Paul Rivera Sr gives a full explanation of the extensive modifications he does to the Fender 68 Deluxe Reissues sold by Sweetwater.com Joshua Ray Gooch gives a quick demo towards the end. More info - www.rivera.com/...
Sounds great I had modified my old Fender Princeton reverb with mid-range and master and some of the mods but nowadays that's what pedal boards are for
I remember when these first came available on Sweetwater 5 years ago, and how I lusted after owning one, but it was not to be, as the price was just too much for me to reconcile with my playing skills at the time. Recently I was able to pick up the stock Custom '68 DRRI and I am already in love with the amp. I'm talking to an amp tech who is also a Paul Rivera fan and we are plotting out how to get at least a few of these mods into it over time. The more I learn about and experience the Custom '68 DRRI, the more I'm convinced that it is just a monster of a tone amp waiting to be unleashed with these mods. Although, it is pretty formidable even as it comes out of the box.
Some more of Paul's Amp Magic. So great to see you still get a thrill out of your craft. What a high it would have been to step back in time and walk into Valley Arts Guitar and take it all in.
Thanks Paul for all the little Secrets that do so huge things to the sound an the music we all love. One can feel Your heart beating for what You create. Wonderful
Paul, around 77-8 Lee introduced me to you at Valley Arts, you modified my Super Reverb. I was about move to Japan having been introduced to work here by then The Ventures Drummer Joe Barile. You said, don't let the Japanese look under the hood! I moved here played a number of years, began working for Schecter on tours of foreign bands Kansas, Talking Heads, Toto, Stevie Wonder etc. was interpreter for Hartley Peavey, Keith Emerson, got Randall Smith a great Japanese distributor that lasted 15 years. It's been a lifetime journey and it all started with the Super you modified:-) cliff woolley in tokyo.
I used to work on these in the 70s. You couldn't get parts so we had to use Stancor or Thordarson power transformers and outputs salvaged from junked Fisher or HH Scott stereo amps. The Scott 299 transformer improved things quite a bit. No customer was ever unhappy.
Paul, you probably don't remember, but you worked on my Ampeg V4, when you had your shop in Clairemont (San Diego)! Glad to hear you are much more famous than either of us could have imagined!
I bought a Rivera Deluxe in the ‘80’s. I bought is as my first step towards a Mesa. I loved that amp sooooo much. Played it with a ‘63 Strat. I had heaven for about 7 years. Sweet machine.
I went down to my local music store in 1982 to get an actual "Tube" amp, and what had just come in? The entire Line of brand new Rivera era Fender amps! 2 or 3 examples of each. Talking Twin Reverb2 combo and .. head version, 3 different Concerts 1/12", 2/10", and ..4/10"! Deluxe Reverb2's several and.. ta-da! The one I bought and still have, The mighty Super Champ, mine come with a gigantic EV 🔊 speaker, totally Badass! I've since got my own 1/12" Concert, and stupidly way back, could have had a head version of a Twin Reverb2, in my opinion ( an I'm an amp repair and builder), The greatest guitar amp ever. Just incredible! Anyway Mr. Rivera lots respect to you and thanks for carrying Leo's designs to their pinnacle. Way to go dude!!
Paul did his thing on my '65 Twin Reverb in about 1978, 1979. It made my Boogie Mk I obsolete I have to say. I learned about amps because of this. Thanks Paul. You can hear the amp on YT - Midnight Special -Carlene Carter Band.
I'm blessed to have a Yamaha G210-100 II that has some of Paul Rivera wisdom in its design... It is my japanese twin reverb. No tubes to worry about but a warm JFet overdrive, and the same Accutronics reverb tank. He talks about those Yamahas in another video.
Folks like this amp master is whom if I'm fortunate enough, seek out when I'm wanting the absolute best comprehension of a Technical aspect of a project.
What a COMPLETE transformation of the amp. Sounds defined, articulate, and punchy. Geez I never knew Mr. Rivera did this for Sweetwater! A legend in amp modifications and design! I have his Rivera Quiana and even though it weighs a ton, it sounds incredible for my tastes. The guy use to work for Fender too i think back in the 80's. Yeap I think too Fender should be embarrassed a bit.
My friend Charles Rook at Fancy Music on State Street in Santa Barbara did one of these mods for me on my Fender 50 watt Bassman. He was a friend of Paul Riviera. I remember Joe Walsh coming down stairs at Fancy's when we sound checked it, he was impressed. Moding a tube circuit was a law suit thing in the early 1980's. Mesa Boogie didn't like other people doing it. Charles swore me to secrecy. My Fender Bassman ruled for a long time. The clean tone and distortion we're better than you can imagine.
