The Magic Fender Brown Panel Combos: '60 to '63
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- Опубликовано: 21 июн 2024
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This one was a bit of a pet project for me. Born in 1960 this is what was happening at Fender that year up until right before I went to school. It straddles the '50's and set the stage for the late '60's and 70's amps. I've had a great time "researching" this one. I hope you enjoy what I've learned along the way.
Keith 
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Thank you Dick Dale for pushing Leo over the edge. Dick explains the entire tolex story here on YT. I had the pleasure of meeting him a few times and he was one of the most affable rockers out there. A legend. Why that man is not in the rock hall is a travesty.
There is something magic about them. I got the Suhr Hombre a few years back and it's Magic. I'm into simple controls.
😂 I sure hope so because the chis stapleton was dark and and very 1 dimensional .
EYE'm an old guy. In a few months, the odometer will flip over to 77. I started twanging around 1958 or 1959, becoming more serious when my older brother brought home a new 1960 PRO (and plugged a Jazzmaster into it!). That PRO was a really excellent amp. Forty watts and a 15-incher. That was the first real amp I ever played through. Second and third, were two nearly-new Concerts ... so I got to start off pretty good. My first amp was a 1964 Super Reverb. So we thought those little Fender amps were just what they were ... student models. I got to see and hear new blonde Bassmans and Bandmasters as well. The brown faces were sweet amps and the sound stayed with me for many years. I finally got to own one of my own when I found a blonde '62 Bandmaster in 2020. What's that? SIXTY years? But what a sound. Thanks for covering the Browns ... I'm very blessed to have one after all this time!
HI ANOTHER OLD GUY,STARTED IN 1963 LEARNING THE SHADOWS. YOU PLAYED SOME GREAT AMPS. I USE A MODDED 73 TWIN.
The clip from In The Blues is one of the best samples of playing I have heard on RUclips.
I don't mean to criticize, but that's not Carl Perkins, but it's Luther Perkins. 🤠 Otherwise, it's a great video. Thank you.
Yup.
Brothers? Looks like it, I just saw an old clip of Carl, 62-or 3 pre the Beatles covers of Carl’s work, he looks more like Luther 😄
@@jonathanstrand2474 No relation. I believe Carl had at least one brother who also played but Luther wasn't one of them.
@@richardryan8462OMG he’s human. What’s it like being perfect and never making a mistake?
@@richardryan8462 This channel is gear oriented, not so much music oriented, and there are so many musicians it makes keeping track of them all impossible for us mere humans (internet helps). I've even seen Keith make a mistake about a gear issue (horrors!), but it always gets fixed in the comments, as he knows it will. I consider myself very educated about musicians, but I didn't know all about Carl Perkins relations (smh in shame).
I recall reading an article years ago in which G.E. Smith said if an amp has an input for accordion, it's a sign it's going to be good.
Ampeg, Magnatone, Sano and the little-known Flot-A-Tone ("for a lotta tone"!) amplifiers all had Accordion inputs.
Peter Buck of R.E.M. has said the same thing.
G.E. Smith is an amazing guitarist, I'll never forget watching him lead the SNL band when I was a kid. Years later, re-discovering him was very nostalgic
What is it about accordion inputs that makes them special?
@@Baci302 My father played accordion (he even once bought a pickup attachment to try and play it through my Gibson amp, which didn't have an accordion input, in the '60's) He lusted for a Cordovox (a sort of synthesizer forerunner) all his life. They had their own amps. Wonder what they were like?
The old BrownFace amps are great and have their own sound. Almost bought a Brown Super in the early 90's that was awesome. I passed and still kick myself:(. Tried the Suhr Hombre a few years ago at a shop and loved it. One the few actual bargains in the Boutique amp world IMO.
My ideal guitar tone that I hear in my head is Brown Sugar. I bought a 2020 LesPaul standard 60s and put a set of Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates in it right off the bat. That through my Fender Blues deluxe hits. Hard! Btw Shane is awesome, good bloke.
I’m fortunate to have early 60’s brown face Vibrolux + matching reverb unit. Amazing in combination or individually.
