Fender Quad Reverb 4x12 combo

[NeoConMan]

Just picked up an old Fender Quad Reverb 4x12 combo, looks to be a 1976 model.

85 watts, or 100, depending on how you interpret the specs.

 

Anybody know anything about these, or the more common Twin Reverb?

Same amp, just in a different box.

 

Kinda rough, been modded, got it in the shop right now to get an assessment of needed work.

Sounds pretty cool even with broken parts taped together to make sound come out.

 

I'm liking it alot...

 

[ksdaddy]

A friend bought a new Twin in '74. He gigged regularly with it and it went down a flight of stairs once. Busted the bottom panel of the cab pretty bad. In '85 a 6L6 socket shorted out and it looked like a Lincoln welder for a minute or two. He swapped the carcass even for a Peavey Bandit. The recipient had it repaired and retubed it, plus put a set of Altecs in it. He sold it to my brother for $250 and after a year or so my brother sold it to me for $250. I used it as is until '93 when I chopped it down into a head, then took an old Bassman 10 cabinet and loaded it with one Carvin 15". It was my version of a half stack I guess. I used it until '97 when it really needed to be retubed and recapped. Rather than dump money into it I swapped it even for a pristine '88 Peavey Classic VTX (2-12") which I still have.

 

I always liked Fender amps but I don't play enough electric anymore to warrant buying one. If I prorated the intial $250 investment in 1986 I haven't spent much to keep me amplifyable.

[craigh]

The quad was Albert Collins' amp of choice.

 

Craig

[charlie brown]

Been using "Twin Reverbs" for decades....well, except for the 3 decades I didn't play, at all...LOL!

GREAT amps! The "Quad" should be outstanding, as well....though a bit "heavy!" Twin's are 90lbs +/-

so the quad will be heavier! But, casters and/or a hand truck, will handle that. The only "Down"

side, is they are very clean, with a LOT of headroom...and so to get decent tube distortion, you have

to really push them! THAT, may be way too loud, for most smaller "indoor" venues. However...I

have even used one, at lower volume, in a bar...and used stomp boxes, for "distortion/overdrive" and it

was fine. Beautiful chiming cleans! Find an old "Showman" twin 15 JBL cabinet, and what a "Stack"

you'd have, then! LOL! You'd swear you were back here, in Kansas, during a tornado! ;>)

 

CB

[saturn]

A 4x12 combo? Wow, that's got to be heavy.

 

Congratz. Now you can play your new Explorer though it Although I don't usually think of Explorers and Twins together. ^_^

[Robin Nahum]

Wow!

 

There's lots at this site regarding the Twin but there is also an entry for your's.

 

http://www.thevintagesound.com/ffg/quadreverb.html

 

Weight: 89¾' lbs. (40.7 Kg)

Speakers/Load: 4 x 12"/4 ohms (16 ohms each in parallel)

 

Weight is frightening. I hope you're fit.

 

Interesting speaker setup.

 

RN

[deepblue]

Thats a monster!..Ill bet it sounds sweet.

[L5Larry]

The "silver face" Fender amps of this era really get an undeserved bad rap. According to Aspen Pitman's "The Tube Amp Book" only the earliest silver face amps were the dreaded redesign, and after they were such a marketing failure, they went back to the exact design and construction as the highly sought after black face editions. So it is highly possible to have a silver face Fender that is exaclty the same amp as it's earlier black face counterpart. Just where 1976 fits into this time line your amp tech should be able to tell you.

 

I am sorry to say that I once owned a Dual Showman from the early dark years of the silver face Fenders, and the amp did indeed suck. The best way to describe it was that it sounded "constipated". Once I was finally able to sell it, the guy immediately sent it to an amp tech and it came back sounding as it should have. I have no idea if it was "modded", or just repaired.

 

As stated above, the Fender amps of the black face/silver face era were know as "clean machines", and almost imposible to push to overdrive, especially the 4-6L6 amps. This is why when Leo Fender started the Music Man company in the mid-seventies, the amp designs added the "master volume" control.

