Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb

It is a 2002, with the Jensen P10Rs, 6L6, preamp tubes, blah. Everyone knows the features of the amp. If not, just read all the previous reviews.

It has reverb and tremelo on both channels so I mostly use the normal mode. There is a bright channel, too, of course. The amp has no Negative Feedback Loop so you may quiver at the potentiality for hiss--not to mention, there is a 12AX7 in the PI slot of the amp, but this is intentional. Early breakup is the name here. I don't rate amps features beyond what they do for me. For me, I wanted an amp to go with my Fender Jazzmaster that would break up early and give off tone slightly closer to the early Fender tweed and brown tone (not traditional Blackface), so this amp met everything I expected from an amp. Though, I don't think the amp is for everyone, and surely isn't versatile for a lot of players striving for clean or heavy gainy tones, either. It's good but not divine for all.

Oh, where do I begin... I think many complain about hiss. And while I must agree with some that there is an audible hiss, it is in no way apparent when you're playing. In fact, the hiss is not even that bad. Some people just wince at the slightest bit of noise and this amp has it. Remember, there is no NFbL so you're going to have some hiss. Not to mention, the 12AX7 in the PI slot will add gain and some noise, too.

I usually set the amp around 4-4.5 with the treble at 3 and the bass at 4. I use the reverb at 4, as it is not very deep like the other "vintage designed" fender tube amps. You don't really notice it until about 3 on the knob.

Aside from tone, the tremelo is absolutely stunning on this amp, as well. It is not like the traditional BF tremelo that is thinner and more choppy (like a distant helicopter). With the inensity set to the max (where I always have it), you get a thick, chewy sounding tremelo that is very brownish to my ears--I owned a '62 Concert (harmonic vibrato) and the tone is similar.

It is a brightly voiced amp, though, the midrange focus makes the tone a little sweeter than the DRRI or Twin Rev. I prefer this amp because I feel like my sound is never dull or lost in the mix. I have just enough brightness that is not shrill sounding or ice picky (though, if you crank the treble, this will happen) and that is perfect for me. I used a DRRI and the tone was so sharp and bright that I had to aim it away for me to enjoy playing on stage. It was REALLY bright. This amp, however, is not so. In fact, you'll get more woofiness if you crank the bass (but be wary--if you crank the volume and the bass too high you'll farty overdriven tones) and great tube driven tone. I like the beginning of the drive on this amp--with my settings you get volume (yes, it is loud) and you'll get a good eq'd balance, as well.

Oh, my setup is: CIJ Fender Jazzmaster (w/p90), Ibanez TSilver 808 (from AnalogMan), Ibanez CP-835 II (808 series compressor), Ibanez HD-1000 delay/harmonizer rack unit, boss tu-2, and a volume pedal (*I play indie, roots, lo-fi rock with some blues and jazz influence, as well*). Sure, it is a simple setup. I get drive tone, compression, and delay/crazy sounds if I need them. I have rev and trem courtesy of the amp and I enjoy using them, as well. I have always been a bit of an uneasy tone searcher. I often feel compelled to move around until I find something better. This amp really does everything I want from an amp. Sure, I might change my mind, but that means I will buy another one to go with the Custom Vibrolux Reverb. This is a permanent feature for me. It is such a sweet looking fella, and you can't deny the tone this amp creates is just so nice to the ear. I just feel comfortable now--and that usually does not happen with and amplifiers. Maybe that is good and maybe it is bad. Who knows. But the tone is great for blues, jazz, funk, and whatever you want because it is just straight up tube driven tone that Fender epitomizes. You don't have to fight this one in order to get what you want. Though, changing the tubes or maybe a speaker may help articulate something you prefer in the amp. I still have the stock speakers and tubes--but I will be changing the tubes soon, as they are almost 2 years old now. Yeah, I'll put in some SEDs or TADs.

I've only had it for a little while, though, at two years the amp is running strong. Just don't beat these guys and you'll be a happy CVR owner, I'm sure. If I reviewed this amp a year from now, I could give a satisfactory rating; therefore, I'm opting away from this one.

Never spoke with them--I have a tech who takes care of me, anyway.

So again, I play indie, roots, lo-fi rock with some blues and jazz influence, as well. Yeah, that one is vague, huh?

Anyway, the sound from the Vibrolux is stellar. I know I would keep this amp and wish to replace it upon losing it. If that could happen? I chose it because I wanted organic, raw tube tone and Fender glazing to go. The CVR has everything I need for clean, driven, and whatever from an amp. I've experimented greatly, too. From a 70's Twin Reverb, '66 Bandmaster, '62 Fender Concert, '83 Concert II, '65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue, then a PTP DR, as well, to a Peavey DB 210, and the CVR seems to please me best. I dearly miss the brown amp, but I'll get over it. I've got Fender and Drive together. Yummy.

