Fender's Princeton Non-Reverb excels at delivering legendary Blackface cleans in a compact 1x10 combo.

What To Know

Is there a better low watt portable tube combo than a Fender Princeton? With a surge in popularity over the past 10-15 years, the venerable Princeton is undoubtedly one of Leo Fender's best designs. There are few amps that deliver such a great clean tone at low volumes better than a Princeton.

The non-reverb Princeton doesn't get quite the attention that its reverb-loaded sibling does, but that doesn't mean these amps can't provide a lot of that great vintage tone. With the absence of the reverb circuit, a non-reverb Princeton delivers a much cleaner response through the entire volume sweep. The lack of gain staging from the reverb driver tube changes the behavior of the amp to keep that lovely Blackface clean tone more stable as you push the volume. You're still afforded that fantastic bias tremolo (unique to the Princeton circuit from this era) as well.