The sound and response of the ’57 Custom Pro is much closer to the vintage tweed amps we have come to know and love, but the 15-inch speaker is the main event and it sets the Pro apart from all other tweeds. There’s no denying it was a pretty successful outcome in that regard, but for better or worse, the amplifier isn’t entirely ‘vintage’ in sound or function. When we reviewed Fender’s The Edge Deluxe in 2016 it seemed that the 5E3’s gain structure had been tweaked to deliver creamy overdrive at reasonable volumes. Even so, Fender is using its own-brand yellow Astron repro capacitors made from craft paper, tin foil and resin – just like the originals. Although the circuit is hand-wired on traditional eyelet board, the resistors are not carbon composite and plastic insulated hookup wire is used throughout in preference to cloth covered wire. It’s fair to say that Fender feels less bound to vintage specifications than some boutique builders. A period-correct 5U4 rectifier can be substituted for gain and feel that’s truer to vintage Pros and a 12AX7 can be used in V1 to hasten overdrive onset. Since it’s a replica of a ’57 model, the power valves are 6L6s rather than 5881s (used from ’58 to ’60) and they get their juice from a 5AR4 rectifier valve. Period schematics also specify a 12AY7 for V2, but this reissue has a 12AX7. Already the tone stack had evolved to a Baxandall-type configuration and negative feedback was being used with a presence control in the loop along with fixed bias.įender has stayed true to vintage spec with a 12AY7 in the V1 position. The model Fender has chosen here represents an evolution of the simpler Pros of the early 50s and the controls hint at things that were about to pass at the twilight of the tweed era.
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