Fender Vibrolux Reverb
Overview
Collectors know the Fender Vibrolux Reverb by its circuit code before they know it by its catalog entry. Two service documents survive for this model - the AA964 layout and schematic, and a later AB568 document - and they're the most concrete thing anyone has on the amp. The AA964 sheet lists 6L6GC power tubes, a GZ34 rectifier, 7025 and 12AT7 preamp tubes, and a 12AX7, with a 2 amp fuse on the AC line. That's all the documentation gives: a parts list and a topology. No power rating, no speaker count, no weight, no price.
The schematic shows a tube-rectified design with reverb and tremolo onboard. The name is literal. The AB568 sheet notes that its voltages are measured with the vibrato pedal grounded, the kind of small procedural detail that only shows up in a real factory document. Both sheets carry the standard Fender disclaimer that voltages should read within twenty percent of the printed values, and both specify 400-volt-or-better capacitors unless noted otherwise. Both call for 1/2-watt, 10%-tolerance resistors where unspecified.
AA964 and AB568 are not the same amp, and the schematic differences between them matter to a buyer who cares which version he's getting. The documents place manufacture under Fender Musical Instruments in Santa Ana, California. The AA964 sheet falls under Columbia Records Distribution Corp., and the later AB568 sheet under CBS Musical Instruments, a division of Columbia Broadcasting Systems Inc. That corporate trail is one of the few dating anchors available, though the fact sheet does not confirm production years for either revision.
Period coverage is thin. Modern Recording (August 1981, p.58) ran a schematic-style illustration showing 6L6GC, 12AT7, 7025, and 12AX7 tubes. That agrees with the factory documents and independently confirms the tube lineup, but it's not a review with measurements or listening notes. A Modern Recording studio gear list from May 1985 (p.36) mentions a Fender Rhodes but not the Vibrolux Reverb, so it adds nothing. An EQ Magazine piece from December 2002 (p.10) lists Fender Strat, Telecaster, and Precision Bass among a studio's instruments, again with no Vibrolux Reverb. There is no period review with a measured power figure, no original list price, and no contemporary listening verdict in the available record.
Anyone who says the Vibrolux Reverb was rated at a specific wattage, or sold for a specific price, or was reviewed favorably in a specific issue, is working from something other than the documents here. What the documents do support is a tube-rectified, 6L6GC-powered Fender combo with onboard reverb and tremolo, built in at least two circuit revisions, with a GZ34 rectifier and a 2 amp fuse.
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