finally.. a DRRI!

[toadman]

I've been playing through 100 watt 1x12 combos(randall RG-80 and Tubeworks RT-2100) for about 15 years and never EVER had a problem with reliability or being heard through the mix or anything else. and both amps have everything i need in terms of tone, power, compactness and transportability. they don't take up much room in the van! but i never EVER turned them up more than halfway.
then i started frequenting TDPRI and lstening to the chat about the calssic "all tube" sound and i started thinking it's time for a change! i messed around with a few 5 watters just to get my feet wet. then i started going to GC and trying stuff out. i finally decided that the DR or a DRRI would be a perfect fit.
but the price was prohibitive on my budget so i did something i've NEVER done......I SOLD A GUITAR!!(gasp)
i had to do it. justification.....i wasn't using my Nashville B bender much. and i will get much more use out of a DRRI so i unloaded the bender for 800 and found a DRRI with 10 hours of playing time on it on ebay. i bid up to 650 and won!! great...$150 towards the van payment this month! shipping was $45 but it was located in the boston area. i have family up there so, rather than gamble with UPS, i put $35 in the tank and drove to Boston with my 3 year old son, picked up the amp, visited my brother-in-law, had fillets on the grill and fine brews. and drove home. all in all a good deal! i just hope it's as reliable as my tubeworks(which i kept for a backup)
i gave the amp the once over this morning. i love loveLOVE IT! can't wait to give it the live fire test. unfortunately my next gig is on the 29th. the wait is going to KILL ME! i'll just have to "bedroom test" it for a few weeks!
excuse me now, i'm gonna go see how it does with pedals!
thanks TDPRI!

[Axis29]

Congrats Toadman!

I'm a new convert tot he DRRI myself. I love mine! The tone is to die for! I played mine at it's first live gig last weekend and it held up well. I never had it above 4 with a hard hittin drummer, a keyboard, Bass and another guitarist. My amp sat low on the floor while the Bass player and other guitarist had their amps up high... mine still cut through the mix beautifully!


I sold my Mesa Mark IV to buy this and have some other music fun funds. And haven't thought twice about it! These 22 Watts are pure heaven! And it takes my TS-9, The Bad Horsie II Wah and the DD-3 beautifully.

I do have an issue with my reverb, but I got such a good price on mine, I'm pretty sure I'll still be coming out ahead of the game! I have read a couple of people who have had issues with the reverb stuff on the board, but even through some serious amounts of searching this week, I have only found a few incidents.

But even without bucketloads of reverb, this amp is one of the most beautiful tone machines, I've ever heard!

Wait till you start messing with different tubes for her!

[blacklove]

Welcome to the DRRI club.

I've had mine for over ten years, hundreds of practices and gigs later, it's still working just fine. The strap broke on me once on load-in and it fell hard on concrete. Still worked for the gig, though.

This was a pre-Groove Tubes era DRRI. A NOS retube improved the tone of this amp many fold from the original Fender-logo tubes.

I've been thinking about getting a speaker upgrade for a while now, but mainly just for tinkering's sake.

[boris bubbanov]

I passed over a dead mint 2002 DRRI, sounded real fine, for $ 625 plus tax (on consignment).

I felt like I had to because I knew the amp had been through the storm, and had been in stupefying hot and humid conditions for weeks when the power was out and water was everywhere. I just had to keep that behind me, but it was not easy.

[RumorsofsurF]

Are DRRI's powerful enough to gig with? I play through either a SF Twin or a Hot Rod Deluxe 1-12 currently. The Twin is infinitely clean, but it's so stinkin' heavy!

We play pretty loud. Though we mic the cabs, we don't turn them up much in the PA. I try to control the on stage volume, but our drummer is a whacker. BTW, the other guitarist plays through an AC30.

[jonzer]

Yes, they are loud enough to gig with. Ask my band. I'm that jerk that doesn't like to turn down. A DRRI really shines cranked up around 6.
Your experience will vary concerning the reliability. I bought mine used over five years ago for $500. Someone put legs on it which is really nice. I haven't changed the speaker or tubes and I've gigged with it A LOT. No problems yet (knock on wood, practice tonight).

I put the thing on lay-a-way and while it was in the shop waiting to go home with me I picked an Epi Dot off the wall to try through that amp. After that I had two items on lay-a-way. The DRRI loves the 335. Growl, growl, growl for days. You don't even need pedals to get this combination cooking...but the DRRI does love pedals.

Another reason I like it: Not that many knobs. You spend way more time playing it than tinkering with it. Hey, change from a telecaster to a 335 then you might adjust the bass and treble.

Crap, talking about it has me anxious for practice tonight. And I promised to turn the volume down tonight.....AAARGH!!!

[NewOldStock]

Are DRRI's powerful enough to gig with?

I had a DR boutique copy that I used for a few years when performing. 22W was plenty loud for every saloon we played. No PA help needed. I'll now be using a 15W Vox at the same sized venues and they're already saying it's TOO LOUD! Just returned from a 3 hour test run at an area bar. These dance floors max out at about 50 people usually, with 100 on special events(New Years, 4th of July, Deer Hunters Ball, etc.). Not too large, but only about 30% of the total house are actually sober enough to make it onto the dance floor. So imagine crowds of 150-300 in a small club. A DR does just fine here

I've been with bands where we've opened for Little Texas, Aaron Tippin, and Patty Loveless in the past. Small amps work great here also. They just SM57 it into a main PA. Wouldn't matter if it was 5W or 100W really.