I knew there was a reason I got the Mojotone Brownface Deluxe (6G3) kit... my next build!
Ahhh those classic accordian bands needed so much more power to rock it out!
Funny thing is that the accordian input on an Ampeg Gemini ll is the best sounding input to plug your guitar into lol.
The vibrato on the larger amps (I have a 63 Super), is just heaven. Just so warm and lush.
The coolest under appreciated Fender amp in my opinion. Headroom but not twin loud, warm and mid focused but not as dark as tweed, harmonic trem is amazing, and the overdrive is marshallesque to my ear.
@@bigpk2003 Best I've heard it described!
Saw Adam Levy playing at Nelson’s Drum Shop on June 5th and his backline amp was one of these brown panel amps. The whole rig was a telecaster a EHX DMM and the amp. Sounded glorious! A guy could chase that tone for a long time trying to get that much tone.
Photo @ 2:11 is Luther Perkins, rather than Carl. Cutthroat Audio does a fantastic version of a Brown Deluxe, with some Marshall added to the mix, they call the Down Brownie. That is certainly one to check out. Great video, as usual, Keith.
I'm glad to hear you agree with my personal assessment of the Origin Effects Deluxe61 pedal! It is a blast to use in front of Fender tube "Reverb" amps and a Quilter ToneBlock 202 analog (not modeling) solid state amp.
Thanks Keith. Always love your videos. I come away with a new appreciation for the gear I love each time.
It’d be great to see a video about repurposed old amps like the Filmosound 179 or old PA amps. There’s a number of producers and big artists that use those things to record.
Always enjoy these deep dives. Gotta mention the center volume & metal knob versions though, important lesser known moments in the history of the brownface era 🙂
Great stuff Keith. Thank you Sir.
I'm fascinated by the tweed and Brown Era, with the 6G2 being my favorite of all the circuits. I had Jim Nicholson at lil dawg amps build me a brown princeton in a princeton reverb box with a 12 inchbaffle and a 25 watt output transformer. It's putting out roughly 16ish watts instead of the normal 12ish. I have a switch on back to dump the negative feedback as well, though I mostly play it in stock mode. Threw a Wgs G12c/s in it and it still brings a smile to my face when I plug in and play. I'd love to see more channels cover the browns and I'd like to thank you Keith for putting this episode up.
So excited to see some love for brown panel amps. They are my favorite! Great video! I love blue molded coupling caps in black panel amps but those yellow Astrons in the early brown amps have a sound. The harmonic trem is really trem. It doesn’t shift pitch at all. Instead of the entire signal going up and down in volume the bass and upper frequencies go up and down at different times. Their modulation of volume is 180 degrees out of phase in relation to the LFO. Jam pedals do an amazing harmonic trem pedal called harmonious monk. It was developed for Dan & Mick of That Pedal Show
Wonderful Video!!!! Yay for Shane!!!
Another fantastic FWW installment! Great information and contrastive analysis! Phenomenal playing and OH the TONE!!!!
I wish there was a brown face fender in the helix. Brown face concert or pro would be awesome
Agreed
a 4x10 concert was/is my holy grail and i finally got hold of one last year for a bargain! been swimming in that trem ever since :)
Thanks for this one, Keith! I especially enjoyed it as a proud custodian of a vintage brown Super.
Love your videos. Thank you so much for all this hard work!
My first amp was a mid 60’s 2x10” fender super amp. Loved that amp, I wish I still had it.
Had one, sold it, regretted it, tracked down another and this one won't be sold!
Thoroughly fascinating! Great work, Keith!!!
Hi Keith, I just received a Carl's Custom Amps Tweed Super Head, but I got a 212 cabinet. Fantastic amp. Carl is the real deal. Thank you for the great videos.
+1 to Carl's Custom Amps, I've got a custom Showman from him that combines the brown panel and black panels into a single head.
I bought a brown deluxe when I was 16 years old in 1976 at a junk shop surplus store for $35 in Denver. I still have it by the way early Ted Nugent was recorded with one of those including Cat Scratch Fever.
Awesome, this is just the video I was looking for Keith!
