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Post subject: blues deluxe
Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 3:49 pm
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I just ordered a Blues Deluxe on the strength of a recommendation.

Now I am reading on reviews about it being very loud and not good at soft lower volumes. So of the reviews make it sound like it is impossible to get low volume out of it. This sounds kind of like bad info. I cannot imagine Fender producing an amp not capable of lower volume output.

I tend to play quiet and quiet venues. I wanted an amp that I could use in a large area also if needed.

Any one with experience with this amp please respond.

Thanks


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Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:41 pm
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What kind of music ? What guitar ? I can't see playing an acoustic through it...

But I have played plenty of jazz gigs with a 4 piece combo and with a 2 piece guitar/vocalist using this amp.. NO issues.. It sounds wonderful.. ANd that was before changing out the speaker...

After changing the speaker to a Weber California its really mellow now..


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Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:54 pm
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Well,it depends on how low.The problem is the volume pot is really touchy and it is really hard to dial it in sometimes.I have used it in small places and its alway seems like a wrestling match with the volume knob.To be honest,the best approach to me is finding an amp sized so that you can dial in its sweet spot no matter what size venue you play.Its not always possible though.Thats why many of us have more than one amp.One thing you might be able to try is a volume box.You can find them online for around 20 bucks or you can make one yourself.It will help,but to me the blues deluxe needs to be fairly loud to get descent tone out of.If you have the option of micking an amp at the larger places, I would go with something the size of the deluxe reverb.


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Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:57 pm
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All amps have a sweet spot (or sometimes 2 sweet spots) somewhere in the volume range. There will be a certain volume where it sounds best for clean tones and in some cases another for dirty tones. I say some cases because not every amp sounds great dirty. Some amps don't sound great clean. It takes some fiddling with the controls to find what you like. That doesn't mean you can't use the amp outside of that sweet spot. It just means it won't be quite as sweet. In your case you have purchased a 40 watt amp. That's not a small amout of power. You may very well discover your sweet spot is louder than you would like to play.

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Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 5:39 pm
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I must agree 100% to what both "Budglo" and "BMW-KTM" have stated in the previous posts (except I have no experience with the add'l volume pot referenced).

With my Blues Deluxe, I've had less disappointment keeping the volume down with the clean channel than with the Drive channel. I had expected to get a 'blusey' OD with the Drive channel, but have to play it much louder than I like to achieve the best sound. So I reverted to a TS-9 to get the sound I wanted. I would have preffered to go without any pedals.

The only time I got the OD sound I was hoping for was once when our band played a benefit with another band. Their practice was to not mic amps and we were using their PA system, so I had to turn up the BDRI substantially. It was so loud on stage I had a hard time hearing vocals and other instruments and my ears were ringing for hours--not good!

I'm able to play the normal (clean) channel loud enough to get good sounds as long as the room is large enough (a 24X16 music room with a 10' high ceiling). In a small room, however, it needs to be turned down to the point of losing tone.

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Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 4:04 am
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I agree with the original poster, I have a Hot Rod Deluxe and had problems getting the volume up loud enough to enjoy. I bought a small volume box which helped alot, it's much easier to dial in a nice low volume.

Another thing to try is to turn down the guitars volume. Since my 64 Vibroverb Custom does not have an effects loop I have to turn the guitars volume down to 6-7 but I get to put the amp on 3-4 and it sounds beautiful.

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Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 11:29 am
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I am using MIA and MIM strats, also a couple of highly modified bullet strats.

So after reading the posts I understand that it is not impossible to get low volume out of it, but the problem is the quality of sound at low volume is not as good as available from the amp at higer volumes.

Correct?


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Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 11:51 am
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If it turns out that its to loud for you, purchace an Attenuater... This will alow you to have amp volume up, without breaking the window.

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Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:44 pm
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oneal lane wrote:
I am using MIA and MIM strats, also a couple of highly modified bullet strats.

So after reading the posts I understand that it is not impossible to get low volume out of it, but the problem is the quality of sound at low volume is not as good as available from the amp at higer volumes.

Correct?


Correct. The quality of the sound is up to your opinion.


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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:59 pm
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Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am using MIA and MIM strats, also a couple of highly modified bullet strats.

So after reading the posts I understand that it is not impossible to get low volume out of it, but the problem is the quality of sound at low volume is not as good as available from the amp at higer volumes.

Correct?


Yep.

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Post subject: Re: blues deluxe
Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:42 pm
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oneal lane wrote:
I just ordered a Blues Deluxe on the strength of a recommendation.

Now I am reading on reviews about it being very loud and not good at soft lower volumes. So of the reviews make it sound like it is impossible to get low volume out of it. This sounds kind of like bad info. I cannot imagine Fender producing an amp not capable of lower volume output.

I tend to play quiet and quiet venues. I wanted an amp that I could use in a large area also if needed.

Any one with experience with this amp please respond.

Thanks


i have one of these... they make em in knob format and in bypass pedal format. just put it thru ur effects loop and it acts as an external master volume knob. im gonna get rid of my volume box and get the pedal version!

http://cgi.ebay.com/TUBE-AMP-VOLUME-BOX ... 1e5b12370c

http://cgi.ebay.com/Deluxe-VOLUME-BOX-f ... 1e5b12341e

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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:41 pm
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This is what I've been looking for! I just ordered 2!!!! I was going to get a hot plate but I'll check this out and hopefully it'll do it for a fraction of the cost. This seems like a great find. Thanks for posting. I play a Blues Deluxe reissue and from 0 to 2 it's like a freight train.


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Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 3:58 am
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I can't access eBay at work, is that one of the small black single knob volume boxes? That's what I use and think it's great. They're very easy to build.

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Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 5:07 am
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bill948 wrote:
If it turns out that its to loud for you, purchace an Attenuater... This will alow you to have amp volume up, without breaking the window.


Yep. An attenuator is the way to go.
You can build your own volume box for under $10. You can also use a volume pedal in the loop too. A volume pedal is actually better because you can control it with your foot.

It's not the same as an attenuator and you won't get the same tone as a cranked amp. The other thing to do is to change the linear taper pot to an audio taper pot. The linear taper pot was used to give the illusion that the HRD amps are much louder than they really are. By half volume theres cranked and won't get much louder. It makes them very difficult to control. I just got tired of all the design flaws of my HRDlx and got rid of it. I didn't buy what I thought was a good amp only to have to redesign the stinkin' thing to make it right. I figured that was Fenders job. :roll:

Don't waste your money on the cheesy volume box. I'd get the attenuator and have the tone at lower volumes.


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Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 7:53 am
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First of all thanks to everyone for the imput. My understanding is a little deeper now:

1. Fender used a control knob that resulted in max volume experienced very quickly, like somewhere between 0 and 2.

2. The blues deluxe and HRDL are both capable of extremely high volume.

3. The solution is to (A.) change the control knob or (B.) purchase or build a volume box or (C.) purchase an attenuator.

It seems there is some debate about the quality of sound using the attenuator vs. the volume box.

Someone has posted a link to volume box purchase. Can someone recommend an attenuator.


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