Fender Amplifiers - Brownface

The Brownface series was introduced in 1959 and discontinued in 1963. This period marked the beginning of Fender's use of Tolex to cover amp cabinets. Most of the brownface amps featured a "wheat" grillcloth. Some of them also came with a dark maroon or "oxblood" grillcloth.

There were many notable accomplishments for the company's amplifier division during these years. Namely, the introduction of the stand-alone spring reverb unit in 1961, followed by the subsequent incorporation of the reverb circuit within a combo-amp design with the 1963 Vibroverb. Other notable accomplishments of this period include the shift of the top-of-the-line model from the traditional Twin-Amp to include other models, like the Vibrasonic Amp in early 1960, as well as the blonde Showman Amp in 1961. Fender began using silicon rectifiers to reduce heat caused by tube rectifiers, and tweaked the vibrato circuit.

The shift from the tweed design to tolex occurred in limited production in 1960. The tolex on the earliest versions in this era was pinkish brown and rough textured. There were only six amplifiers covered in tolex originally, and they were called the Professional Series: Bandmaster-Amp, Concert-Amp, Pro-Amp, Super-Amp, the Twin-Amp (production halted Feb-May 1960, resumed as the blonde Twin) and the Vibrasonic-Amp. These were considered a step above the student models (Champ, Harvard, Deluxe, Princeton, Vibrolux) which remained tweed-covered in 1960. Grillclothes were initially the same as those used in the previous tweed era (i.e.: maroon with gold stripe). Beginning in mid to late 1961, Fender introduced another color combination: a smoother but still light brown tolex with a dark maroon or "oxblood" grillcloth. By mid 1961, after this short-lived look, Fender was using the darker brown tolex which was a mainstay for many of the mid 1961 to 1963 amps. Between 1961 and 1963, there were three different grillcloth colors: wheat, brown, and maroon and many tolex-grille color combinations are found suggesting that Leo Fender and Co. was not hesitant to use up whatever stocks of materials were on hand. This mode of operation would seem to extend to the electrical components as well given that it is not uncommon to find actual production amps that vary from the published schematics.

As the brown-era wore on, the plight of the smaller, student model amps was varied. They all remained in name at least except for the 1x10" Harvard which was not continued through 1961. The 1x8" Champ-Amp remained a tweed-covered through 1963 and into 64 when it made the change to black tolex. The 1x10" Vibrolux amp remained a tweed amp until it was upgraded in 1961 to a single 12" speaker powered by a duet of 6L6 power tubes and a larger output transformer. Also upgraded from tweed was the Princeton-Amp which acquired its brown tolex in 1962 along with a larger speaker array: 1x10". The Deluxe-Amp remained as well, however its upgrade was largely aesthetic as it remained a 2-6V6 powered single 12" speaker voiced amplifier.