Back when I was in my first band in high school (1999/2000) we used to practice at my friend/drummer Timmy’s house. As we didn’t have a PA he suggested plugging the microphone into his dad’s crappy looking old brown amp, which we did for the next 3 years. Fast forward to 2008 or so, I noticed that same amp in his apartment closet, and I said “oh no! Is that the same amp we would set to 10, plug in a mic, and scream vocal through???” He was pretty surprised when I told him I now knew it wasn’t crappy, and that it was a vintage, early 60’s Fender Princeton and that we probably shouldn’t have been screaming Pantera and Deftones vocals into it and that it was probably worth at least 2 grand. Then being the awesome friend he’s always has been, he insisted on giving it to me, the only condition being that I never sell it. 🤯🤯🤯 when I tried to offer to pay for it he refused and said it was a gift cause he knew I would use it and appreciate it.
Anyways, it’s a 1963, 6G2 Princeton with brown knobs, basically the same as the Chris Stapleton ‘62 but with the original 10” Oxford. And it is all original with the exception of the power cord that had a replacement plug installed at the end of the original cord, so still a non grounded 2 prong plug. The Oxford’s cone was a bit torn so while It was being repaired I put in a 10” blue alnico, can’t remember if it’s an Eminence or Jensen, which ever Fender was using in the ‘59 Bassman reissues at the time. After testing out the repaired original, which sounded really good, but I ended up putting the blue one back in because that speaker in that amp has that sweet and magical,tone..I call it the “if I die tomorrow, that’s cool, just happy i got to enjoy playing with that sweetest tone ever for as long as I did” tone lol. I stored the original in a safe place. I play it everyday and let Timmy know I’m forever grateful to have a friend like him and that I’ll still haven’t gotten over how phenomenal that amp sounds!!
Great story. Back then stuff was just stuff, not vintage treasure.
@@MrScrofulous good god, I really gotta stop leaving comments when sleep deprived. I really could have said all that in like 2 and a half sentences lol
@@marki7661 Not at all. It was a cool story bro, no sarcasm. I don't find it challenging or triggering to read a couple of paragraphs :)
Amen
@@MrScrofulous thanks dude. After that trip down memory lane some repressed traumatic memories started coming back into focus…totally forgot about my face getting electrocuted by that amp on several occasions. Due to it predating the ground/earth pin in the plug, while having the microphone plugged into it, every so often I’d go to start singing and as soon as my lips touched the mic and at the same time my fingers were touching my guitar strings….⚡️⚡️ZZAAPPPP!!!!! ⚡️⚡️ Oh my god, one time It was so bad I was stuck there all tensed up while being shocked, finally after what seemed like an eternity, one of the guys realized what’s was happening and he ran up and kicked the the mic stand off of my face. One would think after a few of us kept getting blasted, we might figure out how to use the switch labeled “ground” on the back of the amp… but not a chance!!! It only inspired us to cover Ride the Lightning for the next battle of the bands lol…Ahhh those were the days!
The colour of this clip is amazing. Looks great.
Great video Keith. That was a lot of good information I never knew about.
I built a Mojotone 6G3 Brownface Deluxe last year (with some mods), and it’s awesome sounding!
Mate, well done! Love your content
Aloha Keith! The overlooked Fender. Until now. Mahalo.
The “Original” effects are just the best! I’ve been using Simon’s pedals for the last 6 or 7 years!
Nice one!
Fun video Keith. Wait til you play a real one!! ha They are incredible amps. I love my 1961 Vibrolux.
Brown Panel amps are certainly my favorites 😊
The brown era amps are my favorites. The Trem/vibrato is the best effect on the planet.
Thanks Keith, Great video. It's always great to learn more info. about an amp I own. I've owned my 62 Deluxe that I paid $20 for since 1992. It is my studio amp. Sometimes I'll use it on shows where it can be miced.
I built the Mojotone 6G3 kit - it rocks ferociously.
As an owner of a 62 6G3 Deluxe, 61 6G9A Tremolux, 63 6G7 Bandmaster and a 60 6G12 Concert, I can understand why someone would get into the brown/blonde Fender amps. I have also owned a few others that have been sold over the years. The Tremolux is probably my favorite of the bunch. It's exactly the same amp as a 6G11 Vibrolux combo with an 8 ohm output transformer. The brown Vibrolux is a favorite of Mark Knopfler. A really cool amp if you can find one.
