Hello all,

I've been considering purchasing a new (or used) amp. I am saving up for a vintage Ampeg but I have a friend who is paying back a debt with guitar equipment.

I have played a lot of amps (Blackstar, Marshall, Orange, Peavey, Vox, Egnator and others. I love almost every amp I've played BUT..............
There is just something about a Fender. I am torn between the Blues DeVille and Hot Rod Deluxe. I love the deep bass, clean and overdriven sounds and of course the Fender reverb.

I am torn between these amps and I love the tweed of the Blues but I've read they have reliability issues and the overdrive isnt all it could be.

I would like your opinions of these amps or other amps maybe you think I should try. I must say I was very impressed with the Egnator Rebel 20. Really cool.I also likes the Mesa Express but too much $$.

Cafaro - I have a 93 Blues Deluxe, have had no problems with it.All I can suggest is you try as many amps as you can,find the one that suits your sound and budget.Enjoy the search, Cheers.

From my experience, don't get a Hot Rod Deluxe, unless you really like the sound of it. To me they sound too clinical, and the overdrive sounds terrible. And they are also very heavy to carry around. I suggest you also try a Tweed Deluxe, a DRRI, or a PRRI.

What is your budget?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-08-22 05:38 by Koen.

I love the bass sound of these amps. They sound powerful.I love the mids too.

I have been wondering about the drive though. I really only seem to get 2 levels of drive vs. 3. I am looking for a good overdrive. I use a Boss Bassman pedal and it gives a great sound on my Blues Junior and I would love to get that kind of sound with more bass and tougher mids. The Blues Jr. is "bass-less"

Ive been given about 900 USD. Is the Tweed Deluxe the same amp as the Blues Deluxe?

I am pretty set on one of thhe Fenders.

I have a Hot Rod Deluxe. It is LOUD and it is heavy to lug about. It's got great clean tones and reverb and loves pedals. I now prefer an overdrive pedal to the amp's own overdrive, but part of that is just me - I like to keep things simple and rarely switch pickups, never mind amp channels.

It's been super reliable, but I only use it for loud gigs. If the drummer isn't miked up you won't have the volume past half way and I use a smaller amp for quieter gigs. It is way too loud to use at home and it sits in a corner with its cover on most of the time, almost like a piece of furniture. If I was to replace it, I would get something a wee bit smaller, maybe more like 20 watts so I could crank it without pedals, but that's just what would suit me.

Fender valve amps are great and there are a lot of other makes that do great amps. Whatever you end up choosing, you'll have lots of fun and also realise that you need a different one too! Enjoy.

I had a tweed Blues Deluxe and it had to be turned up way too loud in order to get a decent sound. I've got a Blues Jr. now and like it much better, but my main amp is a Vox AC15TBX, which is AMAZING!

Thank you all. Please keep your thoughts and opinions coming. The Deluxe/DeVilles may be too loud to obtain my goal of the amp's natural overdriven sound .
40 watts is a lot.

Koen, I am going to check out the '65 Princeton Reverb and the 65 Reverb Deluxe. .

My thing is the that overall "big" sound of the Blues Deluxe/Hot Rod Deluxes. I love the clean sound.....the bass is great, mids are great, love the the Prescence. So far, the best sound for me I have found of all amp makers I've tried is these Fenders..

As mentioned, I am currently using a Texas Red Blues Jr and I feel it;s just not big sounding to me. I also need to push both volumes to 12 to over drive it. I put the Blues Deluxe to 6-7 and got crunch which is wierd

Cafaro I too have a Blues Deluxe, cirica 1993. Besides replacing the master, drive and volume pots with audio taper pots it is and has been a great amp. Great mids and clean tones with enough power, 40 watts, to get great tone at lower volumes and loud enough to play a small club. The Blues Jr is a good little amp but at 15 watts you have to crank it to get natural breakup or distortion which is what I prefer to over drive or distortion pedals. Replacing the pots I think really helped improve the amps peformance. I really don't understand why Fender used linear pots instead of audio tapers...

I have owned both. I had a 90's model tweed Blues Deluxe for years that I loved, but had to sell (sadly) when finances got troubled. Recently I purchased a Hot Rod deluxe very similar to my old Blues model, 1 12" speaker, tweed. It doesn't sound QUITE as good, but I still like it very much. And yes, it is quite loud for just having one speaker. And I know many people here don't care for the amp's distortion, but I quite like the overdrive in the Hot Rod Deluxe (except the pointless "More Drive" switch, which just makes it sound ugly). It's got a lovely clean sound, decent reverb and good bottom end.

