I was considering getting a Fender 212 or 410 DeVille. But there seems to be so many of them out there for sale. All around the $500-$900 range. Why are there so many for sale? Are they not the amp they seem to be, or just that they don't deliver the tones you want? I'd like opinions before I pull the trigger on one. Thanks!

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If I had to guess, I'd say a lot of people didn't realize the Deville is way louder than they needed. They're also very heavy for gigging. Just guessin' here tho....

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In my experience, my humble opinion, or whatever--

The clean tones from the DeVille are nice, but the overdrive afforded the user by cranking the slave volume and tweaking the master volume is not very musical--it just "roars" rather than "sings"...

...you can get natural breakup/overdrive if you really crank it old-school (master and slave volumes dimed) but you risk liquifying the audience members' heads.

Couple that with the size and weight issues (as well as some reliability issues with certain versions of the HR DeVille), it makes for an overall unhappy purchase.

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I used to have the 410 version. It is a loud amp. Played hard rock with. At clubs, sound man told me to turn it down. Had to put in on 3 1/2. Can't push the tubes at that volume. But I wanted a stack, so I traded it. The stack was louder, but a 410 amp just doesn't say "I'm here to rock" like a half stack does. Now I play blues/blues rock and wish I had it back, but opted to get the BDRI instead, and still haven't got it past 4 on the volume, using it at open jams.

I personally loved the tone of it. The drive and more drive channels were useless to me. I used a Visual Sound J&H pedal for dirt. And FWIW, I bought it brand new and never had a problem with in the 4 yrs that I had it, still had original tubes.

BTW, I did trade that half stack for a 410 version of the Peavey Ultra, which I think is a better hard rock amp than the Deville, as it has more usable dirt channels, but they are a bit 80ish sounding though. Would work good in a 80's hair metal tribute band, which would not be out of question for me.

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I had an early Blues Deville 212 in tweed about 15 or 16 years ago. Awsome clean tones. Pretty good crunch when played loudly with the master all the way up and the volume at 6 or higher. Heavy amp. Gotta be at least 60 pounds. If you like those big bell-like clean tones with huge bottom end and you prefer to use pedals for your gain then go for it. If you want to push it for the traditional woman tone you might want to throw several comforters over it.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I generally agree with the above posters. I owned a DeVille 212 for about three years and used it to gig with semi-regularly.

It has very nice clean tones, but the drive channels weren't so hot (I used a ProCo Turbo Rat along with a Boss Blues Driver for distortion and overdrive).

My amp was pretty durable and reliable -- the reverb tank died on me but I got a replacement for free via warrenty. I eventually sold it because I'm not currently in a band (and, with my busy lifestyle, probably won't be for at least a few years), and the DeVille is simply too loud to be a useful practice amp (especially for someone who lives in an apartment with thin walls!).

It's very loud and very heavy. But overall, I think, it's a decent amp for the price. If you need loud, clean tones and can find a used one in good shape for under $500, I'd say go for it.

Originally I really wanted to get a Deville, but knowing what I know now, if I had the ca$h, I'd opt for the Hot Rod Deluxe III. I think this amp is loud enough for pretty much any gig where you wouldn't be mic'd.

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I second that. The HRDLX III is plenty loud. I use an OD pedal in front of it...again the gain, and more gain channels are not that great but, the clean channel is pretty nice sounding and the weight is tolerable.

I guess there are a lot of people who sell/trade them for Bassman amps

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I've had a 4x10 Deville for maybe about 10 years. It's served me quite well. (I re-tubed it about a year and a half ago. It's been rock solid.)

When I bought it, I tried 2x12 and a 4x10 in a side room at the store I was buying it from, and they just let me sit there for about an hour and half with one of my guitars, A/B'ing them at any volume I wanted.

Came to the conclusion the 4x10s was the one for me so I bought it on the spot. I found I liked the tightness the 10s retain over the 12s which tended to sound a bit more muddy to me.

Agreeing with the others here that the clean tones are excellent, for gain, I get by just fine with the gain set to around 11 or 12 o'clock or sometimes even lower and I rarely use the second stage gain on the amp.

I have a few pretty good OD pedals that I use if I need a more higher gain sort of tone, and for that, I just use the clean channel and set my OD pedals to desired amount of gain. So I use the Devilles gain channel just for a bit of sustain.

Devilles are Great amps, add a bit of compression to the front end of this amp and there's really nothing it cannot do. Needless to say everyone has their own opine here, I'm just offering that I would opt the 4x10 over the 2x12.

And man they are expensive now, I think I paid around 700 for mine, close to a grand now.

All the more reason to get a used one.

I have a 1995 Blues Deville, aside from being LOUD and HEAVY I can see no reason to think these amps are a problem. I think your just seeing a lot of them just because. Probably people selling stuff because they need the money. Mine has been very reliable. Some people don't like the gain channels, I don't have a problem with it persay, but I prefer to drive my clean channel with pedal overdrives.

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