0:13
well hello friends and welcome to ask
0:16
Zack today we are going to take a deep
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dive on the wide panel 1954
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Princeton I'm going to give you of
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course you know specs features stuff
0:28
like that we're also going to go back
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back to
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1946 with the release of the first
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Princeton and I'm going to give you kind
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of how the model changed up through 54
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and then of course we'll talk about the
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rest of the ' 50s and into about
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1965 just to kind of encapsulate the uh
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the prbs Princeton years but yeah we're
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going to do a deep dive on this uh wide
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panel 1954 Princeton and we'll do a
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little playing through it and just so
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you can hear what it sounds like and
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just have a good time
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first off I just want to thank you for
1:02
watching the show you know please give
1:05
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1:18
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find out more about that all right let's
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dive in so the Princeton model is really
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really really important in the Fender
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amp
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lineup reason being is not just a a huge
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seller through the entire you know time
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that Fender has been
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around it was also one of the very first
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amplifiers that was offered by Fender
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and their initial offerings in 1946 were
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three models they were the Princeton
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that had an 8in speaker and had a single
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output tube and a you know had a 6vc and
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a 5 Y3 and an octal preamp
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tube then you had the uh the deluxe
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which had two output tubes two 6 v6s and
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you know again an octal preamp tube and
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a 5 Y3 and a 10-in speaker and then you
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had the top-of-the-line professional or
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Pro that was uh it had two sixl sixs and
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it had a 15-in field coil speaker and of
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course all of these were the
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what we call the Woody amps and I'll
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show a little picture here you know
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where they had the wooden cabinets that
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were kind of natural finished maybe
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lightly stained and they had kind of a
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wooden handle that was built into the
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design and had kind of this velvety kind
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of vour kind of a grill cloth so that
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initial Princeton was a really
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interesting ant because they really were
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trying to make it as kind of beginner
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you know friendly and you know trying to
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make it as inexpensive as possible for
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the student so this original 1946
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Princeton had two inputs no volume no
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tone control no onoff switch yes that's
3:15
right if you wanted to turn it on you
3:17
plugged it in if you wanted to turn it
3:18
off you unplugged
3:20
it they figured it didn't need a volume
3:23
control because it was usually sold as a
3:25
set with a steel guitar a fender steel
3:27
guitar that had a volume control on on
3:29
it and the reason it had two inputs was
3:33
that it was designed to be used in
3:35
teaching Studios or you know some
3:38
teacher you know teaching at their house
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or what have you and so that way you
3:43
know you and your teacher could get your
3:45
steel guitars out and you could uh slide
3:47
around and learn how to
3:49
play well the uh the the Woody amps went
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away and it made way for the TV front
3:57
amps in 194 8 and in 48 they decided to
4:02
upgrade the Princeton so at this point
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it gets a volume control and it gets a
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tone control that has a built-in onoff
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switch and this is also on this amp and
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it makes this little click uh you know
4:16
basically you turn the tone control all
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the way down and it makes a little click
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and that turns it off and then you click
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it and turn it back on and then of
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course you can use the tone control as
4:25
normal continued to have two inputs and
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of course the uh TV front design but
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what that did was it made room at the
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Bottom Rung of the Fender amp line up
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for another amp so guess what this is
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where the champ comes in so the champ
4:45
came in right underneath it having a
4:48
6-in speaker and and a similar circuit
4:51
but it was interesting uh it it had all
4:55
of the components kind of wired together
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it didn't really have a circuit board so
4:58
it was kind of like it was it was this
5:00
direct you know solder the way the
5:02
components were kind of uh uh connected
5:05
together so that's where you get the
5:07
champ and originally was called the
5:08
Champion 600 so now you have the
5:11
