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Post subject: Amp that smells Blues, dust and blood.
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 11:36 am
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Joined: Wed Jun 26, 2013 11:39 am
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Hi !

After a few years on an Eleven Rack I really miss the physical feel of a real amp.

I played on Marshalls for years before to get an Eleven Rack, but I evolve and can't stand Marshalls anymore...

I was thinking about Fender because that's the type of sound I'm searching for. Or any other brand that might fit, I heard good things on Peavey Delta Blues for exemple, but honestly "Peavey" doesn't excite me much... (I don't fool myself, I know brands are part of the dream)
And as I can put only something like 500€/$ on the table I can't expect some brands I would eventually like Dr Z, Two-Rock or whatever... I thought my best bet would be a Fender.
Or an old Silvertone 1482. But I'm a bit afraid on reliability even if it's mainly for home/recording.

I play mainly rock with a Blues feel, soundwise I can name of course Black Keys and White Stripes, but also Kenny Wayne Shepperd (Especially the Guitar Center Sessions or Yer Blues album version), SRV, etc...

As I mentionned in the title "That smells like Blues, dust and blood" x)

I tried a Pro Jr but don't really like it, nor 10" speakers anyway, a Hot Rod Deluxe but it has very aggressive highs.

After a lot of research/tests I feel like a used USA Blues Deluxe might be the winner. Kinda close from the Bassman, deep bass, not too bright/aggressive highs and fattness, seems like it begins to get dirty at lower volume than most Fenders.
At least with a few pedals and/or a few changes (Tubes ?) it might be a great stuff for what I'm searching for.


What do you think ? Am I wrong ? What would you suggest ?

Thank you :D


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Post subject: Re: Amp that smells Blues, dust and blood.
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 11:43 am
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Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:20 pm
Posts: 9640
Location: Indiana
Sound reasoning has led you to your choice, and I can't disagree. The Blues Deluxe is a fine amp. 8)

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Post subject: Re: Amp that smells Blues, dust and blood.
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 4:55 pm
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Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:46 am
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Location: State of Confusion
shimmilou wrote:
Sound reasoning has led you to your choice, and I can't disagree. The Blues Deluxe is a fine amp. 8)

Agreed...Own one and love it. Just understand it's loud to get OD. Not for the 'bedroom' if you want OD, but it is 'warm' at sane volumes. Mine is the Reissue, so it's MIM. Don't know for sure how different the MIA's are.

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Post subject: Re: Amp that smells Blues, dust and blood.
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 5:26 pm
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Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2014 2:07 pm
Posts: 303
Jessy_C_dead wrote:
Hi !

After a few years on an Eleven Rack I really miss the physical feel of a real amp.

I played on Marshalls for years before to get an Eleven Rack, but I evolve and can't stand Marshalls anymore...

I was thinking about Fender because that's the type of sound I'm searching for. Or any other brand that might fit, I heard good things on Peavey Delta Blues for exemple, but honestly "Peavey" doesn't excite me much... (I don't fool myself, I know brands are part of the dream)
And as I can put only something like 500€/$ on the table I can't expect some brands I would eventually like Dr Z, Two-Rock or whatever... I thought my best bet would be a Fender.
Or an old Silvertone 1482. But I'm a bit afraid on reliability even if it's mainly for home/recording.

I play mainly rock with a Blues feel, soundwise I can name of course Black Keys and White Stripes, but also Kenny Wayne Shepperd (Especially the Guitar Center Sessions or Yer Blues album version), SRV, etc...

As I mentionned in the title "That smells like Blues, dust and blood" x)

I tried a Pro Jr but don't really like it, nor 10" speakers anyway, a Hot Rod Deluxe but it has very aggressive highs.

After a lot of research/tests I feel like a used USA Blues Deluxe might be the winner. Kinda close from the Bassman, deep bass, not too bright/aggressive highs and fattness, seems like it begins to get dirty at lower volume than most Fenders.
At least with a few pedals and/or a few changes (Tubes ?) it might be a great stuff for what I'm searching for.


What do you think ? Am I wrong ? What would you suggest ?

Thank you :D


Greetings.
I've had the opportunity to have 2 Hot Rod DLX 3's.
One was the standard one in black and the other an FSR version in red/black with an Eminence Wizard speaker.
The speaker does make a difference. The standard speaker is very nice if you want the brighter more trebly Fender tone. The Wizard tames the high end nicely imo.
Both are nice sounding speakers so it's up to the individual as to what he/she wants.
My preference was for the Wizard. It's more like a Celestion V30, though the Wizard was not as "dark", which is a good thing for a Fender tone.

The other thing that helps get the tone you want, and tames the brightness is to put in different pre tubes. Jan Phillips 5751's sound great in V1 and V2 in the HR DLX3.
Plus I put in a Sovtek LPS for the phase inverter. The combo sounded great, musical, warm, and no spikes in the treble at all, just nice and smooth.
The LPS is a 'long plate' design and in some combo amps it can be a bit microphonic and can ring when playing really loud. But in the HR I had this did not happen, the LPS was a very good one.

I scored a great deal on it as it was a new clearance amp at a Florida guitar center.
Price was only $550. I returned it to my local GC as I bought a 68 custom dlx reverb instead. They had it marked at $550 but I was just in there today and it's been sold.
It was such a great deal I'm sure it went quick.

