Fender Brownface Amps

There is not many of these amps around. They were an evolutionary step from the Tweed amp versions and the long lived Blackface/Silverface years. From the early 60's up to about 1963.

Sound wise I have not heard that many in person. A Brownface Deluxe and a Brownface Vibroverb are all I have listened to in person. There are more clips on the Net but so much depends on the quality of the recording and the speakers you listen to on your PC its hard to get the same impression as in person.

I think they are like a tweed/blackface hybrid sound. More dark sounding than the later Blackface amps but more sparkly that the Tweeds.

I have built the Deluxe which has a Tremolo circuit but no reverb and I have built the Vibroverb. The Vibroverb is the first Fender to feature Reverb. Its also has the tremolo based on the bias modulation technique. This means it actually varies the bias voltage to the power tubes to get tremolo (or vibrato) rather than the later Blackface amps that use a device called an opti isolator- or cricket. Its actually got a sealed light source that varies its strength based on the voltage supplied and a recieving device that passes that voltage- or pulse- on to the output circuit. Its more of an on/off device rather than the Brownface bias modulation technique. The Brownface circuit produces a softer and more organic pulse. Frankly, its harder to get the Bias Modulation working right and tube bias is critical to it sounding right. Fender had so many issues since most folks let their amps get out of bias spec and the tremolo would then go away or sound very faint. Suprisingly, the Blackface Princeton Reverb has a version of this bias modulation tremolo and its the only one in the Blackface years to keep it.

Here are some pictures of my Brownface Vibroverb. It has 2 6l6 power tubes for close to 40 watts of power. It has tremolo on both channels but reverb only on the second reverb channel. I could modify it to have reverb on both but I goosed up the normal channel gain a little instead for some nice breakup. It uses 2 10" speakers which by 1964 had been replaced in the Blackface version with one 15" speaker. Stevie Ray made the Blackface version famous as he used it alot. The Brownface Vibroverb is probably one of the rarest of all Fender amps. It was made only for 1 year I believe. My replica is for sale for $1600 if your interested- its a unique amp and sounds quite nice. Great cleans, deep reverb and a soft organic tremolo. Overdrives nicely as well.

 

 

These are pretty complex amps compared to the simplicity of the Tweeds. With reverb and tremolo you have to add tubes to the preamp portion and build a lot more circuitry onto the eyelet board. In addition, you really have to watch your lead dress to avoid a lot of noise and hum. Also, there are a lot of controls on the front panel so there are a lot of pots to be wired. These are not inexpensive amps to build and hard to get sounding good if you don't follow good layout technique.

 

Here is the Brownface transitional cabinet used by Fender before the later Black tolex and silver grill coth Blackface models. I love the look of these amps. You can see the footswitch controls as well.

The controls and layout are echoed by the later amps in Fender lineup coming in the Blackface years as is the double channel setup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like to try to find an old period correct Pilot light for my repro builds. This one came out of an old 50's amp I had. Its just one of those special touches that only I probably notice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a back view of the cabinet with an Eminence Patriot series Delta Demon speaker mixed with a Weber Blue Pup Alnico speaker. The combination gives a great bass and treble spread. The sound from 2 10" speakers is very focused and tight. You can also see the reverb pan in the bottom. I have "shock mounted" the pan meaning I actually have its attachment points spring loaded and it floats above the bottom of the cabinet. Fender would mount their reverb pans in a tolex fabric sleeve and screw it down to the bottom of the cabinet. I prefer my way.