FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

Tagged As: Old Fender Amps

Question:
I'm in the market for a blackface/silverface Fender Deluxe Reverb or Vibrolux Reverb. This all started when I bought a mint blackface Champ a few months ago, and was so completely blown away by it's tone that I've started selling my remaining amps. On various Usenet postings and auction sites, I see people list transformer codes for old Fender amps that they are selling, apparently to confirm the date of manufacture. I've done alot of poking around (books, Fender Amp Field Guide website, etc.), and I can't seem to find any reference for matching transformer codes to manufacturng dates. Is this just bullshit, or hidden Jedi amp tech knowledge? Is there such a reference? So far I've seen blackface control panels glued onto silverface amps, and now I'm wondering if there are also forged blackface tube charts out there. I don't much care about silverface vs. blackface, I just want to be sure of what I'm paying for.

Answer:
The EIA codes on componants are just PART of the information to narrow the date of manufacture of Fender amps. Since the entire date is not stamped on the part (usually just the manufacturer code, the last digit of the year and week of the year), other information about the particular amp is necessary - such as the cosmetics (blackface/silverface), logo (tail/no tail), grillcloth color, trim, etc. And even the EIA codes do NOT tell when the amp was manufactured, just the part that has the code stamped on it! So the rule of thumb is that the amp has to be a little older than the newest original componant in the amp. For example, you could have power transformer date codes of late 1968 and reverb tank transformers of early 1969. The amp would probably have been built in early/mid 1969. So I guess the bottom line is that you have to look at the ENTIRE amp to get a good idea of when it was made.