❌SOLD❌ Fender Reverb Unit Model 6G15 Blackface, 1964

Until the early 1960s, Reverb as an effect was very uncommon on amplifiers. The Fender Reverb unit was introduced in 1961 to provide standalone reverb. Fender began to introduce Reverb on amplifiers in 1963, on the VibroVerb combo. Soon it seemed that all Fender combo amps had to have it!

Fender Reverb Unit Model 6G15 was built from 1961 until 1966, with its only changes being to its covering, which matched whatever Fender was dressing its amplifiers and speaker cabinets in at the time. From 1975 to 1978, the Reverb unit was reissued.

While Fender was building combo amps with Reverb, standalone, higher powered ‘piggyback’ heads were often not so equipped. The Bandmaster, Showman and Dual Showman heads favoured by popular Surf bands, didn’t have reverb, so the stand-alone Fender Reverb was often used and has become closely associated with the sound and feel of Surf music.  These units offer a fuller and more controllable sound than what was built into the combo amps.  

Here we’re looking at a Fender Reverb Unit Model 6G15, built during 1964 – the date codes on the tube chart, N and E, denote 1964 and May, making this a pre-CBS unit, built at the Fullerton, California plant. As a 1964 model, it is dressed in ‘Blackface’ – black tolex with a white lettering on black for the control plate. The knobs are original creme – coloured ‘Radio Amplifier’ models, for Dwell, Mixer and Tone. The power cord is an older two-conductor type and has not been upgraded to a 3-conductor grounded cable, as many amps and effects from this era have been.

This Fender Reverb unit is in good working order. The tolex is a little rippled in some areas.