Articles on modding Fender silverface amps

B45-12 · Post by **B45-12** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 8:50 am

Anyone out there got copies of the UK mag 'Guitar' for Feb and March 2000?? - there were parts 1 & 2 of a 3 part series in them on converting silverface Fender amps to blackface and other specs by Brinsley Schwarz and I'd like to get copies or photocopies of parts 1 & 2.

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 9:11 am

What is the difference between sf and bf?

ant · Post by **ant** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 10:40 am

Main difference in most models - Higher voltages for (even)more clean headroom and tone sucking caps that make the amp more stable(like mesa/boogie) but sound dull and loses sparkle.

philipnz · Post by **philipnz** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 1:21 pm

Rog wrote:What is the difference between sf and bf?

About a grand

B45-12 · Post by **B45-12** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 12:31 am

Rog wrote:What is the difference between sf and bf?

Basically as ant says - caps that made the amps more stable and have less nasty 'distortion' but at the cost of sparkle and life.

The reason, I understand, was the sale of Fender to CBS in the early 70's and the removal of Leo from the scene. The new owners (like Norlin with Gibson) wanted no warrantry returns on the amps and so they followed their techs circuit change reccomendations. The silverface Fenders are the equivalent of the post CBS strats (the one with the big headstocks, bullet trussrods, microtilty adjustment etc.) but, unlike the guitars, the amps circuitry was not changed that much - mostly just cap values and it is apparently possible to change them to blackface (= roughly pre CBS) values for a much better sound. I intend to try it out on my early 70's Twin reverb when I get copies of the rest of the articles.

Can allways put them back if I don't like the results.