I'll keep her for the long haul, no doubt.

The features are simple and fine for this price range. An effects loop would be nice but then again I paid $650 for the amp on ebay....

For a straight 'Fender' type tone ala Stevie Ray, Los Lonely Boys and Robert Cray etc. this amp is dead on. If you want to play clean jazz great, Texas or smooth blues great, if you want to play Hi-gain metal then buy a Peavey 'Satriani' model or a Boogie rectifier. I've owned a Vibro-King a few years ago and this is a poor man's Vibro-King (unlike the Vibro-King it has cheesy, flimsy construction, noisy circuit boards, shared reverb etc..) sounds a lot like the Vibro-King yet with more noise and hiss. Nails the Fender sound though!

This thing is built really cheesy. The back boards to protect the speakers and chassis are about 1/4" thick (I'm serious!!!) I don't believe I have ever seen that in the 30 plus years that I have been playing guitar. I had to change out all the tubes for NOS quality Mullards to make the amp even usable. The circuit boards on the inside are thin and cheap, seems to me that Fender went as cheap as possible on the inside parts too. No wonder the amp is noisy!

Have never contacted them...

If you change the tubes and baby it you will get a close replica of the Vibro-King sound for 1/2 the cost. The reverb is kinda noisy yet very big and usable. This amp weighs about 1/3 of my Matchless DC30 so that rules too! (then again it's because the amp is made cheesy so....)

The amp was probably built after 2002.
The amp has two channels, normal and bright. It has no channel switching, no separate gain knob, no frills. It's all tube -- tube reverb and tube tremolo. 40W 2X10 gets pretty loud for an amp this size. If you are looking for versatility, get something else. This is one cool amp but it's not for everyone. It's great for players who has "expressive" styles -- pick attacks reall jumps out. I'll give the features "5" because whiel I LOVE it, it's not for everyone.

I use a custom G&L with their vintage style alnico-pickups. I also play a '75 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe with stock (mini!) pickups. I use pretty much one stomp box - a Tubescreamer that has the old chips in it. I have a Vox wah but it sucks all the good tone out of the guitar, so I rarely use it. I play blues (Bluesbreakers-era Clapton, Albert and Freddie King stuff, etc etc) and Dire Straits etc. The amp, for this style, is AWESOME. I know I'm not supposed to give glowing reviews but this is one awesome amp. Play it clean, with the volume knob set around 3-4, and I swear it is the most beautiful sound you ever heard. The notes sound just absolutely amazing. Drag your pick across the strings, hit a few hard notes -- it sounds like the amp is talking! It picks up EVERY little thing that's going on on your guitar. Crank it up and it breaks up really really nice. I found that the Tubesreamer really contributes to the expressiveness of the amp. It gives it a nice warm overdrive that's not harsh sounding. I love both the normal and the bright channels. Normal is darker sounding, and I think it sounds better than the bright channel at lower volumes. The bright channel sounds great too, like an old Fender clean amp sound. Also, the real swampy reverb/remolo thing is nice. It's not an overkill reverb like those newer cheap sounding reverb.

How brutal is the distortion? The distortion is not very brutal. There's no preamp so you have to crank it up. But I like it. If you are looking for a brutal distortion, you ought to get something else with "Marshall" or "Mesa Boogie" or something else written on it. This amp is strictly for those who appreciate clean warm tubey killer responsive old-school amp. Oh yeah, it is noisy as heck. I swear I hear the radio on it sometimes. But that contributes to the "charm" of this amp, I guess.

I've only had it for a little while, but it's working great so far. It's light, so it's real ideal for carrying around. I assume it's reliable until it breaks.

I have never had the privilege of conversing with the Fender folks. I'm sure they're competent -- they DID build this amp afterall.

I have been playing for 14 years and I think this is my favorite amp so far. I have a Fender Blues Deluxe that isn't hotrodded, and I bought it because it was relatively cheap and was covered in tweed and it was my first tube amp. I stuck with it because the clean channel on the Blues Deluxe actually sounds good. Or so I thought. Man this Vibrolux thing sounds so good, I daydream about it all the time.

I will definitely get this amp again, unless I can afford to buy a Vibro King or the Caesar Diaz customized amp that Fender now offers, or I get a crazy deal on old Fender amps on ebay.

