Princeton Chorus

When it comes to amps, I've never been much of a Fender guy, especially their solid-state amps. That's due in part for generally playing humbuckers in bar-rock bands. Overall, I needed LOUD.

As I've aged, I began to grasp the joys of the single-coil pickup run through a crispy clean amp. Under those circumstances, Fenders come into their own, even the transistorized kind.

A few years back, I had a steady (if low-paying) Sunday evening gig at a bar a mile away. Mostly bass, I also needed to fill in on guitar from time to time, and needed a good basic small-venue amp. Shopping, I almost bought a Mustang I... except I wasn't awed by the build quality and felt like it'd get destroyed on stage.

I turned to the first used amp I saw, which happened to be a used Princeton Chorus (solid state), tagged $179. Long story short, I was surprised at the amount of bark it had, and had to whack Bass to zero or it set off every snare in the place even at whisper volume. Highs were crisp without the icepick-in-the-ear sensation. And the 2-10 cabinet was both solid and manageable.

In 1985, Fender bought Sunn Musical Equipment in Tualatin (Oregon) and moved operations to Lake Oswego. They built Fender's "Standard Series" Princeton Chorus and Ultima (later Ultimate) Chorus, and the M-80 Series amps. These are clearly badged "MADE IN U.S.A." and the serial numbers have an "LO-" prefix.

This all happened in the midst of the immediate post-CBS shakeup, and some of the amps suffered. An unlucky few were covered in dark-gray carpeting rather than Tolex. The Reverbs soon got red knobs, which the fans hated; Fender responded by swapping out the knobs. But ever since, there are people (usually trying to inflate their asking price) who swear that the "red-knob Fenders" are somehow magical.

These amps were made right up until Fender shut the place down in 2002. Someone must have loved 'em, seeing as final MSRP on the Princeton Chorus was $720.

The PC is actually a stereo chorus into a stereo amplifier, 25 watts a side. The highs are crisp, the bass surprisingly thick; I have heard of these being used in studio as a bass amp to the board, and I can see why.

The temptation is to whack the chorus up high, but onstage I left it at the lowest settings, which gives rhythm work a very nice warmth and depth, and thickens single-note lines.

The spring reverb is a bit small, but works fine in moderation.

The Limiter knob is unusual. It's a sort of compressor, intended to balance single-note work against chording. There's no good way to describe it; you'd need to tweak it depending on your axe, your volume, and your style of play.

Mono and stereo effects loops can be accessed from the front panel.

I'm a little unhappy that it's an open-back cabinet, with no least baffle board between the cones. With some separation, the stereo out could be killer. And since the speakers are hard-wired, it's not easy to port out to separate cabs, so a bit of simple rewiring might make a huge difference.

The amps can be found in excellent condition for under $250, and a bit beat-up for less than $150. If you need more power, consider the Ultra/Ultimate, with 65 watts a side into two 12" cones.

UPDATE April 2020 -- I wrote the core of this article ~2012. Those prices hold true: a red-knob at GuitarCenter.com, rotted grillcloth, $150 + s/h; a black-knob at MusicGoRound.com, WITH floorswitch ($25+ value), $208 delivered CONUS. ALSO: the guy on the "Robert's Guitar Dungeon" YouTube channel includes it in his "Top 11 GREATEST Solid-State Amps EVER!" list... in late 2019, yet. The PC remains a bargain-priced amp that still holds its own against some heavy competition.

Both amps soon got DSP effects. I'm not a fan of early DSP and prefer offboard effects, so I can't see paying a premium. The Big Book disagrees, at least because they reflect the market and NOT relative quality, and value the PC at maybe $225 in Average shape, +$130 for the DSP version.

Better still if you get one with the two-button footswitch. This is one of the few two-channel amps I really WANT to change easily from clean to (slightly) overdriven.

The biggest downer (other than the overdrive that many people dislike) is board-mounted input jacks that can wiggle loose or break. A workhorse, but not totally heavy-duty.

So, I set it up in the garage & dug in. Test instrument: the Austin AU962, with Tele-type single-coil at the bridge, HB at the neck.

That clean channel is REALLY meant for a single-coil: the bite, the snap, the chime you'd EXPECT from a Tele/Strat. Delightful: I did bad Brad Paisely impressions for a half-hour. It was still quite good with the HB, though.

The overdrive channel was my main project. Seems like everyone hates the sound. And, indeed, it is that raspy solid-state crunch that easily turns into mud with just about any pickup. I kept in mind the guess that this amp is meant specifically for singles. Took me a few minutes, but I dialled in something that made the Austin sound good:

GUITAR SETTINGS:
-- bridge pickup
-- volume 5-10
-- tone 10

AMP SETTINGS:
-- Vol (Ch 1) n/a
-- Treble 8.2
-- Mid 10
-- Bass 2.8
-- Reverb 0
-- Gain 7
-- Mid Boost ON
-- Limiter 2.8 or less
-- Presence +3
-- Vol (Ch 2) 1.3
-- Chorus ON
-- Rate 0
-- Depth 0

Here, it doesn't actually sound like overdrive. Cranking the Gain knob up gets something more akin to a 1970s fuzzbox, somewhat like a cheaper germanium unit, maybe an E-H LPB or such. Whacking those things up to 10 made a useless wall of white mud, even with a low-power pickup.

The Chorus settings give the tone a little depth and some EQ change, with very little audible sweep (neither knob is truly zero).

The Limiter also shifts the EQ a bit. By the time it tops 3, though, it imposes something that sounds like a mis-set compressor, so I want it high enough to change the tone but not enough to affect dynamics.

It looks like I'm overloading the mids, but this actually goes a long way to offset the less desirable "sizzle" portion of the high end. Backing Treble down any further kills the highs too much and makes it muffly. The Presence gives a little more life to the high-mids.

With the Volume so low and the guitar backed to halfway, the amp was still putting out a respectable level (for an old geezer in his garage). Bring the amp up and it has more than enough oomph to chug along behind a small non-metal combo in a typical bar. Turn up the guitar and it sounds decent for soloing with classic 1960s/1970s rock or country.

Problem sorted!! Not at all bad for a $150 guitar to a $180 amp.

And with those effects loops at hand, it'd be a snap to insert whatever dirtbox you want to get whatever colors are needed for specific tunes.