well hello friends and welcome to
0:20
another Ask Zac today we are going to
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compare
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a 1960 tweed deluxe to a 1959
0:28
tweed Harvard both classic fender amps
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from the same
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late 50s era with very you know
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they're similar yet different
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they have differences in speaker size
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different in cabinet size
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difference in uh the type of power tube
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biasing whether it's cathode on the
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deluxe or
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fixed on the Harvard they uh yeah they
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have some really interesting differences
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so we're going to talk about that
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where they kind of placed in the fender
1:01
lineup from the
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lowly champ all the way up to the tweed
1:05
twin
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and you know I'm going to play them and
1:08
I'm going to play them you know
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cranked up I'm going to play them clean
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and play them everywhere in between
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using my 57 esquire with an added
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vintage mid 50s neck pickup and
1:20
no pedals underfoot just a uh a b
1:23
switch and yeah that's gonna be it
1:27
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1:31
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1:34
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so thanks all right let's dive in
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i guess let's start with the
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uh you know kind of the the amp lineup
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of the late
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50s so the bottom of the rung amp
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was the champ and it had you know a
2:18
little
2:19
you know had a little six or eight inch
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speaker and it had
2:23
uh had just a single output tube and
2:26
just a volume knob
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okay then the step up from that was the
2:30
Princeton the Princeton had the
2:31
you know had an eight-inch speaker and
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it had the addition
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of a tone control but it was still a
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single output too
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basically nearly the same amp but of
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course Princeton had a bigger cab
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then you get the big jump from the
2:44
Princeton to the Harvard
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now do you get the names because they
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were student model amps prints in
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Harvard
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and the fact they made the Harvard the
2:52
better amp i thought that was
2:53
interesting
2:55
so there are the Harvard was the first
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amp in the lineup going from bottom to
3:00
top that had two output tubes so this
3:03
has two six v6s in it
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and what that does of course it allows
3:06
it to have more wattage it also gives it
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a wider sound and a little bit more
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yeah single-ended amp or amps with only
3:14
one output to just tend to be more a
3:16
little bit more low-phi sounding
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so the Harvard was the first you know
3:21
step up
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up into the double output tube and then
3:25
once you got above the Harvard that was
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the vibrolux and the vibrolux was
3:30
basically the same
3:31
amp as a Harvard except it had the
3:33
addition
3:34
of tremolo and uh that
3:38
nessa uh made it necessary for it to
3:41
have one
3:41
tube difference this has a really
3:44
strange uh
3:46
you know first position uh preamp tube
3:49
that
3:49
is a 6at6 and
3:53
it's basically half of a 12x7 and then
3:55
on the vibralux they had to use a 12x7
3:57
or 12ay7 and they had to use that so
4:00
that they had the other half
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to uh to operate the the tremolo so