You kind of missed that Leo Fender was likely trying to outdo Magnatone's vibrato when designing the Harmonic Vibrato. Magnatone also used Woodward-Schumacher transformers starting in the 50's. A Magnatone 213/413 amp is right up your alley. Great recording amp. I also own a 55 5E3 Deluxe, and the 6G3 Deluxe is pretty different. The 6G3 Deluxe gets more volume & grind with less compression. Even though the Marshall amp is based on a 5F6A Bassman, the 6G3 really has a Marshall vibe to it. The 6G2 Princeton is very close to a 5F11 Vibrolux. It doesn't achieve the same type of grind that the 6G3 Deluxe does
Nice Keith ! Thank you, I'm hoping there's a Tone Master 2x10 brown face super in Fender's pipeline. If they do that as well as they've done the blonde deluxe? Awesome!
The brown princeton is very very close circuit-wise to a tweed vibrolux. The brown Super is perhaps the finest amp Fender ever made. Ever.
Great video as always Keith. I have a vintage Fender Brown Face Bassman, but I just might pickup up the Suhr Hombre. It sounds fantastic and just right for studio work.
Great video/ history lesson as always Keith! I am fortunate to have a ‘62 Deluxe Brown. It is amazing! It currently has some gremlins that need sorting out, but even so, still has an incredible sound. When pushed, it has some of the best break up you will ever hear. The bias tremolo is, IMO, the best tremolo ever made, by a large margin. If it had the verb from the black panel era, it might be the best amp ever made, again, IMO. As it is, it’s still one of the best.
Great an insightful as always! Thank you
(But did you forget to thank In The Blues for his Video?)
I saw that Buss pedal on Justin Ostrander’s show. I bought one. It’s fantastic!!!
Another great one, K
I have a rare original '63 Vibroverb. Of my amps, incl. vintage it's magical. It's easy to get delusional over rare vintage gear but this lives up to folk lore. It would be discussed more as one of Fender's greatest amps but so few people have ever played one given they only made 600 and who knows how many are left.
Hi Keith...I think Cash's guitarist was Luther Perkins, not Carl, no?
Cool vid, thanks!
You are correct, sir.
Brown Face are good!
Great video Keith - been in love with brownfaces ever since seeing Lou Reed playing a brown deluxe with his sunglasses on. Have to mention here Ron Westwood of Cutthroat Audio in Coeur D’Alene - he builds a variety of creative brown-related amps (including a hypothetical brown champ inspired in part by your episode on Champ history). Superb build quality!
Thanks, Keith. A "Deluxe/Princeton type object" is on my wish list along with another ZT Lunchbox (my current gigging guitar amp) within the year. This video helped the decision process.
Yes, a vintage version of the Fender amps is or can be more of a commitment than marriage. But Leo did one thing right. They are easy to fix, as Lyle/Psionic Audio regularly preaches.
What a fantastic video have a wonderful weekend Keith also happy first day of summer also happy first weekend of summer ❤❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😅😊
Brown deluxe was one of the sickest amps Fender ever made.
I have a Roadhouse 12 (Portland-made clone of the Brown Princeton with a 12” speaker and switch to remove negative feedback circuit). Incredibly versatile amp and still the best tremolo I’ve heard. Thanks for the video!
I am fortunate to own a 1962 Princeton, and what a fabulous sounding amp. I got it back in 1979 and like Chris Stapleton stuck a 12 inch Celestion in it. Back in the day we had no clue about keeping things vintage. Still have it set up in my guitar room ready to go. I never updated the 2 prong plug so it's a bit dangerous to gig with. I was still in High School so I don't think I spent much for it, back then it was just a used amp.
