Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb

Classic fender options

It??s a great sounding amp for medium clubs. The clean sound is just what I want from a fender amp. I play a fender strat and a fender tele. This amp works well whith single coils and responds the way I like it.
This amp has a hiss and I don??t recommend it for home practise.
Reverb?? Even if you turn the nob to 10 it doesn??t respond at all.
Breaks up around 3-4 and gets loud too soon for my use.

To make it short. It??s a nice amp for those who want to play whith a cranked up amp. This amp breaks up too soom for my taste and the hiss is a problem in a studio.

I sold it and bought a -76 pro reverb. My back don??t like it but the sound of a SF point to point amp suites me better.

I love the reverb and tremolo. I DO NOT like the Normal/Bright input section. Why not just have a bright switch and use the extra space for some mid control? It looks like a cool retro touch, but not practical.

BRILLIANT. It really responds to the input signal. Very interactive, clean, biting, whatever. A real Fender tube amp.

Straight up, no Frills Tube Amp! Two channels, no switching. Plenty of Power! Gave it a 9 because 'no frills' is what I wanted!

Playing a 60th Anniversary Standard Strat with EMG David Gilmour SA Pro rig into Boss ME-50 into CVR amp.

Yes, it has a measure of 'white noise', but I expected it to because I read most all the reviews and I knew it was comin'. However, the 'white noise \ hiss' doesn't bother me at all because I don't hear it except when I'm not strummin; even at lower volumes.

Has the classic Fender Tube Sound that I personally love the best and gets loud pretty fast (though not as fast on the volume pot as the Hotrod series). I can actually turn this up to 2-4 in the house (if no ones home). *The HR Deluxe I couldn't get it to 1!

Mostly play at home, occasionally at Church. This amp will hold its own most anywhere (could be miked for larger venues).

Sounds great right out of the box. I got it off of Ebay as new 'Scratch & Dent' from a fender dealer. Cant find any scratches or dents at all! Good deal!

This amp stays clean at lower volumes (1-3 to 4) begins to break up around 4 and up. Of course, I can't take it that loud in the house! I use the ME 50 to give me breakup at lower volumes. The two work together very well. Doesn't have Effects loop, but I've never been able to use one to my audio advantage anyway. Other reviewers said the amp was 'pedal friendly' and I believe they are right.

I've had many, many Fender amps and have only had to have two taken in for repairs. One was a Solid State Champ 30 which quit working when I got it home (ie, my 1st Fender Amp), the other was a Fender HR Deluxe which blew a Power Tube the first week and the shop guy said to put it through the amp shop to make sure no other problems.

n\a - However, I have called Fender several times over the last years to ask questions about guitars and amps, etc... I always get the help I need.

Great Tube Amp. I'm a Fender Dude 100%. Have owned many other amps over the years both S. State and Tube. The Tube wins out every time. The only other brand of Tube amp that I fell head over heels in love with was a Carvin Vintage 16. That's an incredible amp! But Fender fills the bill here!

New "custom" Vibrolux Reverb 2005 all tube

My main guitar is early eighties 57 Strat reissue with Duncan vintage strat pickups. This amp sounded really good at the store but at gigs it broke up way to soon. If your miking this won't be a problem. The tone was good but not OMFG. I set about to remedy the situation. The first thing I did was put in ceramic tone tubby 10's. Yes, I know the Alnico ones are the ticket but I wanted the extra efficiency of the ceramics. The difference was huge. The tone was vastly improved. The jensen alnicos it came with are a joke. Garbage. Next I put in an output transformer and choke from Mercury Magnetics. This gave it another nice improvement. The amp now sounds delicious, can "cut" through the drums. it is really loud with excellent touch sensitivity .These improvements ain't cheap @$450.00 but I got a good deal on the amp which you should be able to find as well. Stock its an ok amp but if you want to go the tuner route as I did you can get an amp that rivals the boutique amps for half as much.

no problems so far.

I would rate it a 5 before the mods, a 9 after

The amp is "fender-simple". Four inputs total and two channels non-switchable (normal and bright), plus reverb and tremolo in both channels. Two 6L6's for power, and 5 12AX7 and one 12AT7. It is a 2x10" speaker configuration and mine came with Eminence Blue Alnico speakers. Controls include volume, bass and treble in both channels. The type of circuitry in this ampilfier is reminiscent of Fender Bassman-style amps where channles can be jumpered for greater tonal versatility. I rate high in versatility because though it does not have 3 channnels and other bells and whistles, it is transparent enough to fit any playing style (even metal with the right distortion pedal) and suits any guitar.

