Buyer’s guide to vintage Fender amps

​Our Buyer’s Guide to Vintage Fender Amps is designed for players who are new or relatively new to tube amps. It focuses on the early stages of shopping for gear—helping you evaluate potential purchases, navigate online auctions, and avoid common pitfalls.
​(Please note: This guide is a practical buying tool, not an exhaustive catalog of every Fender model and era).

​How to Order ($10 USD)
​Unlike the free content on our site, this comprehensive PDF guide is available for $10 USD. ​We currently process payments exclusively through PayPal.

  • Send $10 USD via PayPal to: jens@fenderguru.com. ​
  • Include your email address in the PayPal payment note (e.g., “Please send guide to name@email.com”).
  • ​Once payment is received, we will deliver the PDF guide to your email within 1–2 business days.

The table of contents is shown below:

  • Introduction. 3
  • The Pride and Joy. 3
  • Vintage guitar tone. 3
  • Vintage vs. modern amps. 4
  • Robustness and simplicity. 5
  • The risks. 5
  • Power supply. 6
  • Replacement power transformer. 6
  • Step-down transformer. 7
  • Purchasing amps on internet. 7
  • Shipping. 8
  • How to recognize a good amp. 9
  • Player’s vs. collector’s amp. 9
  • What to look for. 10
  • Serial number. 11
  • Tube chart and circuit number. 11
  • Transformers. 11
  • Speakers. 12
  • Cabinet and tolex. 13
  • Fender logo and grill cloth. 13
  • Faceplate and knobs. 14
  • Circuit components. 14
  • Reverb tank. 15
  • Baffle and cabinet. 15
  • Cables, plugs, footswitch, pilot light crown. 16
  • Hardware, chassis straps, tilt back legs, handle. 16
  • Power cord, Ground switch and Death cap. 16
  • How to safely fire up a vintage Fender amp. 17
  • Dual power switches. 17
  • Inspect fuse and pilot light. 18
  • Inspect tubes. 18
  • Inspect reverb tank cables and plugs. 18
  • Inspect speaker cables, jack and terminals. 18
  • Tighten baffle board and speaker screws. 19
  • Inspect speaker and baffle screws. 19
  • Tighten strap, chassis screws and nuts, tilt back legs and foots. 19
  • Execute initial test without tubes. 19
  • Verify rectifier and power tubes. 20
  • Verify normal channel. 21
  • Verify vibrato channel. 22
  • Verify Reverb. 23
  • Verify Tremolo. 24
  • Appendix. 25
  • Speakers. 25
  • CTS. 25
  • Eminence. 31
  • JBL. 32
  • Jensen. 35
  • Oxford. 40
  • Rola. 46
  • Utah. 46
  • Grill cloths. 47

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