But in the end, don't worry about what me or anybody else on here says. Just go with what makes your ears happy. One man's junk and all that. But I still feel it's hard to go wrong with a Fender tube amp, even if you don't get a top of the line one.

Another consideration for you might be a Blues Junior. They're smaller - 10" speaker I think, or maybe even 8". But to be so little they can get LOUD. They have great tone as well, and they're less expensive than the Blues or Hot Rod.

I have played them all. Personally, I´d go for the Hot Rod de Luxe. In fact, I´m renting that one for my band´s gigs next weekend. Unfortunately too far for my fragile HiWatt to travel



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-08-22 22:59 by DandelionPowderman.

Hey all,
I didnt get out today to try the Princetons.

I own a Blues Junior now. Texas Red with a Celestion 30 in it. Like Chrism says, you need to crank both volumes to get it overdriven. I too would rather avoid pedals to overdrive .I mean, why own a tube amp if you aren't going to overdrive it . I have always felt the amp lacks balls.

ChrisM...are you saying that if one changes the pots on the "Deluxe"s or "Reverbs" that I can overdrive it without cranking the volumes up to max?

imposter, how much volume do you need to start overdriviingg the Deluxe?

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Cafaro
Hey all,
I didnt get out today to try the Princetons.

I own a Blues Junior now. Texas Red with a Celestion 30 in it. Like Chrism says, you need to crank both volumes to get it overdriven. I too would rather avoid pedals to overdrive .I mean, why own a tube amp if you aren't going to overdrive it . I have always felt the amp lacks balls.

ChrisM...are you saying that if one changes the pots on the "Deluxe"s or "Reverbs" that I can overdrive it without cranking the volumes up to max?

imposter, how much volume do you need to start overdriviingg the Deluxe?

I am pretty happy with the volume around 3 and the drive around 6. Now this is talking about playing in my house, not live. I have to keep the levels moderate so as not to disturb the girlfriend too much. But this level, or one like it, produces a nice lever of distortion that's clean but dirty, and sounds GREAT with a Telecaster.

Thank you imposter....I would want to play at the same volume level at home. My dogs aren't always appreciative of my playing!

I play mostly single coil guitars

I've got a 1-12" Deluxe. I rarely put it above "1" in my apartment but even at that low volume, it sounds great. My Strat sounds amazing on the clean channel, and my Teles cook with a little overdrive. My Les Paul sounds good on the "dirty" channel (or whatever it's called) but not so much on the clean.

It's a great all-purpose amp, but I think it really does need to be played loud to maximize its full potential.

I've got a Fender Hot Rod De Ville with the 2*12 speakers. I really like the clean channel and the reverb. As mentioned before, I would also suggest to use a stomp box instead of the amp's second channel. Try the Ibanez TS 808. Works perfectly for me with this amp.
If you wanna go for a Fender amp with less power, the 65 Princeton Reverb could be a good choice. But I don't think that this one is loud enough to play with a band, unless you put a microphone in front of it.
If you can spend some more money, try the Fender 65 Super Reverb. My main Fender amp for gigs and recording.

In my opinion, you need to really open one channel up on an amp to get its tonal character. An Ibanez TS9 is great for overdrive (had one of the early '80s ones). Not so sure about the new ones as I don't own one. You could also use a valve based overdrive pedal.

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terraplane
In my opinion, you need to really open one channel up on an amp to get its tonal character. An Ibanez TS9 is great for overdrive (had one of the early '80s ones). Not so sure about the new ones as I don't own one. You could also use a valve based overdrive pedal.

Ibanez has now 4 different models of the TS.
TS9 for $99: Sounds not so good
TS9DX for $110: Haven't tried this yet
TS808 for $180: I use this one, because it sounds great for a reasonable price
TS808HW for $350: Sounds awesome, but way too expensive.

Another nice overdrive pedal is the Fulltone OCD for about $145. I think Keith has one of them in his guitar rig.

I've started using the Fulltone OCD too and am very impressed indeed.

I read about Johnny Winters amp some time ago, but I can't remember if it was a Fender..(he must have the best amp for blues I think)

Actually, the clean sound of a Fender Super is excellent but those are very heavy and quite expensive. I have a Hot Rod as well. It's often difficult to play it with hardly any volume (I blew my Champ out) and is great for rock shows but it does have a great clean sound. It sounds better with volume and I do like the distortion of the amp but for solos I use a Marshall Gov'nor (GV2) for solos.

