View other reviews for this product:
King Loudness « Classic Fender tones »
Published on 10/30/11 at 19:40The Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb is a modern day reissue of the famous blackface amp. It features 40 watts of power driving two ten inch speakers. The power tube compliment is 12AX7s and one 12AT7 in the preamp section, and a pair of 6L6s in the power section. It features two channels with onboard reverb and tremolo available on both channels via a footswitch. Each channel has its own inputs as well. Though it lacks the modern channel switching capabilities of clean/high gain rigs, it has a great clean tone that is very lush and sounds wonderful for jazz, country or blues textures.
UTILIZATION
Getting a good sound out of this amp is pretty simple. It has a pretty basic control layout and isn't really much to deal with as far as dialing in. It's primarily designed to be a clean sounding Fender amp, and that's what it does best. It doesn't have a distortion channel onboard, so any grit would likely have to come from a pedal of some sort. That being said, it's quieter/smaller than a Twin Reverb or similar high wattage clean amp, so it is a little more gig friendly than some of the high wattage Fenders out there.
SOUNDS
This amp sounds great with a whole variety of different guitars from jazzboxes to Strats or Teles. It's got that classic Fender sound in spades, but is at a more reasonable volume than the standard Twin Reverb. It has a nice crisp clean sound that is great for everything from jazz to blues to funk to surf. The reverb and tremolo have nice authentic sounds too, though they can cause feedback if turned up too high I find. This amp is also a fairly loud 40 watts, so it doesn't need to be turned up to get some volume happening.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb is a nice take on the typical Fender blackface amp. The dual ten inch speakers offer a nice full stereo sound and the tones are true American clean. At about $1,200 new this amp is a reasonable buy for the gigging musician looking for a great Fender combo that has a little more firepower than a Deluxe Reverb or Champ but doesn't want something as big and bulky as a Twin Reverb.
UTILIZATION
Getting a good sound out of this amp is pretty simple. It has a pretty basic control layout and isn't really much to deal with as far as dialing in. It's primarily designed to be a clean sounding Fender amp, and that's what it does best. It doesn't have a distortion channel onboard, so any grit would likely have to come from a pedal of some sort. That being said, it's quieter/smaller than a Twin Reverb or similar high wattage clean amp, so it is a little more gig friendly than some of the high wattage Fenders out there.
SOUNDS
This amp sounds great with a whole variety of different guitars from jazzboxes to Strats or Teles. It's got that classic Fender sound in spades, but is at a more reasonable volume than the standard Twin Reverb. It has a nice crisp clean sound that is great for everything from jazz to blues to funk to surf. The reverb and tremolo have nice authentic sounds too, though they can cause feedback if turned up too high I find. This amp is also a fairly loud 40 watts, so it doesn't need to be turned up to get some volume happening.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb is a nice take on the typical Fender blackface amp. The dual ten inch speakers offer a nice full stereo sound and the tones are true American clean. At about $1,200 new this amp is a reasonable buy for the gigging musician looking for a great Fender combo that has a little more firepower than a Deluxe Reverb or Champ but doesn't want something as big and bulky as a Twin Reverb.