fender blues deluxe?

infrared72

infrared72

New member
Does anyone here have experience with these? I located a used one that was made in USA during Fender 90's years in Brea, California for a fairly reasonable price. The tweed looks a little dirty on it, but not too bad. Wondering if I should make the effort to drive out to this guy's house and check it out. This isn't the Reissue version that fender is selling now, though I think calling the one they sell now a Reissue seems a little strange since (I think) the original Blues Deluxe was made in the 90's.

-PT
 
Re: fender blues deluxe?

Kinda like a Peavey Classic...maybe a bit less agressive on the OD. Good deal if you can find one around 400
 
Re: fender blues deluxe?

i know a few people with them and they are good amps. not as versitle as the hot rod deluxe but i think they sound a little better. a texas heat is a great speaker for these amps
 
Re: fender blues deluxe?

jeremy said:
i know a few people with them and they are good amps. not as versatile as the hot rod deluxe but i think they sound a little better. a texas heat is a great speaker for these amps
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+1 The clean KILLS on the Blues Deluxe...the classic Fender clean sound. The OD is good, but not super heavy...probably best used with an OD/distortion pedal. I have a Hot Rod Deluxe 212, but I plugged into a Blues Deluxe recently and ended up buying one. It has that clean shimmer I felt the HRD was lacking. The HRD and BD definitely sound very different...it even says something on the card on top of the BD reissue that they re-voiced the preamp when they designed the HR series. I vote that it's absolutely worth checking out.
 
Re: fender blues deluxe?

i dont know if the blues deluxe is what i would call "classic fender clean" but it has a great clean sound. the hot rods are too bassy
 
Re: fender blues deluxe?

jeremy said:
i dont know if the blues deluxe is what i would call "classic fender clean" but it has a great clean sound. the hot rods are too bassy
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I suppose that there's a lot of valid debate on what "classic Fender clean" is, but when I plugged my Strat with Surfers in to the BD, it sounded to me like a Strat should...chimey, glassy (good glassy, that is), sweet, and warm. Classic Fender enough for me! :bigthumb:
 
Re: fender blues deluxe?

Great cleans, the OD sucks, ok for a slight boost, but that's it. I'd use an OD pedal on the clean channel instead of the OD channel.

I don't think it is anything like a PV Classic 30.
 
Re: fender blues deluxe?

They are almost identical to the Hot Rod series, but with a narrower sounding clean channel and a tamer gain channel.

I test drove one when I went amp shopping. It was kind of... I don't know, it didn't wow me at low volumes, but it sounded like one of those amps that would cook when it was at gig volume.

Great thread on the differences between Blues series and Hot Rod series here
 
Re: fender blues deluxe?

Great for cleans, but the Blues Deluxe is a loud amp, if used at home. Trying to use it for practice and noodling at the apartment complex where we live, I could never get the volume above 2; and regularly got complaints from neighbors. With the vol. at 3, I'd be shaking the shared walls. Couldn't eq out the bass frequencies well enough. Too much thump.

A volume box in the effects loop didn't help matters. And it needs pedals for od. I could never reach the amp's sweet spots.

A Classic 30 now serves my blues and classic rock needs better.
 
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Re: fender blues deluxe?

I had one when they first came out and, to me, they seemed the most usable of the 'Blues' series; pretty good for a natural sounding OD once you got it loud or goosed the front end...I swapped the speaker for a G12-65 and rebiased for 7581's and it was pretty gigworthy (and a reasonable size and weight) for a few years. Then it started falling apart...
 
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