I love it that this amp is such a responsive amp. You gotta play it to really believe it. When I bought it, I walked into the store thinking I'll buy either (A) the Cybertwin or (B) the Fender Pro Reverb. The store didn't have the Cybertwin but had the lesser model (CyberDeluxe?) and it sounded cool with different distorted settings, but it just didn't sound "real" when it was clean. So I played the Pro Reverb, the first all tube Fender amp with channel switching, and I thought great, this thing plays nice clean and real crunchy distorted, so it's a versatile amp! Then, as an afterthought, I plugged into the Vibrolux and it was like, "did it just play that??" I sat in the back room for about an hour playing the Vibrolux. I had the Pro Reverb and the Vibrolux next to each other, and it was no match. I just had to have the Vibrolux. The clean sounds didn't even compare. The Vibrolux sounded so alive compared to the Pro Reverb. So now I'm a happy owner of a Custom Vibrolux Reverb amp.

I don't wish it had anything else. I think it's perfect the way it is. But I can't stress enough, YOU HAVE TO PLAY IT! Don't just buy it online because you may be one of those players looking for a smooth quiet amp, or a real cruncher, and this amp isn't smooth, quiet or crunchy. Also it's really noisy. Think of it this way -- if you had to compare this amp to your relative, it's not your swanky banker cousin or your punk nephew. It's your grandpa when he used to raise hell. So try this amp if you're looking for an amp that sounds like, eh, your grandpa when he was younger.

I purchased this amp new. It made the Tele's and Gretsch guitars (as well as a cheapo DeArmond guitar) I played while trying it out, all sound terrifc - and I mean terrific (and I played country, blues and jazz flavored tunes through it). It has 2 channels, reverb and tremolo, not much else but it has TONE! I sold a Vetta for this so you know it has to sound good! I just play in my home studio, so this amp is plenty loud at 40 watts.

I play a variety of Fenders, Gibsons and Gretsches and I think this amp makes them sound like they're supposed to. But again, it sounds great for the types of guitars and music I like to play and hear. This amp isn't dead quiet (and I'll mention something about that in the reliability section). And it does go from clean to dirty then nasty as you go up past 3 on volume knob. But I like that!

The amp came with a bad reverb tube from Fender (it sounded lke glass rattling every now and then when I played on the "g" string) and it was the wrong tube at that according to the schematic - see the next section for more on that). I'm not a techy type so at first, I was heart broken about the intermittent noises (because this amp just sounds so good w/those Alinco 10" speakers). I thought that maybe the reverb tank went bad because after an hour or so some plinky noises were coming out from it (and I wasn't even playing!). The outcome is in the next section. So for Fender, a "1" for stressing me out at the get go. But I haven't had the amp for long so I'll let you know in a year.

Well, I buy my gear from a great guy (Brian) at Russo's Music in Trenton, NJ (and here's a shameless plug for an awesome Mom & Pop music store - they're on the web at http://www.russomusic.com). So I brought the amp back, Brian played through it until it did what I told him it did (how many sales people do you know that spend 30 + minutes listening for a customer's complaint about intermittent noises?). When he heard it, he knew the problem and replaced the reverb tube with a EH tube and that's when he also noticed Fender used a different tube from the schematic). Bottom line, my heart's been mended and I'm back in luv with this amp! So a "10" for Brian and Russo's.

I've been playing guitar for 30+ yrs. I also own a '62 Bassman head and cabinet and a Fender Custom Shop Bassbreaker and I enjoy the Vibrolux sound so much more. I would definitely replace this amp as it meets all my requirements (which are simple): great tone, responsiveness, reverb (and tremolo). I recommend you try one out.

Bought this used, but dang near mint, in 1998. The fellow who had it before me was a cowboy who played acoustic guitar. He wasn't happy with it, but then that's not what it's designed for. Mine is a '96 in blonde Tolex. I think it 's prettier than the black Tolex ones out now. When I bought it I really knew very little about tube amps (and I suppose I still don't!), but I fell in love with the tremelo. I use it to play in the house and have gigged with it a few times. No problems cutting through. It's a LOUD 40 watts, as you can read from others below.

For Strats, usually leave it on the Bright setting, trem at 3, reverb at 3, bass at 4-5, treble at 7, volume 2-3. The controls are pretty simple, and compared to the versatility of modern amps, it is almost primitive, so i give it a 6 for features.

Play Tokai Silver Star 70s Strat replicas, Fender Hendrix Tribute Strat, Reverend Slingshot, '58 Guild T100D, Les Paul Pro Deluxe, a Girlbrand Tele, and a few other mutants through this amp. The Strats sing and sparkle, the P90 guitars can really bark and so do the Teles, but the Guild jazzer takes some fine tuning to dial in a good sound. It's very difficult to get a bad sound on this amp, even with cheap guitars.

