Fender Princeton Reverb II

Rivera era Princeton Reverb II with amp cover and footswitch in perfect condition, sat in a music store for weeks, I thought it was solid state but when I asked he salesman he told me it was tube, I went home, read up on it and found that not only tube but PTP wiring. Mine has a Carvin British series 12" speaker which is the only thing not stock. I asked how much they wanted for it and they said $250 and I offered them $225 and they went for it. It looks like a blackface Fender, has 2 channels, one is supposed to sound like a Mesa Boogie, I thought it sounded like crap untill I stopped using the footswitch (don't be sad that yours did'nt come with a footswitch, it interacts with the circuit and causes the Lead (Mesa) channel to be loud and unusable.) I bought the amp and did a few mods (reliability) one mod to set the fixed bias lower, and changed a cap on the mid boost so it wasn't so pronounced, and of course a brand new set of JJ tubes.

This amp is 22W of beautiful clean Fendery sparkle on one setting and pull the switch and you have a punchy (more mid voiced) channel. Both channels love pedals. his amp reminds me of a twin that a former other guitarist in a band used to dwarf me with, only not as loud. There is a website that is dedicated to this amp specifically and has abot all the info that you'll need to get one up to snuff. I got the mods I did off the website and they improoved the sound.

This amp is over 20 years old and still works, real quiet I might add. PTP wiring makes it easy for a tech to fix anything and schematics, chassis layout and parts list are readily available. It still had the original tubes in it when I got it and had no issues. This amp looked like it was kept indoors for most of it's existence.

It's 20+ years old and it not atomic cyber modelling crap so I'll never go back to Fender. Like I said there's enough info on the web.

I rate this amp at $225 a steal. I always wanted a Princeton, I think I got more. This amp set for the clean channel with a few pedals in front of it is all I'll ever need, I think I may sell my Botique amp and keep this one.

This amp was a gift from a friend of mine who died awile back ago. It was usually left at at his house where we spent weekends playing R&B,soul,and blues.Where this amp really shines.as far as features,it's a two channel amp,but I use the term loosly.Rivera tried to mimic a Mark II boogie but kinda' failed on the overdrive.It it has a bright pull switch and a mid-boost pull switch. The latter seems to smoothe out the over-driven tones.the reverb sounds pretty good at low settings but gets a little buzzy at higher settings if the pick-ups are wide open.However both chanels can sound great for blues once you get used to tweaking it out.

Everyone of my friends that hear this amp says the same thing.It sounds big.But that's what it has,the classic fender dimension. At 20 watts it's just not loud enough to play clean for a rock band but if you mike it out it does the trick.(by the way,The line out sucks. It's just there for humor.)I never had much time to screw with the tubes like I do with bigger amps, but I think if you goof around swapping different pre-amp tubes and put a choice set of power tubes in it. It would more than likely smoothe out the overdrive channel.I've been reading here about swapping the speaker and I think that may make a big difference (I'm thinkin' about a greenback.)

well- just two tubes so far. I have noticed that the reverb has been fading out lately. but I really don't take care of this amp much.I think I might put a better reverb unit in it.

Are you kidding. Who would I call? That's why I'm here.

I've been playing for 26 years and I play everything from Charlie Christian to Head Automatica.If you're a plug-in and play sorta' guy, You'll dig this amp.If you like to use a distortion pedal, It handles it and sounds it just like a twin or a deluxe. It's probably as close as you'll get to a fender & mark boogie in such a small tube package.I WOULD NOT PAY $850 DOLLARS FOR IT.(The people in England are crazy.)But if I could find another one, that would solve my problems of miking it.I've had this amp for about 16 years and I got used.I played a strat, les paul, jacksons, all sorts of different pick-up combinations and they all sound good,in fact,It's probably one of the the best sounding fenders I've ever had.The most surprising sound I got was out of my friend's shitty old kramer pacer.The guitar always sounded bad on any amp,But it got a real cool "burby" blues sound on the fender.(Must be it's soul mate).Like I said the lead channel sounds a little ratty, but anyone that has had fenders isn't used to a overdrive channel anyway so thats just iceing on the cake if you learn how to work it.

