FACTOIDS & TRIVIA

In late 1967, Fender introduced the Bronco Amp as a companion to its Bronco guitar.  The idea was to sell the guitar and amp as a "student model set" for beginning guitarists.  However, rather than designing an entirely new amplifier, the CBS-Fender team simply used the Vibro Champ Amp as a template.  The Bronco is identical to the Vibro Champ in every way and only the names on the control panel are different.  Vibro Champ production was far greater than Bronco production making Bronco Amps rather uncommon.  The amp shown here is an early example which sports the typical cosmetic features of the earliest silverface amps including vertical lines on the control panel, first style silverface grillcloth, and aluminum grill trim.  It is interesting to note that the Bronco was one of the first Fender amplifiers to use the tailless Fender logo on the grill.  This use of the tailless logo pre-dates use on other Fender amps by over four years. The amp shown here is the earliest Bronco found to date during my Fender amp research.

 Preamp:  Tube; 2 x 12AX7

 Rectifier:  Tube; 1 x 5Y3GT

 Speakers:  1 x 8" Oxford 8EV

 Channels:  1 with 2 inputs

 Effects:  Tremolo

 Controls:  Bass, treble, volume, tremolo intensity, tremolo depth; footswitch for tremolo

 Dimensions:  7 H x 17 W x 7 1/4 D inches

 Weight:  20 lb