1977 Super Reverb (deal is done shake hands with the devil)

[retinal orbita]

I'm looking at one tonight I've found on CL for a reasonable price and ultimately I'll use my ears as the ultimate reference, but I need some ILF input here - Fender people can be fucking weird. I keep reading forums where the opinions range from "Ugh Silverface! Throw it in the garbage with the rest of your trash!" to "solid state rectifier and master volume knob?!?! Why don't you just piss in your mothers face you heathen!!"

Anyway, I've sold my Marshall JCM900 half stack that was just not what I wanted, I have a nice wad of cash to play with and I want a clean, loud amp. "Shimmering tones" "nice headroom" and "takes pedals well" are the phrases I like. I've been to a few used stores, tried out a bunch but I'm sort of diving in blind because I can't tote my pedalboard all over town. I'm checking out the 77 tonight after work - I have to drive out of town and since I don't have a car my dad is driving me and I pay for gas/hamburgers.

Anyway - any advice is welcome. I want a clean amp to build upon my "sonic palatte" and colour appropriately with fuzz, and other effects. My Mashall was always distorted. I have just never been in a position to throw down for a new amp in the last few years and now I can.

I'm no corksniffer boutique transparent OD blues lawyer. I want an amp that's loud enought to play with in a band setting, and I don't care what colour the faceplate is.....

Any ILF opinions welcome. Thanks in advance.

[greyscales]

I've played one of these (my father owns one) and it is fucking amazing. Some of the best overdriven amp tones ever IMO. It works really well with an attenuator if that's your thing.
Plenty of headroom if you need it. Loud too. Not Twin crazy-loud, but it still has 4 speakers pushing out air.
Only problems are those that any old Fender will have: needs rebiased when you swap tubes, can be a bit noisy, and might need some tech loving.

That said, I would grab that thing in an instant.

[retinal orbita]

Thanks greyscales! The dude selling it has promised it was retubed 6 months ago and checked over by a tech (and he works in a guitar shop so I don't see why this would be a concern). I'm willing to do the legwork in maintaining it as well. My Marshall was indestructible and never needed any work so I know that's not going to be the case here, but that's okay.

I definitely don't need an attenuator, I'll be using it with a full band so I should be good to go. I'm assuming a 70 watt into a 410 will give me everything I need volume wise, haha.....

[GAS KING]

Original speakers?

[retinal orbita]

Original speakers?

Yes.

[cheesecats]

i've had a silverface super ('68) and twin ('80) and a blackface twin ri ('2005ish) and loved them all. loud, superclean, great with pedals.

[Psyre]

Super's are my favorite amps. I have a 68. Granted it's a AB763. Ryan recently restored a mid-late 70's and loves it too I know. 4x10's is where it's at.

[Ryan]

I have the exact same amp, a 76 or 77! Last summer I did an overhaul on it and it's my main amp, my daily driver, and I really love it. It's so loud and clean and big sounding, it's excellent. I wanted an awesome clean pedal platform and it's perfect for that.

Here's my overhaul, new tubes to new speakers, it's an easy amp to work on:

http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=146&t=35238

Don't listen to the blackface purists, silverface Fenders are wonderful amps. I love the ultralinear-ness and silicon rectifier and I even think the pull-boost is awesome, it's an overdriven mid-boost, what's not to like! These amps don't need to be re-biased to change the output tubes, you use a matched pair and then adjust the trimmer on the back for minimal hum. Pre-amp tubes don't need biasing.

The only caveat I'd have is that it doesn't love low frequencies. It's a very bassy amp, sounds fantastic, but it can't handle low bass.. only standard-tuning guitar bass. If you feed in low signals it'll fart out easily unless you put in some beefier 10s. Mine came with stock Fender CTS speakers that sounded really good, I put in Jensen re-pros that are really sweet and clean but neither set could handle any low bass at all.. while still sounding very bassy with a normal guitar.

I'm a big fan of the silverface Fenders, love the clean headroom and big bold clear tone.

[retinal orbita]

I bought it!! I played it for 2 min and fell in love. I'll take some pics. I'm so happy. And we had hamburgers.

I'll check your thread out too. Thanks!!

[retinal orbita]

Kicky front view:



Kicky instagram pic:

[retinal orbita]

The only caveat I'd have is that it doesn't love low frequencies. It's a very bassy amp, sounds fantastic, but it can't handle low bass.. only standard-tuning guitar bass. If you feed in low signals it'll fart out easily unless you put in some beefier 10s.

Yes. I may need to futz with the EQ. I tune my guitar BEADGC with a set of 7's on a 6 string guitar and it was a little farty upon first play.

I hate testing these things. I feel like the seller is expecting a show and I'm all about the tone lads, so I'm just plucking and futzing. I'm sure the seller was like "this guy fucking sucks at guitar why doesn't he just keep his JCM 900 SL-X and futz into that"

[retinal orbita]

http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=146&t=35238

Great thread. This is what happens when I use the "search by title only" for keywords. I'm sorry I missed this.

[Chankgeez]

I bought it!! I played it for 2 min and fell in love. I'll take some pics. I'm so happy. And we had hamburgers.

[Psyre]

Welcome to the club. They also really like Bass VI's.

[retinal orbita]

Welcome to the club.

cheers, thanks! I really got a good vibe from the seller too, very up front, walked me through every detail of the amp, second owner, etc. Very well maintained. I can't wait until I can get it to my rehearsal space and crank 'er.... Saturday is a long way away.