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The History of Fender’s Ivy League Combo: The Princeton

Tuesday January 24, 2023. 02:00 PM , from Sweetwater inSync
For more than 80 years, Fender’s amplification history has been filled with model names crafted to reflect their designs’ roaring tube power and prestige — the Deluxe, the Super, the Professional... Even the smallest amp available in Fender’s golden era was dubbed the Champ. So, what are we to make of the Ivy League pedigree of the Princeton amplifier?

Initially designed as a student model, the Princeton was a stepping stone for musicians who were working their way up to a good tube amp. However, the Princeton has now become one of the most lauded amplifiers in Fender’s history, particularly in studio applications where its modest volume and far-reaching versatility have made it a mainstay for decades. Join us as we explore the long history and multiple variations of Fender’s most iconic mid-sized combo amplifier!

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The Elementary YearsA Time for TweedDiminish the DistortionA Brand-new LookThe Princeton Hits Its PeakThe CBS YearsA Change of FaceFender’s Rise Back to the TopThe Princeton Returns to ProminenceWhat’s Next for the Princeton?

The Elementary Years

Long before Clarence Leonidas Fender (Leo) had ever dreamed of the Telecaster or Stratocaster, he operated Fender’s Radio Service, a company founded in Fullerton, California, in late 1938. It was dedicated to fixing radios, amps, PA systems, and other sound-producing electronic devices. This experience would serve as excellent training for Leo’s amplifier education, but he quickly became dissatisfied with the rudimentary nature of the day’s designs.

After all, the electric guitar was still less than a decade old at this point. The Rickenbacker “Frying Pan” lap steel — often considered the very first electric guitar — had only been invented in 1932, and the Gibson ES-150 — the first Gibson electric Spanish guitar — had only been put into full production in 1937. Most amplifiers were rather rustic, to say the least, and Leo felt he was more than up to the task of improving the medium wholesale. As it turns out, he was right.

The Rickenbacker “Frying Pan” lap steel guitar — a cutting-edge electric instrument from the early ’30s. wetwebwork, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Leo paired up with another aspiring young inventor named Clayton Orr Kaufman and founded K&F Manufacturing Corporation in 1945. Unfortunately for Clayton (but fortunately for Leo), the company was quickly dissolved in 1946, with Leo striking out on his lonesome to create a new amplifier company: Fender.

Leo quickly released a trio of amplifier designs known as the “Woodies” among collectors, the name sticking because of their distinct solid wood exteriors with a fancy wooden handle on the top. The three amps in this series are more interesting for their historical value than for their tone. Still, this group of combos would include the very first, very unrefined Princeton amplifier.

Leo Fender’s trio of Woodie amplifiers, the first products in history to be emblazoned with the Fender seal. The Princeton is the smallest one and was not intended for professional use.

At a meager six watts of power and made up of a diminutive 8-inch speaker, a single knob, and no on/off switch, the Princeton was bare-bones even for the time, and it was intended as a student-level model to complement the larger Deluxe and Professional amplifiers.

A Time for Tweed

A Fender dealer catalog ad for the Princeton, circa 1954. Considering plenty of these are still going strong today, Fender’s claim that the Princeton could “withstand a terrific amount of abuse” has turned out to be more than just marketing hype!

In 1948, Leo discontinued the Woodie series and replaced it with a new batch of designs that sparked the first golden era of Fender amplification. These were known colloquially as “Tweed” amps for their varnished cotton twill exterior. Among these new amplifiers was an updated version of the Princeton, now featuring the tremendous sound-shaping potential of a single tone knob and volume control — it wasn’t much, but it was a marked improvement over its Woodie predecessor.

It’s worth mentioning that in Fender’s early years (and really up to the modern era), Fender amplifiers with the same name could have wildly different circuits inside. For instance, the Tweed-era Princetons, produced between 1948 and 1961, had at least five different circuit variations — a byproduct of Leo’s steadfast dedication to tinkering with and improving his designs. There was also quite a bit of visual variation, from the earliest “TV Front” models to the so-called “Wide Panel” iteration and the Narrow Panel SF2, the most famous Tweed Princeton.

