My 1964 Princeton Amp

This is my 1964 transitional Princeton amp. It’s one of the smartest purchases I ever made and the only pre-CBS Fender piece I own. I picked this up in 1997 or so while working at a vintage guitar shop. I recall the shop was asking around $450.00 for this. I traded some stuff plus a little cash.

It appears to be all original. It has a great sounding ceramic Jensen (also from 1964) in it. These amps were identical, circuit wise, to the early 60s brown Princetons. This one didn’t seem to be as easily overdriven as the brown versions I’ve played. I later learned that at some point in the early 60s Fender switched to a GZ34/5AR4 rectifier tube (from a 5Y3GT) and the slightly higher voltages add a little clean headroom. I’ve tried both rectifiers in this amp and found that with a 5Y3GT it does sound just like the brown versions. I slightly prefer the extra headroom that the 5AR4 provides so that’s what’s in it.

The brown series amps (and this transitional black face) are my favorite Fender amps. They don’t have the wild woolliness of the tweeds or the scooped slightly hi-fi sound of the later blackface amps. Just perfect to me. One of the best amps I ever heard was a brown Concert. This amp makes a Telecaster or Stratocaster sound really good. Even with the tone cranked a Tele never sounds shrill. With single coils it’ll stay clean up to about 7 or so on the volume. From there it gets crunchy with a little compression. With humbuckers or a P-90 it’ll get really crunchy at 5 and a little “Marshall-y” dimed.

This Princeton has been recorded a lot. It’s probably on 80% of the stuff I’ve tracked since I picked it up. A few years ago I told myself that I’d retire it and only use it for home and recording but it still makes it out to select shows or rehearsals. When this amp landed at the shop it came with a really nice flight case. I kick myself for not coughing up the extra $$$ for that. I do have a vintage handmade soft cover for it though.

I’ve only had this amp serviced once. I had some noisy resistors changed and a 3-prong power chord installed. I clean it and exercise it often to keep it looking and sounding its best. I can’t see ever getting rid if this. Leo Fender got so many things right back in the day and the 6G2 Princeton is one of them.