Tweed sound in a Blackface Deluxe

[BluezyBruce]

I read somewhere on the forum here that you can get tweed sound out of a Blackface deluxe. I guess I am wondering if you can get close or if people do get the same satisfaction in sound from a blackface deluxe as they do a tweed amp or good clone? Speaker will change this as well, perhaps a good alnico will do the trick?

Opinions?

Thanks,

Bruce

[ThermionicScott]

What kind "tweed" do you have in mind?

[JamonHamon]

I put a Weber 10a125 in my PRRI and I think it sounds very close to a tweed sound


but I miss the Twangier Dwayne Eddy-Jim Campilongo sound so I'm going to put the 10" C10r Jensen stock speaker back in

[BluezyBruce]

Some kind of small-mid tweed. Just something I heard hear.

[jhundt]

I have an amp that is very similar to a BF Deluxe. (it is a Princeton Reverb II that I rewired to BFDR specs with some additions and modifications). I added a switch that disables the tone circuit (aka "tone stack"). When the tone stack is disabled the amp sounds more like my old tweed Deluxe.

This is a very simple and non-destructive operation and the amp can be restored to original state in a matter of minutes. Test the sound out and see if it is suitable. To do this simply disconnect the 6800 ohm resistor that is grounded to the back of the 'bass' pot. This serves to ground the tone circuit (and incidentally it replaces the 'mid' control found on other Fender amps). When it is disconnected the tone circuit is not grounded and thus almost disabled; the 'treble' control still has a very small influence but it is almost unnoticeable.

The two things that you will notice first are that the amp is louder and the mids are greatly increased, a little rougher and tougher.

I have mine wired up so that this option is selectable via a footswitch; and instead of completely disconnecting the ground I run it through a large value pot (1 meg, maybe? I can't remember exactly what I put in there...) which I believe is similar to Allen amps "raw" knob, allowing the user to balance the mid/gain boost and the standard BF sound.

[JohnnyCrash]

Tonestack bypass switch mods are generally described as "tweed," but they're not like a DR to 5E3 in a pull of a switch by any means.

They will add gain and remove some of that BF midrange scoop though.

Certain key words are overused with guitarists - one is "tweed."

[BluezyBruce]

Ahha so then its only a description rather than the actual tone of a tweed amp. One is tweed and one is not but still nice.

Thanks,

Bruce

[ThermionicScott]

BTW, I wasn't trying to be snarky with the above comment, either. There are lots of differences between the various tweed circuits and the later BF circuits. These contribute to the different tonalities *and* responses.

So, if you wanted the extra midrange, or a little more "squish" to your notes, or a little less headroom, that would help narrow down the options for modification.

- Scott

[JohnnyCrash]

Originally Posted by Scott S

BTW, I wasn't trying to be snarky with the above comment, either. There are lots of differences between the various tweed circuits and the later BF circuits. These contribute to the different tonalities *and* responses.

So, if you wanted the extra midrange, or a little more "squish" to your notes, or a little less headroom, that would help narrow down the options for modification.

- Scott

Yeah, talking about tweeds is not talking about one signature sound.

There's the tweed Deluxe (15w cathode biased 6V6's very fat, thick, and syrupy), tweed Bandmaster's, Pro's, and Supers (fixed bias 6L6's, tighter and cleaner, and still with fatter mids than BF/SF's, but not even close to as thick as a tweed Deluxe), and the tweed Bassman (a totally different tweed than the others mentioned - the prototype for the first Marshall).