A scrappy example of the Princeton’s smaller sibling, the Champ. Note the varnished cotton twill exterior that is now forever erroneously referred to as “Tweed.”BrotherAbel at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

More importantly, what did they sound like? Like the rest of Leo’s ’50s-era designs, the Tweed Princeton sported a somewhat raspy and mid-forward tone that transformed into a rich saturation when you started to crank up the volume. An 8-inch speaker limited bass response and overall volume potential for live use. Still, the Tweed Princeton is an excellent choice for studio or home guitarists today who are hunting for a raw, crunchy tone with appropriate volume levels for home use.

Fender employees in the ’50s testing a batch of guitars through a variety of tweed amplifiers.

Diminish the Distortion

While low-power Tweed-era amps like the Princeton, Deluxe, and Champ would become legendary for their abilities to distort at non-ear-splitting volumes, Leo was dead set on eradicating tube breakup. Many Fender catalogs from the ’50s championed their amplifiers’ “distortionless” operations. They even claimed that amps like the Bassman would “not break up or distort, even at extremely loud volumes” — an unthinkable prospect for any modern guitarist shopping for a Tweed-style tube amplifier!

There were undoubtedly a few guitarists experimenting with distortion at the time, such as Howlin’ Wolf and Jackie Brenston. But distortion was seen as a gimmick at best and as an insult at worst to the delicate ears of the general public. Put it this way — Link Wray’s 1958 single, “Rumble,” was an early example of a chart-topping hit that intentionally utilized guitar distortion (very light distortion, mind you). It now holds the endlessly cool distinction of being the only instrumental track ever banned from American radio play.

Link Wray’s “Rumble,” an early example of the tube distortion Leo Fender was so keen on removing from his amp designs.

Leo was nearly 50 years old when “Rumble” came around, so he probably wasn’t interested in the cutting-edge sounds being explored by the day’s rebellious teens. Instead, he spent the ’50s winning the hearts and strings of country and Western swing guitarists. Then, in 1958, he introduced his not-so-subtle attempt to capture the jazz crowd with the aptly named “Jazzmaster.” What do all these genres have in common? Loud, clean guitar tones. In the late ’50s and early ’60s, Leo began to revoice his amplifier designs to reduce distortion even further — a trend that would continue throughout Fender’s entire vintage era, even as the world started craving more distortion-heavy designs.

While Fender doesn’t currently offer a Tweed Princeton reissue, it does offer a wide range of Tweed-era amp reissues.

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A Brand-new Look

In 1961, the Tweed Princeton received a complete makeover: the power doubled to around 12 watts, built-in bias-wiggle tremolo was added, and the speaker grew from eight inches to a much more robust 10-inch design. This version of the Princeton is known as the “Brownface” model for its idiosyncratic brown Tolex. While it may look similar to the later “Blackface” Princeton, the Brownface is a Tweed amp in disguise. The circuit is suspiciously close to a Tweed Vibrolux 5F11, so the Brownface Princeton is still more than capable of kicking out some positively raw, overdriven tones — especially when compared to the relative politeness of the Blackface model that soon succeeded it.

Check out the Fender ’62 Princeton Chris Stapleton Edition 12-watt tube combo amp, a highly modified signature edition of the 6G2 Brownface Princeton circuit with a larger, 12-inch speaker.

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The Brownface Princeton was produced from 1961 to 1963, giving it the shortest run of any vintage-era Princeton amplifier. Its longevity had less to do with its sonic qualities than with Leo’s constant struggle for amplifier perfection. Even today, original Brownface Princeton models fetch seriously high prices on the used market. Leo’s no-distortion, anti-midrange crusade would soon hit its peak with the introduction of the Blackface-style amplifiers and the most renowned Princeton in Fender history, the Princeton Reverb.

The Princeton Hits Its Peak

Unlike the previous model changes in the Princeton’s short history, the Princeton Reverb was by no means a complete departure from the Brownface version. It was about the same wattage, featured the same bias-wiggle tremolo, retained the same cabinet style, and stuck with a single 10-inch speaker.

