if you are looking for primarily clean to mildly overdriven tones and are willing to use a premium o/d unit you can save yourself eight hundred bucks or so.