Fender 75 Combo

The 3 volumes drove me crazy.( It has Master, volume and lead knobs.) The reverd IS good. It IS very loud. With a distortion pedal you can really **** **** up!!!! The 15" speaker is bullet proof

The only good thing was the reverb clean sound. I recently saw a guy w/ one of these in a bar in san francisco. The tyhing was loud and schrill. None of the fender tone we all love. This unit may have had old tubes or whatever but I gotta say it was not aging gracefully.

It allways turned on

I just sold mine to a guy who had suffered a theft. It is a tube fender combo you can find cheap. I used to add a second 15" speaker cab which seemed to soak up some of the power and made it sound better. try it.
.this is in fact a blackfaced fender amp but it sure is not a superstar like you would think. But it has a normal price and looks very cool. Weighs a ton!

What I do with my 75 combo with the chrome dome 12 inch speaker is run into the clean channel with an older Tube Driver, with the mid boost activated, and the power switched to 15 watts....works great for a blues sound with humbuckers, Fender single coils, and PRS soapbars

The amp can be noisy if you use the footswitch overdrive channel....think some of the caps might be dried up, but it sounds so good most of the time I'm not going to mess with anything.....still has the original tubes, as far as I can tell

has never broken down, I've had it about 12 years....bought it for 75 bucks from a guy who said he wanted to get it out of his basement, since he hadn't played in years....

I've been playing since about 1968, I guess....I have a Pignose and a couple of old solid-state practice amps....and a Micro Cube....and some computer stuff....but nothing has the tube tone of this old black Fender....I think the low power switch and the pull-boost function is what lets you get into the singing tube heaven realm. As other reviewers note, the thing is damned heavy, so I haven't taken it anywhere is years.....but it can't be beat for living room jamming!

I've owned it in the mid eighties for two and half year.
I bought it new. It had a lot of features, an overdrive channel like a boogie Mark 2 B. The sound pots had the capacity to boost it's range. It had a fx way, but you need a special y-adapter cable...bad.

The clean sound was ok, also the overdrive channel, but the first tube was microphonic. So I replaced it with a Groove tube, the first I had ever in my hands. But the power section was a piece of crab, really. every one or two month the main switch failed. This was because the input current rush of the transformer was so high, it burns the main switch. Also the sreen grid resistors were too small. They burned out, so the power tubes start to glow red and failed. So I had to solder new resistors with a higher wattage, really bad.
So I sold the amp. When I bouth the amp I had also the possibility to buy a Marshall 50W Combo with a external 2x12" Box, but I didn't bought it. I bought the Fender 75 Combo. This was a bad decission of me, really. Now that type of Marshall would be now very collectable and high priced, but that's life.

Bad, see above.

I had never delt with Fender.

Sounds ok, durability bad.

My 75 is one of the first production models, 1980 or 1981. I bough it new in Santa Ana, CA. Prior to the 75 I was using a modified silver-face twin and a Mesa Boogie MKII. Can use it for everything I used those two for. It is very simple two-channel casecaded pre-amp with master volume and with some fiddling you can get the right volume out of "clean" and "sceam" set-ups. Has bass/mid/treble tone controls, each with an active boost switch, which gives some range of control and a serious amount of overdrive capability. The effects loop works with some old gear but I've had trouble using it with more modern stuff. This thing can go blazingly loud: I used to use an external cab (4x12 JBL and/or 2x15 JBL) for outdoors or large venues (withotu miking it up). I really haven't seen a "real" amp that is more versatile. You have to go DSP to get more flexibility.
Never thought about it, but without the foot switch you're screwed - there are no front panel controls for channel switching or reverb. Good news is the FS is simple if you need to build your own.

