Are Hand Wired Amps Really Better?

Are you a hand wired amp player?

The lead dress on the hand wired is quite a mess. Very disappointing to be frank. Not that I'd prefer a pcb built amp by any means but that hand wired.amp looks nasty

This is a dumb videoon a good channel. If you think pcb vs hand wired affects sound in this way, I'd like to sell you a piece of real estate i own called the Alamo.

The mics are placed differently, which would capture major tone diffeeence by itself.

Hand wired, hands down ! I have the 64 custom because of this video I sold my 65 Princeton and bought the 64 reissue

The difference is like hearing that guy speak with his face diaper ON vs speaking with his face diaper OFF.

Yes, I can see(hear) that clearly now....

Not enough difference to justify the cost of the hand wired.

For me it comes down to feel and how the harmonic/dynamics envelope of an amp functions. Hand wired amps tend to excel beyond their PCB counterparts when it comes to this. Point-to-point hand wired circuits just seem to carry/preserve more harmonic content.

Here "hand wired" basically mean muddier lower mids and waste of money.

Lol. The guy literally says: "The difference between the two is actually way more than it looks like. ... The circuit is slightly different, the components are different". And you respond with "so I guess the main thing we're testing out is handwired vs non-hand wired, right?"

No, you're not. You're comparing two pretty different amps. He just told you! You're really trying to push the hand-wired thing here.

Conductance does matter

Same circuits they should sound the same. Every difference in tones is in the component tolerances. Another difference is that handwired is esier to fix and service while is a pain the A to work with those green PCBs and mounted controls that are more prone to break.

Two soy boys I n their face diapers (“trust the science”) suffocating themselves because their TVs told them to..lame!

YES THEY ARE. WAY BETTER.

Great video

The handwired has a nice midrange hump.

So a hand wired amp is easier to fix? Is that the reason to buy one?

Hard wired sounds a bit warmer but you can alway add a bit of bass on the non hand wired to get closer to the vintage 64.

Beethoven?! Do you reckon he also went to the store to compare harpsuchords???? 🎹

the jensen P10R is shit in this amp, why fender put it in there is beyond me???

In my very limited experience: old Fenders have that mid range honk, which to me can sound a little two-dimensional & papery (though maybe the speakers just need to be dusted); but they do have a superior room presence and sound-before-effects. The new ones tend to be brighter & cut through, and are built to serve as rock machines and pedal platforms. To my hearing some of them, especially the “tweed reissues,” have much less dynamism and presence.

All of that money and they still put in shitty IC capacitors🤦‍♂️

Why even waste time comparing with different speakers? Are you new to guitar?

I've been struggling to decide whether to get a handwired, PCB version, or do a Mojotone build. We can all agree on the tone difference between the speakers. The handwired still sounds smoother in the mids and top-end. I've owned many amps over the years and the PCB ones are the only amps that techs have struggled to repair. The vintage ones I have are all in top shape because my amp techs could repair them in minutes. I'll never forget my 90's Fender amp that was only 5 years old and had some sort of hairline crack in the board and was a nightmare to own because it kept crackling even after repair attempts. If you plan to keep for years get a handwired (or build one) because it's an investment that will hold it's value for you as the owner (and of course if you go to sell it years down the road).

I just ordered a 5w 57 Champ which is crazy money (~$1,200) for a little tiny combo amp, but I'm drawn to the fact that it's handmade in the USA and is not using computer printed boards. Comes also with a solid pine box and holds its value pretty well. I'd be much "better" off buying a fender amp made in Mexico and saving the money, but i want to keep it my whole life and admire it when Im not playing through it and guitar center has a 48 month 0% interest financing during fourth of July dammit.

I actually didn't like the hand-wired... Loved the treble of the regular pcb, the hw sounded kinda harsh with the breakup

I'd rather they compared two hand wired amps of the same vintage to each other, without knowing anything about the amps.