[Darrell]

I got one in 2006 from a fellow TDPRI'er. 550 + 45 for shipping, and it was flawless. He played it for maybe 6 months. I still smile when I turn it on. I feel like I waisted my time for the 10 years prior with other amps. Even in my small room it shines, I can't imagine it not having enough power for a gig. I can't stay in the room with it above 3.

[Grin'n'pick]

I've always loved mine. I got it new in 2006. Whenever I play through it it sounds even nicer than I remembered it. Played a few times where people have looked at me funny for bringing in a small combo amp but then eaten humble pie when they heard it. Over here at least there is a culture of having to have physically large amps and cabinets live but the DRRI has changed some people's minds, it is a very musical sounding amp that on the whole people seem to like the sound of. If you need louder mic it, but I only need to do that rarely, more seldom than I thought I would when I got it, it does seem to cut through just fine.

[Axis29]

Originally Posted by RumorsofsurF

Are DRRI's powerful enough to gig with? I play through either a SF Twin or a Hot Rod Deluxe 1-12 currently. The Twin is infinitely clean, but it's so stinkin' heavy!

We play pretty loud. Though we mic the cabs, we don't turn them up much in the PA. I try to control the on stage volume, but our drummer is a whacker. BTW, the other guitarist plays through an AC30.

I can't say we play loud. There's actually two bands I play with, one regularly and the other from time to time. One has a regular drum set, the other those nice Roland synth drums. Playing a pretty small venue with the live drummer wasn't a problem at all last weekend! I never got the volume above 5 on my amp and about 8.5 to 9 on the guitar.

I've played a twin at practice with the synth drums and 3 was too loud for some of the members of the band... with my guitar on about 5....

Hope that helps...

[garytelecastor]

I have really been considering buying one of these. What is a good and fair price for a new one?

[nevadacalifornia]

Price wise they recently went from 849.00 to 899.00 on most online stores. I think most local stores will still take 799.00 or close.

[Axis29]

GC and Musician's Friend the price jumped to 949.00. There aren't a lot of Fender dealers around my parts that have them in stock or will go any cheaper than that.

I picked up mine used for 550, but they've been averaging around 650 plus shipping on Ebay...

[superlightweigh]

I don't know what used ones are going for- if you can find one. $650 sounds more than fair. I bought mine new from a small local mom-n-pop dealer here in 2002 for $560 and they have jumped all the way up to $949 most places. They had one in the Vintage Room over at GC for that last week.

I'm sure if I wanted to sell mine I could at least get what I paid for it. I'll never sell it, though. I just recently added a Champion 600 to my collection and in the future I will build something point-to-point that's in between the two, size wise and power wise. Just for variety. But the DRRI will always be the mainstay of my amp collection.

[toadman]

the bedroom tests are going very well! this amp will DEFINATELY be loud enough to gig with! can't wait. everything is stock and it sounds fine to me. but i'm sure i'll start messing with the tubes and speaker soon. i'm thinking a Beam Blocker might be in order as i do a lot of gigs un-miked. the buzz seems to be that a BB will make an un-miked situation better.
sure seems to be a lot of warm fuzzy feelings for the DRRI around here!

hey AXIS29....what ever happened with your reverb issue??

[toadman]

one thing i forgot to mention was the fact that the DRRI, much more than my other amps, seems to accentuate the differences between my guitars. for instance, my f-hole thinline style sounds much less trebley than my ash partscaster. but even more so with the DRRI. in other words i used to be able to switch between the two different guitars without tweaking the settings. now i feel the need to adjust the mix a bit. not really a bad thing for me. just a bit different. maybe it will be different in a live setting. anybody else have this experience?

[xjazzy]

And do you feel about the drives in the vibrato channel? No arsh sounding?

[BluesOwl]

Cannabis Rex speaker and a Beam Blocker.

I'm hooked now.
Gonna do a ptp clone with MM iron...maybe Stu Daddy out of Detroit

[Axis29]

Hey Toadman,

I'm going to spend about a half hour in about an hour troubleshooting it again to make sure I covered all the bases.

If that doesn't work it's going to the amp doctor! I have a feeling it's gonna be gone from me for a few weeks.... :(

[superlightweigh]

Originally Posted by toadman

one thing i forgot to mention was the fact that the DRRI, much more than my other amps, seems to accentuate the differences between my guitars. for instance, my f-hole thinline style sounds much less trebley than my ash partscaster. but even more so with the DRRI. in other words i used to be able to switch between the two different guitars without tweaking the settings. now i feel the need to adjust the mix a bit. not really a bad thing for me. just a bit different. maybe it will be different in a live setting. anybody else have this experience?

I've definitely noticed that the DRRI brings out the personality of each of my guitars a lot more, and that's a good thing. Whatever you plug into it seems to come alive and just sound great!