Factory bulletins on the Fender Princeton 112+? Nope but here are some mods I did

[Jayz]

Very helpful Steve - thanks! I expect to pickup all the parts I need this week and implement all your suggested mods.
Should the 1M pot be audio or linear taper?

[Jayz]

All mods now complete! Big improvement - definitely worth the effort! Thanks all!

[Steve A.]

All mods now complete! Big improvement - definitely worth the effort! Thanks all!

Glad to hear that it worked out for you! The whole line of these amps from the 25W Champion 110 to the 160W Stage 160 have a great design but they do need some fine-tuning tweaks to bring that out and to match your own preferences.

I think that when playing live most people in the audience can't tell if you are playing a tube amp or a good SS one. Most of the time you aren't able to crank a tube amp up enough to get power tube distortion and that great interaction between tubes and output transformer and speaker and cabinet.

As for preamp distortion there are many pedals out there that sound better than the OD channels in most of the production line tube amps from Fender, Peavey, et al.

One of the biggest advantages with this line of Fender amps is that they are much lighter than tube amps of the same wattage and if they get stolen or damaged you can buy another one for $100-200. No need to figure out the perfect - often expensive! - tubes for the amp. I have more of these amps from the Champions on up to the 95W Deluxe 112+ to experiment with and hope to dig more deeply into the designs.

Steve

P.S. Don't tell your friends! As long as no one wants these amps the prices will stay very low; the most I paid was $120 including shipping for the Deluxe 112+. GC will ship these amps across the country for a flat fee of $12.50 which is a lot less than what mere mortals like us would pay. Best thing is that if the amp arrives with problems you can return it to your local store. I always have them shipped to the store so I can test them out with witnesses. BTW you can return them for any reason within 30 days but unless they are defective you will eat the shipping charge.

3 of the Champions I bought had bad speakers which sounded like crap if you turned them up at all and hit a few low notes. To determine if the problem is with the speaker or the amp itself plug in an ext cabinet.

[JoeM]

I agree with Steve, these are some nice amps. I've had my little Fender 85 for over 20 years. Great clean sound. The stock speaker was really inefficient, but with a speaker upgrade makes a nice lightweight amp.

[Jayz]

Thanks again Steve. I bought mine for $75 but ended up spending another 50 on replacement parts. I've been using it for rehearsals but might bring it to a gig instead of my '65 Deluxe Reverb - it's low enough power that I can crank it up to 10 in most venues and get the "crunch" I like without a pedal. The P112+ modded will be different but sometimes a change is as good as a rest!
Amps are like guitars - you just can't have too many!
PS - the absolute best mod is the MV - so much better control in the smaller confines of a rehearsal space!
PPS - for those who are considering Steve's mod's I think all the parts cost well under $10.

[soundguruman]

I will ask on Monday if there is any other service updates....