We've owned every major brand of tube amp...all non-hand wired...that is until this week with the acquisition of a British Hamstead Artist 20. Best sounding amp I've heard to date. So with way too many guitars...time to invest in a quality 'boutique/handwound' amp to bring out the best in those guitars...... My ToneKing Imperial should arrive tomorrow...can't wait. As for vid's tone compare...Brett's initial 5 second strat-strum comparison was obvious....same sort of tonal superiority I hear/feel from our Hamstead.

Great video, thanks! I think the bottom line with "Hand-wired" vs PCB is servicability. I haven't played 2 vintage Princetons that sound the same - But, I do know that amps from the 50s/60s are still around and very easy to be serviced! Servicability is a big deal to me. More bang for my buck. Nothing wrong with the PCB Princeton. its a great amp too.

I can’t afford either but an interesting video nonetheless!

I honestly felt like while the Hand wired version sounded better, the hand wired speaker made a substantial difference on the second amp. 👍🏽

Just buy 2 and keep one as a stand by.

I worked at JMI, Hiwatt, Weinbrock, Healey and Audio Note UK from 2007 to 2022, I've tried thousands if not tens of thousands of amplifiers on my test bench, designed and repaired a fair few two, there's absolutely no two amplifiers on planet earth that sound the same. They're all a tolerance stack of their individual components, some are ace, some are shit straight off the production line with absolutely no differences between them at all (in theory) but in practice everything's different, every single component in an amplifier has a 1 to 10% tolerance. If there's 200 components that's one seriously unique combination that can't be repeated.

Handwiring vs PCB is a complete moot point, because every manufacturer that makes a HW and PCB of the same amp, they're tweaking the HW version to sound better, they are targeting a different end of the market.

Just remember all manufacturers of anything be it cars, amps, guitars are not in the business of making those things, they're in the business of making money.

I see a lot of very cheap parts in the hand wired amp. for example, the IC filter caps?? Really, bottom of the barrel, cheap nasty but why? might look good, but the components are not high end at all

as an amp service guy, talking about the hand-wired... i must say that for the price they could use some better high voltage filter caps... the ones that they are using are really cheap junk! besides that it looks nice

Why is your face covered? The monkey pox? 😂😂😂😂😂

When in person the hand wired should sound better. The hand wired will hold up better over the years. That’s the big difference.

Hand wired has more low end meat but it may be the speaker- not sure.

Does the hand wired amp have a brite cap? That would explain a lot. Also, it seemed to me that the hand wired amp humed more. Was that true? I built a Bandmaster in 1963 from the Fender schematic. Still have it. Sounds great but hums more than my reissue 65 Deluxe Reverb.

I don't think a hardwired amp sounds inertly better. They are however WAY easier to repair and are so much more durable in the long run.

I play the guitar since 1989. Never bought anything fancy but for the last 2 years. Bought a fender ultra strat, a les Paul and for my daughter a mex strat. Now this ‘64 HW. This is my investment for my 13yr old daughter that loves playing the guitar as well. She is very talented❤️. Making music lasts a lifetime.

I’ve had problems with my non hand wired Princeton.

Confirmed hand wired sounds better !

It's about the actual components not the act of hand wiring. PCB can actually get components closer together than hand wire can, plus PCB is proven to reduce noise. I guarantee if the PCB had the same quality components as the hand-wired amp, it'd sound better.

I prefer the evenness of the Non hand wired!

Diff voltages back in the day and better virgin copper in the transformers I’m sure the old amp pushed higher voltages also the 6vac is more like 7 now with 120-123vac wall voltage compared to 1950 was 110 then 115-117 in the 60-70s and 120-123 90s to now changes a lot 50v to 100 easy on the b+

Sorry I disagree that in order to make this an apples to apples comparison using a completely different cab. That is just wrong! The speakers you get with the Princeton 65 and Custom 64 HW also makes a big difference and you just dumped that aspect of the amp. What's up with that?!

IF YOU CHANGE THE NON HAND WIRED AMP WITH A 12 INCH CELESTION 25 WATT GREEN BACK YOU WILL HEAR A BIG DIFFERNCE,

Ever seen a George Alessandro hand-wired Princeton? Not for nothing, but that wiring job, though functional looks like - - - -.

PCB all the way idgaf, there's a reason we don't often freewire anymore