80's Deluxe Reverb

[Drew Howard]

Sat in with some friends last night at the local watering hole, plugged my Stringmaster into an 80's Fender Deluxe Reverb and damn, did it sound good! Gotta get one...are there good years/bad years to look out for?

cheers,
Drew

[Brad Bechtel]

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=101064

Check the Electronics section for many, many more discussions on the Fender Deluxe Reverb (one of the best amplifiers ever made in my opinion).

[Jesse Pearson]

I use a Black Face 65" Deluxe Reverb for my strats and it works great. I use a used hybrid amp for my steel because it sounds deeper and was pretty cheap to pick up, but I've heard alot guys use the D.R. for steel and are very happy with it. The reissue 65' are pretty nice and have a Jenson speaker. The 22 watt sounds super loud with a tube screamer and makes a great sound level on stage. The deluxe is a great amp that sells the steak and not just the sizzle like a lot of the over-powered amps I see guys with today. Get one, it is one of the greatest tube amps to own. I've heard one guy tweek his bias and get the best tube amp sound I've ever heard, Guitar straight into the amp, no outboard effects.

[Dave Mudgett]

From the first blackface ones thru the silverface ones to the final few second-version blackface ones, I don't think they ever made significant changes in the original design of the blackface Champ, Vibro-Champ, Princeton, Princeton Reverb, Deluxe, and Deluxe Reverb. CBS apparently didn't think they were high-end enough to warrant making "improvements". Perhaps the Champ and Vibro-Champ got an extra watt or so. Thanks, guys.

Yeah, the lead dress got more sloppy as the years wore on, and they added high-frequency bleed capacitors in the preamp to cut parasitic oscillations - but go fix the lead dress and clip the caps. Oh, they added that idiotic pull-distortion circuit, but like a rattlesnake, it doesn't make any problems if you just leave it alone. Yes, they changed the cabinet material. Sure, the speakers changed over the period, not always for the worse. But I've never met a Deluxe Reverb I couldn't get friendly with.

I think it matters more just to find "a good one" in good, original, shape and at the right price for its period. And look out for the "Deluxe Reverb II". Not necessarily a bad amp, but not the same thing. You want the original "Deluxe Reverb", I presume.

[Drew Howard]

What's the consensus on the DRRI's? I was told the one I played thru was an 80's model, but don't know if that's true or not.

[Doug Beaumier]

I have 1966 Deluxe Reverb, and it's excellent for recording and playing at home, both with the Stringmaster and the Emmons PSG.

IMHO it's way too small and underpowered for most live band situations with drums, bass, etc... Unless you are going for a gritty tone, or the amp is "mic"ed. I need lots of clean power for steel. That's just the sound that I prefer. To each his own.

[Dave Mudgett]

What's the consensus on the DRRI's?

I doubt there is a "consensus", but I like the old ones much better. Hand-wired eyelet construction vs. modern PC board and so on.

I was told the one I played thru was an 80's model, but don't know if that's true or not.

I believe they were making them in the very early 80s - maybe till 81 or even possibly 82. I know I have had an '81 Twin Reverb, which was actually the second-series blackface, but equivalent in every way to an ultralinear-series 135-watt Twin Reverb. Was this one silverface or later blackface? I'm not sure they ever moved the Deluxe Reverb to the second blackface control panel. You could probably date it with the transformer, speaker, and/or potentiometer codes.

I can't generally use a stock DR for a normal-volume pedal steel gig where you want a real clean tone. But I don't see a problem for lap-steel or slide-guitar. You'd be the best judge of that, but you used one and liked it - that should say something, n'est ce pas?