My favorite videos are ones like these where Paul goes into detail about the history/technical stuff about amps. Please keep these coming! I would really love to hear an interview with Paul on the kr7 in particular.
Maybe a video about the Bonehead amp and its history would be very nice,cause it was the first amp with a sub-low output, that was a ground breaking fact within guitar tube amps history.Sadly this amp was discontinued,through a conflict on the designing rights,between Paul Rivera and Steve Lukather. Steve was so pissed about this,as far as i understood,that he never played this amp anymore after this period. What i understood about it,that Steve found he was the inventor of this idea and Paul thoughts were he was at the best,co-writer in this idea. The KR series is an evolution to the Bonehead model.
This is a great video. Thank you Paul. I love my S120 4x10 circa 1990...I'd love to know how these mods informed the TBR and the S120 development in a video someday. If I can get my old boy out here to LA I'll bring it by headquarters for share and tell. Thanks again!
What an amazing man.. A few years back I owned a Rivera Knucklehead 55. It was an amazing amp. Got me through many gigs and many music genres without ever giving me a problem. I’d still be playing it today had hurricane Katrina not taken it from me.. Great amp with a great name behind it. One day..... Wow! Had to add this.. I put my comment before the guy played at the end. Man, that amp sounds incredible! The guy playing through it sounds pretty darn good too...
During my heaviest gigging days I was a Rivera guy, K100, R30, R55, and my fav, a Fandango. All behaved flawlessly, never let me down and all sounded fantastic. Great amps
The physicist of amps. I could listen to this stuff all day. He speaks like J.J.Cale plays guitar. Its Nov 8th 2018 just saw this vid. Ive read there are a lot of good things about circuit boards verses Point to point. Sort of like carbs verses fuel injection. On classic cars. The soul , the character.... the "it" factor......some get it and some dont. I love the old school rawness of point to point , and carbs even multiple carbs.. I have built a 78 Datsun 280Z resto modded with back dating towards the 240Z as much as practical.Even removed the old fuel injection for triple side drafts. A few years ago manufacturers were stepping over themselves producing china made point to point 15 - 5 watt amps. I bought them from the various manufactures even get more , when they pop up. They are fun to mod and play.... Circuit boards .....eh!
in 1979 I bought a Fender Princeton Reverb from Valley Arts, it had the stage 2 mods. I didn't know Paul was working for them, now it all makes sense. Wonderful amp, I later bought a Princeton II made in 1982 when he was with Fender, and finally a Chubster 50 and an M1 head. . RIP Paul, they broke the mold after you.
I had a Fender Concert with the special made EV12L with alu cone. It sounded fantastic on the clean channel, but not so good on the dirty channel. Took pedals well, but the dirty channel were a bad design.
That's why I eventually went to a Line6 Flextone II I got used from another musician. It lacked some of the clean of the Fender Concert. But I got it close enough.
What a great history lesson!! In '06, i cruised by a music store i shopped at for years and they had a Super Champ on consignment. I knew a little about Paul's involvement and gave it a go. Got a killer tone straight away. Of course, had to consult 'the boss' (wife) so said i'd be back. Went back and the guy selling it changed his mind and brought it home. Me, out of the box Diamond edition Blues Jr that was too loud too quick for home use but could be great in the right setting. Its gone.
This is exactly what seemingly every amp manufacturer is trying to get to. The perfect Fender platform with all of the EQ and gain controls to sculpt any sound. Why doesn't Fender buy these design features from him. Would be perfect. They really missed out. Hell, they should still do it. I'd buy that over my Tone King Falcon Grande
Scott allen buy a Boogie. I know not everyone loves the Mk series but for me the original MII (‘78-80ish?) was a total game changer. Clean/dirt/loud/soft/sag/feel/ fender/Gibson/whatevs in a tiny 1-12 package. The first time I played one it was like the strings were jumping off the guitar.
I love my 68 Custom Deluxe. I have the newer 'custom' Deluxe with the Vintage and Custom channel, but this modded amp seems to be able to get a few more tones. I like the more evened out tone knobs and also the master volume. Great additions without taking the Main DNA out of the amp. I play through good amps: Divided by 13, Vox AC 30, Friedman and the Fender Deluxe is 'still' my go to amp for getting the widest selection of tones available. Does that make it better? Only the convenience factor. Again, brilliant work by the master, Paul Rivera!
