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Post subject: Blues DeVille 410 Reissue or Fender 59 Bassman RI ?
Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 1:57 pm
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Hey all,

I have never posted to this forum... only read so far. But, I am shopping for a new Fender amp. and I am torn between the Blues Deville 410 or the '59 Bassman. Anyone have an opinion on this option.. i would love to get a great "boutique amp" but i havent got a few grand to spend :D . I had my eye on these two fenders as well but again a bit high in price for me currently: Fender 57 Twin-Amp Tweed Combo Amp, Fender 57 Deluxe 12W 1x12 Combo Amp.

The bottom line is: I want a good tube amp that can be used in a small but good sounding home studio, standard studio session work, and a live gig.

Thoughts?

Sorry if this is redundant but again I have not been on this forum too long?


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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 4:55 pm
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I went through basically the same thing went I bought my amp. I wanted the Bassman, but didn't have quite that much scratch to spend. So I got the DeVille because it's the closest thing you can get to the Bassman. The DeVille was well worth worth the money, it sounds great and I have no regrets whatsoever. If I had it to do all over again, I still wouldn't have saved up for the Bassman, it would be the DeVille all over again. This thing sounds too close to pay more.

I'm not to sure if your gonna like it for small area studio type of stuff though. This is a loud amp, but it can get quiet on the drive channels, but the drive channels are solid state, not tube, the clean channel is the only thing tube about it. It has a lot of headroom so your gonna have to crank it some to get dirty. You'll be facing the same problem with the Bassman, except the DeVille has a few more bells & whistles to play with. You might want to keep your back in mind too, it's got some heft to it, hehe.

I see the DeVille as a great performing amp for the working man.


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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:06 am
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I started with a hot rod deluxe and have been very pleased. I also needed a larger amp and got the Blues Deville 410 and am very happy with it. It is very powerful and has a nice wide range of tones. You will be happy with the 410...


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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:24 am
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Kinda hard to say for absolute certain which is "better" not having ever played through the Bassman RI, however as an owner of an older tweed Blues Deville 4x10 I can say I would never part with the Deville, Ever!!!

I have owned at least 10 different Fender Tube amps over the years and the 4x10 Deville is as sweet a sounding amp as I have played through.

you will take a while to find your sound and get used to the crazy volume knob, but after that its all good!!!


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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:00 am
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I have the Blues DeVille 4x10. I recommend that one. I had the chance to buy either one in the mid 90's but I choose the BDV, because the BDV sounds just as good as the Bassman, cost less, and is more versatile since it has both a reverb channel and gain conttrols.

The nostalgic purists will argue that the Bassman sounds better. But that's just religious talk, IMHO. To the nostalgic purists anything old sounds better than anything new.


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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 1:38 pm
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Cool ... thanks to everyone.... I must admit one problem I noticed from Hurricanes entry... Drive channels are not TUBE...that stinks.. not one description anywhere about these amps is that stated... That could affect my decision.

Also, it seems Fender may be selling a tad more Devilles :P ...just kidding although an opinion from a bassman user would be cool...

I suppose I'll be bugging the heck out of my local Guitar Center's staff by trying out all these amps over the weekend.

I'm also curios to all of you that have responded so far... If you are recording with it what kinda results and set up is it : home, home/pro, pro.

What's everyone's outboard situation. I have a Boss Blues Driver (Keely Mod), Wah, Volume ,and some other pedals rarely used.

Whats the "axe" lineup and pickups situation?

Thanks to all I would love some more input


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Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 10:00 am
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A 50th annn strat (the limited edition) with 54 custom shop pups, a hwy-1 strat with standard amse pups and I had a custom tele for a while wich sounded great.

the only pedal I use is a route 66 and I only use the compression side.

Gotta say I dont think I would be verry happy with a completely dry sound (no reverb) that the bassman has to offer, my reverb never goes past three and mostly two, however I would really miss the slight reverb sound.


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Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 10:42 am
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I had the same decision Deville vs Bassman, and ended up with the Bassman RI. I started an amp search back in July of 06. Using Guitar Centers' great return policy, I got to try a new amp every 30 days, and as the days moved to months, I had more and more cash to upgrade. I started with the Vox AD50VT - which I liked, but didn't quite take me to tube nirvana. I traded that back for a Blues Jr, and liked the heck out of it; but traded it up for a Blues Deluxe 112. And liked it too (it had a unique full milky tone I still like - you can hear it here on the track called End of a Tough year

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemus ... dID=692029

But I kept reading reviews and traded it up for the DRRI. Liked it too, but traded it up for the Peavy Delta Blues 210. Which I also liked. But traded that up for the Princeton Recording Amp (PRA), which I also liked. I liked them all for different sorts of reasons and wished I could afford them all. But I was still not satisfied. My friend had a Super Sonic and I really liked the Bassman tone on it, so I kept going back to GC and trying the BMRI and others.

