T-Rex
Well-Known Member
So, I had built two versions of the Fender Blackface Princeton. The first was a 1965 Reverb, built exactly to Fender specs. Had issues with the reverb, just couldn't get it to behave. Tore that all apart and with pieces strewn everywhere in disgust, for some reason I ohmed out the secondary coils on the brand new Hammond OT that I had bought and found those very badly mismatched. Duh on my part. On all the amps that I had built I never had a bad new OT.
So I put that amp back together with a new OT, not another Hammond, decided to try the Rob Robinette version of the Blackface Princeton, with building a cross between the 1965 Reverb model and the 1964 non-reverb model. It is a really good amp. It had the 6V6Gt power section in it.
Liked it so well I built another of the same version, in a lunch box amp, with a 10watt power section the 6AQ5's. Loved them both. Decided I didn't need two similar amp. Tried to sell the combo, no takers. What to do?
Reworked the combo slightly, with the turretboard in place. That was mind boggling on how to make a switch. It is messy in spots. Turned it into a Blackface 1964 Bassman AA864, single channel with the 6V6Gt power section. Kept the "Normal" channel design straight from the AA864, with high/low inputs. Followed the Fender design straight up through the PI section, went with Cathode bias over fixed bias, no choke--used a dropping resistor there. Glorious Blackface Fender tones. Wow is it pretty tone ! Pics below.
So I put that amp back together with a new OT, not another Hammond, decided to try the Rob Robinette version of the Blackface Princeton, with building a cross between the 1965 Reverb model and the 1964 non-reverb model. It is a really good amp. It had the 6V6Gt power section in it.
Liked it so well I built another of the same version, in a lunch box amp, with a 10watt power section the 6AQ5's. Loved them both. Decided I didn't need two similar amp. Tried to sell the combo, no takers. What to do?
Reworked the combo slightly, with the turretboard in place. That was mind boggling on how to make a switch. It is messy in spots. Turned it into a Blackface 1964 Bassman AA864, single channel with the 6V6Gt power section. Kept the "Normal" channel design straight from the AA864, with high/low inputs. Followed the Fender design straight up through the PI section, went with Cathode bias over fixed bias, no choke--used a dropping resistor there. Glorious Blackface Fender tones. Wow is it pretty tone ! Pics below.
