68 Super Reverb Grill Cloth

Brian LeBlanc · Post by **Brian LeBlanc** » 30 Apr 2009 2:16 pm

Anyone know if this cloth is correct?
ie, has a brown strip instead of Blue...

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 30 Apr 2009 2:39 pm

Just the workmanship makes me believe it's been replaced, by someone who's not too good at doin' grillcloth!

Eric Philippsen · Post by **Eric Philippsen** » 30 Apr 2009 4:42 pm

A little trivia - The very first silverfaces had vertical black lines on the control panel like those in the photo. They were only made for a few months.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 30 Apr 2009 5:12 pm

Blue Sparkle is correct for a '68 Super Reverb. I think your's is blue... maybe just faded?

CLICK

Fender Brown looks like this:

Brian LeBlanc · Post by **Brian LeBlanc** » 1 May 2009 9:12 am

I thought I heard that early 68's had a cloth that used tan/brown but then went to blue ?

its obviously been messed with
but "supposedly" supposed to be original ...

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 1 May 2009 9:43 am

According to the info I've read on line, blue sparkle started in 1968 and went into the early 70s. Yours looks like faded blue sparkle, as far as I can tell. You might be able to realign and tighten up that grill cloth without too much trouble. That's what I did on my '67 VibroluxRev. The baffleboard on mine is attached to the cabinet with screws, so it's easy to remove it, tighten and restaple the grill cloth to the baffle. Later Fender baffleboards are not so easy to remove. I'm not sure if the '68 baffles were attached with screws. Anyway, I would say... just tighten up the cloth on your amp. It's probably original.

Here's my '67. A few years ago I took it apart, washed out the inside of the cabinet, realigned and restapled the cloth.

Brian LeBlanc · Post by **Brian LeBlanc** » 1 May 2009 9:56 am

I've got 2 68's and they look totaly different...
I'll click a pic for the other
but on this the middle vertical band is a tan color not a blue

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 1 May 2009 10:39 am

If it helps any, my 68 showman has the exact grill cloth as in your first photo. My amp was made in early 68. I know they changed to a bluer cloth by 69 or even late 68 as the 69 catalog shows em bright and very blue. Either our early run 68's had a different cloth than the later run 68's or they have faded and dirtied to this color. I think the cloths were two different ones , but who knows? In any case, I have an early 68 with that exact cloth.

what appears to be poor workmanship could be places where the original grill cloth has been pulled down a bit by pressure place on the cloth?

Eric Philippsen · Post by **Eric Philippsen** » 1 May 2009 10:50 am

During the silverface years Fender also used a grillcloth that had a very muted orange tint to it.

A sure way to determine if the grillcloth is original is to pull the baffleboard (all 68's use 4 screws). Then take a look at the drip edge - a '68 giveaway. Has it been removed before? It's easy to tell by looking at the staples holding the lip in place. Have they been replaced? If so, chances are the grillcloth has been, too.

Tightening Fender grill cloth can be tricky, as can replacing it. One way to tighten it is to pass hot air from a hair dryer on the front edges. Do that only after hand-tightening the grillcloth such that it is absolutely even all the way around. Never use hot air on the middle and do not overdo it. You'll split the cloth.

For baffleboards one also has to watch for splits and cracks which are very common in those made of particleboard. Particleboard also made for a poor fit for speaker screws. More often than not, several are loose and should be epoxied back in.

Rick Johnson · Post by **Rick Johnson** » 1 May 2009 11:08 am

Brian
The grillcloth on the SR looks original.
I would say over the years it has been picked up
repeatedly with someones knee pushing the grillcloth and stretcing it. That baffle is a floating type baffle, held in place by some screws.

Is the baffle cracked?

Eric
I think the orangish grillcloth was
on the Zodiac era.

Rick

www.rickjohnsoncabs.com

Brian LeBlanc · Post by **Brian LeBlanc** » 1 May 2009 11:33 am

Rick;

- no cracks in baffle
- original speakrs, good sound
- 2 of the drip edge corners missing

- guess there's NO repairing the dinged up face plate?

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 1 May 2009 11:55 am

repairing the dinged up face plate?

I would leave the faceplate as is. I like the dents in it. Look at the faceplate on my blackface, pictured above. Dents and a tear in it. That's honest wear, and it gives a vintage amp character IMHO.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 1 May 2009 12:22 pm

I don't think that's Fender cloth, and it definitely wasn't put on there by Fender!