Classic Fender tube amp clean with a gritty dirty tone that is like a Boogie in a bad mood. Compared to my MKII Boogie, the 75 has more edge: where the boogie gets smooth the Fender has more edge, and where the Mesa wails, the 75 gets plane nasty. I can get similar tones to the Boogie (and most people can't tell by listening when I switched. The "clean" sound is more like my old Twin Reverb. It has the classic fender tone. The Reverb is pure Fender spring. My Twin had been modified with the two preamps cascaded and had a master volume (a popular mod in those days) which made it good for clean to blues-dirty, but I needed the boogie for that classic over-drive, sustain for ever tone. With the 75 I get both in one that is pretty easy to manage. To be fair, this sucker is what I'm used to (had it 25+ years) and every other amp I hear is compared to it, so keep that in mind.

Bought it new. Havne't blown it up once since then. Never left me quiet on stage or in the studio (more than I can say for my old Showman!). Gig'd it all over the place for a couple years until I quit doing that. Would not hesitate to take it OTR and like the compactness. It does weigh a ton! Only ever done routine servicing: clean the pots now and again (maybe twice in 25 years), and changed power tubes. You will wear out power tubes in a tube amp. Haven't changed caps, pots or switches so far. Gotta say "10" because I haven't had to screw with it.

Haven't dealt with Fender in 25 years, so any experience I may have is obsolete. That says something for the Amp, if nothing useful about customer support.

I've been playing dam near foreever, something like 40 years now. I have a Line-6 POD for practice and recording, With the Fender 75 I use a Morley power wah and DoD chorus (both the same vintage as the 75).
If someone stole this amp I'd try to find another, or get another Boogie if I couldn't (after tracking down the varmit...).
Love the tone. Hate lugging it around but it's easier than the old Showman was!
Back in "the day" played whatever there was, haven't shopped around much since then. Probably lots of great stuff out there.
Fender used to make a 1x12" expansion cab for it I wish I had. Used to have one and the 2x12 sound was great for Jazz. Wish I had one.
When I bought it I got a good deal 'cause I had a friend at Fender, I think retail was $500 or $600. In those days a new basic Boogie was about the same as I recall.
If you can lay hands on one, it's a unique sound that is "a lot like" several other amps of it's day but definitely a unique personality.

Made in the early 80's..Great amp! Love it...

Very clean with power!

Super..Never had a problem

No experience here

This is a great amp. Heavy. I put wheels on it. Buy one!

Don't know the year. Haven't learned to adjust it properly. Play 60's & 70's blues rock (Beck, Clapton, Page, Lee, Blackmore) 2 channels. Switches by a pedal. Effect loop.

Enough knobs for me. Use it for recording and rehearsing. Eventually some covergigs...

ALL TUBE

Lead - hard to get a good sound! Please give me some tips fellas! That's the reason for the 6.

Clean - always nice!

Dependable. Trusty.

No opinion.

Good, but would be better if I knew how to get a good lead sound. Reminds me of the VOX AC30 going 110%.

The features of this amp are an ongoing mystery. the push-pull boost and footswitchable channels give it a wide range of sounds. The lead channel howevr will not function with out the footswitch, if you have no footswitch your only using half of this amp, footswitch is a must!

The clean on this amp is very clean, very loud, compraible to the Super Twim with just as much power. To dirty it up is a challenge but it can be done, took me many times to break this beast up, but it will do it. there is a bit of presence noise when dirtyed up at higher volumes, I mostly play Blues so this is not a problem for me.

I have only owned this paticular amp for couple years, did have it retubed biased and repaired speaker cobe, this brought this amp back to life with incredible performance, was well worth the money. use it 4 to 6 times a month with great dependability. one thing, this amp is extremely heavy, with electro voice speaker it weights in at close to 80 lbs, not a pleasure to transport but worth the extra effort.

the ony repairs or service I`ve had done was done by my amp Dr. who is very capable check him out unclespot.com for your tube amp needs.

over all I would rate this at a 8+ couple draw backs, the weight, real clean, not that dirty. what I do occasionally is slave my Blued Junior to it and use the Jr. to dirty it up, works real well and adds huge sustain. would replace it if necessary but these are getting hard to find and the price is moving up, if you can find one for less than 500.0, buy it.