It is a ver classic-type Fender sound. The amp loves to distort and at 40Watts it is loud! Past 3 o'clock the beautiful creamy tube distortion Fender is famous for starts to come in. It is nice to jump both channels to control the EQ and level of brightness in the distortion.
I use a Gibson Les Paul Junior Special, an Epiphone Les Paul Custom, an Electra Omega, and a Cort Beck 6. Each guitar has its unique voice through the CVR, and the tones and amount of distortion can be controlled using the volume know in the guitar. Amps liek these are no plug-and-play. It offers an amp[lified version of your playing abilities, so if your attack and control suck, the sound is going to suck. This amp "forces" you to engage in better guitar playing and improving your chops, so in that sense it is inspirational.
I plug my guitars into a HAO Sole Pressure, A Keeley-Modified BD-2, a DOD FX-69 ("Grunge"), a DOD Stereo Chorus and a Danelectro Fish n Chips EQ. All distortion pedals sound great through it, and the chorus is amazing when plugged into this amp. Lush and rich harmonics, great seering distortion sounds, light twang clipping, and any other sound you can dream of has come out of this amp and my pedals.

Never a problem. Still has the original tubes after 6 years (though i will be repalcing the m soon)!

Never needed!

Great amp and part of my collection which includes a '65 Fender Twin and a 1965 Fender Bassman head.

I think my amp is a '95/'96 - it's got the "Fender 50th anniversary" sticker on it- I haven't actually tracked the serial # as it doesn't really make much difference to me. It came with the Emminence "blue frame" 10's which I have switched out to Weber "signature" 10's(alnico 20 watt 8 ohm). I own several other tube amps, so the lack or additon of features don't affect me except that if one amp doesn't have something I need for a specific gig, I'll use another amp that does. That being said, this amps features are usually enough to get me by. The lack of midrange control doesn't bother me, and the reverb and tremelo ( not vibrato! ) are very nice sounding.

I play all types of guitars/pickups (single coils-strat, tele, dynasonic and P90 - alnico and ceramic, as well as humbuckers- alnico and ceramic, passive only ). I prefer this amp with single coil pickups. Humbuckers tend to get dirty a little too soon for my liking and given the control layout on my humbucker equiped guitars ( standard 4 knob ) it makes it a little daunting to get the controls just where I want them-too much fiddling around. I've never had the hissing problem that so many folks seem to have with this amp. It just isn't an issue either live or in the studio. This amp goes from clean to raunchy (that's a good thing ;-)...) with the twist of the guitars volume control and or light/heavy picking. Very touch sensitive and dynamic. I recently did a gig with a lap steel through this amp and it sounded amazing!

I've been using it for a year without problems. I use it on gigs all the time-never with a backup(carry two amps? what are you kiddin' me?) If it wasn't reliable, Ijust wouldn't use it period!

I've been playing gigs for 25 years, and this amp is truly a keeper. I would definately want to replace it if it were "lost"(huh?) or stolen. I also own a: Fender Priceton Reverb II, Fender Blues Deluxe, Fender M-80, Danelectro NiftyFifty, Homebuilt 5F1(all tube champ circuit) several speaker cabs. with Celestion, EV, Fender "special design", and Emminence speakers. Though the "CVR" isn't the best at everything, it is a great combination of excellent sound that covers a lot of ground, moderate power(easily handles club gigs) and good portability (40lbs is on the high side of what I like to lug around but it's worth it for the sound of this amp).

silver face 68-70 model 35 watt originl parts and condition i play blues with a 73 strat although i have played most types of music with it' versitile as it is '

single coil strats seem to blend well with this amp ;clean and warm
sounds coming from its two 10; fender designed speakers and spring reverb , nice creamy sustain can be achieved by turn volume up over 8

i have owned this amp since 1973 and have gig it off and on up until this day . with out any service or repair apart from valve change of course.

n/a

ihave been playing for 33 years and also use fender twin 80s red knob
blues deville laney pro tube 65 baldwin vibroslim guitar
i have never come across such a sweet sounding amp although a bit weighty for its size . far in front of marshall orange vox etc at this time, and still pretty hard to beat today