It was designed by Bruce Zinky (designed the Vibro King and a slew of other amps) late of the Fender Custom Shop (hence the Custom name) although it was built on the factory floor. It's obvious that this man knows how to get very, very good tone out of a box.

Yes, it's a bit noisy. If you yank the volume up it gets worse, but I think that for the tone you get (the beautifully rich clean Fender Strat sounds) it's an OK tradeoff. When I gigged I never heard the noise. When I play at home, I don't notice it anymore. I guess there are some players who wince at the slightest amount of hiss but I'm not a purist.

It's a great amp for rootsy blues music and surf, although the reverb seems a bit anemic at low volumes for Man or Astro-Man stuff. I suspect the reverb gets better at higher volumes. The product literature says for maximum tone to dime up the amp and play a Strat at a volume of 2, but I Strat pinky swell a lot and am afraid of ripping my ears off, or having my wife throw me out of the house.

I think this amp sounds best clean, because the reverb and tremelo are so subtle and rich. I use an Ernie Ball volume pedal with it for some guitars, and sometimes fool around with a Dan-Echo pedal, which has about two decent tones IMO. But it sounds so good by itself that it reveals what most pedals really are (at least in my opinion ): little tone suckers. If you have a good tube amp to begin with, why muck it up with pedals? It also forces you to play better, I think, because there's not a lot of processed signal to hide behind.

It can really nail the SRV stuff with decent pickups (I use the Van Zandts Blues). I don't think this would be a good fit for players who favor ripping Les Paul crunch but that's what Marshalls are made for. On the other hand, Peter Green got some might sweet tones out of his LP Standard through a Fender Twin ...

Seems pretty study and hefty. Just retubed last year - the originals lasted 8 years, and if one of the power tubes didn't start arcing last year I might have kept them in longer. I guess if I were a professional player it would be senseless to travel without a backup set of tubes.

Also I probably should run a small fan behind it as it gets a bit hot but I'm lazy, I guess.

Never needed service. The warranty is long expired, plus I bought it used. Every time I phoned Fender for general information about other things, they seemed helpful.

Been playing for more than 30 years. It's a hobby. My goal is to be a really good Strat player for an amateur. I try to sound like me rather than Hendrix, SRV, etc. and there are days when I'm halfway decent. Never took lessons beyond a folk guitar class in the 1970s. Can't read music but have good ears.

I probably would buy another if it were stolen (it hardly ever leaves the house) but I would check out other amps that seem interesting, such as some of the Carrs or maybe a custom builder like Bruce Zinky if they made a low-watt model. These blonde Tolex/Oxblood grill cloth amps are getting rare now, as they only made 100.

I really got lucky with this one. I had no idea how good it was when I bought it. I have gone through the whole GAS routine with guitars, finally settling on Strats, but I've never felt the need to buy another amp. That should say something.

Did I mention it's NOT for sale?

New, 2003 vintage, 40 watts
2x10 Fender Alnico speakers
2 Channel, Reverb, Trem, Bass, Trebble
2 button footswitch
I play country and blues, some 70's classic rock. I was using 4 amps (Blues Jr. to a Vibro King stack) and setting a Power Soak between them to calibrate the volume. I was never satisfied. So, I too a year, thought about it, and bought the new Vibrolux - Then had a tech put in a 2nd stage MASTER VOLUME mounted in the "Aux Speaker" jack on the back panel. Fener Re-Issues are pretty vanilla, but this master volume mod expands the amp's versitility from a 5 to a 7.

With the master volume mod, I get clean sounds in both channels to about 3 and focused "dirty" sounds to maybe "7". The ampp is really rough after 7.

Never had any trouble with Fender, but I keep a Blues Jr. for a backup.

Fender is pretty good responding to email.
Most tech manuals are posted as Adobe files on the Gearhead site.
Warranty was 3 years, but the mod voided such. I've never had Fender troubles, so, I'm not worried.

I've been playing 35 years, never to my potential.
This year I quit playing out, and focused on getting my studio set up.
I redefined my goals, switched equipment, and am working on a song list.
I intend to practice with my giging equipment, recording as I go.
Perhpas in a couple years I'll feel like playing out again.
This amp is a definitive part of my plan.
Not too much to say about the amp. It's not like the Fender Vibrolux of the 60's. Both channels are tied together for reverb and trem (don't like that part.) Circuts are all solid state boards powered by a classic line of Fender tubes.

An effects loop would be nice for some players, but I've never really used one.
A balanced line out would be good, too. But, I'll get along miking the amps.

