Did another thing to my Vibrolux

[greatmutah]

I got some of the new Jensen Silverbird 10s. These are like their ceramic version of the alnico Blackbird 10 40s they sell. One of the things I was looking for in the case of my Vibrolux was a speaker that still did Fender like cleans but could handle a bit more dirt than the Webers I’d been running. I got em last week and dropped them in the amp immediately. I’ve got roughly 10 hours on them so far. They sounded good to begin with and they’re slowly sweetening up even more. With cleans I find I can run the verb even higher without it getting super crazy/smeary. With gain pedals it feels less like it’s going to fall apart than the Webers. It’s less smeary in the upper mids and holds up better. At the same time, the treble response seems a bit more airy? Especially clean. For dirt pedals they’ve liked my Dude, Super Phat Mod, Catalinbread Tribute OD and my Muffs. The speakers are still very much in the American camp, EQ wise, but seem to handle gain better without being as shrill and piercing in the room. I’m hoping to get a microphone on them soon.

In other Vibrolux related news, I have a proper silver faceplate coming for it. The amp is a 76 but the previous owner replaced the speakers with the aforementioned Webers and converted the silver panel to black. I like blackface fender amps but aesthetically I’ve always been a bigger fan of the Silverface look. So we’re gonna fix that.

Anyway here’s some pics to tide over before clips happen.

 

[JasonE]

I have played a lot of gigs with my Marsh Springfield amp. It is a hand wired Vibrolux Reverb circuit with some modifications. Mine came with Eminence Rajin Cajun speakers in it. The warm clean tone is what sold me on this amp right from the beginning. As soon as I heard one in the shop I literally stopped what I was doing to see what amp and guitar was making that gorgeous sound. I have wanted to try a pair of Greenback speakers in it but could never get myself to pull these out just to try something new. These speakers have taken many of my drive pedals very well. The Ragin Kajun is a speaker that a lot of folks seem to swap in for the stock speakers in a Vibrolux. If you ever decide to swap yours again, take a look at these. I have been super happy with them and have been playing these for the last 9 years.

 

[greatmutah]

I have played a lot of gigs with my Marsh Springfield amp. It is a hand wired Vibrolux Reverb circuit with some modifications. Mine came with Eminence Rajin Cajun speakers in it. The warm clean tone is what sold me on this amp right from the beginning. As soon as I heard one in the shop I literally stopped what I was doing to see what amp and guitar was making that gorgeous sound. I have wanted to try a pair of Greenback speakers in it but could never get myself to pull these out just to try something new. These speakers have taken many of my drive pedals very well. The Ragin Kajun is a speaker that a lot of folks seem to swap in for the stock speakers in a Vibrolux. If you ever decide to swap yours again, take a look at these. I have been super happy with them and have been playing these for the last 9 years.

I honestly thought about the Greenbacks. But I didn’t want to lose the American style speaker tone that suits these amps so well. I did look at the Cajuns too. I’ve used Eminence before. I had a set of Texas Heats in a 4x12 years ago. Solid speakers for sure. I think what pushed me over was playing a stock DRRI at a local shop and just loving th C12 clean tone. My thought was if the Silverbirds can get a similar clean but handle some dirt better than the Webers (you can see in the pics the Webers are also not doped) then I’d be in business. So far that seems to be the case.

 

[greatmutah]

No clips yet but the replacement faceplate came. I’m pretty happy with it. Now it looks like a 1970s Fender.

 

[JiveTurkey]

That's gonna look great GM

 

[dronerstone]

That's beautiful! Nice job

 

[greatmutah]

Thanks! I love Silverface Fenders. They were kind of the unloved bunch of Fender amps for a long time but these are the ones I remember seeing the most in music stores and the like growing up. And I’ve always liked the look of them. And this one is a 1976. Pot codes and transformer codes line up right. So I thought I’d let it look like it’s supposed to.

The only thing left I MIGHT do for it… when I got it the OT was putting out about 5 watts. Not even a complete sine wave. Didn’t know you could have a blown transformer with some sound. Dean Zink up here replaced it a Classic Tone transformer and it’s been great ever since. I still have the original Schumacher OT though. And I might send it to Heyboer to have it rewound. They’re close to me and I have their transformers in my Egnater and Metro. I got a quote on how much it will cost roughly. I’m not going to do it right now but down the line I may.

 

[greatmutah]

Alright, clips!

Cleans!



Dirty



Signal Chain. For cleans, my Strat, all 5 positions, Super Phat Mod (I rolled back guitar volume a bit), amp (volume 4.5) Bright On, Treble 6, Bass 3, Reverb 4

Dirt AVRI 52 RI all 3 positions for rhythms -> Super Phat Mod -> Tribute OD -> Amp (same settings, no reverb), at the end I add some Dispatch Master set to kind of a slap back thing.

Not the greatest playing ever but this should help some folks out who are curious about these speakers.

 

[itchyfingers]

Nice tones and playing GM! I've got a 76 Pro Reverb that I fall in love with every time I plug into it.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Yep. Sounds great!

 

[greatmutah]

Nice tones and playing GM! I've got a 76 Pro Reverb that I fall in love with every time I plug into it.

Greg! I miss you man. I love this amp. It’s been a great teacher for me and while the Webers were ok, I really dig these Jensens. I beat on em a couple hours daily and they just do the thing I want them to do, especially with my single coil guitars. Still rocking the original glass in here too and that’s held up.

 

[greatmutah]

Yep. Sounds great!

Thanks JT!