Silver Face Princeton - Need More Crunch/Less Feedback
Good morning, Skip.
Dave recommended I write. I have a 1976 Fender Silverface Princeton Reverb. I'm playing through a custom wood mic from Greg Hueman with a 1950 controlled magnetic element.
I've always felt the amp was too clean. I really like a dirty harmonica sound. Musselwhite is my hero.
I've already changed the power tubes to a lower headroom rating, I forget what those ratings are. I've also changed two of the preamp tubes to 12AU7. They are in the far left and far right slots at the moment. The preamp swapped helped lower the feedback to some degree.
I've just completed Dave's Tongue Blocking II lessons. Wouldn't you know? Turns out tongue blocking is putting me on the road to the crunch I crave! I just didn't want to believe it was the player, not the equipment, but now I do.
So, I'm doing my part, but I think the amp could kick in as well. Regardless of the room, it seems I can rarely get the volume on the amp over 3 without feeding back. The amp barely breaks up at that volume. If i put the amp in another room, I can crank it to 9 and hear some nice crunch.
Is this normal? Are there any other mods you can recommend?
Hello and thanks for writing- It sounds like you have put in a lot of patient effort! Here are a few thoughts:
Lower-gain preamp tubes reduce GAIN in a specific stage of the amp. This helps a lot with feedback, but also reduces crunch and (usually) cuts the bass: two things that you are looking for.
I'd suggest a 12AU7 next to the power tubes and a nice beefy ceramic-magnet speaker as your only mods. Try using the #2 input jack, floor the bass, turn the treble to zero, and just do the best you can. Cut the volume control on the mike if you need to get close to your amp. Your main man Charlie can get the tone on a red-knob Twin!
Your Princeton Reverb is one of the coolest (and most desirable $$$!) guitar amps of all time, but it's clean tone is the opposite of what you are looking for right now.
Maybe buy a little cheapie new amp that really crunchs and use it in tandem with the Princeton.........?