This amp has limited features and I added a couple that i'll address later. The amp stands on it's own just fine though. It is not the most versatile amp on the market but that's what effects pedals are for and this amp love's most pedals I have tried with it and in that way it become's very versatile because it has a great basic tube amp tone that you can build most anything on. It is a two channel amp but it is not channel switching without an A/B box. The tone controls are independent however so with a box it's no problem. Channel one is just a basic channel with volume, treble, bass and two inputs, hi/low. This channel has more gain than channel two and can be easily modded to scream. Channel two has volume, trebel, bass, reverb, and tremelo (speed and intensity). It is a great tube driven tremelo that I never use. This amp is the LOUDEST 40 watt amp I have ever heard. It easily keeps up with my 60w Marshall and since I changed the speakers it will kill it.
Now for the other features... I had a friend who know's how to really tweak an amp work on it for me, he is an "Admiral" in the guitar navy... anyway, he fixed the reverb so that it only works in channel two. That may sound like a step backwards but in doing this it also makes the reverb DEEP, very deep and just wonderful. The stock reverb is just ok, but nothing to talk about. He also added a negative feedback loop switch to the back plate, maybe something else too, I don't know exactly, but it basically switches the sound of the amp between the Vibroverb and the Vibrolux sound. It is a discreet difference but I like it. He also set the amp up with 6L6GC tubes instead of the stock 5881s. This will give the amp a more classic blackface Fender tone. I changed the speakers and this was the biggest change in the total sound of the amp. I removed the stock alnico blues out for a pair of Weber C10Qs. This gave the amp an immediate significant volume boost and it also made the bass much mo betta'. With the blues I had to keep the bass at 12:00 or less or it would get all muddy and crap but with the C10Qs I can turn the bass all the way up and the volume too...and it will handle it well. I did lose some of the SRV kinda vibe that the amp had with the stock speakers. I mean the Webers are cleaner. I have not decided if I like this or not and I have the amp and the old speakers sitting out in the floor here, thinking about switching them back just to see/hear. or maybe switching one of them back. I guess sometimes you lose one thing when you gain another.
One more thing about this amp... It don't play quiet AT ALL... it has no low volume setting at all. Quiet is loud with this amp, so if you need an amp that you can play really quiet and really loud...this ain't it, unless, of course, you plug into a pedal first. Then you can turn the amp up a little and the pedal down but then you are going to hear the pedal tone instead of the amp tone. This was the second good amp I bought and i'll alway's keep, because it's a keeper.

I use Stratocasters almost all the time. Besides a couple of Strats I have a Suhr 2001LE, a LP, a Telefaker, and several others. They all sound good through this amp because it's a good amp.
As I said, with the right pedals and effects you can make this amp suit most any style because it has such a great tone to begin with. The amp is very quiet as tube amps go. On it's on it has a classic blackface Fender amp sound and stock it really has a great SRV vibe to it and stock it has very little headroom as it begins to overdrive before you get to three on the volume...it's a good thing though. If you need more headroom, change the speakers or buy a 2x10 or a 2x12 cab and put cleaner speakers in it and just plug the amp into it if you need to. BTW, the minimum ohm load for the amp is 2ohms so you can use most any speaker cab with it if you watch what you're doing.

It's a Fender. It's a Fender tube amp. All tube amps need service and stuff but mine has never let me down. It is well made.

I have no idea but I find that most companies give good customer service and since Fender has been around for over 50 years I think we would all know it if they has poor customer service. This is Fender...not UPS.

I think a lot of this amp and whenever anyone hears it they comment on how good it sounds. Then again they say that tone is in the fingers so... J/K

It is a beautiful sounding amp with tons of potential. Basic blackface Fender with a little more aggression than some. Sweet but hot. I love it!

We all know the classic fender layout and features. The 'Lux lacks a mid control.

This thing was downright crappy. I say was because I got rid of it already. It was treble harsh, goes from no bass to too much bass and sounds like a cheap distortion pedal is always on. Don't buy this thing! It doesn't sound like the original. The '65 Deluxe Reverb and '65 Super Reverb are both far superior amps, they actually sound good and can do the same job. The only useable sounds I could get from the amp was with neck pickups, and this is a problem if you like to play Les Pual Jr. type guitars w/ only a bridge pickup. The amp's volume knob is worthless, the damn thing goes from not on to loud. I love Fender amps; I own several, vintage and new reissues, but this damn thing sounds like the cheap Crate solid state amp I played as a kid. It sure doesn't have any classic blackface tone. Fender, please take this thing off the market or fix it. And I've tried others and they all sound like this, it wasn't just mine.

It always worked, at least.

Don't know, luckily my local music store is great in the service department!

This thing sounds horrible. Don't buy it! The '65 Super Reverb is great if you want headroom and the '65 Deluxe is the way to go for a small club amp.

I have owned this amp since 1999. The vibrato and reverb sounds are unbeatable. The 40 watts is more than loud enough for club gigs.

I originally wanted a Twin, but went for the Vibrolux to a couple hundred bucks. If money was no object, I would still get the Vibrolux. Very similar tone, but much lighter to carry. I play a tele, strat and Les Paul. All sound great through this amp, so it is very versatile. Volume 2 is enough for band mates to cry turn it down. Anyhing past vol 4 is muddy, but way to loud to be an issue.

Sounds great with pedals...especially the tube screamer ( Keeley modified).

6 years of great service with no problems yet.

Never had to deal with customer support.

I have been playing about 22 years. The Vibrolux is my main amp and I have played mostly Fenders over the years . If stolen I would get another one. It is a classic. I also have a Line 6 Spider II practice amp, but I have been looking seriuosly at the Dr Z Mazerati combo which will be next my big next purchase. Nice mix of Vox / Marshall/Fender tones. Mmm.