champion and the Princeton and this is
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the way it's going to continue for a
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while so again TV front amp it it's very
5:19
similar to the uh you know it continues
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to have the octal preamp tube the metal
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you know preamp tube uh and then in 19
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19 53 they change from the TV front
5:33
design to the wide panel Tweed and so
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you get this other you know type of
5:38
Tweed material and uh of course you know
5:42
what we call wide
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panel uh the amp really didn't change
5:47
much at first besides of course the
5:49
cabinet getting a little
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bigger uh then about 1954 which is what
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this is Fender has is finally phasing
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out those metal octal preamp tubes and
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so this amp because it's a 54 it has a
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12x 7 and V1 so it has a 12x 7 a 6v6
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power tube and then it has a 5y3
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rectifier so that that kind of gets us
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up to this amp specifically and uh this
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one was purchased by my friend Austin
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Skinner and he got it at an estate sale
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so uh you know make sure and go to those
6:30
as much as possible and he picked this
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up and it needed a little bit of repair
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work and stuff but uh it's in uh you
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know it's in pretty good shape um
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obviously it's missing the handle and uh
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you know these the handle the leather
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handles that they put on these
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originally they just tend to dry rot and
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they just don't last and so to find an
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original handle on a on a fender you
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know from the 50s is
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I mean it almost never happens and if it
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did it had to be an amp that was never
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picked up by the handle or it's just
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been sitting somewhere for uh you know a
7:09
lifetime a couple of lifetimes at this
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point uh but yeah so this is very common
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and uh you know of course there's reos
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out there uh Tweeds in good shape Grill
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cloths in good shape um let's uh pick it
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up and show the uh the Chrome
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plated
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chassis which is very uh corroded and
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it's got a lot of pitting in it and such
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but uh yeah but everything works you see
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the the back of it in really good
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condition uh you know the chassis itself
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is really clean otherwise it's just the
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top I don't know what it was exposed to
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Salt Air or what but the rest of it is
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is per perfectly fine of course you got
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some rusty Glides on the bottom but the
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Tweed looks really good even on the
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bottom
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and uh yeah it's just a a really really
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cool little amp and these
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are a very similar circuit to what the
8:10
champ becomes later on because again
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they kind of keep upgrading the amps and
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all of them kind of rise up and at times
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they of course bring in these other
8:19
models to fit in the Gap but being that
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this has an 8in
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speaker uh it's you know it it's
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somewhat similar to the later you know
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champ where it when it got an 8 in
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speaker and such but uh yeah let's
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that's enough talking about this let's
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uh let's kind of hear what it sounds
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like so for the demo I'm of course
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playing my 57 Squire that hasn't added
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neck pickup
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and I'm plugged in and I've got the uh
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the volume on six and I've got the tone
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on 3 and
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1/2 and I start off kind of to clean it
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up a little bit I back off the volume
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control on the Esquire just a little bit
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to kind of clean it up and I play like a
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little kind of jury Reish kind of funky
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thing and then I play uh I turn the
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volume control all the way up so that
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you can kind of get a little bit of grit
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and you can hear the uh stereotypical
9:16
riff that probably anyone plays when
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they're demoing a champ and then I go to
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the neck pickup on the Esquire and I
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turned the tone control all the way up
9:26
so you can kind of hear you know kind of
9:29
the the tonal range that it has and also