There have been a number of ZZ live in Germany RUclips vids of early 80's. There still are. Sadly though, one of the best ones was removed in the last 4 years, likely due to copyright issues. It showed a Brown Deluxe sitting on stage not 3 or 4 feet from Frank Beard's hi-hat. It sounded exactly like Billy. I stupidly traded a '63 Brown Deluxe for a '65 Blackface Deluxe (non-reverb) around '99. Then again, in '99 I had no idea my Brown Deluxe would be worth $4,000.00 to $5,000.00 a decade later! I eventually found a pretty good clone from a private builder.
Damn! Now I have to go out and buy ANOTHER amp!! Thanks Kieth!
Hey Keith, I was more than a little amused to see you devoting time to the Suhr Hombre, even listing portions of Pete Thorn's demo of it. I say this as I recently discovered this bad boy being out there and picked one up this past Monday, 6/17/24. It's everything you said it is. It's a work of art, musically speaking. No overdrive pedals req'd, it's just pure great tone. John Suhr had a great base to work with. Damn, Leo got it right so many times in so many ways, didn't he? 🙂👍
It was a beautiful era.
My early 60’s brown Fender Pro has the tube-driven harmonic vibrato. The character of the vibrato changes as the tubes heat up, producing “sag.” My Dunlop vibrato pedal has a nice harmonic tremolo sound but it’s different than the tube harmonic vibrato.
I've had the Hombre head and cab for a few months now. Amazing. Also through an iron man attenuator. Incredible...mix of tweed and Marshall. Next is the 62 CS Princeton.
The brown combos and blonde piggybacks are the best sounding amps of all times. It's wild to me that Fender has largely ignored these circuits (though not the aesthetics) in favor of tweed, blackface, and even silverface models.
I picked up a Stapleton Princeton a couple years ago.
I had gone in to a music store to buy a '65 Princeton (with a 12-IN speaker), and the owner suggested I compare it to the Stapleton. I was put off by the signature aspect, simple controls, and lack of mod. Then the owner explained that it was hand wired.
The '65 sounded "plinky" by comparison, while the Stapleton sounded like a rump roast. I had to have it, so I saved up the difference and bought it used at another store.
I had an amp tech make two mods: (1) halve the tremolo rate, and (2) add a Mitchell doughnut for diffusion. Also, I bought a pedalboard for it, which includes dirt and reverb pedals.
It's sonic heaven - a makeup gift to my 15-year-old self.
I built a Brown Princeton combo chassis a couple of years ago to spec. to flip. Well finished it and thought it sounded nice. But then got into a Mojo cab and 10" Scumback M75 and it ain't for sale no more :0) just such a organic sound
I put a Celestion neo-Century into my Stapleton, and it is a favorite gigging amp! I run a T-Rex Fat Shuga reverb/drive in front to add that bit of extra gain the Deluxe has. Pure gold! (Brown).
Excellent as always and thanks for having me! Wish I coulda kept that Hombre!
I wish fender would offer more affordable reproductions of these brown era amps. I have a custom black panel vibrolux that comes pretty close but I want true reissues. Most boutique builders charge an arm and a leg for their reproductions.
For about $300 you can get accurate reproduction of the 57-61-65 Fender voicings in the solid state Quilter 25w Superblock US. No one wants to schlep a heavy amp anymore.
That clip at 19:00 with the Origin 61 pedal sounds very nice!
Love, love, love the brown/blonde era sounds. My old boss' mother-in-law had a dead-mint vintage blonde bassman head/cab (had been her husband's, who passed at a young age) that got sold to Dallas Good (RIP) of the Sadies. I wanted that amp SOOOO bad. The Stapleton Princeton came out about 2 weeks AFTER I bought a boutique (BF) Princeton...bummer. The Origin Effects Deluxe '61 is pretty great (as is the Magma '57 - oh boy that vibe - well worth a try). Currently saving for a Suhr Hombre...
Great video
I didn't know what amps zz top was using early on, I just knew I wanted that sound.
When I learned later that there was harmonic vibrato version, I fell in love.
As much as I have stepped away from tube amps, for domestic and financial reasons.
