Friday, March 27, 2009

Fender 75 amp

Came across this amp in a shop, and had to get it.  It's a single 15" combo, Rivera era Fender 75 amp from around 1980.  It totally rules!  Two channels, the last of the point to point, handwired Fender rigs, and the lead channel can get the juiciest, Marshall JCM800 style overdrive/distortion tone, yet through a 15 inch speaker...kinda unique tone, and I love it...for now...we'll see how long it lasts!  My cat seems to dig it...whenever I crank it up, he comes down outta the control room (upstairs) and lays back on the couch...even when it's cranked...he's 17 years old, damn near deaf, and was birthed by George Harrison while he was visiting a girlfriend in NYC, 17 years ago...touched by a Beatle!  I wonder what he would fetch on eBay?  He still acts like a kitten, and seems to have the energy and spunk of...well....Paul McCartney...wait a minute...wasn't I just talking about the Fender amplifier?

ROCK ON!

GMD

10 comments:

  1. Hey gearmanndude, this is my amp!
    I think it's great, beautiful tone and very hard to find!
    I will post soon a video on Youtube. Cheers

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  2. I managed to aquire a 15" 75 from a mate's garage. It was in poor shape - dusty, rusty and his kids used it to lean their bikes on. Spent £200 to re-tube and get it serviced and I will never, ever part with this awesome amp. Wish it was a bit lighter though! Nice choice - rock on Gearmandude.

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  3. I have one of these Fender 75 amps with a 15" speaker - I bought it 20 years ago, and it still sounds superb, is as heavy as hell. Anyone got an idea how much they'd sell for now? I'm kinda interested in selling it.

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  4. I bought my FENDER 75 combo new in 1981 and still have it to this day.I never gigged with it and it is still all original,with the original footpedal and is in beautiful condition..I have considered selling it,but think I might appreciate it later in life!!!!!Cheers,Steve

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  5. I swaped a twin reverb for my fender 75 which I very happily used for about 10 years. Then somebody told me to try a fender bassman "59 re-issue, I wasn't excited and eventually got around to A B the amps. I am now selling the 75 and never thought I would.

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  6. I have this amp as well. I bought it about ten years ago in a guitar store in backwoods Missouri for $300. I've toured with it and I play live with it every other weekend. I have recently picked up a white coily cable. It has Lindal rubes still in it. I have been kicking around the idea of putting JJs in it to see what it sounds like.

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  7. I have come to love this amp, however I love this amp much more with the JBL extended range 15" that was put in it. With the JBL it is a different monster, I run a Wurlitzer 200 and a burns reissue with tri-sonic pups and it screams, plenty of headroom at gigging volumes and unique eq with pull/push knobs for boosts. The magnet from the JBL causes the reverb tank to feedback anywhere past 4 on the dial, super fun to crank it at the end of a song and give it one good kick. Play it without the footswitch and you get to blend two channels, I use boxes for dirt so I set the clean channel and then push the lead between one and two on the dial and presto the amp just sings. The amp was probably built to compete with Mesa, with the high gain channel, you can get into that territory on a budget for sure. Strangely my two friends have this amp as well, killer amp for 300-400 bucks, highly recommended.

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  8. Going to swap for one of these this week. The speaker is shot, but I have an Eminence Big Ben I can put in it. I love the Orange Crush Pro 60 I'm swapping for it, but this amp is not going to sleep forever. Vintage hand wired Fender? It's a time bomb.

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