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 1 May 2009 1:04 pm

what makes you say that Donny?

I just got back from the music store where they had quite a few drip edge fender amps. Several had the exact cloth as the first picture above and as on my 68 showman...a dingy silver with mild blue thread. There were other silver faces with very different grill cloth, where the blue thread was much more prominent, looking very much like Dougs sample above.

a little online research reveals that fender did indeed have several variants of their blue threaded grill cloth....

Brian LeBlanc · Post by **Brian LeBlanc** » 1 May 2009 1:32 pm

I remember 20 yrs ago (make that 30)
a buddy was play'n a Black face Super R
& the chasis was sliding 4-wrd

so he added character to the face plate with a Hammer!

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 1 May 2009 1:56 pm

I have easily taken the dents out of an old faceplate. I used my maple cutting board, and put a sheet of waxed paper on it. Laid the faceplate face down, and used a cabinet makers dead blow hammer to remove the dents. Worked like a charm every time! A dead blow hammer is a nylon hammer that has the head filled with lead shot and oil. They don't bounce, and the nylon face is soft, so they don't mar your work. Handy tool!

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 1 May 2009 2:02 pm

My '69 drip-edge pictured below has the aqua blue weave that matches the lettering, just like my '71 Twin.

Your Super's grill cloth looks more like the later orange weave seen on some '70s models.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 2 May 2009 7:18 am

Like many here, I've seen an awful lot of silverface Fenders, and that grill cloth looks like the later variant with an orange/brown stripe from the 70s, as Chris says. I've never seen an all-original '68 or '69 with that cloth, which generally have the blue stripe. But I've owned several, and seen even more, later silverface amps with that type of grill cloth.

My suspicion is also that Fender didn't install that grill cloth - it's just too crooked. I could be wrong, but the combination of the wrong cloth and the crooked install tells me "regrilled", maybe a long time ago.

I wouldn't let that deter me from the amp, but I would insist that it be priced accordingly. A good '68 Super Reverb is a great amp, especially if it's the AB763 circuit, which some of the '68 silverfaces were. Just my opinion.

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 3 May 2009 7:35 am

from page 215 of Fender Amps:Thie First Fifty years by John Teagle...

"Blue Sparkle, Style 1 c. 1967-81
Silverface amps; with blue sparkle thread several variations exist: earliest trimmed in aluminum)"

Pictured above this is a small swath of what appears to be an exact match for brians cloth and an exact match for that on my 68 showman.

Keep in mind also the effects years of nicotine smoke and harsh lighting can have on color and brightness.

to the immediate right of this swath is another marked blue sparkle style #2. It looks exactly like the sample Doug posted.

maybe it just me, but chris's photos look like the same grill cloth as brians...no?

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 3 May 2009 8:57 am

Ben, at first glance, I thought so as well. But when I look at my amps up close, I can see the blue weave in both grill cloths. Brian's does not have any blue in it at all. My '71 is a bit smoked out, but still retains the blue. With the different colour as well as the loose installation, I'd wager that Brian's is not original to the amp. MANY Fenders of the 60s and 70s have replacement grill cloths.

My '66 Deluxe has a blue weave grill cloth. It's been on there so long that it looks like it belongs, and if my tech had not pointed it out to me, I never would have known it wasn't original to the amp:

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 3 May 2009 9:41 am

The blue thread is subtle in brians picture but I think i DO see it....

i guess brian could confirm.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 3 May 2009 10:16 am

I think there is some blue in Brain's too, faded and smoked out. There's a good chance that it's the original cloth, since a few variations of blue sparkle were used in that era. Whether it's original or not isn't important, in my opinion. It's a great old amp. Just straighten and restaple the cloth, play the amp, and love it!

Back in the 60s and 70s there were a lot of house gigs, and bands left the equipment in the smoky haze for years. I played 7 nights a week for 5 years solid, and left my Vegas 400 and Emmons D-10 on the stage for all that time. Everything was browned with nicotine. The pedal steel was basically ruined and had to be rebuilt, and the amp is still discolored to this day.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 4 May 2009 3:34 pm

I don't see any blue in there, but that could just be my monitor. As Doug says, it's not a real big deal, and doesn't affect the amp's worth noticeably, so I wouldn't worry about it.

On the matter of extra staple holes in the drip edge: A good tech can re-align new staples in the old holes almost exactly. It takes time, the right staples, and the right gun, but it is done by those who specialize in such...uhh..."fixing".

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68 Super Reverb Grill Cloth

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