Opinions on Blues Deluxe

[andy__woods]

Hey guys, not sure if you read my other post, but I'm looking to trade in my VOX AC30, for something a little cheaper, and a lot smaller. I really like the Fender Blues Deluxe and was wondering what you guys thought of it. Anyone own one? Are they reliable? You know, the usual questions. Thanks in advance!

 

[Glen W]

I had one of these during their first run in the early '90s. It looked kinda neat - not that many tweed-covered amps around then. Thought the clean sounded nice, but had no balls, especially for an amp rated at 40 watts. The dirty channel didn't sound good to me at all. Sold it. My '68 DR blew it away. Try it, YMMV.

 

[Marshall Thinline]

I had one of the first run ones also. The clean channel was really nice. I think a speaker upgrade would improve it even more. The dirty channel, to me was useless. I used a 2 x10 Marshall at the time for dirt. I never had a problem with mine. If you are going to drive the amp in the higher gain settings, you will need to use a pedal.

If I were to go back to that same type of tone, I would look into a Deluxe Reverb. By the way, that amp is much different than a Vox.

If you can find a Reverend Kingsnake on Ebay, they are a great amp for the money. It will give you the Vox and the Fender tone. This is the amp I have been using for the last couple of years.

 

[charlie chitlin]

Any attempt at overdrive sounded buzzy and flat to me.

 

[Tremo]

Clean channel is listenable. Gain channel is dog poop. Build quality is poor.

Give it a pass.

 

[andy__woods]

any other suggestions in that price range? ($600ish) I like a good clean tone, and run a blues driver. I like a good warm tone, so thats what i'm hoping for

 

[Tremo]

How much are used SFVRs running?

Most modern amps are voiced pretty bright for distortion tone considerations. If you want a warm clean tone you need something older, or you will have to do some mods on a modern amp.

 

[KC]

I haven't seen a vibrolux in any shape for less than about $800 in a couple of years. kind of a hard amp to find, anyway, in my neck of the woods. SFDR? or, if you needs the horsepower, a bassman & 2x12 can be had in that price range.

I sold my Blues Deluxe a couple of years ago for $350, and for that kind of money it's a decent buy. The clean channel sounds good, the distortion channel lousy, but put a pedal in front of it & it's loud enough for bar work. For a couple of years, it seemed like every single bar band had at least one of these things.

I think Jim at Little Dawg will make you a 2x6l6 2x12 tweed deluxe variant for a little over $600 -- that could be a real fun amp -- except that I don't think he's taking orders right now.

 

[telecaster69]

I had an original blues deluxe from 91' they clean channel sounded OK...the gain overdrive channel sucks.....it's damn heavy....It's tweed which is cool..but if your looking for something this size and price...Try the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, which is pretty much the same size and a little bit cheaper.. The gain channels are a lot better....you getting rid of the Vox huh...too bad...have you sold it yet? I might be interested

 

[KBR]

Try Jim @ Lil Dawg Amps, He is very good.
KBR

 

[Legato]

I guess I'm the odd man out, but I like my Blues Deluxe Reissue. It could also be that they made some changes in the reissue, as some of the above comments refer to the older model. The clean channel sounds very similar to my blackface Pro Reverb, which is to say, really good. The dirty channel is more of an overdrive than flat out distortion. If you are playing single coils, back off the tone control a bit and I for one think it's pretty good, just not at all Marshally. If you like the sound of a clean amp breaking up, that's what you will get. If you want more aggressive sounds, get a pedal.

It's easier to make a clean amp sound good dirty with pedals than to make a dirty amp sound good clean. My experience has been that it's pretty hard to find an amp that does both well for the price you mentioned.

For me, reverb is part of the Fender sound, so I require that in an amp. Many of the newer tweed clones don't have it, so factor that in too. Of course, the originals didn't have it either, but I just can't see playing a tele without a little reverb. I might add that I also have an Ibanez AS73 (335 style) which sounds excellent through this amp.

I don't gig anymore, but did for 10 years, and I think this amp would have enough power for most clubs, especially if miked. When I was gigging (country bands), I couldn't usually turn the Pro up far enough to get it to the just breaking up stage, so even if the BD doesn't have as much power as the Pro, that shouldn't really hurt anything. I took it to a blues jam last week, and with a pedal (Gristle King), it sounded fine.