THE GUY JUST BEFORE ME MUST HAVE CAP PROBLEMS. MINE SOUNDS GREAT!!!
1984 I BELIEVE. 1 CHANNEL. LINE OUT. REVERB. TUBE AMP WITH SS RECTIFIER. 3 -12AX7A,S & 1- 12AT7 2 6V6,S 20 WATTS OUTPUT. THIS IS MABYE THE BEST BLUES AMP I HAVE EVER HAD. IVE HAD PEAVEY/FENDER DELUXE REVERB,S/REISSUE VIBROLUX REVERB. HAD IT ONE WEEK & REVERB WENT OUT/ NEXT WEEK TREMOLO WENT OUT. DO I LIKE REISSUE AMPS ///NO/// THE PR WOULDNT BE LOUD ENOUGH FOR LARGE AREAS BUT FOR SMALL CLUB JUST RIGHT. YES I LOVE IT. IF YOU WANT MORE VOLUME & TONE TONE TONE GET A CELESTION ALNICO BLUE.

I USE SINGLE COILS. TEXAS SPECIALS IN A TELE. C/S FAT 50,S IN MY STRAT. TRUETONE PUPS IN MY JAP STRAT./ 83 STRAT ELITE WITH ALNICO II PUPS/THIS AMP LOVES THE FAT 50S. I RUN THE MASTER FULL OPEN WITH THE VOLUME AT 5 FOR MY CLEAN SOUNDS & FOR BLUES I TURN UP THE VOLUME UP TO 9 & AJUST MY GUITAR VOLUME. I DONT NEED THE OD CHANNEL THE CLEAN DOES ALL I NEED.A FRIEND OF MINE UAES A PRII FOR HARP. HE LIKES IT BETTER THAN HIS SUPER CHAMP.(WIDER RANGE) THE OD CHANNEL GETS LOUD BUT IM NOT INTO THAT. I HAVE 2 OF THE PRII,S & I RUN A CELESTION G12H30 IN 1 & MY FAV. A CELESTION ALNICO BLUE IN THE OTHER. TALK ABOUT COMING ALIVE THE CELESTION,S WAKE THESE LITTLE AMP UP!!

IVE HAD FENDER ALL MY LIFE (SINCE 1962) NEVER HAD ANY TROUBLE EXCEPT FOR TUBES.

SURELY THIS IS A JOKE . RIGHT??? WAY OUT OF WARRENTY.

LET SEE IVE BEEN PLAYING OFF & ON SINCE 1962. I HAVE 2 SO IF THEY STEAL ONE I HOPE ITS NOT THE ONE WITH THE BLUE.YES I WOULD REPLACE THEM.IN A HEARTBEAT.THE ONLY THING I DONT LIKE ABOUT THE PRII,S IS THE SPEAKER.BUT UNDERSTAND I THOUGHT THEY SOUNDED GREAT UNTIL I PLUGGED IN THE ALNICO BLUE & THE G12H30. MY GOD WHAT A SOUND.I DONT HAVE THE FOOTSWITCH BUT I WOULDNT USE IT ANYWAY. THE REVERB IS LUSH LIKE MY SILVERFACE DELUXE REVERB.IVE HAD S/F DELUXE REVERBS/ S/F PRINCETON REVERBS/ REISSUE VIBROLUXE YUK NO BOTTOM BUILT CHEAP/WHY DO PEOPLE PAY $2000.00 TO $3000.00 TO GET THE SAME SOUND THESE POINT TO POINT HAND WIRED AMPS HAVE. AT LESS THAN HALF THE PRICE. I DONT GET IT.??? IF YOU WANT ONE OF THE BEST BLUES AMPS ON THE MARKET GET A PRII & IF YOU LIKE CREAMY WARM SOUNDS GET A G12H30. IF YOU LIKE CHIMES FOR BLUES OR COUNTRY GET A ALNICO BLUE. I BOUGHT A JENSEN REISSUE P12N. THAT HAD ICEPICK HIGHS IN EVERY AMP I PUT IT IN.

I believe the amp was made around 1986. 2 footswitchable channels, reverb, Solid State Rectifier, 2 6V6 3 12AX7 and 1 12AT7 tubes. Lead and Bright switches via push-pull pot.

