Deluxe VM opinions?

[TG]

I saw the Deluxe VM 40w combo mentioned in a magazine somewhere recently and it got me thinking since I haven't heard much about them for a while on the forum here.

Has anybody got one? I'd be curious to hear from someone who's had one for a little while now to get a cool and rational post-honeymoon opinion of it.

Are they 'good amps', and how do they compare to, say, a Blues Deluxe or DRRI?

[Pepi]

I've been checking these out too. Only thing that bothers me is the overdrive channel is all SS. I'm leaning more to building my own DR

[guitarman_nebr]

i own the Bandmaster VM head. the cleans are SS in the pre amp> 12AX7 inverter>6l6 tube power section. the overdrive channel is driven by a 12AX7 >12AX7 inverter> 6l6 power section.

the amp is really decent. the tones are nice and this is one of the best overdrive sounds Fender has come up with. 40 watts and plenty of punch. the real suprise is the effects. delay, chorus, and reverb on the amp. tweakable and footswitchable.

the included foot switch toggles between the two channels and controls the effects on and off.

these amps remind me of an early MusicMan amp from the 70's, tonewise. worth every penny if you gig regularly.

black face cleans and classic rock crunch with plenty of tone control...try one out!

[krauser2]

I played one and was impressed. To me its like they took a Deluxe reverb's Input 1 and hten the super sonic's channel two and put them together.

Then they added reverb and some cool little digi effects that if used well sounded pretty darn good.

I was impressed to say the least, the overdrive channel is pretty sweet, nice anc crunchy, reminiscent of the Super Sonic, if you ever play either you'll understand what I mean. None of that traditional fender doo doo OD, this is a REAL MANS OVERDRIVE, accentuated by a beatiful clean channel, that stays cleans (well as far as I took it)

I think its pretty good.

Krause's Consensus:

If you have no pedals and want most everything in a combo that doesnt suck (marshall Haze 40 GROOOSSSSS) then the Fender EM is the bees knees.

If you have a tone of pedals (like I do....) then maybe a deluxe reverb or blues deluxe is the way to go. This is the dilemma I'm having, I've got a new found love for rectified amps...so I'm swayin towards a Sligo DR, but a year ago, The VM would have been mine way before an HRD

[TG]

This is fun to watch.

[pacAir]

The Deluxe VM is a hybrid design with the best of both Solid-State and Vacuum Tubes. The clean channel preamp is all solid-state driving a traditional tube output stage (not unlike the Music Man amplifiers of the '70s and '80s as previously mentioned). The clean channel is quite good... quiet and full-bodied.

The Gain channel has a 12AX7 in the preamp (this is the distortion-generating element) which also drives the same all-tube output stage. This Gain channel has a wide variety of distortion character and harmonics available and the tone can be dialed-in over a wide range using the effective tone control section.

The effects are not bad... the delay and chorus and quite good but the reverb is not as good as a good spring reverb in my opinion. All of the effects are inserted AFTER the distortion generating tube in the Gain channel so you can get "studio"-type sounds not available when using pedals ahead of the amp.

This amp is lightweight and has really good overall tone and usability. It sounds great and is loud enough to play in a live band situation. It comes with a nice 4-switch footswitch and a cover. I wish the footswitch used a standard TRS 1/4" (like the Marshall JVM and Haze footswitches) instead of a full 5-wire MIDI cable but you take what you can get.

I have recently repaired both a Fender Deluxe VM and a Marshall Haze 40 (both tube 40-watt 1-12 combos with DSP effects on-board) and in testing on the bench, it became obvious to me that the Fender is much more versatile in its distortion tone styles. The Marshall sounds great but like many Marshall amps, it is more limited stylistically as it doesn't stray far from that definitive "Marshall Sound" territory. The Fender can be "bent" in more directions it seems. This is a good direction for Fender!

The Bandmaster VM head has the same electronics as the Deluxe VM combo. These amps (Marshall Haze 40 included) are lightweight inexpensive amplifiers built to be affordable but there's good tone in all of them. Marshall used a much heavier-duty metal chassis than the Fender does but the Marshall's chip-board grill board is damaged much easier than Fender's plywood grill board. I think they are about even on the quality of design, choice of components and construction quality.

There are two areas where the Marshall gains extra points... you can mechanically (switches) bypass the effects loop and effects for an all-tube signal path (not possible on the Fender VMs) and the Clean, Gain and Boosted Gain "channels" of the Marshall all remember their own individual effects settings unlike the Fender's "global" effects.

The Fender takes back some of those extra points by including the 4-button footswitch and cover... both of these are expensive extras on the Marshall Haze 40. Also, the two channels of the Fender VM amps have their own individual tone controls while the Marshall has one set of "universal" tone controls that effect all channels.


