# My 1964 Fender Brownie/BF Princeton Story...Pic Heavy



## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

My 1964 Fender 6G2 Princeton. A transitional model. The 6G2 circuit was designed and came out in 1960 as a brownie amp. In 64 Fender was moving toward the Blackface look, but the Princeton in the first half of '64 was a little half breed of brownie goodness and blackface. Also known as the tuxedo Princeton. Blackface with white knobs.
When I acquired the amp it looked like this and had a rough homemade speaker baffle. Cut for a 12. In it, was an old 12" Electrovoice SP12-B speaker I think it was. It had a tear in the cone. The grill cloth was sad. This little amp needed some love.










The Power Transformer had been changed to a 1981 Princeton Reverb PT. The cap can was 20/20/40. The voltages on the 6V6 plates were high at about 450V. The stock 6G2 schematic shows 315V on the plates and 30/30/30/ cap can. I ordered a new Hammond muti-tap PT with an option for lower voltage. I pulled the modern Sovtek 5Y3 and put in a vintage RCA one. Installed the new proper spec cap can and fired it up. I landed at exactly 315V on the plates! Next I built my own floating speaker baffle cut for a 10" speaker. I ordered 3 different WGS 10" speaker options. I settled on the WGS ET-10. I installed my own new grill cloth and installed the speaker and fired it up. Sounds awesome. A previous owner had cut a couple of holes in the rear chassis so I opted to install a couple of micro switches in these holes. I modified the amp so I have switchable negative feedback, as well as a switchable cathode cap on the second triode of V1. These mods offered more gain options. This this is a fire breathing dragon now, and can easily be switched back to stock whenever I want. Sprayed the pots. Set the Bias, good to go!

Here is my progress on the baffle:









1981 PR PT versus the new Hammond:










New grill cloth installed. Took me three attempts to get it acceptable.










Two rear hidden micro switches. Damage was already done so what the heck? A great candidate to experiment with:










I tried the WGS ET-1o, the G10C/S, and the Veteran 20W speakers. The G10C/S was awesome. Actually they all were. In the end I sold the Veteran to a fellow member here. A friend of mine sweet talked me into selling him the G10C/S so I was left with the ET-10, which is also great in this amp.

I have taken the amp to band rehearsal, a 4 pc. This amp is plenty loud with a fairly heavy handed drummer.
Cranked up, it's like a mini Marshall. Especially with the octane boost and nitrous switches both engaged. The BIAS wiggle tremolo sounds great too. The amp is ready for another 50 years. Cheers.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Nice! I'd love to hear that thing gain'd out!


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## StevieMac (Mar 4, 2006)

From your title: 
*My 1694 Fender Brownie/BF Princeton Story...Pic Heavy*
*
Just wanted to say: Now THAT is vintage!!!*


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Did Columbus bring that over? 8)

Nice job resurrecting that amp, love it!


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## bzrkrage (Mar 20, 2011)

Nice work Keith. The grill cloth looks straight to my eyes!
Glad it all worked out.


Sent from my Other Brain


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

Brownie tremolo is such a heavenly sound. Id love to have one of these, or a brown Deluxe


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## JethroTech (Dec 8, 2015)

Nice work. That thing is beautiful!


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

Very nice. Congrats. I assume that a 12 in. can be installed in these,correct?


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## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

Cool find - enjoy it!


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## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

Thanks guys. It was a lot of fun working on this one.

Yes you can fit a 12" speaker in there. There is room. I could have made the baffle so it was cut for a 12.
I would have cut the hole lower, and mounted the speaker a little lower to clear the Output Tranny. Actually the cap can is the biggest obstacle. It can be done though, yes.
Here it is with the 10" G10C/S in it.










Here is the story from the inside, of the 2 micro switches. You can see. far left I also piggybacked another resistor of V1 cathode. Again more gain. 










I too dreamt of owning a 6G3 Deluxe. Then this 6G2 found its way to me. I had to have it. Maybe someday a Deluxe will come my way too.
This one is pretty dang loud at break up with 2 6V6 tubes. I wonder if the Deluxe is much louder? I doubt it.

Lastly, the whole gut shot:


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Can we get a clip?


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## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

I can probably do that. I'll see what I can put together over the weekend. I don't have any humbucker equipped guitars. Just single coil Strats.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

... Can you borrow a HB-equipped guitar too?


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

Your mods must have really woken the little feller up. The 68' Prinny I had was probably the sweetest sounding amp ever, but it would barely breakup on 10, and even with a more efficient 12" (G12H30) it would still never be able to hang with a drummer.


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## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

The Blackface and up, non-Reverb Princetons have a different circuit than this brownie 6G2 circuit. The 6G2 is known for its dirty overdriven growl.
The blackface and silverface models are known for their reluctance to break up at all, at any volume setting.
The mods really did wake up the amp. The highs really come alive and sparkle when I flick off the negative feedback. The amp really cuts through the mix.
When NFB is on, as it is in stock form, the amp is flatter sounding. The highs aren't there. A speaker change might help a stock 6G2, but what I 
am getting here is definitely coming from shutting off the NFB. The WGS ET-10 speaker that I have in the amp is rated at 65W power handling, and 100.17 db sensitivity.
That's fairly efficient for a 10.

My neighbour is working night shift. I think the cranked amp demo is going to have to wait a few days.


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

I had a chance to play with a live drummer yesterday and my new Brownie Prince was perfect, even was told to trim it down by our band leader. Great amp.


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

Getting the grillcloth right is a lot harder than you would think isn't it. Nice job. 

I love the old Princeton's but give me a PR any day. The Princeton doesn't distort enough for me, and the clean sound is kind of bland IMO. Great with pedals though, and the trem is awesome.


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## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

Interesting comment about a Princeton not distorting enough. I have heard that about the AA964 circuit , which was the non-Reverb Princeton circuit from 2nd half of 1964 to 1979. My "first half" of 1964 6G2 Princeton is a different circuit. There are differences. A big one being the tone stack. The 6G2 only has a single tone bleed pot. The AA964 has a treble and bass knob, different NFB resistor, different rectifier, and some other differences. Here is a clip I took of my 6G2 before I did a few mods to increase gain and treble. I used USA Strat straight into the guitar, no effects. Single coil not high gain pickups. Speaker is the WGS ET-10, not the ET-65 that I said in error when speaking of it in the audio clip. The mods I did, were done after this clip was recorded.

Does my 6G2 Princeton overdrive more, or similar to the AA964 Princeton circuit? I have never played through an AA964 Princeton.
Here's the before clip:


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

Well you proved me wrong. I have never tried a 4 knobber. That sounds awesome. I've only had 65 & 66 BF Princeton's before.

I've sold off all my brownies now.


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## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

The "After Mods" sound clip will come later this week. More gain. I am right on the verge of feedback at a few points in the above clip. The mods take me all the way there.
More to come. Thanks.


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

Sounds great cranked up.


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## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

Alright, finally here it is. Modded 6G2 recording. Started with volume cranked, dropped it to 50% later. MIM Strat with Fender Hot Noiseless pups.
Sorry no humbuckers.

http://www.driveplayer.com/#fileIds=0B6b2v3KWi6EHeHVqNkdkOUMzeEU&userId=118431516813991797933


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## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

Not sure above file is available. Here's another option:

__
https://soundcloud.com/https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fuser-142220760%2F6g2-take-3


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