I've had mine for 30+ years. It was offered and sold to me by my high school English teacher. It's phenomenal. Gigged with it for a long time, and it shows. Recently had it restored, new tubes etc. The original speaker finally gave up the ghost, so I put a Celestion Vintage 30 in it. It's still the best sounding amp I've ever heard. Super fat and punchy, but the main thing is a roundness that I never find in any other amps. The last big gig I played (98 or so), I used the gain channel with pretty much everything on 8 and a wah. That was it. We recorded that night with one mic into a 4 track, and it sounded fantastic on tape.

I have a 1984 Concert, with one 12" Fender branded speaker that I may replace one of these days. It is a testament to Rivera's design work.

I had a mate who gigged with one of these in the early 00's In a blues/rock band, with a few overdrive pedal's, one of them a TS-9 for sure. Still the best live sound I've ever heard.

That Fender dirt sounds just like the crunch tones on Bryan Adams Reckless album. Particularly “it’s only love” I like it

@TheStudioRats

9 ай бұрын

same era i guess. I wonder if they used one.

@hybridjohn1

9 ай бұрын

Funny, I heard Brain Adams as well.

One of the best amps you can find and checks all the boutique boxes almost 40 years ago. Handwired, buffered effects loop, channel switching, and more! Paul Rivera is a genius!

@thomasmoore3822

2 ай бұрын

I have one bought it new and has an ev in it so it weighs 72 lbs. sounds great but too heavy. Do you have any speakers you recommend to make it lighter..i have one 12 inch in mine.

I've owned a few of those Rivera era Fender amps - I had a Princeton Reverb II, Deluxe Reverb II, and a Twin Reverb II. Great amps and very overlooked because people don't seem to like Fender two channel amps.

I have one of these and gigged it for years, it’s a lovely versatile and reliable amp and as you say, takes pedals very well. It’s all turret board, point to point wiring which makes it easily repairable and eminently modifiable if that’s what you’re into. Definitely a sleeper amp.

I was given one of these by a family friend in 2002 with the insistence that it was one of the best sounding fender amps ever made. I was young and like “whatever.” To this day, it is still one of my best sounding amps overall - maybe the best “sleeper” on the market. Sounds incredible with a Klon circuit in front especially.

The beard is starting to look good, Paul! Nice amp! You guys are helping us, the community, find a lot of different amps that we didn't necessarily know about.

I have a 65 Princeton Reverb and it sounds glorious with my Suhr custom strat SSS = Lollar Dirty Blonde's. Fender "Cleans" are still the industry standard. Amp sounds fantastic guys.

I literally just bought one of these this past week for a real good price. It sounds amazing!

@TheStudioRats

9 ай бұрын

Nice one

Great amp. I gigged with one for a number of years. It was a big sound and it never ran out of volume... and that lead channel was typically fenderish ....but worked great with a few pedals in front of it.

My first good amp!!! All the Rivera era stuff was very good.

I own many Fender amps, but not a Concert. I love the idea of the 2x10. Keep going, I haven’t bought a Tone X yet, but you guys have sold me. Please do the Hiwatt next.

Great to see your obvious delight in your Ancho Poblano strat

Loved the Jazz music interlude, James. Nice!

@markmcmyn8967

9 ай бұрын

Me too!

Yes, these are and have been wonderful Fender amps. I think many of us have just gotten a little old and not as strong as we used to be. They’re a little tough to move around, but they sound awesome!

@sseltrek1a2b

6 ай бұрын

they are "chunky"...casters are a necessity...

It’s as good as my two rock says the bloke that says I don’t like 10” speaker. A great video and thank you gents .Rivera are amazing amps

I have one and it is glorious, a klon on the clean channel is stunning

Been interested in these since Vertex Amplification ran a YT video on what great value they were, a year ago, but didn't pull the trigger yet. You'll blow up the market in the UK now! So thanks! :D

@VertexEffectsInc

9 ай бұрын

Keep your eyes out, they come up for sale here still around around $600 USD still.

@lincognito4073

9 ай бұрын

Don't know if I'm seeing the KZread effect or I don't know where to look, but on reverb the least expensive is a 1x12 for $700. Most are $900 to north of $1000 for Rivera-era models.

Amp sounds great! Especially the clean/break up tone around 4:53. Can you divulge what the rest of the signal chain is for the recorded tones (UA Ox? Two notes?)? The tones on this channel sound so much better than the close mic'ed stuff we get on other channels. Thanks so much.

" Proper loud "...yes indeed, plus, it's " proper bloody heavy ". I owned one in the 80's. Unless you have a residency, this becomes a real monster to lug upstairs to a gig. If you can get one and not have to move it , the clean channel will reward you.

God that clean channel sounds divine! Would've loved to hear a couple of low gain drives in front of it. I don't see any mics, was that through an Ox Box?

