1965 Fender Vibraverb

I love these jobs. An old guy walks into my repair shop and says "I've got an old amp needs lookin at" .............. OK.


He bought it new in 1965 and has used it ever since and even today doesn't "really" know what he's playing is very sought after. To him it's just an amp, which is so nice.

He goes on to tell me he's left in in people sheds for months at a time, lent it to people and almost forgotten to get it back and hasn't had it looked at since the eighties, which was the first time it was looked at since he bought it.


 


He tells me how the marks across the top are from when he used to smoke and leave his cigarettes lying on the amp during songs. How the fuse holder disintergrated years ago so he just has some "chocolate tin foil" in there now. How he was told when he bought it that the original JBL speakers were no good so he swapped it out for this British made 15" and threw the JBL away. In hindsight, this speaker has lasted nearly 50 years and still works fine ..................

The amp is still running the Miniwatt rectifier and power valves and it sounds GREAT.


 


The serial number indicates Jan 1965 and the owner remembers buying it new in early '65. He'd wanted a Fender amp and thought the big speaker meant it was louder than the other Fender combos there.

In the end all it needed was a new fuse holder and  couple of resistors. He didn't want to spend money on anything that "still worked". Awesome, 25 years between services and it still sounds great.


It's really nice to know that these old work horses are still out there being used every day with the owners not really knowing what they've got but knowing they have a great quality amp that won't let them down and sounds good. But still ............. chocolate tin foil in the fuse ...............

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