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Okay, lets give it a go here. If it's Princeton related, feel free to stick it in here! I figure there are enough folks here using these little guys by now that it makes sense to layout the collective knowledge base in one spot. Feel free to add what you have, PHOTOS, what other gear works well with them, speakers, tubes, pedals, etc. And again... PHOTOS=

I have two now, a '62 6G2 and a '66 AA964:

I guess I'll play, since I have something to add here that probably almost nobody else has. I have had two Princeton models, an early 70's silverface that I wish I still had, and now I have a Princeton Recording:



It's basically just a Princeton AVRI like those other blackface reissues that Fender made, but in this case it has a built in attenuator, which is cool. It also has a couple of built in effects, compression and distortion, that are usable.

If you turn the volume all the way down on the attenuator, you don't hear anything but it does have an XLR out that can be sent to a board or a recording interface post amp, and there is a built in cab simulator at that setting.

Frankly, it sounds a lot better than it is, in practice it's a finicky little amp that is useful in the studio and nowhere else.

One day I would like to get it in to be serviced, sometimes the reverb tank (which Fender wants one to know is a real Accutronics tank) cuts out, no idea why. I might want to try a different speaker also.

But really, I don't use it a lot, because there's too many tempting knobs for little hands on there. When I have an official home studio I'll be getting a lot more use out of it, I'd imagine.

Here are some shots of my 77 SFPR. I got it as a wedding present from my wife nearly 10 years ago. I’ve since purchased a Marshall Class 5 and built a replica of a 55 Tremolux, but this will always be what I hear in my head when I think of the words “lush” and “reverb”. It’s hard to beat! The Oxford speaker is not up to super fuzzy doom rock, but it does most of the stuff I ask to to do really well.

I've just acquired a 62 6g2..
After years of playing 50watt el34 amps I bought the deluxe reverb and changed my opinions on fenders amps. The princeton was the next logical step as far as a compact small amp in a band setting. Finding one in Australia for a great price makes it all the better.

I’m loving the 6G2s I’ve been seeing on this site recently! Any chance of gut shots for us?

Best damn amps around!

FSR PRRI:


Syd The Paisley Tele And A Madcap Amp, September 21, 2014 by Maggie Osterberg, on Flickr

It's a Princeton Reverb; what can I say?

High power Princeton Reverb clone from a Weber kit. It has 6L6s instead of the std 6V6's. I bought it non-working and fixed it. Ballsy amp. Rates at 30-35 watts.

jthomas wrote: ↑

Mon May 27, 2019 12:56 pm

High power Princeton Reverb clone from a Weber kit. It has 6L6s instead of the std 6V6's. I bought it non-working and fixed it. Ballsy amp. Rates at 30-35 watts.

please tell me it takes pedals amazingly

I use a ‘71 non-reverb as my practice space amp. I bought it intending to swap the baffle for a 12” but have found that at about 9 on the volume knob with a Jupiter 10lc and an extra push from a Caroline Icarus, it holds its own pretty well against the other guitarist’s Randall 212.

Of course, it's all so subjective, but: The Weber high power Princeton loves overdrive! Your post got me to waste a half-hour or so playing around with it. I have a Behringer TO800 (Tube Screamer clone that is much better than I expected for the price) that the amp does really well with. I also have a Analogman Sun Face NKT red dot that makes the amp sing. Lotsa crunch. Now, What I really need a bigger practice space to open it up.

My 1966 PR.
The code on the label decodes to 1965, but this is one of the batch where the staff at the Fender factory forgot to increment the stamp label to indicate 1966 for most of January 1966 and they still stamped it as per 1965.
Original Oxford 10" speaker (the first speaker anyone should strive for)
It had the preamp electrolytic caps in the main board replaced at some stage, but the cap-can and other electrolytics were original and had started to weep. I replaced them all which gave the bass response a little pep me up.

This is the amp that got me started on my own journey designing PR sized amps/cabs with 10" speakers.
Sounds like everything one has read/heard about them, records beautifully.

Which ultimately lead me to:



which I use with:

Man, those custom Princetons are friggin gorgeous Sookwinder! Any weird circuitry or fairly standard Princeton?

Shadoweclipse13 wrote: ↑

Thu May 30, 2019 4:09 am

Man, those custom Princetons are friggin gorgeous Sookwinder! Any weird circuitry or fairly standard Princeton?

^ This!

Shadoweclipse13 wrote: ↑

Thu May 30, 2019 4:09 am

Any weird circuitry or fairly standard Princeton?

The amp is essentially a cross between a Black Face Deluxe and a BF Princeton.
A little more powerful than a Princeton, but not quite as loud as a Deluxe.

When I designed the amp I added a number of components that would be regarded as standard safety design add ons these days, but items Leo did not use because (1) he was designing to a budget or maybe (2) they were not regarded as important back then. I would rather burn out a 50 cent resistor than destroy a $90 vintage NOS 6V6GT valve.

I then also added:
- Master Volume. This allows for the input volume to be high and dirty but the overall volume to be low, through to clean input and loud output (and everything in between). I used a MV design that is basically noiseless, consists of a twin pot and 2 resistors and IMO is essential to any amp design.
- MIDS switch. This adds in a resistor that allows the mids that are normally lost in a standard Fender design to be recovered. Cost: one resistor, a couple of inches of wire and a switch.
- Rather than having two (Hi Lo) inputs, I added a second circuit, a tweed amp circuit running a 12AY7 preamp valve. (the BF circuit uses the standard 12AX7 preamp valve)
- Attenuation for the Tweed preamp circuit. There is a switch (on the back of the amp) that attenuates the preamp signal from the Tweed preamp. This basically means you need to turn up louder to get the same volume. Why? It allows one to get more crunch without tearing your ears apart.
- A switch to allow 2, 4 or 8 ohm speaker set up.
- The usual Negative Feedback on/off switch that can add some hairiness to you sound when the NFB is off.
- JUMP switch. There is also a JUMP switch between the inputs and the BF channel input volume knob. This jumps both the BF circuit and the TWEED circuits to get everything from both channels, depending on how you have set the individual channel volume knobs.

I built/designed quite a few amps prior to this. Learnt a lot along the way (with help from James).
I stopped designing after this one. (apart from the SPLASH reverb unit and the preamp/line out amp for my Rhodes electric piano).

Lastly … assuming you have run them in, you can't go past a WEBER speaker.