The only concern I have about the amp at this time, is that the cabinet is made of partical board. If it should get wet, that would not be good. I don't know how well it would hold up to being dropped either.

If you play in a band that does a lot of road work, the cabinet might be an issue. The type of music that you play is also a factor. If you like the sound, and it fits your music and budget, I'd say go for it. It sounds like you have played one, are you happy with the od sound? Not everyone looks for the same thing in a dirty channel. What I like about is that it's still touch sensitive in od, not that compressed. I would set it for that just breaking up tone, and use a pedal for more crunch. If you have a local Fender dealer, ask about their return policy, and if possible take it home and play it with your band, or get some folks over to jam so that you can see how well it works in a band setting.

As for reliability, I haven't heard any horror stories about the reissues. They are made in Mexico, which turns some people off, but they do have a 5 year warranty. If you like a good, clean Fender sound with reverb, they offer a lot of bang for the buck. I think the days of finding blackfaces for a good price are over.

Dan

 

[J. Hayes]

I had a Blues Deluxe reissure for about six months.....

which worked pretty good for most gigs until last summer when I did an outdoor festival in Virgina Beach with an Elvis impersonator. It was a very large stage on the ocean front and when everything was ready to go there weren't enough monitors to go around so had to rely on the sound of the amp to hear my guitar. It was loud enough, but it just wasn't clean enough for what we were doing. I like distortion, but I don't like it when I don't want it. To me, an amp is worthless if it can't give you a high volume clean sound, you can always get it dirty with a pedal! After one set at the beach gig I went to the van and got my pedal steel amp (A Randall Steelman 500) which is a 300w solid state beast and ran a line to it. I cranked the BDR back to a nice clean volume and ran up the volume control on the Randall and it sounded great. About a week later I traded the BDR straight across for a Music Man 150 hybrid amp with 2 12" speakers which can cover any base I want, either miked or not...............JH in Va.

 

[KokoTele]

which worked pretty good for most gigs until last summer when I did an outdoor festival in Virgina Beach with an Elvis impersonator. It was a very large stage on the ocean front and when everything was ready to go there weren't enough monitors to go around so had to rely on the sound of the amp to hear my guitar. It was loud enough, but it just wasn't clean enough for what we were doing. I like distortion, but I don't like it when I don't want it. To me, an amp is worthless if it can't give you a high volume clean sound, you can always get it dirty with a pedal! After one set at the beach gig I went to the van and got my pedal steel amp (A Randall Steelman 500) which is a 300w solid state beast and ran a line to it. I cranked the BDR back to a nice clean volume and ran up the volume control on the Randall and it sounded great. About a week later I traded the BDR straight across for a Music Man 150 hybrid amp with 2 12" speakers which can cover any base I want, either miked or not...............JH in Va.

Well... you'll be unhappy with your sound whenever you try to make any amp do what it ain't supposed to. A 40 watt 1x12 tube amp ain't gonna cut it in an outdoor gig.

I haven't spent time with the new BDRs, but I played a few of the old ones and currently use the HRD. With a good speaker it's a really nice amp. There are some drawbacks, but every amp has them. For the price, I don't think you can beat them. Even if you double what you spend on an amp, I think you only get a small increase increase in the quality of the tone. In fact, I bet you a beer that if you put either a BDR or HRD in a cabinet with a decent speaker and told them it was something like a BFDR or BFVR they'd think it sounded a lot better

 

[Blues Hurler]

I'm with eryque and Legato

 

[emisilly]

I've never played the one's from the 90's, but I find the RI model to have a wonderful, warm and fruity 2nd channel. Just a big ol' fat overdrive tone that few pedals can match IMO. I'm pretty sure they changed the circut a bit, where I think the original run shared a very similar high gain 2nd channel like the HRDX (which has a buzzy, harsh gain). I've played the Blues Deluxe and a HRDX next to each other and they are totally different sounding amps. If I had a need for an amp with 40 watts it would be my first choice by far considering bang for the buck.

 

[Abe]

My choice if you're looking at new PCB amps in the $500 - $600 range is a Peavey Delta Blues, particularly the 1X15 model. I haven't played one for a while, but I played through one a bunch when they were first released and was honestly floored by how good those amps sounded.