Blackface or Silverface?

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HW discusses the differences in tone between the 65 and the 69 Prince profiles inside the Prince Tone Kemper Profile Pack and the differences between the amps themselves.

Need a Kemper? Check out the Tone Junkie Loaded Kemper available exclusively at British Audio.

[DavidGarcia-kwsf]

I have a 77 Twin and I've always been happy with it tone-wise. It is clean and has plenty of body to it and with the EQ you can boost the mids or lows, etc. as you see fit. It's a great amp for pedals and I have no complaint about the sound, although it is heavy of course.

[clemdog]

Honestly the silver face amps have a lot going on that change it’s role or even genre. They have a slight scoop and yes are really bright by comparison BUT... in a way that creates this elusive haze and atmosphere to the tone. Play a silver through a 12” creamback... you’ll be blown away!

[brandonkruse]

I think those old SF amps are the best value in the retro market. I had an old silver champ and super, with a cheap modification I had them turned into blackface clones.

[sixstring]

Just picked up a BF Princeton reverb 1964, everything you've heard is true❤

[KleyDeJong]

It is hard to compare them by grouping all BF amps vs all SF amps. First, from a circuit perspective there are many SF amps that received MINIMAL changes for much of the SF era. Thinking about smaller amps like the Bandmaster or Deluxe Reverb. Others received more drastic changes like the Twin Reverb going ultra linear with a master volume. That makes it a very different amp than the BF Twin Reverb. The Bassman has also received a lot of changes throughout the years.

So my opinion is that if you do some homework you can find some really fantastic sounding SF Fender amps that are quite inexpensive. I owned a '71 SF Bandmaster Reverb and with some servicing and TLC it was a phenomenal amplifier.

[grandelusion]

I always liked the silver faces more mainly for headroom. But tbh I think most of the tonal "differences" people think they hear is attributed to the speaker being different. I have a silver face bassman that I removed from it's closed 4x10 cab and put into a 2x12 cab with celestion v30s. May have well been an entirely different amp after that. So much better sounding. Speakers can really change how an amp sounds drastically.

[JeremiahL]

I bet both of those amps would sound good together.

[lanceholland]

Hi HW - In the (distant) past, I owned almost all the the blackface Fenders around '65. Over the years, all have been sold except my beloved '1965 DR. It's "The One".

[Bob-Sacamano]

Boy i got a 79 silverface super and it is amazzzzinggg... stays clean forever, beautiful clean tone "pedal platform"

[scottcasey]

I am so digging your knowledge. Thank you for teaching me some things I didn't know

[jturbodog]

The blackface and early silverface circuits are very similar, the biggest thing are the speakers, at least in my opinion.

[MintStiles]

Silverface sounds better to me as a rule of thumb. They have more of a lush sound for what I like. They really have a ampeg-ish thing going on. BF is good too, but a bit less forgiving and really overdone with how many boutique makers having their own takes on it (some better than fender and many worse).

[matthewperry]

Always liked My early 70's Bandmaster with the Bassman 15" for cleans and early 70's Bassman with the Bandmasters 2 twelves for dirt.

[cgavin]

If you play in your bedroom or just mess around with friends or record.. silverface.
Why? Because they sound richer at lower volumes.
Like an AC30 .. blackface only sound "sweet" when they are wound up and they don't deliver at bedroom levels.
I recently rolled my 72 twin back from a full blackface to partial (blackface cathode values on v2, v3, v4) because it quite honestly sounds sweeter and cleaner at 3-4 than with the 1m's in the PI etc. More gain is nice but I have other amps for that and a pedal does the job just as nicely (klon!).

[polyisus]

And why didn't you compare the 69 with the Jensen speaker to confirm if it is the circuit or just the speaker?

[bruzzgravely]

I don’t know were you buying your amps ? But I just paid 2000 dollars for a 68 Princeton reverb amp but I love it

[scottcasey]

Plus, your playing is quite tasty. Damn digging this page

[joshuabloodsworth]

Ive owned a lot of cool amps over the years, including brownface(bassman), blackface(bandmaster, tremolux, silverface(BMR, PR, TR) & the BEST Fender amp to my ears is my '64 Tremolux. There is just some special magic in that 'lil guy!

[slickgoose]

Awesome! Thanks for the freebies and the story I really love the blackface and silverface that I've played. Exciting stuff, the 1X15 vibroverb was my main amp prior to the kemper. I have the custom 64 Verb w/the diaz mod switch which is awesome but prohibitively loud! I look forward to seeing all of these and what you do with them. I have yet to try and profile mine because all of yours and Britt's profiles are so good. His 2020 63 Vibro is a home run for any fans of the vibroverb btw.

[marc_leblanc]

I've only played both in Deluxe Reverbs. I prefer the BF.