My particular Fender 75 was manufactured in 1980 (serial number starts F0). It is a 75 watt dual channel, foot-switchable valve amp running a single 15" Fender Special Design speaker. The amp, as aforementioned, has two channels, "clean" and "lead." There is a bright switch and pull boosts on all three eq's, treble, middle, and bass. There is also a "lead" pot which amounts to a gain knob. There is also a seperate volume for the lead, reverb, and an over-all, master, volume. The amp is also switchable from 30? to 75 watts. Amp also has many other "standard" features: ground bias, line out, standby, etc. The amp is very versatile in terms of its power. It can be rather quiet while retaining responsiveness and really bark if it is called for. Although I wish that Fender had chosen to run 75 watts through four 6L6GCs instead of two.

The Fender 75 has a unique sound. It maintains much of the headroom associated with Fender blackface era amps but offers an attempt to couple that with a dual channel, switchable amplifier. It is considered a Rivera era Fender, being that Paul Rivera was heading much of the R and D for Fender at that time. It is all handwired and is considered to be an attempt to compete with the market offerings of Mesa/Boogie at the time. A good sound can be coaxed from the 75 from a variety of guitars and settings. I say coaxed because I mean it. It takes some time a knob turning to find a good sound. This may be due to the ultralinear design (volume for clean channel runs into lead and lead volume which runs into the master, etc.) but offers for a unique sounding amp. Using a G&L Legacy and employing the clean channel one can get get a decent blues tone with a touch of clip. The power selector switch also adjusts the amout of clip and the headroom and can be used to get a more percussive snappy sound if desired. The reverb is decent, not quality of early reverbs, but acceptable. Reverb is tube driven by 12AT7s. There have been a few complaints about the lead channel on this amp. While it is definately not the best design for a lead channel, it affords some very interesting and rewarding timbres. The pull boosts on the eqs also help. I have found that the Fender 75 sounds quite desirable using a Gibson les paul with the first volume set just below 4, the treble at about 6.5, mid just above 4 (with boost engaged), bass at 5, lead at 7.5, lead master at 8, and the master volume set at desired over all volume. There is a sweet spot using the master at around 5. Using the mid boost seems to really add extra drive and seems to tighten up what would normally be flabby bass from the overly taxed (75 watts) two 6L6GCs. The lead channel sound in this setting is a very woody, gritty but airy kind of tone. I did replace the tubes that were in it when I bought it with Ruby tubes 6L6GC STRs and ECC83s and two Fender 12AT7s for the tube drive. I am very happy with the sounds of Ruby tubes.

I haven't gigged it yet or logged enough hours to give an accurate judgement.

I haven't dealth with Fender for customer support.

It is a unique piece of Fender history. Its tone is worth the purchase because nothing with sound like a Fender 75. It is also neat to note that this was really the first dual channel, foot-switchable amp offered by Fender. Not to mention the noteriety of Paul Rivera's designs and Fender resorting to stamped circuits in 1983.

I think my amp is from 78. All the features are mentioned.

It's great for all Fender type guitars. I almost used it with Jazz guitars (ES-175, ES-335) and it's perfect for that style.
I don't like the distortion sounds. If you want distortion, play a Marshall. Or combine it with a tube screamer type overdrive. But this is a great amp for all kinds of clean sound.

Had some problems with the optio switch. Made it with the local dealer. Changed tubes once in 27 years.

Never contacted.

It's a great amp for a big clean sound. That's what it is. If you are looking for that you are right. It's not an amp for all sounds. Big, fat and warm clean sound. I love it! Perhaps you must be a jazzman to do so.
I'm playing jazz and rock for about 30 years as a non-professional. Had great gigs with that amp. Never let me down.

I read somewhere that this amp doesnt sound the same without the footswitch..that it effects the tone even when not switched. That may be a differentiating factor in different reviews.. it is called a rivera model switch and a replacement can be found at http://www.pharaohamps.com/
Its called a "switcher 2"