4:05
also the vibralux had a bigger cab okay
4:08
but still basically same amp same sound
4:10
to a degree then you jump up from the
4:12
vibralux to this amp to
4:14
the deluxe so of course you get a bigger
4:16
cab
4:17
you get a little more power even though
4:20
those these amps have the same iron in
4:22
them they have the
4:22
the same you know output transformer and
4:24
such
4:25
but uh i guess they put a little more uh
4:29
juice to the the tubes and such
4:32
in the in the deluxe and so you get a
4:34
little more power
4:37
and you also get the addition of a uh
4:40
a second volume control because it has
4:42
two channels so it has a mic
4:44
channel and it has an instrument channel
4:46
so it has a volume control for each and
4:48
a overall master tone control
4:51
while the Harvard has three inputs
4:54
but they're all to the same channel and
4:56
they're just padded as you go from one
4:58
to three so one is full gain
5:00
two is padded sum and three is padded
5:02
more and then it just has a volume
5:04
and tone control so of course you have
5:07
the difference in cab size
5:09
deluxe is bigger you have a difference
5:10
in speaker the Harvard has a p10r
5:13
Jensen and the the deluxe
5:16
had the p12r so you have a 12 inch
5:19
speaker
5:20
and but still very low wattage um
5:25
probably one of the biggest differences
5:28
in the in the sound is actually the way
5:30
that the
5:30
the tubes are the power tubes are biased
5:33
and that
5:34
the the tweed deluxe is cathode biased
5:38
and the Harvard is fixed bias
5:41
what that does tone wise is
5:44
cathode bias will tend to go into
5:48
overdrive
5:49
a little quicker and a little smoother
5:51
also will tend to be more compressed
5:54
and it will tend to be a little looser
5:58
in the base
5:59
of course the opposite is true for fixed
6:01
bias it will be a little more abrupt
6:04
as it goes into overdrive into
6:07
distortion
6:08
it will have tighter base and it will be
6:10
more percussive
6:11
and less compressed so
6:14
that's kind of the lineup so then i
6:16
guess if you were to continue on up the
6:18
lineup from the deluxe
6:20
would be the tremolox and the tremolo x
6:22
had uh
6:23
especially the late 50s tremolox was a
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really cool amp
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it uh it had a big box you know much
6:30
bigger than this
6:30
still had the 12 inch speaker and had
6:32
tremolo and it was
6:34
fixed bias instead of cathode biased and
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it's
6:37
really a neat amp and then you know from
6:39
there you go up to like the
6:40
the 210 super which is a monster of an
6:44
amp
6:45
and then you get into what most guys
6:48
would seem
6:49
you know what would have been seen as
6:50
the professional amps
6:52
the actual gigging amps which would be
6:54
like the pro with a single 15
6:56
the 310 band master or the 410 basement
6:59
or you know the top of the heap which
7:01
was the uh the high powered tweed twin
7:03
of 59 and 60.
7:05
so that was kind of the uh you know the
7:08
the
7:08
the fender lineup of of amps
7:12
and uh yeah so i thought it was neat to
7:15
have these two
7:16
that are kind of close in the lineup
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there's only like i said the only amp
7:20
that's kind of between these is the
7:21
vibrolux which is the same amp as the
7:23
Harvard except it has a
7:25
tremolo on it it's always confusing how
7:28
fender used the word vibrato
7:30
when they were actually talking about
7:31
tremolo but that's a
7:33
that's another story so here let's just
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let's just hear it
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so i think we'll uh we'll start with the
7:40
the Harvard
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and uh and we'll just kind of go back
7:43
and forth play like some neck pickup
7:45
stuff and some bridge pickup stuff
7:47
and then i will start turning the amps
7:49
up so right now
7:51
they're set at five or below
7:54
and uh yeah i think the the
7:57
the deluxe is set at four with the tone
8:01
about six o'clock or no at six
8:04
and the uh the Harvard i think the uh
8:07
the volume's around five and the uh the
8:10
tone looks like it's around five
8:12
or so so let's hear it we're going to
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hear the Harvard first
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on the neck pickup on the ole esquire
8:32
okay so just from playing that big e
8:34
chord
8:35
you can hear you know the beginning of
8:37
the difference
8:38
how this amp has a wider frequency range
8:43
and it's a little more open in the
8:45
mid-range
8:47
and the Harvard over there has
8:51
it said it's tighter it's not as wide
8:55
frequency
8:56
range wise and it's more focused
8:57
sounding so of course the Harvard is
9:00
most famous for being
9:01
you know the amp that Steve cropper used
9:03
on all the early stacks
9:04
stuff and of course later on he switched
9:07
to super reverb
9:08
but uh that's most the stack stuff pre
9:11
66
9:12
is the Harvard the tweed deluxe has you
9:15
know because it was
9:17
uh a much more popular amp and there