I purchased this amplifier used from a friend during the year 2000, so I'm thinking that it was probably built in 1999. I play a mixture of blues and jazz and also do a lot of slide guitar work. I needed a medium output tube amp that had could produce a nice clean sound as well as a warm overdriven sound. The Virbrolux has two channels, "normal" and "bright", each with two inputs. Input 1 on each channel is louder than input 2. The amp also has reverb and vibrato. It comes with a footswitch. It has two "blue frame" 10 inch alnico speakers. The amp is rated at 40 watts RMS.

I play Telecasters, Strats and a Les Paul Standard. The Vibrolux sounds great with each of my guitars. I just have to change the tone and volume settings slightly for each guitar. This amplifier does have a little "hiss" sound, however it isn't noticeable while playing. The tones that I can produce a very good for my style of playing. When the amp's volume is set any where from around 4 to 7 it breaks up very smoothly and warmly. I especially love the tone for slide guitar. It absolutely growls!

I've never had any problems with this amp.

I've been playing for about 30 years and have owned many different kinds of amps and guitars. In adsdition to the great sound of this amp, it looks cool too. It has a vintage black face look with ivory colored knobs. I really enjoy the sound and portability of this amp (45 lbs). I got it at a steal ($450.00). I think they go for about a grand new. I highly recommend that you buy one of these!

This is a recently (post 2000) issued Custom vibrolux Reverb. It is not intended to be a reissue of any earlier Vibrolux but it still has the look of an older amp. It is all tube (except for the rectifier, I'm sure) and has a normal and bright channel which are quite different in tone. It has a footswitch to switch on reverb or tremelo (or what Fender calls vibrato). It can't be said that the amp is versitile in relation to the modeling amplifiers with built-in effects but it has the most important feature, great sound.

I consider this an "uncorked" amp, to borrow a term from street racers. Uncorked street-rods are without their mufflers, this amp is without a feedback loop and therefore it hisses a bit, but it also is louder than any 40 watt amp I've ever come across. It is much more sensitive to dynamic playing styles. It's wonderful to get this much volume and awesome tone from such a light-weight amp. It is for live performance. I did not notice the hiss at all when performing with my three piece band. I play strictly clean, no distortion, and mostly instrumental. Even though it has built in reverb, for serious reverb an outboard unit is required.

I've been playing with dedication since the early 70's. This is an amp I intend to keep for a long time. It's easy on the back and fills the bill for loudness and great clean tone. i.e. it's the perfect replacement for a Twin Reverb for moderatly large clubs. I have two twins and a Super, but the Custom Vibrolux will be used most often.

2003 Brand new. I paid around $1100.00 w/ tax.

Only thing I want to make clear on this amp is that it is VERY noisy. If you play at home it will drive you crazy if your use to a quiet amp. I have no doubt that on stage when the signal to noise ratio is increased that it would be fine. The tone is nice, but for those people who want to use it at home beware. I had a professional amp tech try numerous combinations of tubes and that is not the answer. It is a noisy amp period. I took it back.

The basic features: Normal and Bright channel both with Reverb, 2 inputs, and treble / bass EQ's. The back panel includes a footswitch (controls reverb and tremolo) and cabinet output. Basically nothing special but it's all you really need...

I played my 2 Strat's, Les Paul, and my friend's Gretsch T-Rose thru this amp (no pedals) and they all sounded sweet. The clean sound is nice, warm, thick, and very responsive to picking. The amp starts to break up slightly around 4-5 producing a nice bluesy overdrive. Using a TS808 in front as a clean boost, I was able to coax hard overdrive out of the amp with ample gain (i had the gain setting on the TS808 on "1"). The overdriven tone sounded nice and rich - even with those horrible re-labeled Fender tubes...can't wait till I put in some decent tubes!

Alot of people complained about this amp being noisy - I had no such noise problem at all. In fact, my Rivera M60 is noisier than the Vibrolux, but the CVR is not quieter than my Dr. Z Route 66.

The CVR has the classic tone you would expect from a 2x10" type amp - nice clean and a rich, warm, deep overdriven sound. Only cons are that it does break up a bit early and it has limited volume.

I've dealt with Fender before in the past (not regarding this CVR) and they are downright AWFUL! CLEAN UP YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE FENDER!!!!

If you browse all the reviews below you will see that people either love this amp or love to hate it (or maybe they love to hate Fender? who knows).

In my humble opinion the CVR is a great amplifier, and if you have confidence in your playing, and decent chops I think you will be able to appreciate this amp too. My other two amps are the Rivera M60 and the Dr. Z Route 66 - great amps in their own right. My CVR stands right up there between the heavily PCB based Rivera and the pure point-to-point wired Route 66. It's a nice tonal balance between the two and I'm happy to have one in my arsenal.