One night I was at GC and they had the Deville 4x10 next to the Bassman 4x10. So I first plugged into the Deville, and was greatly impressed by the 4x10 over the sound I had with 1X12 in the Deluxe Blues. I liked the idea of reverb, effects loop, and overdrive, and lower cost. But I kept going back and forth and the simplicity and purity of the Bassman won out.

The OD on the Deville was not so good, as tends to be the case with Fender. I thought the Peavy OD was better. But a good OD pedal may be great on a Deville. And I am not here to trash any of the amps I tried. I really like them all, but just ended up with the Bassman.

Both are QUITE LOUD - too loud actually for most of my playing. For studio, neither are best, but both sound good at low volumes with nice cleans. I think the 4x10 is a great speaker setup. The 4x10s give sort of a reverb/3-D tingle to the tone.

As far as pedals, I have the OCD, TonePress, LTD black, and BBE Sonic Stomp. Also I have the Boss GT-8 which sounds good through it in its own way, but degrades some of the tubey purity. The BMRI has the dual channel jumpering which is nice. I ended up recently getting a Vox AD30VT as a small practice amp and found I can use the line out and run it into the BMRI and use it as an amp modeling head... can get some nice tones.

The BMRI does sound good at low levels, but it really comes alive when you can get it out in the open air and turn it to 5+.... then you know you have an amp with class and balls, and cuts through the mix in beautiful brilliance. And, at low levels, the hissing and buzzing is quite low on the BMRI... it is quieter than the PRA was for me, so that was a huge plus for me.

In short, most all these amps are great, you just have to decide the options and tone you really want, or be rich enough to afford them all!

I am no tone snob, and I am still growing in my hearing and discernment, but I did notice a qualitative difference between the Deville and Bassman, and went for the Bassman even though it did not have a separate gain control, effects loop, or reverb. And I have kept it past the 30 days, so now I am committed!

But, wow, they are all so nice! If you can just sit down and A/B them for awhile, you can decide. Doubt you would be disappointed either way.


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Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 1:33 pm
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Wow, thank you so much for the insightful response. And thank you for the BRILLIANT idea ... I think I am going to Guitar Center tomorrow and just simply take one home for 30 days and put through the mill . I never realized that could be done with Guitar Center or just never really paid attention to it. I'll probably try even more than just these 2 if thatys the case. Maily I'll bring it home and lay ddown a couple of tracks in different styles and such.. different guitars , etc.. BTW Jiagap... I dug the tune samples you sent me the link to. Nice sounds and nice recordings... and of course nice chops my man. If my local Guitar Center gives me no grief with this whole process, I will certainly be recommending to all as you should do the same.... Off topic what kinda set up do you have for recording.. I like the sounds you're getting for your tracks!!!

Best,
mhayes


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Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:11 pm
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mhayes,

A few comments:

First, I doubt Guitar Center likes this, but it is their policy, and they honored it with me no problem - in fact a few of the sales reps actually recommended it. But remember to keep the amp as new with all original packaging and inserts. Also, if you purchase the added warranty, they will give you 60 days to return the amp instead of 30, AND you can cancel the added warranty too in that time! - So my final purchase, with the Bassman, I did not even get the extended warranty and applied that value to the purchase. I guess at the end of the day for GC, while I started with the Vox AD50VT at about $300 I ended up with the Bassman for about $1200 - plus a couple months ago I went back and purchased the Vox AD30VT - because I needed a smaller versatile practice amp, and I had been relatively impressed when I had the 50 at home for a month. So, I guess the policy sort of works for them.

The value of playing at a store is to be able to A/B next to several amps at once. But the negatives are, there is often conflicting noise, the room is a different size than you usually play in, you may be embarrassed to open up and play normal because others are listening, and you do not have your own guitar to hear how it sounds (though I have heard some folk bring their own guitar in to test with the amp - so I suppose that is possible - I have just never done it.)

At home you can run it through with our own guitars and effects and rooms and angles, etc. And 30 days is plenty of time to "run it through the mill." With the Bassman, I loved it in the shop, brought it home, and loved it in my studio - because it was so quiet (noise and hiss and buzz) at low volumes (quieter than the Princeton Recording Amp - which surprised me). I did not even get a change to "open it up" till after I was committed past the 30 days. But wow, when I did get it outside and turned up past 5 - It is a wonder to behold - never had such great sounding amp! --- but cannot do that inside the house!

