Opinions on Fender Deville for Steel

P Gleespen · Post by **P Gleespen** » 6 Feb 2001 5:39 am

Now, I know these are great amps for guitar, but do any of you fellers play steel through one of these amps? Does the Fender Deville have enough power for a live situation?
I'm looking for a tube amp that is clean for standard steel applications, but that I can also overdrive if I want to.

Mikel Nelson · Post by **Mikel Nelson** » 6 Feb 2001 7:46 am

In "larger" venues I use a 410 Blues DeVille...sounds great!

Fred Murphy · Post by **Fred Murphy** » 6 Feb 2001 7:55 am

I bought a new one a couple of years ago, and I kept it about 4 hours before taking it back and trading and losing $100 in the process. Absolutely the worst amp I have ever used, either for guitar or steel. It might be alright if you wanted to play rock guitar with a lot of distortion, but completely useless for good country music. I probably have at present 25 or so amps and have owned lots of others in my life.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 6 Feb 2001 7:58 am

Wasn't the DeVille designed for playing "Blues" type music (a la B.B. King)?

Greg Derksen · Post by **Greg Derksen** » 6 Feb 2001 10:19 am

Wrong Speakers for that sparkling clean
tone! Great for dirty though. Greg

Mikel Nelson · Post by **Mikel Nelson** » 6 Feb 2001 10:47 am

There is a "clean" channel and an "overdrive" channel. I run the clean channel and haven't had to turn it up over "3" yet to get the volume/tone I need. I'll also run the "overdrive" (which does break up easily) when playing rock and blues steel.

The other thing to note, is that for extreme volume situations, I mic it and run it through the PA...I would NEVER try to run a "point source" at those volume levels...you can never get a good band mix.

Rick Johnson · Post by **Rick Johnson** » 6 Feb 2001 4:46 pm

I agree with Fred. These Fenders don't have what it takes for steel guitar. Sell it.

Rick

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Rick Johnson

J D Sauser · Post by **J D Sauser** » 6 Feb 2001 5:40 pm

I used one for about a week, a year or so ago. I liked it quite well. It's got that sharp, sparkling, bright "Speedy West" sound.
It's not an amp to play those 2 or 3 tunes every body seems to be trying to play on E9th... But for the "hot" stuff it kicked... well, you know what.
The only real problem I had with it was, that the reverb is solid state and it sucks...big time (IMO) so, it went back to the store (for a FULL refund

).

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jaydee@bellsouth.net

Martin Abend · Post by **Martin Abend** » 7 Feb 2001 12:32 pm

I have a HotRod Deluxe, which is the same amp except for 1 12" speaker, 40 watts and a special boost-channel. I just LOVE this amp! It has little clean headroom and breaks up easy and it is probably not suited for a ultra-clean country sound, but I don't play country anyway. This amp really rocks. For larger venues I'd mike it instead of buying a more powerful amp.

Considering all these different opinions I'm afraid you just have to hear it yourself...

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s-10 sierra crown gearless 3 x4 - fender hotrod deluxe

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 8 Feb 2001 12:29 am

I play regular guitar thru a 2-12" DeVille and I thought it broke up a bit too early in the gain structure so I had fellow forumite and tube amp witch doctor Bob Metzger work it over to see if we could pick up a little headroom.For a few bucks he put in bigger output tubes(NOS6550s)and a second transformer just to heat the new power tubes.That and a bias trim pot and some hand picked preamp tubes was all it needed to become the geetar amp of doom.While I was trying it out at his shop,he said "you know what you got now don't you - a steel amp" I tried pedal steel thru it and except for a sort of twangy,piercing Bakersfield thing,it still wasn't quite up to the task.HOWEVER......all you Stringmaster freaks listen up.Trust me-you won't find a more retro cool rig than a Stringmaster thru a DeVille - even a totally stock one. 2-12s is the ticket though - not 4-10s.Now I sound just like Santo AND Johnny. -MJ-

ajm · Post by **ajm** » 9 Feb 2001 7:49 am

There are two different series of "DeVille" amps. IMHO it's important to differentiate between the two.

The first series was the "Blues" series covered in brown tweed. I don't think they make them any more. I played through one of the 4-10 models and really wasn't ga-ga over it, but some guys like them.

The current series are the "Hot Rod" models in black. I like them MUCH better for regular guitar.

I haven't played a steel through either series.