Q: Can you tell me exactly why older Fender amps built after the CBS buyout of Fender typically are worth far less than those built before? Is it just the perception or are there real differences?
A: The gap in prices of pre- and post-CBS Fender amplifiers (and guitars) has closed quite a bit over the last decade. A number of amplifiers (the Vibrolux Reverb and Princeton Reverb, for instance) survived the change of ownership virtually unchanged, while others eventually were redesigned to make them easier to build, and thus generally more prone to noisy operation. Naturally, once the company began converting to solid-state amps, their reputation began taking a nosedive. If you’re in the market for a vintage Fender amp, give it a thorough workout prior to purchasing it, regardless of whether it’s supposedly a model built before or during the CBS era. More often, modifications made more recently (in the 1980s, for example) will have affected the overall “vibe” of the amp far more than any changes CBS made to the circuitry.
