alright guys

drew_half_empty

drew_half_empty

Looking for Real Life
blues deville/hot rod deville/ '59 bassman

how are they different? Aside from the obvious channel switching, reverb, and cab construction
 
Re: alright guys

Different tubes and speaker

HR Deville has special design ceramic speakers
Blues Deville has special design "blue alnico" speakers
Bassman has the Italian Jensen alnico P10R

The bassman supposedly has better pre-amp tubes and Groove 6L6 General Electric Reissues and it has the 5AR4 rectifier tubes while the HR and Blues Deville has current issue Fender tubes and solid state rectifiers.

And just in general, the circuitry is different for each amp. The Bassman tries to copy its original vintage tone but in a PCB format, the HR Deville tries to give out modern sounds and the Fender clean and the Blues Deville tries to give more of a tweed sound with modern enhancements. Otherwise, the amps are pretty similar, and the things that you mentioned are where the big differences in tone occur.
 
Re: alright guys

Interesting stuff. For some weird reason I've become extremely curious about all things Fender amp based.
 
Re: alright guys

One major difference in quality is this....

On a Bassman, they use a high quality PC board that simulates an original PtoP circuit, and then handwire it to all the pots and jacks. Metal input jacks.

On Devilles, they use a rinky dink circuit board and it's butted up to the chassis, with cheap little pots with plastic shafts, and all the jacks are plastic barrels. If you step on the cord, your input jack is broken. If you accidentally hit the knobs, they just crack off. Also the cabinetry is cheaper, and also the speakers.

The actual sound of Devilles is completely acceptable, and they have great clean channels. If you take care of them, they're fine. I'm just talking about the construction/quality differences. Tonally, the Bassman LTD, Bassbreaker, Vibroking and Tweed Twin is much better than Devilles, but you pay for that difference!
 
Re: alright guys

Gunny47 said:
Different tubes and speaker

HR Deville has special design ceramic speakers
Blues Deville has special design "blue alnico" speakers
Bassman has the Italian Jensen alnico P10R

The bassman supposedly has better pre-amp tubes and Groove 6L6 General Electric Reissues and it has the 5AR4 rectifier tubes while the HR and Blues Deville has current issue Fender tubes and solid state rectifiers.

And just in general, the circuitry is different for each amp. The Bassman tries to copy its original vintage tone but in a PCB format, the HR Deville tries to give out modern sounds and the Fender clean and the Blues Deville tries to give more of a tweed sound with modern enhancements. Otherwise, the amps are pretty similar, and the things that you mentioned are where the big differences in tone occur.
Click to expand...


define "modern enhancements"

you just mean the channel switching? or?

i really don't need the 'more drive' channel, the normal channel & drive channel give me more than enough gain, i'm just looking for something, tonally, that lands somewhere between 50's and 60's pre blackface tones, with reverb

as christian knows i was originally gonna build an amp but now i'm starting to think that i could just get one of these, redo it with ptp wiring, and throw in some better tubes

what, tonally, are the differences between the 3 speakers?
 
Re: alright guys

Channel switching, effects loop, and I think thats it.

I don't know the difference between the speakers in the HR and Blues, but if they're a ceramic and alnico speaker, respectively, then the ceramic will have a stronger bass and highs (most of the time I believe), while the alnico will be a bit plucky sounding, if you know what I mean. I believe alnico breaks up faster and smoother then ceramic speakers.
 
Re: alright guys

The differences are simple so let me just say this

The 59 Bassman LTD will give you old school tone for days
It cranks well, takes pedals

all those fenders are roadworthy though

the deville is a little bright for me, I would prefer the 2x12 (vs the 410) or at least some kind of speaker change
 
Re: alright guys

I think you should look at Allen Amps. They make a few Brownface clones (which are pretty much, in between Tweed and Blackface in years and tone) and some of his models have reverb. It will be less of a hassle to get the amp, get it rewired and stuff and still have an amp that is "okay" compared to Allen. Just a suggestion. I like the '59 Reissue Bassman's cleans, but not much its distortion. Too brittle sounding for me. I like the clean on the hot rod deville and the blues deville, played them both, sound VERY similar. The Blues probably has more clarity or presence and just has that Tweedy vibe, but is still clean. But I'd look at Allen amps first.
 
Re: alright guys

When I was testing out these amps I gave a lot of attention to the differences between the clean channels on the hot rod deville and the blues deville . . . I thought that they sounded almost the same to be honest. The blues deville might have sounded a bit darker/warmer, but that's about it. If I bought a hot rod deville, I would only use it for the clean channel, as I thought that the overdrive was pretty crappy. Also, it seems like Fender uses linear pots for the volume controls on both amps, because you go from almost no sound (at about 2.5 on the vol control) to screaming painfully loud (at about 4 on the vol control) with not too much volume increase after that. I know three different people who use the Hot Rod Deluxe at jam sessions, and one of them has had a lot of problems with channel switching and stuff. Just somthing to keep in mind with those amps. Personally, I thought that the cleans on the Traynor YCV40 WR that I bought were very similar to the sound of the Fender amps, but it had a better distorted channel. The reverb is not quite as nice however.
 
Re: alright guys

i'm not looking for cleans really, just a light OD sound, which can be had on those by either cranking the clean channel, or at bedroom volumes by messing with the gain & master knob on the drive channel

and yes i was gonna change out the volume pots when i got it, cuz i used to have a hot rod deluxe & that's just ridiculous

I went & saw a band & the guy was either using a hot rod or blues deville & the tone he was getting was just awesome. It sounded just a slight bit too "new", but i think switching over to a cathode bias & PTP would fix that

I'm just trying to figure out which he had, anyone wanna take a listen www.myspace.com/thechoptops & tell me which one they think it is? He's using a gretsch & the pink ibanez tape delay pedal
 
Re: alright guys

The guy in that link above sounds like he's using the gain channel on the deville to me . . . but I could be wrong.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

FuseG4
Incoming amp
Replies
9
Views
310
Solarflares
S
xxxplorer
Played a Peavey JSX and XXX cab
2
Replies
26
Views
2K
Fender_Punk
Fender_Punk
E
NAD - Peavey Classic 50 2x12
2
Replies
27
Views
2K
esandes
E
C
1 push/push for coil split x2 and 1 push/push for reverse phase. It’s on a LP.
Replies
8
Views
234
Artie
Artie
J
Slash 2.0 - How to make it less compressed
Replies
8
Views
272
jeremy
jeremy
Back
Top