Black Face Deluxe (non-reverb).

So how about a small club for the non-reverb Black Face Deluxe amps?

Mine is a '65 that a previous owner stripped the tolex off of, then added a cane grill to imitate a Boogie. Looked like original tubes when I bought it but the speaker had been changed to a huge Seymour Duncan something. It's got a blue label Fender speaker now and different tubes. The only "mods" are a three-prong plug and some sort of 12AT7 in the first channel.

There's also at least one person on TDPRI with a BFD...and just this week Kevin Gordon (http://www.myspace.com/kevingordonmusic) showed up for a house concert with one. What a great sound! After hearing Kevin I'm trying new settings for a fatter sound. (If you ever get a chance to see him, jump at it...he's best known as a writer and singer, but he's a great player.)

Martin
E. Christina Herr & Wild Frontier (http://EChristinaHerr.com)

Looks like this will be a big empty room.

65 BF bought this in 1979 for $90.00 Been my pal ever since.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk237/ramseypete/65DeluxeR.jpg

A friend of mine has one and it sounds great. He has a studio and uses it every now and then for "that" tone. Let's all remember.....the non-reverb BF Deluxe is a Beatles amp.

Well I can unplug the reverb tank Lol!!

I have a 64 Deuxe non reverb. I recently took the tone stack off the
regular channel and it sounds very tweedy. I got myself an A-B footswitch and use it to switch between channels. The regular channel has twice a s much gain as the stock tremelo channel. Before that I realy like the sound when I jumped the channels.

I A/B the channels, too. The tremelo channel usually has the treble at about 7 and bass at 5. The normal channel is set at 10's. I'll also have the normal channel about a half point higher in volume and use it for leads.

Martin
E. Christina Herr & Wild Frontier (http://EChristinaHerr.com)

Mine is a late 64 / early 65. It has a new Weber speaker in it and is currently my primary gigging amp. I love it.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-3/122891/FenderDeluxefront1.jpg

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-3/122891/FenderDeluxeback.jpg

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-3/122891/FenderDeluxeSchematic.jpg

Johnny Isaacs

I really like my 1966 Deluxe Reverb. Traded it for a Standel Super Imperial (solid state) and a couple hundred bucks!

Anybody else looking at the Boss '63 Fender Reverb Pedal? It's getting a lot of good reviews and is considerably cheaper than an outboard tube reverb.

Martin
E. Christina Herr & Wild Fron (http://echristinaherr.com)tier

I was mostly a bass player "Back in the day". Our guitar player ran an ES-335 into a Black Face Deluxe and if I remember correctly it was a non-reverb.

The most INCREDIBLE TONE! That little amp set THE Standard for my personal Quest for Tone. That Natural Overdrive like I've NEVER heard since!

I didn't know till recently that there's a substantial difference between the Deluxe and the Deluxe Reverb. Seems like the DR uses the reverb tube for powering either the pre or power circuit...(not sure which, should have paid more attention).

Anyway, the Deluxe isn't as loud as the DR. I'm guessing that it will start overdriving at a lower volume. Does that sound right to anybody?

Martin
E. Christina Herr & Wild Frontier (http://echristinaherr.com)

Whats a good price for a 66' ? w/ new speaker.

I saw '64 on ebay a couple of years ago for $650. It looked to be in really good condition.


Martin
___________________________
E. Christina Herr & Wild Frontier (http://echristinaherr.com)

Wow ! so a '66 for $1250 is really high then. I played through one last sat. in nashville it was real nice , but real high sounds like.

thanks for the info!

It sounds high to me, but it's been 20 years since I've been amp shopping. A new DRRI goes for close to that, so maybe it's not too bad for a vintage Black Face.

Right now on ebay there's a '65 Deluxe Reverb (http://cgi.ebay.com/Original-1965-Fender-Deluxe-Reverb-Blackface-Amplifier_W0QQitemZ130338397082QQcmdZViewItemQQptZ LH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1e58c61b9a#ht_6072wt_9 50) that's under a grand, (still has 5 days to go, though).

If the amp you're looking at is in Nashville the seller probably has a pretty good idea what its worth. If you're close, go to Gruhn's on Broadway and strike up a conversation with anybody working there. They'll know what the market is.

(An aside...The market for used gear is constantly changing. I bought a Travis Bean Artist for under $300. At the time, they were considered heavy, hard to keep tuned and a flash in the pan. I sold it a few years ago for $1600. Same heavy, hard to tune guitar, but suddenly fashionable.)

Good luck,
Martin
__________________________
E. Christina Herr & Wild Frontier (http://echristinaherr.com)

I have a '65 NR Deluxe and it's a wonderful amp. I currently have a C-Rex in it along with a nice selection of ANOS tubes. I have a Heyboer "fat stack" OT on the way . . . (ought to be here some day)

65 BF bought this in 1979 for $90.00 Been my pal ever since.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk237/ramseypete/65DeluxeR.jpg

dang and it still looks brand new. unfortunately i wont have one of these beauties for a while since ill have to pay 10 times what you payed.

I have a late 63' deluxe amp (non-reverb)...black-face.

The tone is fantastic...

the going price for a 63' to 67' BFD in good clean condition is 1200 to 1400

my collection of black-faced fender amps started back in 1991 when i picked up a mint 64' bfpr for $325. a yr later i just had to get another so that i
could run both in stereo thru my tc elect st chorus pedal...bingo, i found my
2nd 64' bfpr for $350.

i still have both and play'em all the time...

one has a cts alnico speaker from a 68 super rev, the other a p10r..

i do have quite a few other amps in my collection.
65' twin reverb, 66' vibro champ, jcm 800 4010 50 watt.

the main amps for studio are my 64' pair of princeton reverbs & 63' bf deluxe

i think bf deluxe amps are great amps and easy priced...

i will post pics soon...i am a new member here !

its great to be on this forum.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=33712&stc=1&d=1256142812

i will post pics soon...i am a new member here !

its great to be on this forum.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=33712&stc=1&d=1256142812

Please don't post pictures of old black face amps. It will make me cry.
Where in Texas are you?