As for the off topic. Thanks for the compliments. I have ProTools 002r. I have sometimes recorded the guitars direct (some of the amps have line out, or thru various multi-effects line out) and sometimes miked the speakers with a Rode NT1000. I also have the Waves RTAS Platinum pluggins, and they, honestly, take any decent recording and add nice polish - very nice reverbs and multi-band compressors. Most of the accompaniment for the tunes you heard I have generated in Reason 3.0. I have recently purchased a Shure SM57, as EVERYONE says that is the mic to mic combos with. But I have not had opportunity to try it much yet, but am looking forward to trying more with the Bassman.

Let us know what you end up with, or even your thoughts on your pilgrimage - I enjoy hearing what others think - as we all have varieties of tastes and what we prefer. As I mentioned before, I like so many, but being locked into this finite universe, I have limited resources and have to make choices. I am very thankful for the Bassman, but would love to have others as well!

blessings,
-richard


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Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:44 pm
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jiagap,

Yeah thanks I was thinking the same things. I would certainly not like to "abuse" this Guitar Center convenience, and of course would not be checking the amps durability by throwing in a river, down some stairs , or literally "thru the mill" :D . Again, thanks for the opinions.

Cool on the home studio, I'm using DP myself for recording, shure sm57, reason, Mach 5, Garritan personal orchestra, Nueman 87 , POD (direct) don't like it for recording) .. some other stuff. I have alot of expereince with the digi 0002 in a post production sound design standpoint and yeah those waves RTAS are perfectly fine.. some sound better than the $1000 plugins!!!


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Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:53 pm
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mhayes,

Do you have anywhere on the web to listen to any of your recordings?

-richard


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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:04 am
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Richard,

At the moment, I do not have any of my guitar stuff on line for listening. Some of my film composition work is floating around. I intend to get some of my guitar stuff up real soon maybe eve to the place yours is.. I like the layout on that one! and seems easy to use...

I have an update. I gt the Blues Deluxe Reissue.. Tried it in the store ...really liked it.. got it home ... still like it... but I am keeping my options open.. the
Deville and Bassman are still possibilities. I tried both of them there and liked them as well.. Blues deluxe is 1 speaker and price was a tad lower so I opted for that.

My next task is to lay down a couple of tracks and see if I'm sold on it. I did talk to the sales person about returning if it just wasn't cuttin the mustard.. he was fine with it.. actually had a bit of repoire with the guy .. very helpful.

Stay tuned.. I will et those tracks started and totally make up my mind.. who knows .. maybe i'll just love this one .. its plenty loud .. maybe i'll keep it and get one of the others down the road (yeah right .. unless I come into a surplus of funds some time soon.

Thanks for all your help on this subject. be in touch very soon! before those 30 days are up for sure!


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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:00 pm
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Guitar_Hurricane wrote:

but the drive channels are solid state, not tube, the clean channel is the only thing tube about it.


Here is what Fender's Manual for the BluesDvl says:

Selectable channels offer sparkling-clean and highgain
tones fueled by three 12AX7 preamp tubes


http://www.fender.com/support/manuals/pdfs/manuals_elec/guitarpdf/Blues_DeVille_Reissue_Rev_B.pdf

I am trying to figure out the difference between this amp and the Hot Rod DeVille? - anybody? (besides cosmetics).

How about the diff between a HRDlx and a BluesDlx?


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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:37 pm
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If you are looking for a clear, simple building block for sculpturing your sound the Bassman is great idea. It is the "perfect vehicle for building a great tone with almost any guitar or effect" (from Fender). I concur. With the 5AR4 rectifier tube, you will get natural compression when you nailing the amp.

If you 'have' to have built in reverb, a little more power (60 watts vs. 45 watts - 45 is plenty and will work for almost any gig), and built in overdrive (preamp. distortion), than you want the DeVille.

As mentioned earlier, A/B the two amps. Just make sure you start the comparison with them set 'dead' clean. That will give you a good idea what the amplifiers character is all about. Also if you can, crank them up. That will give you an idea how the tube rectifier is effecting the sound. :)

Lastly:

Quote:
I am trying to figure out the difference between this amp and the Hot Rod DeVille? - anybody? (besides cosmetics).


The Deville Reissue has a clean channel and dirty channel. The Hot Rod Deville has a clean channel, dirty channel, and a extra boost on the dirty channel, hence the "Hot Rod (slighty higher gain)" name. It is foot switchable.

:D


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