9:20
were
9:20
many more sold uh the tweed deluxe has
9:24
you know so many users whether it's you
9:26
know Larry Carlton
9:28
on steely Dan stuff or you know the
9:30
eagles like
9:31
joe Walsh and and don felder using them
9:34
you know famously on you know on eagle
9:37
stuff
9:38
and all sorts of things in between these
9:41
are both you know really
9:42
classic amps i think also ace freely uh
9:45
apparently used a harvard a bunch on on
9:48
kiss stuff
9:49
so i thought that was uh interesting so
9:52
yeah because
9:53
a les Paul into that Harvard which uh
9:55
when i interviewed Greg martin he uh he
9:57
used my Harvard and he had his uh
9:59
real 58 uh you know sunburst that he uh
10:03
he played on that true tone lounge that
10:05
i did and that that was a lot of fun
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all right let's uh let's go to the
10:09
bridge pickup
10:10
uh we're still let's see this is the
10:12
deluxe first
10:36
[Music]
10:45
[Music]
10:51
of course i landed on the Harvard and
10:53
again you know i was playing repetitive
10:55
stuff just
10:56
and going back and forth so you could
10:58
hear open mid range
11:00
you know wider frequency range and then
11:03
the more focused sound
11:04
i both amps are great but frankly i hear
11:07
more people talk about how the Harvard
11:09
you know really does well in the studio
11:12
because it is a smaller sound so
11:15
all right let's uh
11:18
let's crank it up some so you can hear
11:20
you know what these things sound like
11:22
distorted
11:23
so let's turn this up to like
11:26
nine we're gonna
11:30
yeah set this up to about 10. okay so
11:33
now you're going to hear
11:34
how the amps overdrive and we're
11:37
starting with the Harvard
11:39
and you're going to hear the yeah
11:43
just the way that they'll compress and
11:45
the way they'll act when
11:46
when cranked up let's see
11:59
[Music]
12:06
[Music]
12:08
so
12:13
[Music]
12:20
[Music]
12:27
[Music]
12:33
very you know still in the same family
12:37
they're brothers but they are they're
12:40
they're very different
12:41
uh you know let's see
12:55
that was a Harvard
12:57
[Music]
13:01
let's turn this up a little bit more
13:02
let's make a little more fair
13:05
so now we've got the the deluxe on on 10
13:08
i think the Harvard was a little louder
13:23
[Music]
13:30
Harvard now
13:44
all right i think uh
13:47
both really cool amps both you know they
13:50
they have different you know kind of
13:52
strengths and and weaknesses uh
13:55
i will say that at the end of the day as
13:57
much as i appreciate the deluxe
14:00
i i like the Harvard a little bit more
14:02
uh
14:03
because it tends to stay a little uh
14:07
a little tighter in the base
14:20
now the uh the deluxe let's see which
14:23
I'm gonna switch to now
14:31
[Music]
14:36
i don't know yeah they're both really
14:37
cool they're both really really great
14:39
amps but yeah you're hearing
14:41
the difference between cathode biased
14:44
and fixed bias you're hearing the
14:46
difference between
14:47
a bigger cab versus a smaller cab a p
14:50
you know 12 r versus a p 10 r
14:54
and yeah but both both really cool amps
14:58
and both uh
15:00
you know really uh really fun vintage
15:03
amps
15:04
i have to say something uh so so this uh
15:06
deluxe i borrowed from Dan strain
15:09
and i brought it you know to the house
15:11
here and and i compared it against my
15:13
Harvard and i thought my
15:15
Harvard sounded terrible so
15:18
then i remembered that a couple months
15:20
ago that this company
15:22
called audio tubes direct they said hey
15:26
we really want to support the show and
15:27
this was you know before i had really
15:29
set up much
15:31
and they said can we send you some tubes
15:32
for one of your amps and i said yeah i
15:34
would i would love some new tubes you
15:36
know for my Harvard
15:37
so they gave me all the tubes except for
15:38
the 686 which of course they don't make
15:40
so i just found one off
15:42
eBay but they gave me a pair of six v6s
15:44
which i like the tongue saw reissues
15:47
so they gave me a pair of these and a a
15:50
mullered
15:51
reissue you know preamp tube and then a
15:54
you know a i think it's a softec
15:58
uh 5y3 rectifier and i put all those in
16:01
the amp and i had some old
16:02
you know rca tubes in it and wow it
16:05
really woke up the amp
16:07
and because i was about to not do this
16:10
video because
16:11
frankly my Harvard it sounded so bad
16:14
that i was i was about ready to you know
16:17
start talking to Dan and say
16:18
hey can i sell one of my children to get
16:20
your uh you know get your tweet deluxe
16:22
from you
16:23
but uh so thank you to audio tubes
16:26
direct
16:26
uh for the tubes for supporting the show
16:28
that way that made a big difference it
16:30
made this uh
16:31
video possible so thanks those guys
16:34
well i hope you enjoyed uh the video and
16:37
uh
16:38
yeah and uh you know because again you
16:41
know even i don't get that many times
16:42
where i can compare
16:43
you know to you know vintage amps that
16:45
are you know from the same you know just
16:47
a year apart and
16:48
and such that it was really fun for me
16:50
and i hope it was for you too
16:51
all right guys thanks a lot bye-bye