A 1965 Fender catalog ad for the Princeton and its smaller sibling, the Vibro Champ. The ad states that the Princeton Reverb is “highly recommended for student and home use.”

However, the Blackface’s tone was far removed from the Brownface’s rough attitude, with scooped midrange, tight lows, and sparkling highs that essentially flipped the Tweed-era EQ curve on its head. Plus, it’s called the Princeton Reverb for a reason — Fender added a real spring tank to the amp to capture some of the surfy splashes from Fender’s wildly popular outboard spring tank reverb unit. The practical “tone” control was replaced with a treble and a bass knob, allowing for more sonic versatility. Many players consider Blackface-era Fender amplifiers to be the absolute peak of clean guitar tone — when players talk about the Princeton sound, this is the model they’re likely referencing.

Check out the Fender ’64 Princeton Reverb tube combo amp — a meticulous, handwired reissue that rivals any vintage-era Princeton Reverb.

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Depending on your style, the Princeton Reverb’s vastly improved headroom may or may not be the benefit Leo intended. You can still achieve rich tube overdrive, but you have to work harder for it, and the character is decidedly different from the soft, spongy response of the Tweed Princeton’s roar. Overdriving a Princeton Reverb results in a harder, more immediate attack, with less of the treasured “sag” that Tweed players prize so heavily.

In addition to the base Princeton Reverb model, Fender introduced the non-reverb Princeton — an amp that sported all the changes of the Blackface Princeton Reverb but with (surprise) no reverb. Removing the reverb circuit necessitated the removal of a gain stage, so the Blackface Princeton was even cleaner than the Princeton Reverb, with many users reporting that it remained rather tame all the way up the dial.

A CBS-era 1966 Blackface Princeton non-reverb amp — virtually indistinguishable from a pre-CBS model and likely built from excess parts made during the Leo Fender years.Drmies, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The CBS Years

The Blackface era marked the peak of Fender’s amplifier design prowess, but the same could not be said for Leo’s health. A long-standing health issue impacted his wellbeing to the point that he threw in the towel, selling Fender to the CBS corporation in 1965. In a bittersweet twist of fate, Leo quickly recovered, but he would never return to the company that bears his name.

We’ll leave the heated discussion over CBS-era quality to the Fender historians, but things began to change — slowly at first, but then all at once. The Blackface aesthetics would remain consistent until around 1967. Still, the internals on many amplifiers, especially the larger combos and head/cabinet configurations, started to change under the hood in ways many players saw as downgrades.

Luckily for us, the Princeton and Princeton Reverb were spared these changes. These amps would retain the same circuit throughout the CBS era, even while the outside cosmetics and cabinet construction evolved.

A Change of Face

In the latter half of 1967, CBS began to run out of the spare parts and components left over from before Leo left the company. The depletion of parts did little to change the Princeton’s circuit, but it did result in an all-new look — the black plate was replaced with a shiny new silver plate, kicking off the “Silverface” era of Fender amplification.

1996 Fender Princeton amplifier.Bubba73, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

While researching vintage amps, you might run into the term “Drip Edge,” but you can rest assured that this is simply a small aluminum trim piece used during the early era of Silverface construction. There’s no real difference between a Drip Edge Silverface and a standard Silverface Princeton, though it is easy to identify an earlier model if that’s what you’re seeking. A push/pull boost was added to the volume pot in 1978, but from 1967 until its discontinuation in the early ’80s, the Silverface Princeton underwent little change.

Check out Fender’s modern re-creation of a Drip Edge Silverface Princeton: the Fender ’68 Custom Princeton Reverb tube combo amp.

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Fender’s Rise Back to the Top

The late ’70s to mid-’80s was arguably the darkest period in Fender’s history, and the brand’s entire amplifier range began to see sweeping changes across the board — few of which were well-received. A short-lived Princeton Reverb II model was introduced in around 1982 and continued until 1986. With the Princeton II’s drastic redesign (different circuit, different cabinet size, different speaker size), it had little in common with the original Princeton — other than for its name, that is. Fender was also in deep debt during this era, so American production ceased and was outsourced to Japan.

