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mods to fender reissue reverb

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3/3/2000 11:33 PM

scott hackenberg

mods to fender reissue reverb

I understand that there are several modifications that toneheads generally make to the fender reissue reverbs to make them sound good (better, anyway). I have found schematics for a 60s design which used a 6V6GTA instead of a 6K6. What else can one do to hotrod this less than completely cool reissue? How does the Victoria reverbarato (aside from the vibrato circuit) relate to the fender design? What about the Soldano Surf Box? Didn't Matchless make a Spring reverb for awhile? Who has a schematic for that? Does anybody know if a Victoria-type design can be built from the Fender reissue simply by making some serious modifications? How different can all these things really be? In general, I guess my qustion is: what can I do to make the Fender reissue sound REALLY good?

3/4/2000 5:59 AM

As a former owner of both the fender reissue and the Victoria, I can say they are in fact different beasts. Namely the Victoria has tremelo and has all the virtues of a boutique handwired piece. That said, I bought my reverberato second hand at a good price but still found it to be too expensive for something I disconnected from the signal chain when I recorded, and of course, how much tremelo can we stand for any period of time. So I sold it.

The Fender reissue is a fine sounding unit especially if you change to all NOS tubes. Try a 5751 in the first slot, a good 12AT7 in the #2 posistion, and a 6k6 as the power tube. Last but certainly not least, change the small 250pf capacitor on the MIX control to something like 470pf silver mica. This will allow more mid and bass through and will warm up the sound considerably. These mods are outlined here on the resources by DR. N------. They do work!

3/4/2000 1:31 PM
JD Sleep	I think somebody here posted about replacing the transformer in the reissue making a huge difference, but I can't remember the details. If you're really serious about it (translates to "you got the money") check out the Hoffman site, you can get a hand-wired epoxy board replacement with original specs.

3/5/2000 7:03 AM

Here's the truth about the Re-Reverb

Compared my reissue to a completly original 64' Fender reverb unit today. Reissue won.

I installed the same compliment of tubes as his--12AX7--12AT7--6K6GT

My guitar tech buddy was the one who did the comparison and I'll be quoting him. Honestly it came down to the re-issue being a bit smoother in how the pots worked. Taper seemed better to him. He was the one twisting em'.

tonewise--exactly the same, he or I couldn't really hear a discernable difference.

Old--had the cool factor
New--If you didn't know--you wouldn't know

and that's the truth as I know it. Ruhl's mods might make it sound better--but it's just as cool as the original. That's what I learned today.

bw

3/5/2000 4:09 PM
Hi	I'd have to agree here, PCB or not, of all the "reissue" amps out there the one that really does sound like the original is the blackface Twin (and the Deluxe '65 r.i.). I had one which I bought purely for one reason - it sounded like the old ones when they were new. I played plenty of them back then, too. Hi

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