1961 Fender Princeton 6G2

This old brownface Princeton sounds pure and clear with pretty much any guitar plugged in. Kick in the optical vibrato for some thick and lush goodness!

The Fender Princeton 6G2 is a transitional circuit that harks back to the tweed era preceding it. The tones are clear and pure and it’s very much an amp you’d want to run clean (or with pedal dirt). The optical vibrato is thick and lush and ads a nice dimension to the sound.

When I first came into possession of the ’61, it was in bad shape. The speaker was horribly mismatched, it was missing a couple of knobs, the tolex was falling off in places, the wiring was modded, and it barely made sound.

Dan Lurie of FYD Amps reverted the guts back to 6G2 spec using vintage style cloth wire. I swapped out the speaker and restored the tolex, and replaced the missing knobs and leather handle.

These great little amps were sleepers for a while, but have gone up in value recently. And in 2019 Fender released a Chris Stapleton signature model (also with a 12″ speaker), so I guess I’m not the only one who loves the sound.