Fender Deluxe 112 vs Deluxe 112 plus

My brother and I had a pair of the Deluxe 112 Plus amps. They could do O.K. cleans and had a ratty drive. The stock speaker was a 4 ohm job made by Eminence for Fender. I pulled it out and went with a Celestion G12T-100 with great delusions of improved tone. It helped a little. After a few years, each amp needed a good cleaning/spraying of the jacks and pots with tuner cleaner and a Q-tip.

These were workhorse amps, but their tone was nothing to brag about. If you get your tones from a chain of pedals and/or effect, it will serve you fine. If you are looking for a great sounding amp then you should continue your search. If "adequate" will do...well...just don't overpay.

 

I've had a Deluxe 112 plus since the mid 90's. It has not seen much action in the last 10 years since I got an old Princeton. I gig the PR now.
The 112 served me well. I only used the clean channel, got my dirt from pedals, not the amp's overdrive.
The complaints I had was at 92 watts, the thing was just too darned loud. I bet I never had the volume over 4.
I also did not get along well with the Gain knob. I am knobily challenged, another reason I love my old Princeton. Simplicity is a wonderful thing.

They sell for $200 these days, and there's plenty of them out there for sale.

Mine still goes to gigs with me, as a backup amp for that special occasion when an old tube amp goes south at an inappropriate moment, or for a sit in guitarist.

 

I own a Deluxe 112 plus for 20 years. I only use the clean channel. It's very difficult to get a nice sound at low volumes. It's either too low or too loud.
So I never liked to play it at home. I sometimes used it for gigs when I didn't wanted to take my DRRI with me

 

I had the Princeton 112+, similar to the Deluxe variant(s), but slightly lower power rating a/different speaker(s) (65W into 8 ohm 'blue' OEM fender speaker).

To add to the above--


Short IMO summary:

1. Reasonably decent clean sound (on clean channel)
2. Drive channel is total cheese
3. For dirt, use clean channel and use a pedal/preamp/etc. (I ran my BK Butler into it and it sounded fantabulous!)
4. Speaker swap does a lot to improve sound (the stock speaker is about 94db, and not particularly good)
5. Basic, sturdy, portable, powerful -- depending on your needs, it may (or may not) work.
6. Does have an effects loop -- so if you want to preamp/dirty up your input, you can do that and keep noise down to manageable levels.
7. Also, IIRC, these amps series were infamous for using a linear taper pot for volume (instead of an audio taper) -- so, as you turn it up it gets LOUD real quick, but, after about 4-5 you'll notice the increase is negligible if at all. Kind of a weird quirk, oh well.

A link to the Deluxe 112+ for reference
https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10001/OM_leg_gtramp_Deluxe_112_Plus.pdf

The Deluxe 112
https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10001/OM_leg_gtramp_Deluxe_112.pdf

 

My research indicates that the Deluxe 112 is rated at 65 watts, where the Deluxe 112 Plus is rated at 90 watts. Can't see any other differences. Fender really worked over that "Deluxe" label with those two models, and also the Deluxe 85, Deluxe 90, and Deluxe 90 DSP.

 

You missed the "Deluxe Eighty-Five" which is actually different than the "Deluxe 85"