4.52am Issue: 008 13th November 2016

RIFT AMPS
Vibro ‘63
Back in Issue 002 we had a longing lok at
Rift Amps’ Brownie 5, Chris’ imagined
version of a classic Fender amp that never
was but probably should have been.
Despite the fact I’m pretty sure that Santa
won’t be delivering on that wish, I couldn’t
help this week but to torture myself further
with the ghost of a Xmas never to come and
look at his Vibro ’63.
I asked Chris to explain where he was
coming from with this, yet again,
extraordinarily beautiful build,
“The 1963 Vibroverb (model 6G16) was the
first amplifier from Fender to feature
onboard Reverb, up to that point Leo was
only selling the external reverb unit that
plugged inbetween your guitar and amplifier.
This was the first time that Reverb was
incorporated as an onboard effect and set
the trend for many amplifiers to come. There
were less than 600 units built in ’63 before
Fender introduced the blackface 1x15” 45w
Vibroverb.
It was a 2x10”, two-channel 35w combo,
housed in a solid pine cabinet with a fixed
birch-ply speaker baffle, covered in roughbrown
tolex and wheat grille cloth. The
speakers were 8ohm ceramic Oxford 10K6s,
run in parallel for a total load of 4ohms. Both
the bias-tremolo and reverb were valve
driven and could be operated using a twobutton
footswitch. I first came across this
amplifier on YouTube, watching the German
guitarist and dealer Gregor Hilden
demonstrating his stock of both vintage
and modern guitars through his original
1963, and was instantly hooked on that
deep, warm, and 3D tone that truly
epitomised the phrase ‘touch response’. I
set about finding a way to manufacture
this amplifier and after a few months of
prototyping, the Vibro ’63 was born.”
As you would expect the specification
shows it to be top quality in every way:
1. 35w Power
2. Preamp valves: 6 x 12AX7
3. Power valves: 2 x 6L6GC
4. Rectification: 1 x GZ34
5. 'Rough Brown' Tolex w/Wheat
Grille Cloth
6. Reverb and Tremolo
7. Custom Wound Transformers
8. Jupiter Yellow Vintage Tone
Capacitors
9. Handwired Circuitry
10. High quality valve sockets, no
rattling like the NOS ones
11. WGS G10C speakers
12. Footswitch for Reverb + Tremolo
13. 18-5/8" x 24" x 9-1/2" HxWxD
14. 22kgs Approx
You can find out more Here