Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

jonnymangia

jonnymangia

New member
I'm in the market for a Fender amp, want to get the glistening cleans from my Les Paul 56 with P90's and dial in some Derek Trucks/late 60's Jerry Garcia on my SG Historic. There are soooo many Fender amps to choose from that I'm going to need some help. I am not playing out, so this is pretty much for jamming with friends or playing in my own house.
I've been looking at the following:

- Custom Vibrolux Reverb
- Deluxe Reverb
- Super Reverb

Thanks!
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

Jerry used silverface Twin Reverbs w/ JBL speakers (IIRC Duane used them on the 1st ABB album as well), perhaps the ultimate 'loud and clean' amp. But that's waaay too much amp for most folks. A Deluxe Reverb with a stout speaker like a Weber California (which is sort of a JBL clone but IMHO is more of a cross between a JBL and an F150 speaker) will probably work for you. But any Fender amp based on the BF sound would probably be fine.
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

there is a reason that the deluxe reverb is one of the most popular fenders ever!
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

cool guys...I'll look into the Deluxe Reverb some more. BTW, thanks for the Duane mention...I LOVE the tone on the first Allman record and didn't realize he was using Fender amps!
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

I think if you're going to plug a Les Paul with P90's or humbuckers into an amp and play at any kind of real volume that the Super Reverb would give you the most in the way of glistening cleans...that's what a SR does best, IMO.

The Vibrolux Reverb would be good too if you keep the volume down...it's not quite as powerful or quite as clean as the Super Reverb. A lot easier to move around though!

The Deluxe Reverb is a wonderful amp and I can get clean to cleanish tones with my Strat or Tele...but I think you'd have a hard time getting glistening clean tones out of a DR with a P-90 or humbucker and the amp turned up to any kind of real volume.



Lew
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

Not to dispute that Duane used Fender amps, as I'm sure he probably did at times, but Duane did use JBL alnico speakers in modified Marshall 4x12 cabs. He had is cab's 1/2 backed, so that it was both closed back and open backed according to one report. Duane usually used two 50 watt Marshall model 1986 plexi bass heads together.
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

Lewguitar said:
I think if you're going to plug a Les Paul with P90's or humbuckers into an amp and play at any kind of real volume that the Super Reverb would give you the most in the way of glistening cleans...that's what a SR does best, IMO.

The Vibrolux Reverb would be good too if you keep the volume down...it's not quite as powerful or quite as clean as the Super Reverb. A lot easier to move around though!

The Deluxe Reverb is a wonderful amp and I can get clean to cleanish tones with my Strat or Tele...but I think you'd have a hard time getting glistening clean tones out of a DR with a P-90 or humbucker and the amp turned up to any kind of real volume.



Lew
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good point
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

The Deluxe reverb will give you the cleans at lower volume, but as you begin to play at moderate volumes, especially with hums or p-90s. The super reverb, (i wish i had the cash at the moment to get one of these) will give you much better cleans and at a higher bottom, but will probably be harder to get it to overdrive. The vibrolux would probably be somewhere in between. All are great amps and you really can't go wrong with any of them.
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

Thanks again for the info. Are the modern Vibrolux's good amps or are you guys referring to the older ones?
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

The new Vibrolux is a far cry from the old ones and FWIW they are very low headroom amps meaning you will have little to no cleans with a P-90...

If you never plan to leave the living room with it a deluxe reverb shoudl do you just fine and if you put a great speaker in it Im sure it'll be fine for your wants in a home setting however in a real world setting you'll have to go bigger if you want to keep the nice cleans...

If you want something bigger than the Deluxe Reverb I think that a Silverface Pro Reverb is a killer choice for what your asking for!
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

In a recent jam with a band I will be sitting in with for one of their shows, I was playing slide with my R7 into a 70s master volume Silverface Twin Reverb goosed with my Keeley TS9, I was able to get some very Trucks-esque tones.

I don't know how familiar you are with Trucks' style, his tone is near impossible to nail. #1 his technique is ridiculous, I've been working on it forever and the way I play it now is still more of a Duane style. #2 his amps are modded to the balls. He uses a combo of vintage, tone tubby and Weber speakers, not to mention the Pyle Driver car audio speakers in one of his Supers. Plus his ultra treble mods. He also uses Duncans Antiquities in his main SG.