[ZenKen]

I've used a Twin Reverb on and off for 30+ years. When I was a young buck I even put it on top of a Dual Showman cab set up vertical. I didn't plug up the cab, just set it up there to look cool (my version of a full stack). After a few years of lugging that beast around just for show, I wised up and went with just the Twin (one good thing about aging, we acquire a degree of reason no matter how hard we try to avoid it). It's a whole lotta amp though and not well suited for smaller venues. It's also quite heavy. ;)

[milod]

I guess my big AIMS tube amp from the mid 1970s musta been kinda a reaction to the Fender problems. It's kinda like a Twin on steroids, two big 12s, two distinct channels, etc., and a master vol.

 

It came with wheels, but even so is more than a beast to move at 90 lbs +-...

 

At the time it was pretty much because everybody else had huge amps, rock or country either one, and I figured I hadda have one even though the Deluxe Reverb hadn't been pushed at all in club situations for years. In retrospect, it was a huge error on my part. It's a wonderful amp, but just too much. Way too much.

 

Unless it's to be a collector item or somebody needs a big, powerful old-style tube amp, it's increasingly my opinion that smaller amps such as the Deluxe Reverb are the ideal. If more whumpf is needed, get a good PA system. The big machines had their time and place, but what I've seen in past years indicates you're better off with something else unless there's a special need.

 

Bass amps... I dunno. Perhaps a different schtick there, but once tone is available, I'm not sure that huge amp volume is as valuable as a good PA.

 

So - Hey, you pays your money and takes your choice.

 

m

[EVOL!]

Congrats on the new amp, brother. That sucker is going to blow the walls down. Would love to stand in front of it, crank it, and play my heart out.

 

I love mid 70's Fender combos, although yours is more like a half stack! I have had the pleasure of being around a lot of silverface Fenders on my years of playing and all of them had the sweetest tone. Most were Twin Reverbs. My personal favorite is the Pro Reverb. In the band I played drums in for two+ years one of the front guys played a walnut SG with P90s through a Pro Reverb. Tastiest tone ever; even with the arsenal of cheap FX pedals he used (TS10 and other old, odd ball Ibanez and Boss pedals).

[Robin Nahum]

The "silver face" Fender amps of this era really get an undeserved bad rap. According to Aspen Pitman's "The Tube Amp Book" only the earliest silver face amps were the dreaded redesign' date=' and after they were such a marketing failure, they went back to the exact design and construction as the highly sought after black face editions. So it is highly possible to have a silver face Fender that is exaclty the same amp as it's earlier black face counterpart. Just where 1976 fits into this time line your amp tech should be able to tell you.

 

I am sorry to say that I once owned a Dual Showman from the early dark years of the silver face Fenders, and the amp did indeed suck. The best way to describe it was that it sounded "constipated". Once I was finally able to sell it, the guy immediately sent it to an amp tech and it came back sounding as it should have. I have no idea if it was "modded", or just repaired.

 

As stated above, the Fender amps of the black face/silver face era were know as "clean machines", and almost imposible to push to overdrive, especially the 4-6L6 amps. This is why when Leo Fender started the Music Man company in the mid-seventies, the amp designs added the "master volume" control. [/quote']

 

Hi Larry,

 

My understanding is that the circuits in the early silverfaces are identical or close to their blackface predecessors and, as this circuit is preferred by many because of it's earlier breakup, this is seen as a Good Thing. From about 72, a number of models were "ultra-linearised" and/or had master volumes/pull boosts added. This is seen by the blackface adherents as a Bad Thing.

 

The Twin is a bit different. Unlike it's smaller siblings, it had a solid state rectifier and the 4 x 6L6s, even during the blackface years, and was designed to run clean at listenable volumes.

 

Of course, the reality with all of this BF/SF stuff is that an amp needs to sound right to the player and if a 1980 70W Pro Reverb with SS rectifier floats your boat, there's not much more to say.

 

I wonder what the problem was with your Dual Showman. Incorrectly biassed? Bad tubes? Worn speakers?

 

RN

[NeoConMan]

Thanks for the input guys!