I would still enjoy having a smallish brownface in my studio/den
6G2 is THEE perfect home/studio amp. For me, anyway. Add an outboard reverb like a Surfybear if you need it (I do.) The original Oxford in my '62 was on its last legs when I got the amp, so I've tried a bunch of speakers in it out of necessity over the years. I don't think it's necessary to put in a 12" speaker to make it sound better, just louder. I've settled on a 10" Gold in mine and it's something special -- highly recommended!
I built a 6G11 vibrolux (with a cab from armadillo amps). It’s a lot of fun but there is a reason why these amps were only built for a small time. My 6G11 has an anemic power supply for instance. I’m gonna look at the black panel version next.
I skipped the Browns. Started with a new '74 Twin Reverb, a 97-ish Princeton, and then jumped back in time to the Bonamassa '59 Tweed Twin (amongst a myriad of Yamaha, Acoustic, Vox, Kustom, and Peavey models interspersed). Looks like I may need to give the Suhr Hombre a shot. Thanks Keith, as always!
Once I jumped the channels on Hombre Then I got it!
Black panel Princeton also uses bias vibrato.
Amp-in-a-box-wise, there's also the Tech21 Blonde and the $49 Joyo copy of it, the American Sound pedal.
I've had the cheap one going into a Peavey Renown 2x12 combo for a couple weeks, and I like it very much.
It lacks built-in reverb or trem, but it has three tone and three gain knobs, which make it a pretty flexible pre-amp pedal.
It also breaks up rather nicely.
Tweed Bassman, Brown Panel VibroVerb, Black Panel Super Reverb. Ready, set, go!
I think I saw 2 accordion inputs on that amp. Those were the days my friend 😁🎸
The Brown Panel amps are such great amps. I'm a huge fan of the 6G3.
Nuno used brown panel Fenders on Extreme's Waiting for the punchline album. For me it sounds raw, real and honest. I love the album
This is going to be controversial but : One could argue that the JTM 45 offset cloth Marshall, is the Tweed Piggyback bassman. Discuss.
Negative feedback is used to reduce distortion, specifically in the phase inverter/power-amp portion of the circuit. Gain reduction is a byproduct.
Excellent b roll 🤤
PAF and Brown Panel on ZZ Top's First Album is the top of the mountain tone for me
Dr Z Z28 is a great amp, and can do the “Brown Sound”, but not quite as flabby? It doesn’t have built in effects, but takes pedals great. Mark I is 6V6 22 watts. Have only seen the MkII online. It’s about 35 watts, with bigger output tubes, and has a post phase inverter master volume.
Menatone “Ms Foxy Brown” pedal is pretty nice too
Typo alert: at 1:47 it's a Vibrasonic, not "Vibrosonic" as the super-imposed description says.
Good catch. The Vibrosonic, with an "o" came much later, in the late 1970s I think.
Fortunately we can get a clone of those "magic" amps for reasonable prices, unlike the Fender originals (how high can they go?). ZZ Top's 1st record - brown Deluxe!
Meanwhile you can find bandmaster heads with harmonic trem for around $1k. (Shrug)
@@joepeezy4sheezy, I thought only the Brown Concert 4x10 combo had harmonic "vibrato". The other tremolo equipped Fender amps either had the flashing LDR "roach" or some form of bias-wiggle trem..... ps, I refurbished a brown Concert for a customer years ago and got to play through it: it was effing fantastic!
@@goodun2974 all of the piggyback brown panels had harmonic trem: bandmaster, twin amp, showman and tremolux all had it. All except the bassman. They all share a similar circuit with differences being power and output transformers, and power tubes.
Billy Gibbons played a Brownface DELUXE amplifier using Jenson Alnico or Oxford Ceramic Speakers? on the first 3 ZZ Top albums?
There are still deals to be had on brownface Fenders if you dig. I just bought a '64 6G6b Bassman for less than I could a used Hombre.
so much great history brother!
thank u.
one question: you were showing the origin revival trem pedal but referring to it as the origin 61 deluxe pedal…they do seem to have almost identical topology other than the name difference.
are they just an older and newer version of the same pedal?
thanks!🙏
My main amp is a ‘62 Bandmaster I put into a 2-10 combo cabinet. Everyone who uses it raves about it.
Just a heads-up that the "In The Blues" channel link is wrong. . .