Can you describe the difference in sound between '65 PRRI and '65 DRRI

GoldenEraGuitars

soma1975 said:

lonestar said:

Can you get to a fender dealer to try them both out?

That’s just crazy talk! 

You’re in the south east? There’s bound to be somewhere nearby for you to sit down with the amps and have a play. You’ll find out pretty quickly which one you like more.

fandango

soma1975 said:

I'd read somewhere that the '68 flubs out with humbuckers a little earlier than the '65. Assume that can be offset with a speaker change?

Indeed.

So what I did was to replace the stock 10" speaker with a 12" Celestion Neo Creamback in my '68 CPR.

All depends what you want an amp to do for you.

soma1975

Now I've seen the Wine Red, Fawn and British Racing Green limited editions I'm in love with those. 

Do any of the fab UK makers produce something like this for similar prices to the Fenders? 

terada

I've owned both the 65 deluxe, 65 Princeton and A/Bd against the 68 Princeton and 64 handwired deluxe. Weirdly I found the Princeton to be brighter than the 65 deluxe, but about the same as the 64 handwired.

Personally I preferred the tone of deluxe, but it was a little too loud for home use (and the one i had was noisy) so decided a Princeton was the way to go.

I first played the 68 and loved it, then compared the 65 and 68 and with humbuckers definitely preferred the 65, which was brighter and clearer to my ears. Both were great though.

I ended up with a 65 and can't get enough of it!

shaunm

soma1975 said:

I'd read somewhere that the '68 flubs out with humbuckers a little earlier than the '65. Assume that can be offset with a speaker change?

Absolutely right. I just put a Weber 10f150t into my 68 PRRI and it’s totally opened it up. Far louder and more articulate. It’s a little more “fender” than it was with the Celestion but it’s far improved.

p90fool

I put the stock Celestion back in my 68 when I sold it to my bandmate, after a few gigs being thrashed by him it sounds amazing, better than it did with the brand new Ragin' Cajun I put in it when I was using it. 

Don't be too hasty to change it, it's actually very good once it's broken in. 

Epsilon

I had the 68 for a while and thought it was very poor indeed compared with the 65. For one thing it had a noisy reverb unit, but it was also so dark that I had to have the treble on 10 and still couldn't get enough treble from it. The 65 is fantastic - loads of shimmer, very quiet and sounded incredibly sweet. Definitely worth the extra cash.

crunchman

Epsilon said:

I had the 68 for a while and thought it was very poor indeed compared with the 65. For one thing it had a noisy reverb unit, but it was also so dark that I had to have the treble on 10 and still couldn't get enough treble from it. The 65 is fantastic - loads of shimmer, very quiet and sounded incredibly sweet. Definitely worth the extra cash.

Sounds like you had a problem with yours.  That's not what mine sounds like.

roberty

I had a PRRI and now I have a DRRI.
 Much prefer the Deluxe. The Princeton is nice up until the verge of breakup but the crunch is really unpleasant and farty to my ears. It's not particularly loud anyway and on some gigs I was having to compromise the sound by pushing it beyond its sweet spot. The DRRI sounds badass when you get it up to around 7, but also the pure clean sound with reverb and trem is as sweet as can be. I have a neo creamback in mine

Epsilon

crunchman said: 

Epsilon said:

I had the 68 for a while and thought it was very poor indeed compared with the 65. For one thing it had a noisy reverb unit, but it was also so dark that I had to have the treble on 10 and still couldn't get enough treble from it. The 65 is fantastic - loads of shimmer, very quiet and sounded incredibly sweet. Definitely worth the extra cash.

Sounds like you had a problem with yours.  That's not what mine sounds like.

I hope so, however my Google research after purchasing it revealed dozens of people experiencing the same thing so I'm a bit sceptical.

crunchman

roberty said:

I had a PRRI and now I have a DRRI.
 Much prefer the Deluxe. The Princeton is nice up until the verge of breakup but the crunch is really unpleasant and farty to my ears. It's not particularly loud anyway and on some gigs I was having to compromise the sound by pushing it beyond its sweet spot. The DRRI sounds badass when you get it up to around 7, but also the pure clean sound with reverb and trem is as sweet as can be. I have a neo creamback in mine

If you are at the point where you are getting the DRRI up to 7, then the PRRI won't be loud enough.  Where I play most of the time, I just couldn't get away with DRRI on 7 kind of volume.

The farty breakup may be due to the speaker.  You didn't say whether you had the 65 or 68, but I think the 65 uses a Jensen and they can get a bit farty.  A speaker swap is very easy. 

shaunm

roberty said:

I had a PRRI and now I have a DRRI.
 Much prefer the Deluxe. The Princeton is nice up until the verge of breakup but the crunch is really unpleasant and farty to my ears. It's not particularly loud anyway and on some gigs I was having to compromise the sound by pushing it beyond its sweet spot. The DRRI sounds badass when you get it up to around 7, but also the pure clean sound with reverb and trem is as sweet as can be. I have a neo creamback in mine

I’m the opposite in that I’m not a fan of the DDRI break up sound. I love the way a SRRI breaks up but the DDRI sounds very harsh to my ears.

The 68s break up isn’t as brittle sounding but without the speaker change it does get very flubby with the bass. 

menamestom

roberty said:

The Princeton is nice up until the verge of breakup but the crunch is really unpleasant and farty to my ears. It's not particularly loud anyway and on some gigs I was having to compromise the sound by pushing it beyond its sweet spot. 

What speaker was that with?  The stock Jensen is bad when pushed.

I have swapped the OT in my PRRI also, which tightens up the bass.