THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY
1983 FENDER CONCERT AMP
This was definitely one of my favorite amps I've ever owned. At one point I even bought a second one and ran them in stereo. AND…I had an extension cabinet for one of them. How cool am I? This was a 1983 Fender Concert amp that was part of the series of amps that were designed by Paul Rivera. In 1982 Paul basically saved the Fender amp line that was floundering and getting off-track back in the early eighties...he also came up with the Champ II, the Super Champ (one of the most coveted modern era amps of all time), Princeton Reverb II, Deluxe II, and the Twin Reverb II. Maybe more.
The specs I found on the 'net include: 1-12" speaker - 60 watts, all tube with 2 channel w/switching, point to point wiring - bright push-pull on clean channel, mid-boost push-pull on gain channel - gain channel has gain/vol/master for fine adjust of distortion level - effects loop has return send trim pots.
The best part about this particular amp is that I found it over in the dirty, dusty corner of a pawn shop in San Clemente, CA that just had the word "GUNS" real big on it's sign out front. (It’s now a coffee shop).
Lots of surf boards and other crap and one dirty, dusty Fender Concert amp. I talked him down to $200 and loaded it in the car. Got it home and took the better part of a Friday night cleaning the whole thing up. Getting the dirt out of the inside of a combo amp always seems like the biggest pain in the ass, but once you get it all looking nice you feel pretty good about taking the extra time to do it right. The older style blackface look to this amp is really nice and, once I got the tolex all ArmourAll'ed up and shiny, it was looking sweet.
I recently found this photo of our band playing a show in Northern California at the Grateful Dead’s former mountain retreat. In the background you can see my 1983 Fender Concert Amp with an extension cabinet. You can also see my Phantom Mandoguitar which I have written about and my 1969 Fender Telecaster Thinline which also has it’s own post. I plugged it in and, man, this thing sounded great. The sixty watts was more than enough and it really had a sweet spot that you rarely get to crank up to unless you are gigging in a large club. I remember it being fairly heavy for a 12" combo and, now that I think about it, right about the time that I was lugging this thing to gigs I ended up getting a hernia. Now I'm not blaming Paul Rivera or Fender for the fact that I eventually had to have surgery, but I'm pretty sure that pulling that thing in and out of the truck didn't help.
Anyway, great amp and I would highly recommend grabbing one if it wanders too close to you and no one is watching. The only reason I let mine go was because I hit a point where I wasn't playing live and I finally talked myself into believing that the space it was taking up (c'mon, it's only a 12" combo amp...not a stack) could be better used by a plant or something. My bad.
2024 UPDATE: Man, I missed that amp a lot over the years. In 2022 I found one on Craigslist up in Riverside County and went up there and bought the damn thing. I think the speaker had been replaced with Swamp Thang by Eminence which sounded great. At my current house I have a studio space that used to be a garage, so I have room for a bigger amp. However, after not very long I realized exactly why I got rid of the one I used to have…just too much power for me these days. I just don’t need it. I sold the amp…even made a few bucks profit on it. But for a second there, I was back in the glory days and that amp sounded fantastic. Get one!
Originally posted: September 2008