If You Need Blues Tone, You've Come to the Right Place
Written: Dec 27 '06 (Updated Sep 23 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: High quality, superb traditional blues/rock amp
Cons: Expensive. Not for high-gain players.
The Bottom Line: The Vibroverb is a high-quality, high price amp for blues, country and traditional rockers. The rectifier switch is cool and ups the gain, but not enough for modern rockers.
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| buffoonery's Full Review: Fender 64 Vibroverb Custom Face Tube Amp |
Fender’s 64 Vibroverb amplifier remains a hard-to-find classic amp for blues, country and rock players. It’s rarity arises from this: The Vibroverb was originally the Superverb equipped with 4x10” speakers. In 1964, for a short time, Fender modified the amp to contain only a single 15” speaker, and then stopped production. Its popularity now is a combination of the aforesaid rarity, it’s great bluesy tone, plus the cachet of its being used by the late Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Bingo! Instant collector’s item.
Flash forward some thirty-seven years to 2001, when noted amp-head Cesar Diaz (the maestro behind Stevie’s, Keith Richards’s, and Bob Dylan’s amps) approached Fender with the suggestion of resurrecting the Vibroverb with some hot rod modifications of his own design. Fender bought the idea and worked with Diaz on the project until his death in 2002, then finally released the 64 Vibroverb Custom amp in 2003.
Bottom line on the Vibroverb: this is a high-quality, almost boutique amp that will satisfy any guitarist who is looking for country, Texas blues, or straight ahead rock tones with some mild gain. At a big-box store price of $2,100 new, it’s also quite expensive. More on that later.
At first glance, the Vibroverb looks like a straight-ahead Fender blackface amp right out of the early 1960’s. There are two channels, each with input jacks for normal and high-gain instruments (four inputs total). The “Normal” channel has controls for volume, tone and bass plus a bright switch. The “Vibrato” channel has the same controls plus knobs for reverb, vibrato speed and vibrato depth. The included foot switch controls both reverb and vibrato. Note: the vibrato is really a tremolo control because it alters only volume, not pitch. Also, the bright switches improve the highs at low volume but are less effective at high volumes. The lack of a master volume control means that you have to really crank this amp to get what distortion it offers.
Sound is provided by a loud 1x15” Eminence 8-ohm speaker encased in an open-backed pine cabinet covered by black vinyl with silver grille cloth. Power is courtesy of 2 x GT 6L6s in the power amp, 4x12AX7s in the preamp, 2x 2AT7s for the reverb, and a 1x GZ34/5AR4 rectifier tube (more on that later).
The reverse of the amp has a fuse, power socket, power and standby switches, connections for the main and external speaker, and footswitch. There is also a bias switch depending on whether you use the normal or vibrato channel, and one for the reverb output. Finally, there is a switch for choosing the tube or silicon diode rectifier.
The whole shebang comes in at 52 pounds. Not light, but not as heavy as many amps. The manual (written in four or five languages, including the one you’re reading now) explains the controls and switches briefly but is nowhere as informative as the manuals published by Mesa.
The amp sounds, well, great. Full bottom end, nice highs, plenty of aggression when you’re playing on the low strings. It delivers loud, loud, loud blues tone and you can understand why Vaughan and Richards liked/like this amp. It’s really ideal (not surprisingly) for Strat and Tele grit but a Les Paul or Gretsch player will find much to admire here. The reverb and trem also sound great.
The added special feature is the rectifier switching designed by Diaz. Switching to Mod (solid state mod) adds gain, tightness and punch that you don’t normally find in a Fender. Using this switch with humbuckers will come close to a nice 70s hard rock sound. But don’t expect to get the gain you see in modern Marshalls or Mesa amps, it just isn’t here. What you get is more like using a mild Tube Screamer than a Boss Metal Zone pedal, and you just are not going to get Mesa Rectifier sounds from this amp. Blues, yes! Metal, no!
So my final thoughts on the Fender Vibroverb are this: It’s a great sounding, high quality blues/country/rock country amp. It’s ideal for clubs. Single-coil players will love it. It’s sturdy and you can gig your head off with it. However, it’s not an amp for players seeking modern high-gain tones. Jazz players also should look elsewhere. It’s also expensive, quite expensive at $2,100 new. For that money, you can get yourself a Mesa Lone Star or Road King, amps that I frankly think are more versatile, especially on the high gain end. But that view may be a matter of bias. There’s no question that the 64 Vibroverb Custom is a terrific amp that is worthy of its predecessor’s name.
Model Name: '64 Vibroverb Custom
Model Number: 814-0000-000
Series: Custom Series
Type: All Tube Amp
Output: 40 Watts into 8 ohms or 4 ohms (Tube Mode),50 Watts into 8 ohms or 4 ohms (Solid State Mode)
Ohms: 8 ohms
Speakers: 1-15" Special Design Eminence®, 8 ohm Speaker with Ceramic Magnet
Channels: Dual Channels (Normal and Vibrato)
Features:
All Hand Wired Chassis,
Solid Finger Jointed Pine Cabinet,
Circuit Modifications Designed by the Legendary Cesar Diaz,
Tube Driven Spring Reverb,
Tube Vibrato,
2-Button Footswitch,Standby Switch,
Extension Speaker Jack,
Tube/Diode (Solid State) Rectifier Switch,
Tilt-back Legs,
Controls:
Front Panel:Normal Channel: Bright Switch, Volume, Treble, Bass
Vibrato Channel: Bright Switch, Volume, Treble, Bass, Reverb, Vibrato: Speed, Intensity,
Rear Panel: Tube/Diode (Solid State) Rectifier Switch,Power Switch,Standby Switch,Speaker and Extension Speaker Jacks,Footswitch Jack,Stock/Modified Circuit Switch,Reverb Output and Input RCA Jacks
Covering: Black Textured Vinyl with Silver Grille Cloth
Weight: 52 lbs. (23.58 kg)
Dimensions: Height: 20" (50.8 cm),Width: 25 1/8" (63.8 cm), Depth: 10 1/2" (26.7 cm)
Tube Complement: 2 X GT 6L6, 4 X 12AX7, 2 X 12AT7, 1 X GZ34/5AR4 Rectifier Tube
Cover: Uses Cover (Included)
Accessories: Comes with 2-Button Footswitch for Reverb and Vibrato On/Off, and Cover
Footswitch: Uses 2-Button Footswitch
Here are my other amplifier reviews:
Marshall Super 100 JH
Peavey Classic 30 Combo
Crate Power Block
Roland Micro Cube
Mesa 5:25 Express
Mesa Stiletto Ace
Fender Cyber Twin
Line 6 Vetta II Combo
Mesa 5:50 Express
Line 6 Spider III 75
Mesa Lone Star Combo
Vox Valvetronix AD60VT
Mesa Stiletto Deuce
Mesa Triple Rectifier Head
Fender DSP 65
Peavey Triple XXX Head
Fender Super Sonic 1x12 Combo
Hughes and Kettner Switchblade 50 Combo
Fender MH 500 Metalhead
64 Fender Vibroverb Custom Blackface
Mesa Dual Rectifier Roadster
Peavey Penta Head
Peavey JSX Joe Satriani Signature Head
Line 6 Spider II Head
Crate Acoustic CA30
Line 6 Flextone III Plus
And you may also be interested in a few books such as:
Hugo Pinksterboer – Tipbook Amplifiers and Effects
Ritchie Fliegler – Amps: The Other Half of Rock and Roll
Michael Ross – Getting Great Guitar Sounds: A Non-Technical Approach to Shaping Your Personal Sound
Recommended:
Yes
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