An effects loop would be nice but who really uses those? It has more than enough power to gig with.

I switched out the GE tubes with JJ's, didn't hear a diffence. MayWhen I first bought this I was using the sellers 70's SG. He had the controls dimed so it sounded very nice in comparison when I eq'ed it properly. be a little loss in the high end, thats about it.

I use humbucker equipped guitars. I find that this amp sounds better with single coil guitars.

It was alittle noisy, I don't really like the sound of it. The EQ isn't very responsive either and the stock speaker that came with it was very ratty sounding so I ran it through a Mesa Recto 4x12, it sounded very nice and crunchy through that but I feel it didn't have enough power to push the cab all that much. It hung with a drummer quite well.

With the lead channel on you get a very nasty Mesa type over saturated gain thats very harsh. I tried the trick that Mike suggested on 02/17/2003 thats on this page. I found that it helped alot but was still alittle too harsh and gainy but still a great improvement. If you like Metallicas tone and are 14 years old you would dig the lead channel.

There is not too much variety in this amp, a decent clean channel and a lead channel that sounds like a dying cat.

3 with the stock speaker, a 5 or 6 with a new speaker. I hear the Eminence Cannibas Rex is a good replacement for not alot of scratch.

As mentioned in previous reviews the amp does have point to point wiring. I think mine might have needed new capacitors. The soldering joint to the speaker broke off while I was playing it and it got this nice self osicillation sound that really hurt my ears. After I repaired it the amp was fine. Nice transformers, solid state rectifier.

No warranty so Fender probably doesn't give a rats ass.

I have been playing for 4 years, my main amp is a Mesa Boogie Trem-O-Verb. I ended up selling this amp to my friend because I was going to eBay it to some sucker but he said he needed a tube amp. I told him it was a bad sounding amp but he still wanted it. If I bought this amp again I would really only pay around the 300 dollar range as thats all this amp is worth.

This is a 1982 Rivera Princeton Reverb II!
About 11." deep and 20.5" wide by 17" tall. so it's a bit bigger than the original Princeton Reverb About an inch and a half all the way arounf larger.
8 controls and a switchpedalfor boost and reverb.
Nice 12" speaker but an SRO sounds best in my opinion.
The all Pine Jointed cabe even has a 13 ply .75" pine baffle too.(good to hold up your JBL or EVL speaker)

Sounds like a Pass between a Fender Deluxe and a Mesa MarkII. These rivera built all hand wired amps just have the tone a moddeler or todays PCB's cannot offer the player.

Nothing is more reliable that a solidly built Point to Point amp. This amp is all Pine Jointed and even has a 13 ply pine baffle.(good to hold up a JBL or EVL. This amp has never had any work done except for new speaker and tubes. The amp is 22 years old and it's so quiet you have to play to know it's on. The lead dress is impecable on these amps.

Never needed, and it's PTP so any good tech can fix it with off the shelf parts.

Overall it's the best Blues amp I have evr ownerd. I'm talking Smooth British Blues Blues, to Yanky Blues raunch to Texas Blues to Blues ballads. This amp is the blues amp to have. This does, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, SRV, John Sykes, Gary Moore, and Cocco Montoya to a "T"

I would kill the one who tried to steal it. He wouldn't get far either. The amp ways about 25lbs and add another 18 from the SRO. hehe, lets just say he wont run too fast. I could have my coffee first.

Princeton Reverb II, PRII PR2, all the same thing!
All-valve (tube) signal path
Unbelievably low-noise operation (hardly any hiss), which is why they're popular for home recording, and you can do quiet practice without losing too much tone.

Extremely strong construction - fully welded metal chassis and dovetail joints in the plywood cabinet

Point-to-point wiring (no printed circuit board, making for ease of repair and physical reliability.

This last point is based on the fact that the controls, audio sockets and valve sockets aren't mechanically mounted on the wiring board.

Therefore if the amp rolls down a flight of stairs, you may have replace a few knobs and pots, but no mechanical shock is passed on to the heart of the amp and you won't be left with a PCB cracked in two.

Very Loud for 22W. Just like an old Deluxe Reverb actually!

Fixed-bias, the amp design which gets the most power from output valves. This is probably the loudest 6V6 amp on the planet.

