thunderlung
New member
How do these do with OD pedals at apartment levels? Any experience?
At low volumes they are very clean, but they really don't have a lot of headroom. Once the volume gets to about 4 or 5 they start to break up. Once the volume is over 7 they tend to get muddy. If your intentions are to run the volume no higher than 5 they will work fine. Great with pedals.
The DR is my very favorite Fender amp and I have two of the originals. There's three things that need to be addressed, IMO, with all Deluxe Reverbs if you want to get a modern Marshall-esque kind of overdrive out of them:
1. The .1 and .047 tone capicitors in the tone stack do not allow enough mids and the resonance is not quite right for rock/blues overdrive tones so they need to be replaced with a pair .022 mfd caps to get more of a Marshall or tweed Bassman kind of overdrive. I like Sprague Orange Drops if the amp has a dull tone and needs some brightening or Mallory 150's if the amp has a brighter tone and I want to warm it up a little. Both are great sounding caps. Or THIS is an application for Hovland Oil and Foil caps that makes sense and where you can hear a difference...go for the Hovlands if you want to be sure you're getting the best tone possible. I don't think Hovlands do much in a guitar's tone circuit but in an amp you'll probably hear the difference.
2. The 6.8K midrange resistor soldered on the back of the bass control needs to be changed for more mids. I've used as high a value as 10K with great results.
3. The speaker needs to be a Celestion and I'd recommend the G12H-30.
Those are simple mods and will greatly improve the tone of the DR for modern rock styles.
Wow. This is heavy stuff. I have a Marshall DSL401 so I am just looking for variety. Something Fenderish(6V6) just to switch it up a bit for sh.ts and giggles. Is there a better 6v6 option that doesn't need mods and works nice with/without pedals at apt. volumes?
I do sincerely appreciate all input....I don't buy amps too often so I really want the right one.
ps- The wife and I are going out for Jumbalaya(sp?) tonight(and beers)....mmmmmm, jumbalaya.
At low volumes they are very clean, but they really don't have a lot of headroom. Once the volume gets to about 4 or 5 they start to break up. Once the volume is over 7 they tend to get muddy. If your intentions are to run the volume no higher than 5 they will work fine. Great with pedals.
The DR is my very favorite Fender amp and I have two of the originals. There's three things that need to be addressed, IMO, with all Deluxe Reverbs if you want to get a modern Marshall-esque kind of overdrive out of them:
1. The .1 and .047 tone capicitors in the tone stack do not allow enough mids and the resonance is not quite right for rock/blues overdrive tones so they need to be replaced with a pair .022 mfd caps to get more of a Marshall or tweed Bassman kind of overdrive. I like Sprague Orange Drops if the amp has a dull tone and needs some brightening or Mallory 150's if the amp has a brighter tone and I want to warm it up a little. Both are great sounding caps. Or THIS is an application for Hovland Oil and Foil caps that makes sense and where you can hear a difference...go for the Hovlands if you want to be sure you're getting the best tone possible. I don't think Hovlands do much in a guitar's tone circuit but in an amp you'll probably hear the difference.
2. The 6.8K midrange resistor soldered on the back of the bass control needs to be changed for more mids. I've used as high a value as 10K with great results.
3. The speaker needs to be a Celestion and I'd recommend the G12H-30.
Those are simple mods and will greatly improve the tone of the DR for modern rock styles.
Lew,
Did putting in the Celestion G12H-30 take a little more of the edge off the brightness factor?
Lew,
Did putting in the Celestion G12H-30 take a little more of the edge off the brightness factor?
They still put Jensens in the Deluxe Reverb. C12k according to Fender. I don't know how that compares to the C12n.
Generally if you swap a Jensen with a Celestion, especially the G12h you're going to lose some brightness and gain a little more British tone. Like Lew said the Celestion G12h is a much deeper and thicker sounding speaker than a Jensen for sure. You will probably also get later speaker distortion.