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you know hear a little bit of that you
9:32
know kind of dirty neck pickup sound
9:34
which is a lot of fun so yeah so let's
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have a gander
9:39
[Music]
9:59
the
10:04
[Music]
10:18
[Music]
10:47
all right I hope you uh enjoyed that uh
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again this is it's a cool little amp now
10:54
is it a is it a one trick pony well not
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exactly but it doesn't have like a ton
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of sounds in it it can kind of clean up
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some but obviously it doesn't have a ton
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of clean headro and this amp is pretty
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much original it has the original 8 in
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Jensen in it which is pretty it's it's
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pretty tired um but it's still you know
11:14
holding together and such but uh I've
11:17
tried to be a little bit gentle with the
11:19
amp which is why I didn't turn the amp
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all the way up to 12 because I I really
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don't want to be the guy that busts an
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original 8 in uh Jensen o
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speaker so interesting things happen
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with the amp after this of course in 55
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it uh later in 55 it changes to the the
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narrow panel
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Tweed and uh and also it uh it brings
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forth a uh another amp so I'm going to
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put down my old squar so I can pick this
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up so Fender adds an amp to the lineup
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in 55
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5 um 56 which is this Harvard so this is
12:04
actually a 59 but um yeah so this amp
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has uh you know two output tubes and
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volume control tone control three uh
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three inputs and an actual onoff switch
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and it became part of the line up you
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know right above the Princeton and the
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Princeton actually gains the Harvard's
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cabinet it gets a bigger cabinet in uh I
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believe
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56 and it continues to be you know a
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Tweed amp single output tube volume and
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tone control until uh 1960 correction
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it's actually 1961 when it gets Brown
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tox and then it completely
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changes all of a sudden it gets of
12:51
course tolex Brown and it gets a volume
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control which it already had a tone
12:57
control which it already had it gets an
12:59
actual onoff switch and it gets tremolo
13:03
and it gets a completely different
13:05
circuit and it gets a second output tube
13:08
and guess
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what this Harvard disappears from the
13:13
lineup because the Princeton has
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absolutely taken its place and so who
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wins the university Wars well it's the
13:21
Princeton and Harvard you know goes away
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there are of course a few Harvard that
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are sold with with remaining Tweed
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Princeton chassis and so that it's a
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really rare amp I've only seen one of
13:35
them in person but in essence it's you
13:39
know the the Harvard cabinet with the
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Harvard name plate but then it's got the
13:43
uh Princeton guts in it with one output
13:46
tube so it doesn't have you know it's
13:48
five six Watts instead of being
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12 so then of course you know with the
13:53
blackface amps you get the blackface
13:55
Princeton and the Princeton reverb and
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that gets us through uh
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1965 an interesting thing about the
14:04
Princeton that you have to understand
14:06
especially when we're talking about prbs
14:09
Princeton's the Princeton was never
14:12
designed to be a gigging amp it was
14:15
always designed to be a student model or
14:18
a teaching model and that's why it had
14:22
two inputs and uh and you know the
14:25
deluxe was kind of the step up above
14:27
that but the prince and Reverb of course
14:30
was you know really nice and that it had
14:31
Reverb and tremolo and had all these
14:33
sounds but it was not considered in any
14:36
way shape or form a gigging amplifier it
14:40
only became a gigging amplifier when you
14:44
started turning them up to 10 which they
14:46
were never designed really to do that
14:49
you know Leo thought everyone wanted to
14:50
play clean and so he thought people were
14:52
going to run around 3 or five or
14:54
something like that and certainly didn't
14:56
want any type of overdrive going on but
14:59
as people started turning them up to 10
15:01
and getting them to
15:02
distort uh of course you know it was
15:05
able to get a little bit louder and
15:07
dirty and then once you have you know
15:09
the Advent of modern PA systems and you
15:12
know what we call sound reinforcement
15:14
which is where everything is miked up
15:17
and that comes about probably mid to
15:18
late 7s then all of a sudden the
15:21
Princeton was a viable gigging amplifier
15:23
and you could play a really big gig with
15:25
a Princeton or even a champ so it's
15:29
interesting how that amp you know went
15:31
from being really a beginner student
15:34
model to being now considered a gigging
15:37
amp and I use a Princeton type amp uh
15:40
all the time toh to gig with and uh I
15:44
love it so well I just uh enjoyed
15:48
getting to check this out so I need to
15:50
thank my buddy Austin also you know a
15:53
lot of the uh historical information uh
15:56
came from from this out of print book
15:59
that I love and I hope that how Leonard
16:00
will someday either allow it to be out
16:03
you know digitally or reprint or
16:06
something but it's Fender amps the first
16:07
50 years by John teagle and John sprung
16:11
this is a really great book and I again
16:14
hopefully someday they'll uh come come
16:17
back out with that all right well I hope
16:20
you've enjoyed today's episode uh again
16:23
thanks to Austin for letting me borrow
16:25
his wide panel 1954 Princeton it was a
16:28
lot of fun now I got to return it we'll
16:31
see you next time bye-bye