Awesome video guys, these amps are more than great. You should have a look at the Prosonic as well. It deserves a video like this. A well-made amp 2x10'' that has a lot in common with this Concert 2. I hope you will if you can find one.

I have a Fender Machete that I bought for €700 when they were blowing them out after being discontinued. Amazing high headroom cleans and extremely flexible overdrive channel. I don’t feel the need for anything more.

I had one of these back in the day, and remember it very fondly. Along with the original Fender Prosonic.

@RodneyMcMinge

3 ай бұрын

How under rated is the pro sonic ? What a great amp. Out of that era of amps , that and the vox climax are absolute killers.

@steveburroughs7343

3 ай бұрын

@@RodneyMcMinge i totally agree

@RodneyMcMinge

3 ай бұрын

@@steveburroughs7343 I've wanted a prosonic for years. Now i'm too old to hump one around.

It seems that it’s not unlike the configuration the Super Sonic 22 has. I’ve got one of the limited edition Gold/Black ones fitted with a Celestion Vintage 30 - lovely little thing (when I don’t have the Hot Cat fired up…)

Another unsung Fender hero amp is the 1993-1995 Concert (1X12). Unbelievably great sounding along the same lines as this one, but it has three channels, all of which sound excellent, even the two dirt channels. Some of the sweetest cleans ever. Truly one of the BEST sounding Fender amps ever.

What I love about your playing Paul, is you play beautiful chords and licks. Not show off junk like some guitar players like to do. Perhaps you can do a side hustle teaching us some of those chord structures?

@TheStudioRats

9 ай бұрын

Cheers Paul

You guys this is my favorite amp. I think you’re thinking about it the wrong way. The lead channel should be thought of as the breakup channel. I never put the gain past 4. Usually 3.5. If you want throaty palm muting pull the mid and have at it. For leads just add a fuzz pedal on either channel. James get the Reverb fixed. It’s Fender Reverb. Sounds awesome. Throw a delay in the efx loop. It’s amazing

Wow that sounds really good

Picked up a blackstar Jared james Nichols signature head this week. For £430. Wow. It’s absolutely killer!!!!

The gain is super tight and spacious.

It sounds fantastic!

@TheStudioRats

9 ай бұрын

Its a smashing amp.

Love the channel but wish we could hear noise levels of the amplifiers you test with drive settings/pedals.

It sounds great.

Hi chaps. Great vid as always! I have a request (nothing to do with this vid actually!) after watching the livestream last night. Someone mentioned gated reverb and I wondered if James you could do a gated reverb for drums video, explaining, demonstrating and maybe playing along to a track? Keep up the great work. Best regards, Dave

@TheStudioRats

9 ай бұрын

Noted.

What mics did you have on it for the video? Dang that sounded so good!

River Fender amps are the best ever.

Going to check on the dogs - classic!

I’ve heard you refer to Paul Rivera a couple of times. I’ve been gigging a Rivera Fandango for years and love it. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on Rivera amps.

@TheStudioRats

8 ай бұрын

Added!

I went and listened to your Bloomfield 2 rock, your Right a 2 Rock at a budget. Neat under the radar tone machine, supposedly there was some quality issues with these. But sound wise this is pretty close to that 2 Rock. Nice Demo.

@TheStudioRats

9 ай бұрын

Thanks for listening.

@ksharpe10

9 ай бұрын

@@TheStudioRats James really knows how to find real Deals it seems.

I think Paul your guitar tuning is perfect Can you tell us your tip please?

Wow, that’s a cool amp.

River amps clean sounds tend to sound and feel a bit compressed. How does that concert seem

Bought one new in the mid ‘90s. Had to resell because it was too loud.

think an attenuator would be a game changer for using this amp at home/recording (it needs to be cranked a bit)...

I had one of these back when they were new. The overdrive channel was rich and creamy and, boy oh boy, I regret getting rid of it. Could be that this one just needs serviced…?

That old Fenders has a kind of mojo you can not resist, is it not?

Thanks. What are the Power tubes? 6L6?

That strat!!

Nuno used Fender Brownfaces on Extreme's Waiting for the punchline - cranked. So you can get good distortion from Fenders. Just saying ;) And this is just one example

From now on it's price will go up fast ❤

i bought one of those from robben ford. it had EV's in it. heavy as hell but it would slap a 100 watt marshall around. replacing that footswitch will cost half as much as the amp.

@TheStudioRats

9 ай бұрын

woh thats awesome.

That Strat is lovely, Paul. What is it?

What speaker is in it. Mine is extremely heavy with an EV i put in it when i bought it new. The original was too flubby so i replaced it.

Would this be too loud for home use?

Every time I see one of these vids with you playin that Strat I start to drool. It's embarrassing!!

@TheStudioRats

9 ай бұрын

Cheers Rich, I’m really getting into Strats again from my hiatus with teles.

