Princeton Reverb DIY

schemo and layout pdf here>

http://www.jeangodbout.com/princeton/PRINCETON_REVERB_AA1164.pdf

cabinet blueprint here:

(what happened to the auto link shrink  :

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%3Fei%3DUTF-8%26p%3Dprinceton%2Breveb%2Bcabinet%2Bdimensions&w=160&h=123&imgurl=www.bing.com%2Fimages%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dprinceton%2Breveb%2Bcabinet%2Bdimensions%26id%3D41548A9B863E993A3B4E2882B3F7665E8B26A5A0&size=&name=search&rcurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2Fimages%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dprinceton%2Breveb%2Bcabinet%2Bdimensions%26id%3D41548A9B863E993A3B4E2882B3F7665E8B26A5A0&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2Fimages%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dprinceton%2Breveb%2Bcabinet%2Bdimensions%26id%3D41548A9B863E993A3B4E2882B3F7665E8B26A5A0&p=princeton+reverb+cabinet+dimensions&type=&no=1&tt=114&oid=http%3A%2F%2Fts2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3Di.4630293349664501%26pid%3D15.1&tit=Blackface+Princeton+Reverb+Cabinet+Plan%2FDimensions+-+The+Gear+Page&sigr=13i05do4n&sigi=13bp7ho17&sigb=12cu4rnvb&fr=yfp-t-701



this is my favorite Fender amp, it used to be the deluxe reverb which is the same amp with 2 extra inputs, higher plate voltage and a 12 inch speaker, but this was the first amp i used at a house party back in 64 so we are strolling back to the pediatric period as opposed to the geriatric period,

86 degrees is the baffle angle, tangent of 86 degrees is about 1 inch and change for this amp in case you have no calculator or edukation in trig,

using white board, for the sides, top and bottom, because i can get a 1 foot by 12 footer for 10 bucks, jus sayin...  the same pine board was 24 bucks,
i ask the guy what is white board and he says "oh, just about any wood that's white,"  ??? ???

i say " kind of like chicken mcnuggets?"

and he says "yes, exactly like chicken mcnuggets only different,"

so he says it could be pine, and when i saw it, it smells like pine, i dropped boards on the concrete floor to find the plank with the best sound, security showed up and told me they were gonna call the looney wagon because i was scaring the other customers before halloween,

3/4 pine actual, 1/4 inch back boards, 1/2 inch ply for baffle,

supports are 3/4 inch sq, using oak for flatness, don't want to warp the speaker with a bent baffle,

ready to cover,

tomorrow we will punch and bend the chassis and build a solid oak pc board,

these Fender cabs go together pretty easy once you get the sides cut,

the supports on that blueprint are wrong,

they should be off the bottom board by about an inch,

this is a floating baffle board design, the baffle board is only supported on the sides by four screws, the top and bottom must not touch the cabinet or chassis,

this is so the speaker can shake the plywood and turn it into a speaker also, more db per watts, jus sayin,
now stereo speakers you want solid, git amps? you want the box to resonante and the baffle board to sing in D minor,

awww yeah,

testify DIY brother

gettin after the chassis for this thing,

no brake so have to use primitive tools,

here is the board,

here is the back of the board,

awesome turrets! 
sweet

Aww yeah, wooden circuit boards.  8)

> build a solid oak pc board

I'm starting to like bamboo (flooring scraps).

Maybe more for California Fender than for Ampeg.

Dumble

dumble used the big outputs, ran into a bass amp in capitola once,
or crapatola if you live there

princeton coming along,

this is the best amp fender ever built, the deluxe reverb is Supposed to be the desert island fender, but that was according to pitman,

i think the desert island amp is the princeton,

why?

better vibrato. all big blackface amps suck when it comers to vibtato.

why?  they are opto coupled.

the vibro and princeton are direct coupled, much better vibrato, not on and off like super/twin/deluxe/

and it is a perfect volume amp for most living rooms and bath rooms, where you play most of the time,

the  deluxe reverb is a bit loud for most of these places,

also, the princeton has the best reverb sound, why? i do not know.

interesting thing about this amp is they split the phase inverter between two tubes.

i like the tube socket spacing, more room than the twin or deluxe between sockets, same with the pots,

this is the best fender amp for sound and assembly and it is portable.

