Southern Man
Quarternote
Formerly "SecondHoneymoon" on the FDP
Posts: 15
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Post by Southern Man on Aug 27, 2020 12:06:14 GMT -5
I’ve had this 40W combo for 25 years. I played mostly acoustic for many years so it hasn’t had a lot of use. I started playing electric and quickly tired of lugging this around so eventually I bought a Super Champ XD, which I love.
Recently I had a custom Tele put together with Lindy Fralin pups. This set up has far exceeded my expectations and my little Champ just eats up the tones from this thing. The Deluxe is an excellent clean amp, but OD has always been weak. Takes pedals well though. My new Tele seems REALLY bassy through the Deluxe, even with the bass knob on the amp lowered all the way. Not a problem on the Super Champ. I can calm things down with the volume on the guitar, but it’s not ideal.
So this is really a long way of asking if I should part with the Blues Deluxe? If I do I’ll likely get another amp, but what? I’ve always liked Princeton’s but they’re pretty pricy these days. I figure mines probably worth $400-$500.
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Post by Jim D. on Aug 27, 2020 12:48:10 GMT -5
Interesting post. I have both an original 90's Blues Deluxe and a Super Champ XD in my collection. The BD sounds considerably different and improved with certain speakers and certain guitars. The bassy low end when using most guitars is tamed quite well with using my extension cab with a Weber 12F150, 50 watt, lightly doped. At lower to mid volumes, the stock speaker sounds good to me with conventional Teles and SSS Strats. I never did like the the drive mode on this amp. I am keeping mine, and it does take pedals well. Using a lower output preamp tube(s) really helps and much has been written about this. The Super Champ XD, as you mentioned, sounds great, but to me that is in the clean settings. Most of the effects are not to my taste, although the reverb(s) are quite good on this amp. I don't know where you use your amps, but the Deluxe Reverb RI and the Princeton Reverb RI are both really good amps, and If I were to just keep one amp out of those I own, it would be my DRRI. They remain full and lush at low volumes. I do have a beam blocker in mine as I did not want to clip the bright cap. These can be a bit on the bright side IMO. I could substitute a PRRI as my one amp but I do not have one.
I play at home. My bucket list (I can only have one amp) would be a Carr Mercury. Yes they are really expensive. With the multiple wattage settings and the tone stack and gain features you can coax just about any tone you can imagine out of one of these. I find them phenomenal.
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Southern Man
Quarternote
Formerly "SecondHoneymoon" on the FDP
Posts: 15
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Post by Southern Man on Aug 27, 2020 17:05:14 GMT -5
Jim,
Thanks for your response! So glad my observations have been confirmed! I replaced the XD speaker with a Celestion Ragin Cajun and I had a new amp. The clean is perfect to my ear and I like #13 on the drive channel. Don’t even really need pedals, although I like a little more reverb. I gig occasionally and this amp usually suffices, but I often run a line out to the PA for better distribution. The line out actually proved to be an important j for me. The new speaker about doubled the weight, but it’s not bad.
The Deluxe is just too big and loud for my needs anymore, and I don’t see that changing. (Of course I’ll need it as soon as I sell it!) (Changing the speaker might be worth a try.)
DRRI is legendary, but I’ve never played through one. GC has been a ghost town of late but maybe I could A/B the DRRI and Princeton, if in stock. I had an old bandmate once who had a Blues Jr, but he was disappointed in it and traded it for a Hot Rod. I might check one out although they’ve doubled in price over the years. And maybe the original Champ!
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Southern Man
Quarternote
Formerly "SecondHoneymoon" on the FDP
Posts: 15
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Post by Southern Man on Sept 7, 2020 22:01:19 GMT -5
Update. I did some more research and went with a Jensen greenback. Dramatically improved the bassiness, especially after a little playing time. I still find the XD more useable, but I’m happy with the upgrade on the Blues Deluxe.
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Post by pcalu on Sept 19, 2020 9:39:53 GMT -5
Years ago I saw Rick Hines (Develop Manager for Fender) walk up to a Blues Deluxe, he dialed it in and got a great tone. After I went over and looked at his settings. The Drive was set low, with the Master opened way up. With the volume up to a stage level and the power tubes opening up. He got a great Fender tone on the verge of overdrive, then pushed it into saturation with an overdrive pedal.
Downside is, to get the amp to sound like that it's not at your normal practice levels
Less is more using the drive with those amps.
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Post by larryguitar54 on Sept 20, 2020 10:52:16 GMT -5
I have the BD. I really think it's one of the cases where a linear pot is the way to go. The amp has nothing at 1 or 2 and then at 3 it's already too loud.
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Post by Jim D. on Sept 22, 2020 20:19:09 GMT -5
Good comment on the linear pot. As built they are jumpy with the volume. Remember the simple pot in the effects loop courtesy of Steve Dallman (spelling ?). That works great on the original BD. I built one but forgot the pot specs and type. I learned a lot from Steve.
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Post by FlyonNylon on Sept 22, 2020 23:36:28 GMT -5
My first real amp was a 1990s Blues Deluxe. I always thought it a bit mushy on the lows and installed an aftermarket eminence speaker which made a big difference. Then it developed a bad "crackle" which I couldn't figure out, and kind of sat for 5 years.
Last summer took it to an amp shop, had the caps and pots replaced, then when I went to pick it up the shop owner told me that "someone came in and said it was their amp and picked it up already." He even said that they "had the claim ticket." Luckily I still had the original claim ticket so could prove that he was lying. Was originally a bit PO'd but the owner eventually made well and found a blues deluxe which he claimed came from a "Nashville studio guitarist" to replace the one I'd lost free of charge.
No idea if that's true of not but the amp sounds killer, has a celestion vintage 30 speaker. I bought a JHS little amp box to place in the effects loop to cut down on the volume.
My backup plan was to get a Princeton reverb though which is definitely a great amp. The BD is all the way up in my upstairs studio and weighs a ton so it's probably here to stay..
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huck
Quarternote
Posts: 46
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Post by huck on Sept 26, 2020 17:57:33 GMT -5
i've got a blues deluxe, and i tamed the volume issue by putting a 12ay7 in v1 and plugging into input 2. makes it a lot easier to control at lower volumes. i also tried the volume pot in the effects loop (got it on reverb.com) and it worked pretty well, though it did eat some treble like turning down the volume on the guitar would.
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Post by Stinger22 on Sept 29, 2020 19:33:49 GMT -5
i've got a blues deluxe, and i tamed the volume issue by putting a 12ay7 in v1 and plugging into input 2. makes it a lot easier to control at lower volumes. i also tried the volume pot in the effects loop (got it on reverb.com) and it worked pretty well, though it did eat some treble like turning down the volume on the guitar would. I ended up using a home make volume box when I was gigging my BDRI, don't recall it cutting the treble but may have just eq'd it out. Ended up retiring it and getting a Mesa-Express with the 5-15-25 watt settings and worked much better and about 15 pounds lighter!! I need to fire it back up it made a good platform for pedals played really clean, the drive channel didn't like. |
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