Don't give up on the HR DLX3 as it's very nice sounding amp. I didn't like the distortion channel as the distortion was too raspy. But the amp takes pedals very nicely, so with a nice distortion pedal you're all set. With the distortion pedals I have I could get a sweet blues gritty distortion and then a very high gain saturated distortion in the same league as a hot rodded Marshall or Mesa. I have a Fultone Fulldrive 2 for light distortion and boost, a Bogner Ecsatcy Red pedal for light to heavy distortion, and a Wampler Triple Wreck for a rich and deep very saturated high gain. The Red and Triple Wreck are a bit pricey at about $300 each, but you can readily find them around $200 each used. I bought used.
GC has a Bogner Red for $200 right now and a Triple Wreck for $200.
The Fultone is around $120. You don't need all three. If I had to pick only one I'd get the Bogner Red as it's the most versatile in gain and tone settings.
And the HR dlx has an effects loop, which I really like, it worked well.
I ran my delay and reverb pedals into it.

The Blues DLX is the HR's brother tuned for more mid tone/warmer.
For me the Hot Rod gave me a cleaner platform that I preferred.
Both are very nice amps with plenty of players loving either of them.

I returned my HR dlx as I decided to go with a 68 custom dlx reverb as it has a warmer clean tone, and the other great selling feature is that the 2 channels have different tone stacks for different flavor along with having reverb on both channels.
I'm still not sure if it's THE amp for me yet.
I'm waiting on the new 68 custom vibroux from Fender. If that doesn't sound to my liking, then it'll be between the Twin reverb or stay with the 68 CDR.

Fender is a GREAT choice and offers a great platform on which to build your own tone.
I've found that many high gain amps have their own particular voice, and if you like it, then that's great. But if you want tonal variety and/or want to create your own tone, along with having a variety of them, a Fender amp is excellent on which to build.
And of course, it sounds great just plugged straight in au natural with just your guitar right into the amp. :)
Happy amp hunting!


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Post subject: Re: Amp that smells Blues, dust and blood.
Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 8:34 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2010 5:58 pm
Posts: 385
Location: Montana
I have four Fender amps. Blues Deluxe Reissue, Original Blues Deville 410, Deluxe Reverb Reissue and a 68 Custom Twin Reverb. I play a lot of bluesy rock type of stuff and each of those amps has it's own characteristics that's for sure..

I did a tube swap with a 12ay7 in the v1 in the Blues Deluxe and put a Cannabis Rex speaker in it and it nails some good blues tone by itself... I also use a Hardwire CM2, Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mosfet and a Boss MT2 for the grit, sometimes an older Pro Co Rat.. I have a Carbon Copy delay and an EH Small Clone that can get some real cool stuff going on and for really wild stuff I put my Zoom G5 in the effects loop..

The Blues Deville has the same tube swap and I put two Ragin Cajuns and two Emi Legends in it..
Damn thing is almost to heavy to move around, but the tones that emanate from it are pretty damn ethereal and I can use my pedals the same way that I use them for the Blues Deluxe. I also replaced all of the pots and input jacks with the good stuff..

I like the Deluxe Reverb just in stock format and it sounds a lot bigger than the small box it is, but I have to hook my effects up a lot different to make them work right. I am using a Radial ABY switch so I can hook up to both channels at once and have to loop my Zoom by going from the Vibrato channel input 1 to the Zoom and return it to the input 1 of the normal channel.. All of my overdrives go into the Vibrato channel input 2, it sounds pretty damn good like this...

The 68 Custom Twin Reverb has been in the shop more than I have been able to play it, but it is getting dialed in.. First fix was an overtone sound which was caused by faulty power tubes and a bad preamp tube. I am taking it back to the shop tomorrow because it is making a lot of white hiss noise with nothing plugged in and the volume turned all the way down. I think it has something to do with the reverb, not really sure yet, I guess they will let me know... I bought the amp new around three months ago..

Bang for the buck, the Blues Deluxe probably wins the challenge in my books. But the Deluxe Reverb is usually my goto amp when I am writing or recording. The cleans are shimmery and the grit pedals sound real good through that clean amp and my headphones, when I have it miked up.. I have a Weber Mini Mass 50 watt attenuator hooked up to that amp most of the time in the studio so I can crank the amp up around 6 or 7, which I find is the sweet spot. Another way I play through it when I want some real thick cleans, is to crank both channels up to 10, treble all the way down on both channels and bass all the way up on both channels. It turns that amp into another animal when you do that, especially with the Mini Mass clamped down a little bit... I use the volume knob and tone knobs on the guitar to control the amp tone and volume and it sounds real awesome like that...

Most of the time I play in stereo using two amps, using the Deluxe Reverb for most of the overdrive tones and the right channel going to either the Blues Deluxe or my Egnater Tweaker 15 with a 2 x 12 cab and hopefully being replaced by the Twin Reverb very soon.. The Blues Deville sounds really good also, in fact better than all of them on the right channel, but it is a beast..

Also for acoustic guitars and hollow bodies that Blues Deville excels in clean jazz and blues stuff..

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Post subject: Re: Amp that smells Blues, dust and blood.
Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2014 6:33 am
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Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2009 6:55 pm
Posts: 297
Location: Warren Mi
too bad on your twin my 68 twin turned 8 months old this week:)


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