 

Yeah, the damned thing is HEAVY and cumbersome.

Hey, I'm big & bad, and all that, but it's a pain in the *** to move.

 

No casters on it anymore, which actually suits me fine.

I hate something that decides to roll when I DON'T want it to....

It's not a gig amp anyhow, it'll get parked next to the Marshall stack and stay there.

 

Right now it's in the shop with Chuck Hawke at Ziggie's in Phoenix.

He's been intimately involved with Fender since the 1950's so he knows his stuff.

Pretty much doing a rebuild on it - tubes, caps, pots, etc....

 

I want it right after all is said and done.

Then I gotta get some speakers, a couple of them are scratchy as hell.

Looked at getting them re-coned, but that guy died recently.

I'll just put the originals in a box and hang on to 'em.

 

In the end, I'll still only have as much money in it as a new Hot Rod DeVille.

 

 

Instead of pics, here's another link I found;

 

 

http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/fender72p40.php

[Robin Nahum]

.....

No casters on it anymore' date=' which actually suits me fine.

I hate something that decides to roll when I DON'T want it to....[/quote']

 

Also tubes don't enjoy being rolled over uneven surfaces.

 

.....Then I gotta get some speakers' date=' a couple of them are scratchy as hell.[/quote']

 

Presumably you know about:

 

http://www.tedweber.com/

 

Will you stay with the 16s or go to a parallel-serial setup with 4 x 8s so the amp sees 8 ohms?

 

RN

[NeoConMan]

Eh, I dunno....

 

Gotta do some studying on speakers before I can say I know anything about 'em.

There were several different ones used originally, and the replacement choices are many.

The ones in it now appear to be originals, made by Jensen.

I know there are some cool Celestions available.

I don't really know where to start in choosing, never had to do that before.

 

 

The amp was designed to operate at 4 ohms with all 4 speakers rated at 16 ohms and wired in parallel.

(I think...)

Chuck seemed to recommend staying with the factory setup, though the impedence was in question.

I didn't catch exactly where he was going with it (damned cell phones) but I'll know in a few days.

 

Seems an 8 ohm load would be easier on the amp, if I had a choice in the matter anyhow.

I don't know yet.

I damned sure don't need 100 watts of output, so I'm open to suggestions.

I'll take Chuck's advice, run that past a couple old guys I know here in town, and go from there.

 

I've already decided that I'll probably leave it clean and put my Fulltone OCD drive pedal in front of it.

That way I can get it gritty without skull-crushing Marshall stack volumes.

[jaxson50]

I have been eyeing this old vintage Ampeg 4X10 combo.

http://listings.zidaho.com/ZIdaho%20Classifieds/4824224/clicknbuy.aspx?networkview=False&catid=OO52&pcatid=1080_3&procid=678095ff-e8f7-49b1-babc-9aae4136d940

How do they compare to a Fender?

[L5Larry]

If you decide to have the original speakers reconed/refurbished, I've "got a guy" here in St. Louis that does great work at very reasonable prices. The main part of his business is repairing audiophile stereo speakers for the high-end stereo shops and home theater contractors.

 

He's done speakers for me from 40 year old Sansui stereo speakers to guitar amp speakers from Fender Oxfords, Jensen and Eminence. He will quote you over the phone, if you would like his number shoot me a PM, highly recommended.

[EVOL!]

Eh' date=' I dunno....

 

Gotta do some studying on speakers before I can say I know anything about 'em.

There were several different ones used originally, and the replacement choices are many.

The ones in it now appear to be originals, made by Jensen.

I know there are some cool Celestions available.

I don't really know where to start in choosing, never had to do that before.[/quote']

 

I am going to vote to stay Jensen all the way. My Silvertone 1484 has a pair of the original blue label, made in Chicago Jensens and they push the sweetest cleans. This is what I would put in any Silverface Fender.

[Murph]

I'd be awfully tempted to put 4 Greenbacks in that bad boy.

[Riverside]

I'd be awfully tempted to put 4 Greenbacks in that bad boy.

 

 

I'd go with Weber Cali's myself.