@richfiryn

9 ай бұрын

@@TheStudioRats you have a really great one there Paul. That Fender Concert amp has a lot of good tones in it too.

man i love that strat..beautiful

I just checked on Reverb and the cheapest one of these has just been price dropped from £1250 to £1100. Where did you get £600 from?

Sounds good to me, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.................

Someone had posted one on Facebook Marketplace a couple weeks ago for like $50-$75 unfortunately someone else got it. Story of mt life lol

How is it any surprise that some old Fender amp would be as good as a Two Rock???? These boutique amps are just hype..

Why do I sense, in this amp demo, both gents don't seem that enthusiastic as normal or was it the morning after effect?

Stock speaker?

I remember these from when I worked in a music shop back at this time. I got the Fender 30 from the same range/time, because I liked 6V6s, and 30 watts seemed a bit more gig-friendly for small bars and clubs. Great sound, but it was never quite loud enough to have any headroom with a drummer. Should have got the Concert.

I watched the first minute or so of the intro and thought "this is Tone X", fast forward a bit and the guys are talking about buying amps to put into Tone X

If you like this, you might like the 90's '63 Vibroverb Reissue. Needs a speaker upgrade, but a very underrated amplifier!

@matthewf1979

9 ай бұрын

You can almost pick up a Two Rock for how much the 63 Vibroverb reissue goes for. Yeah, it's a good amp, but you can do better for the price.

@ksharpe10

9 ай бұрын

@@matthewf1979 On reverb they are about half the price of a 2 rock. under 2000.

@christianlacheze3323

9 ай бұрын

On Reverb there is an original ‘63 (2x10)Vibroverb. Asking price is 20k

Those amps are great but HEAVY....

Or you could say that your £5000 Two Rock sounds as bad as a £600 Guitar Amp depending on how you look at it LOL. Just kidding nice video. Cheers!

The Strat! The Strat! The Strat! What is it?

@TheStudioRats

9 ай бұрын

It’s a CS Pablano Strat. Cheers

Didn't these run EVs? I seem to remember some tie-in with with the Rivera designed Fenders... Maybe. For definite though, all the caps in the circuit were filled with olive oil and Anthrax powder, which is why they were discontinued. They are lethal if they run for more than 26mins. Fine for short sets but not for lengthy recording sessions. With that in mind, I am willing to don my HazMat suit and remove this amp from your premises for the meagre fee of £6.

@TheStudioRats

9 ай бұрын

That was genius, yes please come round for removal:

@OriginalDarkMark

9 ай бұрын

Cash. Not cheques, cigarettes or sweets.

600 more like 900

This amo I played in 1985. I could Not get any nice tone Out of it. The AMP was Just unplayable.

I have owned many fenders over the years and always traded them off. Obviously I didn’t ever have one of those. Never got along with a twin. Too one trick pony.

My dog left the chat to chase the dog barking

I've said this with so much cheaper gear--- sure, those high end guitars and amps are awesome BUT are those expensive pieces 5 to i0 times better...? because that is what they cost. !!!!!

folks, don’t buy modern mass produced amps, get a silverface Fender, this is my Ted talk.

@pb25193

8 ай бұрын

Why is it better than black face? I have only played black face so I have no clue what's what

@forester057

8 ай бұрын

No Ted.

@onevoiceinc

5 ай бұрын

..but... but.... he done made a Ted talk and e'rthing. (I have been seriously eyeballing one of those Fender Bassbreaker r30's. It's the Fender amp for people who absolutely hate Fender amps but are okay when they run across a Fender amp that sounds more like a Marshall than a Marshall.)

@smoothassmooth

4 ай бұрын

I have a bass reaker 15 and it's great but they are hard and expensive to repair. You are right I tried a blues jr and it sucked at taking my pedals. In fact a cheap solid state did better than the blues jr.​@@onevoiceinc

@Bcroom45

4 ай бұрын

@@pb25193its not better than blackface, it close to being as nice as a blackface except it’s substantially cheaper. Also still better than a reissue amp.

anybody ever said Paul looks like a thin Bill Burr...

@TheStudioRats

9 ай бұрын

And many other bald people too.

A capable player can make any old amp sound like he wants to, regardless of price. But of course a person who thinks reliced guitars are cool also thinks the amount of money you spend on your gear makes a difference.

two rock got all their "ideas" from dumble amps.

3:32 "as a pedal platform it's really lovely" simply means 'only the clean tones are acceptable' or 'it doesn't have any character' or 'I should have bought a Class D solid state amp"

@TheStudioRats

9 ай бұрын

I couldnt dissagree more, to me a pedal platform should never be lack of character.

@koda1960

9 ай бұрын

Lack of character in an amp is the death knell for all pedals.

Not a fan of Fender amps because I am not a fan of Jensen or Eminance speakers. I have had them and to me they are never as clear as I would like.😊

That is an amp to avoid! Can't polish a turd!

Think I'll just stay with my vox

haha Jazz