Buyer’s guide to vintage Fender amps
Available for only 10$ US.
And you will become a member of fenderguru.com
Paypal instructions
- Amount: 10$ (US dollars)
- Paypal account: jens(a)karane.com (replace the (a) with @)
- Paypal payment message: “fenderguru.com”
After short time (<a few days) we will simply email the pdf guide to your paypal email address
Unlike the rest of the free content on this site, the buyer’s guide costs 10$. In later revisions we plan to distribute the guide on modern platforms, like app stores for different tablet devices. Click the picture to see the Table of Contents. We’ve extracted the introduction for you below.
Introduction
If you came here looking for good tone you’ve come to the right place. The “Buyer’s guide to vintage Fender amps” from fenderguru.com will help you navigate in an over-hyped vintage gear market and explains the risks and common issues with buying vintage Fender amps. The purpose of this guide is to help you recognize a good Fender amp by reading about it and looking at pictures. It will allow you to make safer purchases on a global market without having to physically play an amp before acquiring one.
There are many facts to consider when determining the condition and originality of a vintage amp. While the collectors are primarily interested in originality, the musicians see the amp as an instrument. This will affect the priorities and decicion making in a purchase. If your plan is to play and gig with your amp you should focus on tone and robustness. That can be painfully hard to combine with originality, but don’t worry – We’ll share our strategy how to compromise tone and originality. To pay our respect to Leo Fender we must all try to conserve the vintage Fender amps on this planet. We should all strive to keep these amps as original as possible.
At the end of this guide you’ll find a step-by-step procedure how to inspect and safely fire up a vintage Fender amp. This will come in handy if you have bought an amp and had it packaged and shipped. You might not know if an amp worked before it was packaged or if the tubes or reverb tank was damaged during transportation. After following the step-by-step procedure a couple of times, you will master the basic principles with vintage fender tube amps.
The “Buyer’s guide to vintage Fender amps” is targeted for beginners with some or little experience with tube amps. It focuses on the early decision phases when looking at amps, for example on internet auctions. It is not a comprehensive catalogue containing all eras of Fender amps that will guide you to a specific model.
Hey! I want a copy of this. Wen is it ready?
hi jens!
sounds like a great idea, and I´m looking forward to what you guys are working out!
best
carsten
Great idea, Jens!
I really like your website although I haven’t had time to go through all of it. Take a look at my site http://www.pedensvintage.com. Play the slideshow on the gallery page lots of photos of vintage stuff. Also check out an article I did for “Guitar World ” in 1980 ! Man I’ve been at this too long. Let me know if you’re coming to NYC. Again I like your site.
Hi, I’m really honored to have you with us here, John. Reading your articles and browsing your gallery makes me realize most of us are newbies in this game of vintage amps. Have you really seen and photografed all these great players?
Cool to see you have written a buyers guide to vintage fender amps back in the days. I’ll pass over a sample of mine once the first revision is ready. Carsten will also get one. I’m currently writing the last few chapters on troubleshooting.
Hopefully I’ll take you up on your offer in NJ, John. I used to travel regularly to Chicago and NJ in my previous job (a big worldwide IT consulting company based in Chicago), but now it’s been a few years since I last went. I miss the NY strip steak!
Best regards.
Jens
hi john!
great to “see” you around here!
we know each other from the fdp, where i think I drooled over your great work more than once
best
carsten
To answer Jen’s question, yes of course I shot all of the photos in my slideshow. I have a bunch of other stuff as well but I figure that there is a limit to the amount of time people are willing to spend viewing a website. Let me know if I can do anything to help you guys. You appear to be doing “Leo’s work”. Good luck. John Peden
Jens, new gold member, could you please send me a download for the new buyers guide. Thanks, Jeff
hi!
I just received my copy of the “buyer´s guide” – thank you very much, Jens!
It´s well worth the wait, as it is a thorough piece of guidance!
As a seasoned owner of vintage Fenders I already knew quite a bit of what is being mentioned, but I´m sure it will be VERY helpful to many, many people out there looking for a vintage Fender-amp!
Great work – thanks again!
- carsten
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I want to buy a guide book by Paypal.