The DeVille is just a bigger version of the Hot Rod, where as the Blues Jr is a smaller version (and the lightest, ha ha) that is a bit easier to play with lower volumes sound/tone wise. They are all reliable and have good tone.

Old skool Deluxe you can't go wrong. It depends on money really.

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skipstone
It depends on money really.

That's right. The best Fender amp I owned was a Tonemaster. I paid 2000 Euros for a used one. The sound was huge. The first and only Fender amp, where I also loved the overdrive channel. Replaced it 2 or 3 years ago with an Orange Rockeverb.

The HRD snaps into focus with a bit less gain. GE or Philips 5751 tubes to replace the 12AX7s make a nice difference. Try them in any or all of the pre-amp positions for different flavours. There's a simple little mod to the tone stack that also serves to reduce gain for a more "vintage" response.

Thanks again all. I really want to try out the lower wattage '65s. I am hoping I can get the same bass and mid feel and be able to get natural overdrive/higher gain sounds at in hoome volumes.

I would mostly be playing this amp at home or in a studio, recording, writing, and jamming. For loud gigs, I can borrow a variety of amps. I am playing a used Tweed Blues Deluxe later today.


I spoke with the person funding this purchase and I have between 800-100 USD. I would love to get a mix between sounds one hears on Sticky Fingers and Exile. I love the guitar sound on I've Got The Blues and All Down The Line. Strong Bass, a little distortion,stinging highs.

As mentioned, I am saving for a vintage Ampeg but for this purchase, a friend is continuing to pay off a debt.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-08-23 18:00 by Cafaro.

For home levels I like the Blackheart Killer Ant. It's less than one watt so you can really crank it and get its tubes hummin' for nice tone without blowing out anyone else in your home, or disturbing the neighbors too much.

I also play through an Epi Valve Jr a lot - at 5 watts its pretty damn loud for an apt. though. I run it through a Weber micro-mass attenuator to reduce its volume level to about that of my Blackheart killer ant. When I play through both them at the same time, I get thick killer tube tone without a lot of volume.

Doesn't give you a very Fender sound though, its more old MArshall-ish sounding.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-08-23 20:11 by Keefan.

I was actually very imporessed with the Epi amps. Great sounds very lite money. YOu are right, they don't sound like Fenders but veery cool indeed.

I have never been a fan of the first series of the Deluxe, Deville and Hot Rod series. Clean was sterile, overdrive was grainy transistor. They weren't particularly well build either, lots of rattling and loose components and the board could get too hot easily after playing it hard.

But the new (2007 onwards) tweed Blues Deluxe is a much better amp, I must say. It's much better build, and the sound is actaully very good. I still do not like the drive channel much, but with the clean channel master on full and the master volume on 3 you can get reall nice Keith Richards like grind and raunch. Add a nice drive pedal for boosts and solo's and it really is a nice amp. Only part I didn't like was the speaker. With about all amps under $1000 you get cheap Chinese speakers these days, and an upgrade to a good Celestion or Weber really does wonders to the sound.

Mathijs

I have had several blues jr deluxe pro jr etc. The modern fender amps have such crappy parts cheap Chinese mass produced crap. My pro jr and blues delux sounded like they were going to shake apart after awhile. They sounded good but I had blown transformer in my pro jr and both ate tubes like I drink coffee. I am very disappointed in fender's quality control. I do love the sound of the fender blues and pro jr w the el84. Fender w el84 sound aggressive but not heavy metal too me. Just wish the quality was better. The cheapest weber speakers blow what comes stock in fender out of the water. 35-40 US$! You can find silver faced champs and some vintage ampegs comparable in size for the same price or less. Just check flea bay, gbase, and craigslist.

Go Dawgs!

+ 1 on Mathijs and nakerphelege´s tips. Weber speakers are top.

Personally I have and would buy vintage Fenders if I was you (if you have the funding), perhaps they´re not better than the new, say the Princeton 65 RI, but having the real thing (+ a stompbox) is pure heaven.

Speaking of vintage Ampegs, which one are you thinking about buying Cafaro?
Are we talking about the 300W amps Andy Johns mentioned in the Exile interview?!

Best of luck on your purchase.

I own a 2009 Reissue Blues DeVille 410 and I really love the clean channel. I am getting used to the drive channel but it's really not as good as my cranked Pro Jr.

Unfortunately this amp is really loud and I'm not pushing it at all, but my living room is big enough for the 4x10 to breathe even at lower levels.