Walter Broes
Enlightened Member
I got offered such a good deal on this I couldn't resist...a Fender Vibro King!
I wanted one bad when they came out around the mid-90's, but they were much too expensive for me. This was the time a good Super Reverb was still cheap, and that's what I (happily) played then.
It's a strange design unlike any traditional Fender amp. There's an entire Fender outboard ("surf") reverb unit built into it in front of the amp's input, it has a ridiculously large power transformer, high voltage on the two 6L6 power tubes, no negative feedback and a solid state rectifier, a hefty tweed bassman output transformer, opto tremolo and three fairly light 10" Alnico speakers.
It's fairly large, very heavy and LOUD - but through the unique tone stack design, not uncontrolably so - put bass, mid and treble on zero and nothing comes out - so you can effectively use the tone controls as a kind of attenuator.
It all translates into a pretty unique amp - huge drippy Reverb, unusually early breakup for such a big amp if you want it, a strange but cool mix of a fast, crazy dynamic attack and punch because of the power supply, and a bluesy compression element from the alnico speakers and zero negative feedback.
As if it was designed for my brand of rowdy Rockabilly/Rootrock.
It's going to come in handy the coming months, I have some big outdoor stage festivals coming up and I think the punch and authority of this thing will be just perfect for those - where my usual souped-up tweed Bandmaster is a little too saggy and compressed. It's definitely not a small-to-medium club amp, but I'm not playing any of those this spring and summer. Stoked!!
I wanted one bad when they came out around the mid-90's, but they were much too expensive for me. This was the time a good Super Reverb was still cheap, and that's what I (happily) played then.
It's a strange design unlike any traditional Fender amp. There's an entire Fender outboard ("surf") reverb unit built into it in front of the amp's input, it has a ridiculously large power transformer, high voltage on the two 6L6 power tubes, no negative feedback and a solid state rectifier, a hefty tweed bassman output transformer, opto tremolo and three fairly light 10" Alnico speakers.
It's fairly large, very heavy and LOUD - but through the unique tone stack design, not uncontrolably so - put bass, mid and treble on zero and nothing comes out - so you can effectively use the tone controls as a kind of attenuator.
It all translates into a pretty unique amp - huge drippy Reverb, unusually early breakup for such a big amp if you want it, a strange but cool mix of a fast, crazy dynamic attack and punch because of the power supply, and a bluesy compression element from the alnico speakers and zero negative feedback.
As if it was designed for my brand of rowdy Rockabilly/Rootrock.
It's going to come in handy the coming months, I have some big outdoor stage festivals coming up and I think the punch and authority of this thing will be just perfect for those - where my usual souped-up tweed Bandmaster is a little too saggy and compressed. It's definitely not a small-to-medium club amp, but I'm not playing any of those this spring and summer. Stoked!!
