Fender 6G16 Vibroverb Amp (1963)

The circuit remained 100% untouched since the day it left the factory, and we're talking EVERYTHING. It still sports all of the original tubes - literally every single one is as it was from Fullerton. It's got the impossibly rare original brown two-button footswitch and has its two-prong power cord still attached. The original Oxford 10K5 speakers have never been out of the amp as well.

The original tube chart shows a stamp 'ME' indicating the amplifier rolled out of the factory in May of 1963. Corroborating this with the sales receipt leads us to believe it was trucked just 30 miles due west of the Fullerton factory to Melody Music and sold rather quickly to its original owner.

We enlisted Stan Day to go through the Vibroverb and carefully handle the replacement of only the components critical to safe operation of the amp. Thankfully, it only needed the most basic of service - electrolytic and filter capacitors, and a bias capacitor. Seeing as the amp is in such incredible condition, we opted to have the new caps installed inside the sleeves of the originals, preserving look and presentation of the circuit. Now the amp can be powered up and used without worry, and boy aren't we happy about that!

This Vibroverb is like an All-Star team of tone - it's got the rounder bass and midrange presence of a Tweed amp, with the bounce and air in the treble, like of a Blackface. The soft, musical bias-vary tremolo from a Princeton Reverb and a tube-driven spring reverb circuit like you've never heard in another Fender. Low volume cleans are deep and lush with such an incredible reverb sound, and pushing the amp's volume yields rich, saturated tube breakup. We're not ones to test the limits of original speakers, though, so the amp has not been pushed beyond 4-5 on the Volume control, for preservation's sake.

We're so close to calling condition a Perfect 10 on this one, but our scrutiny and conservative nature has gotten the best of us. The amp was outfitted with period furniture casters on the bottom of the cabinet that have since been removed. The original glides were never taken off and remain in great shape with very little wear. What remains is just the screw holes from the small mounting plates used to support the casters. Thankfully none of that is visible unless you've got the amp upside down. There's also a few scratch/slice markes on the upper back panel on the left side. They're very thin and the tolex remains stable with no signs of curling or delamination from the panel itself. It's only visible at certain angles and blends in with the texture of the tolex for the most part. We're not sure what it's from, but our guess is some sort of incidental contact with a very sharp object, since there's no crude collateral damage. With all of this in mind, we'll settle for a 9.25/10 - hopefully you'll agree that it's undoubtedly one of the cleanest examples out there.

If you've read through the description this far without a bathroom break or a meal...congratulations! In all seriousness, this Vibroverb takes the rank of Numero Uno in the most prized vintage amp to ever find its way into our little shop.