And as long as we're telling stories...
I had a Silver Face Deluxe Reverb in college. Sold it and two guitars, (now I'm really going to cry), and kept only a Martin D18.

Many years later I got talked into joining a band. I found an ad in the paper for a Fender Deluxe. Went to see it and was "whelmed". The tolex had been peeled off and the wood was stained, poorly, brown. The grill cloth had been replaced with wicker. The owner wanted a Boogie so he had started with the cosmetics.

What was worse, the speaker had been replaced with some sort of Seymour Duncan with a magnet almost as big as the speaker frame. The amp sounded really, really bad. But it was a BF Deluxe and I had the money in my pocket.

It still looks like hell, but after changing out the speaker to a blue dot Fender and having the tubes biased, it's the best sounding amp I've ever owned...And cranked, it's probably the best one I've ever heard.

Martin
__________________________
E. Christina Herr & Wild Frontier (http://echristinaherr.com)

I didn't know till recently that there's a substantial difference between the Deluxe and the Deluxe Reverb. Seems like the DR uses the reverb tube for powering either the pre or power circuit...(not sure which, should have paid more attention).

Anyway, the Deluxe isn't as loud as the DR. I'm guessing that it will start overdriving at a lower volume. Does that sound right to anybody?

Martin
E. Christina Herr & Wild Frontier (http://echristinaherr.com)

+1

I have an opportunity to buy a Blackface Deluxe or a Silverface Deluxe Reverb.

I know about the difference between the Princeton and the Princeton Reverb. Same thing for the Deluxes?

I really don't know. I'm not a techie at all when it comes to amps. I plug in, turn it on and it sounds great.

I've had this one amp for more than 20 years. Before that I had a SF Deluxe Reverb, but that was in the '70's. But there were years separating the two. and I never heard them side by side.

Post over on the amp board. You'll probably get too much info but at least the folks there know what they're talking about.

if you can get a blackfaced princeton reverb or deluxe reverb i would suggest those..

the non reverbs sound great too...the subtle reverb just sounds great on a blackfaced...

most fender amps built in from 63 to 67 sound great !

I've been using a 65 BFD with a matching 65 Reverb Unit. Good Grief, best tone, transporting is easy plus better reverb control IMO. Use with my Kubicki tele, 55 Les Paul Jr, 69 Gold Top Deluxe, or various strats. Needless to say, I've been happy. Glad to hear other owners are too!

I have a '65 BFD that looks like hell, but sounds great! Some previous owner added a "presence" control, and, of all things, a master volume. I had these removed and the circuit put back to stock when I got it. It also had a JBL D120. It now sports a '64 Jensen C12Q. It has extra holes (plugged), no tolex on the corners and black grille cloth (I kinda like the black cloth, sets it apart a little). It seems to have a knack for making any guitar sound good. It also doesn't seem to matter what speaker is in it - it always sounds good.
In case you haven't guessed, she's not leavin' me!

Wow ! so a '66 for $1250 is really high then. I played through one last sat. in nashville it was real nice , but real high sounds like.

thanks for the info!

You can get eBay closed auction figures here:
http://codekinesis.mine.nu/price/list_history
You have to use the dropdown menu to get Deluxe.
You'll want to read the blurb at the top to know what you're looking at.

BTW it's not my code; I just think it's interesting.

Wow, what a great site!

...and I guess $1250 is not too bad a price.

I've had my Deluxe for 15 years now.

Love it alot, best clean sounds of any of my amps.

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p454/NB_Terry/fender.jpg

I bought my Deluxe dirt cheap in a music store in Las Vegas. The power transformer was blown and the upper back cover was missing. I ordered a transformer from Kendrick and made a new back cover. It has low number Groove Tubes in it and breaks up fairly early. The speaker is a Kendrick black frame. I forget what year it was made, but it has Fender Elect. Inst. Co. on the faceplate. It's a fine amp.

This thread has been dead for awhile. So let's move it back to the top.

This is my 64. The speaker is a weber 12F125. Other than that all original.

Bob

I just picked one up a couple weeks ago. It's a '64, and in fairly good condition for an amp its age. Original tubes and speaker are long gone.

It came with a mixed set of tubes - JJs, Fender and an unnamed model in the preamp section, GE in the PI and power tubes. These sounded okay, but I replaced preamp tubes with Ruby 12ax7ac7's and a Mullard 12AT7 CV4024 in the PI, which seems like a notable improvement to my ears.

Currently its got a Tone Tubby hemp speaker (I believe its the Red Alnico, but not 100% sure). Overall I'm very happy with my purchase -- the amp has great clean tones, but I haven't really had a chance to crank it yet.

Enough about my Deluxe, I'm a newb when it comes to speaker and tube replacements, but I am curious to hear what combinations everyone likes in this amp.

I have no idea what tubes are in mine...but they'll be changed when my tax refund comes in.

And, btw, I started this thread but never posted a picture of my bastardized amp. The guy I bought it from wanted a Boogie.

I'm in.
The vintage police will note the "extra dial" right smack in the middle of the name plate.
That's where a reverb was thoughtfully added 25 yrs ago, shortly before I bought it.
Face palm, right?
Well, it had someting to do w/ the price finally pd.
And I LOVE it.
Peace - Deeve

Is the reverb still there? Was there room for the tank? The Deluxe cab is not as wide as the DR cab.