Very Conservatively-rated transformers. They will apparently deliver enough power and stay within safe temperatures even when the amp is modified up to 35W. with 6l6's

Transformers are expensive, so this level of reliability is reassuring to me!

Solid-state rectifier, so big bass response and quick attack from the pick to strings!

The basic sound! Very musical!

Depending on the quality of your power (output) valves and the bias setting, you can get marvellous overdrive tones once you turn the master volume knob over 6 or 7 (approx) - or earlier with the mid boost selected.

Big variation in tone; bass, mid, treble, presence, plus mid boost switch and treble boost switch

Versatility - people are using it for blues, metal, country, jazz, blues, even amplifying classical guitar. There are better metal amps but this amp does everything convincingly on stage.

Duane Allmane is in this circuit I sware! Peter Green is in the Luch reverb section. Ted Nugent is inthere. Santana for sure and even early metalica. This amp sounds oh so good!

never had a problem, but it's PTP so it's cheap to fix if ever it occurs.

I've been playing 22 years and this amp has been making me happy in the last 3 months I've owned it. I am in an Allman Brothers tribute and SRV tribute band and this amp is perfect for this!

It only compares to the deluxe reverb and deluxe reverb II. Sounds great for Fender or mesa sounds wrapped up in one. There is a mod to get Marshall crunch on the lead channel but I already have a studio 15 for that part.

1985 Fender model Princeton Reverb II
* 2x6V6 power tubes, 1x12AT7 reverb tube, 3x12AX7 preamp tubes
* tube-driven reverb
* clean and lead channels via a push/pull volume knob
* individual volume controls per channel, shared EQ, master volume
* push/pull treble boost, push/pull midrange boost, bass, presence
* 12" speaker Celestion
* line out, reverb in/out, jacks for pedals to control channels
* about 25 pounds
* single input jack on front panel
* 22watts RMS

Reminds me so much of my Silverface Deluxe Reverb it's scary!

It's also alot like my friends Super Champ but the Princeton Reverb has a more Lush syrupy reverb, and gets a lot more bottom out of the 12" speaker and larger cabinet.

Perfect Duane Allman tone when playing loud and with slide guitar. It get's very honky with a tight bottom. Perfect Duane tone for me!

I mean the most perfect Live Statesboro Blues tone I've ever heard.

No Problems. It's harder to bias than a Blackface Deluxe Reverb but it's as easy as a silverface. I will probably mod it to have a Bias pot like my Bassman.

No trouble ever!

I bought a mint one with original cover, switch, and it only cost me $725. I was going to get the Deluxe Reverb Reissue but the Princeton Reverb II was PTP and sounded better on Slide Guitar. The DR Reissue was a little thin to get good sound with slide.

I hope I don't need to find another one. The price has doubled in two years and they are hard to find. I heard less than 800 where ever made. Who knows?

No idea when it was built- Serial F 327561. I play rock and blues using an amplified Yamaha acoustic and a Strat copy.

I get some distortion at higher volume- sort of a rattle- thought it was the speaker- and replaced it with an Eminence 12"- better but still there, I now think I should have the tubes checked and bias adjusted.

Never a breakdown- I don't expect one, I have had two Fender amps previously and both were as reliable as gravity.

Never dealt with Fender- out of warranty before anything occured. (If indeed something is wrong.)

I have been playing for almost 40 years. Owned a Twin Reverb, then a Super Reverb in my "professional" days, then went acoustic until 1996.

I bought this amp NEW in 1996, from a music store in a little town in Ohio. $389. Yup- one of the few great bargains I have ever personally found. I sent in the warranty card and about five weeks later got a call from Fender, wanting me to read them the tube numbers, and serial number off the amp, to see if it was genuine.

They said it WAS new, never sold, and therefore I got a five-year warranty (with a comment from the guy that they hoped it never needed replacement- they would have to give me a $1000 amp!!). I knew then I had found a gem.

I think it was mad in the early eighties. One of Riveras best while at Fender. Like the fabled super champ but louder and larger speaker. Two channels which are footswitchable or changed via pull pots. But the renowned Rivera sound is from the footswitched channel select instead of the pull pots. All tube, all the time. Point to point wiring.