Steve

[Jakedog]

I've tried two of the Deluxe VM's. Both sounded really nice. I liked them a lot, and I'm not even into the Fender amp sounds. The cleans were punchy, with lots of nuts, and the OD tones were very much there. Somebody said they were lightweight, I would say not. I thought if anything, for an amp of this size it was unusually heavy. Not Twin Reverb heavy, but really heavy for a 40 watt 1X12.

My issue with them was that both units I tried started acting up after a few minutes and making strange noises. On the first one, I traced it to the on-board delay, turned off the FX, and the noises stopped. Turned 'em back on, and it was ok. But the fact that it acted up still put me off. The second one made all kinds of weird sounds, and I opted to go another direction. Both of these were floor models at Guitar Center.

I am still not convinced that all the bugs are worked out. I think the VM seires is a great idea, but I'm not sure it's all the way there yet. I think the tones are very nice, just not sure they have totally worked out marrying them in with the digi stuff on board though. I bought a Super Champ XD when they first dropped, and ended up returning it for similar reasons.

[Middleman]

They are almost. That was my impression.

Almost nice sounding, almost good at distortion, almost a nice delay and chorus. But for my money the RI versions of the Deluxe and Princeton Reverb go much farther in mojo and tone.

[scantron81]

I played the 40 watt head into the 2x12 cab with a new MIM Jazzmaster. I was impressed and thought it sounded quite good. I think it's a bit over-priced. I was impressed with he clarity of the clean and the overdrive tones were good. The onboard delay was neat but the reverb left a lot to be desired.

It sounded good but not as good as the vintage amps at home.

If I were starting from scratch I'd really consider this rig as long as it was under $700 for everything. I noticed musicians friend came off their price for the head/ combo by a few hundred already.

[pacAir]

I would consider the Deluxe VM lightweight compared to the other Fender 40 watt 112 combo... the Hot Rod Deluxe!

I have always taken exception to the "45 lbs" that is stated for the HRD vs the 40 lbs for the VM. The VM has some heft but the HRD with it's heavy chrome-plated chassis and MDF cabinet FEELS a lot heavier than 45 pounds!

The Fender Deluxe VM has a lightweight chassis and plywood cabinet. The one I received was shipped at 43 pounds all up... packaging material, footswitch, power cord, cover and paperwork.

I didn't weigh them but the the Deluxe VM seems lightweight by comparison when hauling these little beasts!


Steve

[Jakedog]

Originally Posted by pacAir

I would consider the Deluxe VM lightweight compared to the other Fender 40 watt 112 combo... the Hot Rod Deluxe!

I have always taken exception to the "45 lbs" that is stated for the HRD vs the 40 lbs for the VM. The VM has some heft but the HRD with it's heavy chrome-plated chassis and MDF cabinet FEELS a lot heavier than 45 pounds!

The Fender Deluxe VM has a lightweight chassis and plywood cabinet. The one I received was shipped at 43 pounds all up... packaging material, footswitch, power cord, cover and paperwork.

I didn't weigh them but the the Deluxe VM seems lightweight by comparison when hauling these little beasts!




Steve

Well then, I was dead wrong. It felt WAY heaveir than 43 pounds when I picked it up in the store to test the weight. My first impression was that it was heavier than my Boogie Mark II. But if it's weighing in like you say, it wouldn't even be close... I just picked it up, then put it right back down. Maybe I forgot to take my vitamin that morning, it felt like a tank...

[pacAir]

Originally Posted by Jakedog

Well then, I was dead wrong. It felt WAY heaveir than 43 pounds when I picked it up in the store to test the weight. My first impression was that it was heavier than my Boogie Mark II. But if it's weighing in like you say, it wouldn't even be close... I just picked it up, then put it right back down. Maybe I forgot to take my vitamin that morning, it felt like a tank...

I am constantly surprised how far off my weight guesses are! The only kind of "weight memory" I seem to have is when actually hauling something around for awhile then trying something different. The fact that I have had both the HRD and the Dlx VM apart and have seen the differences in construction also colors my expectations as I would naturally assume that the VM is lighter because of its lighter-weight construction.

Heck, ALL of these 112 amps are lighter weight than any of my Music Man combo amps, my Marshall JCM800 2x12 combos or my Vox AC50CP2 combo (as you would expect).


Steve

[TG]

Can the overdrive channel gain be set low so that it's pretty well another clean channel, ie, has it a 'clean area' where it can have no gain (or very minimal)?
Some amps/pedals have a gain control where there is a lot of gain if you can hear anything at all...turn it down lower and the sound is off altogether.
The YouTube clips I've heard have fairly high gain 'rock' sounds on the overdrive channel.

I prefer it when you can set an overdrive channel/pedal so that it's virtually the same tonally as your clean sound and then creep it up so that the overdrive comes in gradually.

Also, from what I've read there is still confusion about the SS preamp and its influence.
How 'touch responsive' is it on the clean channel?