Fender Vibro King

[xtian]

Vibro King on the bench tonight to illustrate a Part B to the oldest tech support questions, "Is it plugged in?" Part B being, "Is the power cord cut nearly in half and hanging by a thread?"

So that only took a few...fifteen...minutes of poking around with the voltmeter.

Second problem, complaints of reverb not working, also easily solved, because guy had a 12ax7 where there should be an EL84 to drive the reverb.

Everything is working, and this is a beautiful amp, Fender! Nice job! Dual ganged pots for redundancy. Great reverb. Nice opto-trem. Really quiet. Great Fender tone.

Imma keepit.

[echuta13]

Yes. Save it from a horrible death that the current owner will ultimately deliver to it.

[Leo_Gnardo]

"First I Look At The Purse" J Geils Band.

First thing I look at is the AC cable... so many shredded, dog chewed, copper hanging out, whatever, safety first. If it looks perfect & no amp lite-up then a quick check with the ohm meter.

I'm of two minds on the Vibro King. Seems well-built and all, but those Alnico Eminence speakers hit my ears in all the wrong places. Not at all a charming tone. In only one case, a customer allowed me to replace a damaged one with a lowly (new) Jensen Mod 35. Much mellower sounding speaker and it did tame the shattering high end a tiny bit. To replace all 3 with more ear-friendly speakers IMO would be the first & maybe only "mod" necessary.

[ampmike]

I was always kinda intrigued by a VK.Have not tried one.Ive got some twins and deluxes here.Which would the VK be more like?

[xtian]

I was always kinda intrigued by a VK.Have not tried one.Ive got some twins and deluxes here.Which would the VK be more like?

Well, closer to Twin, certainly, but only 40 watts, single channel, reverb, tremolo.

[xtian]

but those Alnico Eminence speakers hit my ears in all the wrong places.

Oh, this one came as the chassis only, so I was playing thru my own cabinet. I thought the combos come with Jensen speakers?

[Leo_Gnardo]

but those Alnico Eminence speakers hit my ears in all the wrong places.

Oh, this one came as the chassis only, so I was playing thru my own cabinet. I thought the combos come with Jensen speakers?

Maybe Jensens in more recent years, I haven't kept track. But when I punched VK into Google, looks like there's a 20th anniversary edition. All the ones I've seen were early 90's versions and to my ear were about as tonally charming as banging two anvils against each other. Factory set bias way low too but that's easily remedied.

What's in the xtian "test cab?"

Hey somebody might like those alnico Eminences so don't let my taste or lack of it affect you-all. Find something you like & get it, that's what I say.

[matt h]

(deleted)

[xtian]

My test cab is a 2x10 with Eminence Ramrod and Ragin Cajun.

I have played a 59 Bassman reissue, with the 3x10 config with Jensen speakers, and it sounded really kick-ass at medium to loud volumes. Three drivers with open back really moves the air. Percussive.

[xtian]

I'll get to the research sooner or later...but...any other Fender models use a pentode driven reverb like the Vibro King? It sounds great, and has really low hum.

[Leo_Gnardo]

I'll get to the research sooner or later...but...any other Fender models use a pentode driven reverb like the Vibro King? It sounds great, and has really low hum.

None that I know of. Hum in the reverb I find usually has to do with keeping the "pickup" end of the tank well away from AC magnetic fields f'rinstance power transformers & similar. Also selecting a hum-quiet tube for the reverb recovery circuit.

Open back cabs "throw away" some degree of bass response, the tradeoff being "projection", an argument that was kicked around some in the early days of Fender and I'm sure thousands of times since. There's also something to be said for adding to the room ambience with the back wave, also using the amp for a dual purpose, sending some volume to whoever's behind the amp (drummer usually) although some of those object to all the racket. FWIW there are some, but not many, hi fi aficionados who build or buy open back speakers AKA bi-directional (pay more for the fancy name.) If they were mics, we'd call 'em figure 8.