I loved the sound until I put in a Celestion Vintage 30 and now love cannot describe the magnificent sound of this amp. Very quiet amp at all levels. Sounds great with humbuckers or my tele. Great Fender reverb. Very loud for around 20 watts. The clean rivals anything under $1000 and the distortion is much more defined than Marshall or Mesa.

Change the tubes and you are good to go. No problems whatsoever.

Never tried them but who cares. Use a good local amp tech. The schematics are all over the net.

If you ever have the chance to own one, jump on it at any price under $750 because that is what they will be very soon.

An excellent 20-25 watt amp; my main reason for submitting this review is simply that all the other reviews were written by guitarist, but there were no harp players reviews...so here's one for the REAL players! Mine is an 82' and I got it from its original owner -- for free! I had harassed him for years as I wanted his Fender Super Champ, so one day he stops by at the office, says he's moving and needs to get rid of some extra stuff and gives me the Princeton. Yowzah! All features (pull knobs, reverb, etc.) are friggin' great for harp! More than sufficient power output for 90% of all my gigs -- only had to mic it once in a large, amphitheatre venue. All p-t-p soldering, solid as a rock. I/We play both Classic and Contemporary Blues (stictly Blues, dammit!) and this amp has been referred to as "the holy grail" of tone by a fella I consider to be the best harp player in the State. Lots of crunch, punch and great tube sag and breakup. Dave Barrett of HarmonicaMasterClass wanted badly to use it at a gig, but opted at the last minute to use a 59' Bassman (hey, what can I say?), but he was amazed at the depth and punch of this amp and said he's going to find one for himself. It's worth its weight in gold, no kidding. Extremely versatile, fits the bill to a "T." I've got MASCO's, Gibsons, Bogens and all kinds of miscellaneous amps -- this is the amp that I take to gigs, everytime. Never crapped out on me yet.

I've got two guitarists begging me for this amp right now (ah, the sworn enemy of all harp players!) and they can FORGET IT! The reverb gets a little watery at the higher settings, but kept at about 2, it maintains a nice "Little Walter" bounce to it while still maintaining its punch. Not the cleanest of vintage "gold tones" like my 53' Gibson, but a heck of allot more cajones (got a set of balls on it that would make an elephant smile...) than anything else I've heard -- and there's no fear of taking it out on the road like my old classic amps. You can rip clean, sharp lines ala William Clarke, but still pull off some really nice, midnight blue tones ala Sonny Boy. It's got em' all! Interface this amp with a good Shure black label controlled reluctance element or an R7 crystal and you've got yourself an amp that will serve your needs 95%-plus of the time. Silky highs, razor sharp mids and just the right depth in the bass lows. Minimal knob-dicking will produce about any desired results.

I've only had one problem with it, but here's a testament of what kind of amp this is: my pal, the previous owner, had accidentally switched one of the 7025's for the 12AT7 in its power circuit -- and one of the caps had leaked -- but the old soldier just kept on cranking it out. Half the triode had been toasted, but lo and behold, not a problem. This is one tough, damn-near idiot-proofed circuit design -- and by the way, the mythical "Rivera Circuit" isn't a myth -- just plug straight in to the standard input jack and you're there! If your are a harp player, YOU NEED THIS AMP!!!

Never had to deal with Fender as all my stuff goes to one guy -- but other than the switching of two tubes that had been reversed and the replacement of one leaking cap, which I wasn't even aware of until I took it in for a cleaning, it's been as steady as Liberty's Torch.

Been playing for over 30 years. I also have a 53' Gibson GA-20, a Bogen VP-17X and a MASCO MA-17, but as mentioned, this is the amp that I always end up taking to gigs -- it's the toughest and bestest! Can't beat the Gibson Gal for gold tones, the Bogen's a Deluxe in disguise and the MASCO is just all out fun, but they're not my "working amps;" that title goes solely to the Princeton. Like I said, if you're a harp player, you NEED this amp!!! Better get one soon if you're even considering scarfing one; I've been watching the price of these amps steadily rise for years -- and it's for a darn good reason, too. This amp will cut through more crap than any guitarist can dish out -- no matter how large their ego! Front lines or as backup, this old soldier will get you through it with class!