Looking good CJ!

Is the vibrato in these a bias wiggler tremolo? I'm building a Tweed Deluxe today from junk '50s organ amps. Might have to do one of these next, cause I really want one with tremolo and reverb.

Aha, getting ready to funk ..

Princeton's are great.  I remember being about 19 years old with a marshall 100W and deciding it was time to learn to play guitar instead of just be a loud guitar player.  I bought a princeton and setdown for a year and practiced Clapton licks and such.  I loved that amp.  I can't believe I every sold it.    They are great amps.  Its a great around the house jammer.

got the diy ultra-linear transformer mounted and hooked up, just a few parts to go,

bias for the pwr tubes goes thru the Intensity pot, so make sure that part of the circuit is solid,
using separate cap for the first filter, this is the one that works hardest and needs replacing the most, changing  the can is a pain and we can also tweak the cap for sound if we want since the first cap can influence the sound the most,

one sore point on Fender amps over time is the grounding for all the front panel controls,

when you layer a thin sheet of brass with a thin sheet of what ever Fender used for the  chassis construction, probably plated steel, then you can create a battery because of different valence electrons in the metals.


sometimes the brass plate can develop problems so we solder pot grounds right to the chassis,


we are adding a 16 ohm spk jack to the 8 ohm and ext spk jacks.

chicken head knobs are where you get the sound, so we have 6 of those,

I guess no reverb transformer yet.  Are you winding or buying.  Did I miss something?

Mike Chapman uses princeton's in Tom Petty on Stage.  Not the big Vox amps in the front. They are just for looks.

gonna spin the reverb transformer, 50:1, pri-sec type, duck soup on a EI core,

12AT7 puts out less current than the 6K6 in the Fender reverb unit so we can use  smaller iron,

should we mount it at the weird 45 degree angle for less hum?

50:1 will pick up noise,

here is a great website for Princeton info>

http://www.jeangodbout.com/princeton/reverb-amp.html

just figured this out after 40 years, Fender shielded the controls with a tri[ple shield of the Al faceplate, non ferrous, steel chassis, ferrous, and brass plate behind pots, non ferrous, for a poor man;s shield, just like UTC transformer, can we use this for our own DIY?

cool link...did you see the cosmetic adjustments to the caps:silly--i love it

Wicked! 

I set out to build one of these years ago and got sidetracked and never got past the circuit board.

I have a '65 BF Deluxe non-reverb and love it, but am partial to my '62 Brownface Deluxe.  Those BF circuits are clean and bright!!  But it is the tone you hear on those 60's records for sure.  Tele and BF are a match made in heaven.

My only gripe is the Brownface trem is much smoother (I'm taking about the smaller combos, not the univibish harmonic trems on the bigger ones) - but you touched on the opto crud they put in most of the blackfaces... cold trem, but much faster speed as well if you want to pull some psychedelic tones.  Clean tone with a direct coupled trem is optimal  (like you're doing).  Personally I'm still partial the mids of the brownface era, but the blackface designs have a certain "it" factor tone wise.

I bet it will sound awesome... post some clips when done please.

What speaker are you putting in???

Mike

i have a kendrick black frame that i am going to start with, it is  pretty old, you want the spiders to rot out a bit so they loosen up the mid-range,

you are right about the tone circuit, this is not my favorite either, but you can fix the basic problem by simply installing a 25 k mid-range resistor, this is a common mod to fix the scooped mids problem, or install a middle control, i prefer to just dial in the resistors to the guitars thst  you have and keep the smooth front plate profile,

i like hte neil young deluxe tone circuit, interactive, or the vox circuit which is similar,

add jb weld to the pilot lamp jewel to keep it from rattling

bamboo vs oak, did you guys get that or do you need me to decipher the Great One?
,s a bong joke. on the buss or off the buss.