Fender are cheapskates....couldn't pay him enough..... Fender is notorious for stealing mods and IP and refuses to pay anyone for licensing... You don't want to get involved with Fender there legal team will eat you alive...
Hi Paul, I've been playing your Fender twin II since 1982 . I set them up in stereo using a TC stereo chorus and rack delays on each. The effects loops are the best I have ever used. I used that set up for years and the reverb in these amps are fantastic. I needed hi gain set up so now I run through a Hughes & Kettner mark 3 with pcm 80 with 2 different Strymon delays into a line mixer. Then I take the stereo out of the line mixer into the send of the Fender twin II. The Fender will pick up the tone of the H&K . The sound is incredible.
I owned one back in the early '80s. Its sound was highly compressed... and if I remember right, it was a 30w amp, and wasn't a great live amp. I bought it for a couple of hundred from an L.A. studio guy and sold it for the same. It had a subtle sound. I'd probably appreciated it more now. I replaced it with a Boogie mk iic+ that I still have (purchased from Lab Sound in Van Nuys, CA) despite what metal guys think the iic+ is a versatile amp with a great clean sound. I still think I made the right choice but I wish I'd kept the Princeton too.
Paul is a genius. I have his Suprema 55 with the Los Lobottom sub1 and that amp combo will fill any room. I'll let that amp go when they pry my cold dead fingers of the power switch. Rivera amps sound great out of the box. This modified deluxe reissue is no different, it is as close to perfect sonically as you can come.
So, Eddie Van Halen played this Riveria two stage mod Fender deluxe reverb silverface sweet, great information. I wish this was done for the 1976 Fender Silver face Twin Reverb.
If Fender was smart it could have brought him in for a reissue of his legendary mods to their fantastic amps. Imagine a Riviera mod factory Fender. Holy shit that would be bad ass.🤔👍
Amp wizards like Dumble and Rivera and Smith have been taking basic Fender combo amps and heavily modding and tweaking them for decades. Especially for the L.A. rock and roll/studio world in the 1970's. And these modded Fenders sound amazing. That's how they got thier start with thier own company's and amplifier designs.
Really interesting! But, it also helps to explain why I've also preferred Marshall to any stock Fender amp. I also like the way that caravan can act as a giant mirror. It's the ultimate narcissistic camping accessory. 😊
My 70's Deluxe Reverb doesn't do any tricks. lol I did figure out how to make it a two channel amp by jumping the reverb channel. I had to use a pedal for reverb though. Worked great for me. I love the deluxe reverb. I played every thing from Rollin in my sweet baby's arms to White Wedding on that amp. Even a 50 wat marshal was to loud for the club scene.
Agreed, but I'll bet it was done very deliberately in order to not only duplicate the tone and operation but to also look like the old modified originals.
Turkey Day time, '06...Weekend before, stop by a shop and demo a Super Champ. Killer tone in seconds. Went back a day or so later and the guy wisely took it home. Bought a Blues Jr, $400 otd. It was gone less than 3 years later.
My advice is that you may be better off just getting a Rivera Amplification amp, built from the ground up for awesomeness. Sweetwater has 48 month financing which I may have to take advantage of.
I wonder why Fender just didn't do the mods to make the amp sound better bc from what you are saying there was much room for improvement on the factory models ? I guess this is the same kind of Mods Mesa Boogie has on their amps as they sound pretty darn good out of the box. It's kind of equivalent to cars off the assembly line i suppose . I enjoyed this video thanks for sharing with us , Peace !
Same reason the blackface Deluxe is known to be a better sounding amp, yet they are making reissued silver faces. Why not just make the old blackface reissues? Cause they already did and at $1100 they just sat in the stores, so marketing came up with, hey let's make silverface reissues, they will sell! But we actually want old tweed reissues, hey they are sitting in the WAREHOUSE cause the stores don't even want a $2500 amp in their store, an employee might steal it! Truth is, all the reissues sound harsh. I think it's a combination of cheap parts including groove tubes and speakers. I have a 74 Deluxe Reverb and a DRRI and even with NOS tubes and a really good speaker, the DRRI is too harsh.
I believe that’s a Vintage Modified series amp, not a Reissue. The Reverb/Vibrato are global, and the left channel is different from an original 68. And something about bright caps being removed for greater headroom. No way I’d horrid this amp. Just get another amp altogether.
I am a fan of your mods and your own Amps, you are a Legend. BTW, I have an original 1967 DR and the pots are sounding very scratchy noises even after cleaning it with electronic cleaner, do you recommend me to change the pots and which ones should I use ?