Right at the company’s low point, CBS sold Fender in 1985 to a group of investors (including many employees) that was headed by William Schultz, “the man who saved Fender.” William was fully committed to returning Fender to its former glory, and he succeeded. Production moved back to America, the Fender Custom Shop was opened, and the quality of American-made Fender instruments began to skyrocket back to the standards established by Fender’s ’50s and ’60s golden era.

Up until the mid-’80s, every tube amplifier Fender produced was handwired onto an old-school eyelet board — a feature shared by many of Fender’s current production of higher-end reissues.

What happened with the Princeton during all of this? Well, not much, unfortunately. The Princeton Chorus was introduced in 1988 (and discontinued in 2001), but it’s tough to call this a proper “Princeton.” It was not a bad amplifier design for what it was — a 2×12-inch solid-state combo with dual power amps for true stereo chorus. But it was essentially Fender’s take on a jazzy, chorus-enabled model from a famous Japanese amplifier manufacturer.

The Princeton Returns to Prominence

Fender brought tubes back into the Princeton formula in 2006 with the Princeton Recording amp. The biggest moment since the early ’60s came in 2008 with the introduction of the Princeton Reverb Reissue — a spot-on re-creation of a Blackface-era Princeton Reverb that brought its sparkling cleans, aggressive overdrive, choppy tremolo, and lush spring reverb back to the modern masses.

Check out Fender’s ’65 Princeton Reverb Reissue tube combo amp.

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Commonly referred to as the PRRI on internet guitar forums, the Princeton Reverb Reissue (“ReIssue”) amplifier has been an absolute mainstay of tube amp aficionados for more than 15 years, allowing players to capture vintage-era Fender magic without paying exorbitant vintage prices. The only significant change is that the components are on a PCB rather than a handwired eyelet board — but that’s another debate we’ll leave to the message boards (the tone is there, and that’s what matters to us). The model is so successful that there are almost certainly more PRRIs in the wild than actual vintage Princetons. You might wonder why Fender’s geriatric 1×10-inch combo continues to enjoy such widespread success more than six decades after its inception.

Perhaps it was because Leo saw into the pedal-laden future, but it’s more likely that the modern advent of home studios and the reduced need for crowd-crushing wattage has made the Princeton Reverb an ideal choice for guitarists seeking true tube tone at a reasonable volume. It produces beautiful, clean tones at levels that won’t disturb the neighbors. It’s a perfect pedal platform. It’s easy to carry and mic up for a full-size gig. The Princeton Reverb may be old, but it’s about as all-encompassing as a traditional tube amp can get.

Check out our Sweetwater-exclusive Fender ’65 Princeton Reverb, custom spec’d with a 12-inch speaker and a slick, Lacquered Tweed finish.

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What’s Next for the Princeton?

Traditional tube amps will always be the gold standard for the vintage-obsessed, but the truth is that Fender may have discovered a few improvements in the past 60 or so years of amplifier design. Released in 2022, the Fender Tone Master Princeton harnesses these improvements with a decidedly modern feature set but does it with the same old-school tone of a classic Princeton Reverb.

Check out Fender’s newest addition to the Princeton family: the Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb combo amp.

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This amp boasts a solid-state design that utilizes cutting-edge modeling technology to capture every nuance of a tube-powered Princeton Reverb. Cab sims, line outs, adjustable output power, an ultra-lightweight cab — it’s a thorough, 21st-century take on the Princeton that boasts features Leo Fender could only have dreamed of. If it’s any indication of the Princeton’s role in the future of music, then that future is bright!

The Prince of Tone Since 1946

Whether you’re looking for a fully handwired Blackface Princeton, a modded-out 6G2 Princeton, or an innovative, solid-state modeling to take on the Princeton formula, give your Sweetwater Sales Engineer a call at (800) 222-4700 to take the Fender Princeton’s legacy into your own hands!
The post The History of Fender’s Ivy League Combo: The Princeton appeared first on inSync.
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