Modding Fender Deluxe style amps

[WhoFan]

today i was watching an old Documentry i taped off of TV a long time ago... It shows Van Halen and their crew getting ready for a show in 1988.... Ed's tech shows the guitar pit and the axes and stuff both Ed and Sammy uses... Back stage in the Tuning Room Ed is playing thru a Fender Blackface Deluxe with his 5150 Kramer making animal noises with his Floyd bar....

What are the most common mods to Deluxes to get that almost Marshall gain out of them? I would never mod my original 65 Deluxe....... But these amp kits sound like they would be good to mod....

 

[ES350]

Re: Modding Fender Deluxe style amps

well, you can lift the tone stack, get rid of all the NFB, change the plate resistors to 220K, blah blah blah, or you can plug into the extension spkr jack like little Eddie and blow up OTs all day long. That circuit is not designed for big time gain and it would be like changing a Ford to a Chevy one part at a time. Seriously, why bother destroying a decent Fender amp or building a kit (which are not cheap for BF style amps) when there are ten zillion little buzz box amps out there...

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Modding Fender Deluxe style amps

well, you can lift the tone stack, get rid of all the NFB, change the plate resistors to 220K, blah blah blah, or you can plug into the extension spkr jack like little Eddie and blow up OTs all day long. That circuit is not designed for big time gain and it would be like changing a Ford to a Chevy one part at a time. Seriously, why bother destroying a decent Fender amp or building a kit (which are not cheap for BF style amps) when there are ten zillion little buzz box amps out there...

True.... Was just wondering...

 

[aaron]

Re: Modding Fender Deluxe style amps

I think Lew has a Deluxe Reverb that's been modded to do what you're talking about. Not the 'loads of gain' part, but a Marshall style input curcuit. Maybe he can help you out. Later!

Aaron

 

[Curly]

Re: Modding Fender Deluxe style amps

a simple thing that I first read in Gerald Weber's first book is to remove the first preamp tube for the normal channel if you don't use that channel ... this will give the other channel more gain

some of the boutique versions of this circuit just do away with the first channel

I think if Lew mods them, he probably changes caps to Marshall values

these amps take pedals well, so I wouldn't want to mod them a lot and lose the nice cleans, but rather use pedals for adding more gain

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Modding Fender Deluxe style amps

On the upcoming EvanRude, e're going with a tweed deluxe tone stack on the normal channel FWW. There are several popular mods out there. PM me with what your goal is.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Modding Fender Deluxe style amps

Deluxe Reverb amps have more gain than Deluxe amps without reverb because the reverb circuit adds a little gain even when the reverb is on zero.

But to beef up the tone of a Deluxe or Deluxe Reverb and add a little Marshall-esque or 5F6-A tweed Bassman tonality:

1. Locate the Negative Feedback resistor and double the value...that'll give you LESS NFB.
2. Replace the .1 and .047 tone caps with a pair of .02 caps.
3. Replace the 250 pf. treble disc cap with a 250 pf. silver mica cap.
4. Replace the 6.8K resistor on the back of the treble pot with 10K or higher to boost the mids.
5. Replace the speaker with a Celestion: G12H30 or Vintage 30 are what I like.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Modding Fender Deluxe style amps

Deluxe Reverb amps have more gain than Deluxe amps without reverb because the reverb circuit adds a little gain even when the reverb is on zero.

But to beef up the tone of a Deluxe or Deluxe Reverb and add a little Marshall-esque or 5F6-A tweed Bassman tonality:

1. Locate the Negative Feedback resistor and double the value...that'll give you LESS NFB.
2. Replace the .1 and .047 tone caps with a pair of .02 caps.
3. Replace the 250 pf. treble disc cap with a 250 pf. silver mica cap.
4. Replace the 6.8K resistor on the back of the treble pot with 10K or higher to boost the mids.
5. Replace the speaker with a Celestion: G12H30 or Vintage 30 are what I like.

I knew it could be done... I only have a non reverb Deluxe and would never mod it to be higher gain as it is so old.. I was more or less wondering what could of been done to EVH's backstage blackface Deluxe Reverb to make it sound so Marshall-ish. It was noisey as hell too!

 

[chill]

Re: Modding Fender Deluxe style amps

+1 on the more mids. If you have a fender style mid pot (two lugs used), you can also stick a large value pot and/or use an audio taper pot like 100K log. Most of the sweep it's still in the range of a 10K pot, but as you turn it up, the mids go through the roof.

And a post PI master will help out too.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Modding Fender Deluxe style amps

I think the easiest and most dramatic improvement that can be made to most Fender blackface or silverface Deluxe and Deluxe Reverb style amps is to remove the stock speaker and put a great 12" speaker like the Celestion G12H30 or Vintage 30 in there...it'll also give the amp more of a Marshall-esque tone although the amp will still sound better than ever for rock, jazz, blues...even country. Lew

 

[75lespaul]

Re: Modding Fender Deluxe style amps

In the mid 80's, a friend of mine brought me over a guys house in (I think) Edison NJ who modded blackface deluxes to sound like Marshalls. I didn't believe it and he was begging me to get a deluxe and have the mod done. He said this guy doesn't even let people in his house, but because my buddy at the time was working on recreating the greenback, he befriended this fellow. I went over the guys house and oh my god--his modded deluxes sounded like a mini Marshall. I couldn't believe it. He had a Hiwatt there he was working on and had just built a custom ordered amp. It was housed in a wooden head box instead of the normal vinyl. I thought it looked weird! I could have bought one of those too but again, early twenties, minimum wage jobs, I was broke and stupid, hee hee.

I bought a 65 deluxe for $250 but couldn't save up the other $500 or so to get the mod. Wish I did. The guy was Ken Fisher and that amp I saw there was a Trainwreck amp. Didn't even know until about two years ago that he was so revered. That was the only time I went there but he was really cool and full of energy. Great guy.