I own two ’62 Supers with stock Oxfords, and the 5881s are a perfect complement to the midrange in these circuits. The 6V6 power tube just doesn’t open up tweed and brown circuits the way anything in the 6L6 family does. The Brownface Super is the best recording amp I’ve ever owned — with two 10” speakers, the bottom end is tight and well-defined, and the top end is sweet. This amp is so overlooked. Coming in a close second is the brown 1×12 Vibrolux, another amazing recording amp with a bit more bass response than the Super. You really can’t go wrong with either amp.

Just purchased GE Smith’s 1960 “5G4” Brownface Super. It is not entirely stock but with a 1963 AC30 sitting right next to it, I can state that the Super is the best amp I’ve ever played. I’ve owned a lot of the “greats” and this one just takes the cake. The EQ range and touch sensitivity is amazing. I don’t understand how these are so overlooked. Even at “40W” I find the headroom/break-up line to be very obtainable and perfect for a home studio or stage. I can’t say enough great things about this amp! Hope everyone gets to experience one in their time!

In 1966 at age 14, I had a brown face Princeton amp (no reverb) and my band mates all had more powerful amps. In early ’67 at age 15, I bought a like-new brown-face Super (for peanuts) that I played with my cherry red ’58ish double cutaway Les Paul Junior. When I appeared at my first rehearsal with the Super, I cut through everyone else and was always heard with that band from then on. In ’68 the amp had degraded considerably so I took it to Fender in Fullerton and had it serviced for $60 (I thought that was very expensive but left it there a week). When I picked it up, they’d replaced tubes, transformer, some pots and really cleaned it up. It was then even louder than before! The elusive “Presence” control was also something else! Wikipedia says “In an amplifier, a presence control boosts the upper mid-range frequencies to make the sounds of voices and instruments with similar tonal ranges seem more “present”. All I know is that setting it at “7” created a miraculous sound. The presence control was replaced with a “Reverb” control in the late ’63 2-10 Vibroverb, that also replaced the Jensen P10R speakers with Oxfords (I prefer the Jensens)…I later sold the brown Super and bought a mint condition Vox Royal Guardsman (big mistake!).

I have the prototype Brown Face SuperAmp made in 1960 but parts are 1959 also the control layout is different left to right ….Bass Treble Volume / Bass Treble Volume Speed Intensity Presence …The Nicest Sounding amp I’ve Ever Heard …got it for $300.00 but the cab is from a Black face Super reverb and it has Huge single 15 “er in it as it is ,.it works Beautifully being pushed with this Amp

Why did they make the changes in the tonestack? How does that alter the sound or the function?