Anyway, I think a vintage silverface will get you closest. He just about only uses 10" speakers, his Super Reverbs obviously being 4x10s and when he needs more power his Super Sixes being 6x10s. I like Christian dont care much for the current Custom Vibroluxes out there. Maybe a silverface Vibrolux or better in my book a Pro Reverb (even though that uses a 2x12 speaker config). All you gotta know is that blackface/silverface type amps are gonna get you where you want. There's no way I'm nailing Trucks with my Tweed Twin, but no doubt I can get a killin' slide tone when I crank the mother up!
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

Trucks' Pyle Drivers are not car audio speakers. Though Pyle has become famous for their car audio line, they did make a line of musical instrument speakers years ago.
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

I thoguht they were. Supposedly, they were doing about to do a show and his speakers blew out (or one of them I guess) and they went all around to find speaekrs and the only place open was a car audio shop. And after the show, Trucks decided to just keep em in there. Maybe I'm a sucker to internet rumour... but that's what I heard
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

Another vote for the Deluxe Reverb! It's a great all around amp.

Sprinter
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

Kind of a thread hijack, but here goes:

How does a modern Hot Rod Deville with the 4x10 set up compare to a BF or Silverface Super? I'm mainly talking about the clean channel. The gain channels are so abrasive to my ear that I'd rather consider this amp a single channel unit.
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

Gunny47 said:
In a recent jam with a band I will be sitting in with for one of their shows, I was playing slide with my R7 into a 70s master volume Silverface Twin Reverb goosed with my Keeley TS9, I was able to get some very Trucks-esque tones.

I don't know how familiar you are with Trucks' style, his tone is near impossible to nail. #1 his technique is ridiculous, I've been working on it forever and the way I play it now is still more of a Duane style. #2 his amps are modded to the balls. He uses a combo of vintage, tone tubby and Weber speakers, not to mention the Pyle Driver car audio speakers in one of his Supers. Plus his ultra treble mods. He also uses Duncans Antiquities in his main SG.

Anyway, I think a vintage silverface will get you closest. He just about only uses 10" speakers, his Super Reverbs obviously being 4x10s and when he needs more power his Super Sixes being 6x10s. I like Christian dont care much for the current Custom Vibroluxes out there. Maybe a silverface Vibrolux or better in my book a Pro Reverb (even though that uses a 2x12 speaker config). All you gotta know is that blackface/silverface type amps are gonna get you where you want. There's no way I'm nailing Trucks with my Tweed Twin, but no doubt I can get a killin' slide tone when I crank the mother up!
Click to expand...

Great info gunny. I'm leaning towards the Deluxe Reverb as it seems to be a preety versatile amp and won't weigh a ton to boot. While the Twins and the Super Reverb are the amps of choice for Trucks and that late 60's Jerry Garcia (when he was jamming on his SG) vibe, they are just too powerful for me, considering I'm not really playing out. Will keep in mind for a future purchase. BTW - how do you like those Ants in your LP? I have a neck Ant that I was thinking of putting into my VOS Sg.
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

Gunny47 said:
I thoguht they were. Supposedly, they were doing about to do a show and his speakers blew out (or one of them I guess) and they went all around to find speaekrs and the only place open was a car audio shop. And after the show, Trucks decided to just keep em in there. Maybe I'm a sucker to internet rumour... but that's what I heard
Click to expand...

i heard those pyle drivers were the speakers in the amp when he bought it. honestly i dont think his tone is as good now as it was in the past. its missing some meat that it used to have

a deluxe reverb is a great amp but loud clean isnt what its about. in your house youll be able to get a beautiful clean tone, even with p90's or buckers. to get the volume you'd need for gigging the amp probably will need to be turned up to the point of break up
 
Re: Fender Amps - Please Educate Me

I LOVE the neck antiquity, I think that's the best neck humbucker out there. The bridge is really good too, but I think I like the standard Seth Lover a little better. Still great - the antiquity sounds a little thinner and twangier being that it has the degauss mag, but I like that.

I personally like DTs current tone the best. I think his earlier stuff (say for example Joeyful Noise album or if you heard him play on Gov't Mule's Deep End Vol1 on the track Worried Down with the Blues), doesn't cut through enough. It's like too clean to my ears or something, I just think it lacks highs. But now his tone is a little brasher, sounds like a friggen steam train, I love it. Just my humble opinion of course. But his tone is killin' all around.
 
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