Fender Blues Deluxe Opinions

[Turdus]

I consider myself semi retired from playnig live. As a result, my TopHat Club Royale has been sitting idle, and it may be time to move it. Couple of Blues deluxe amps have popped up locally for perhaps half of what I could get for the TH. I'm interested, as they are 1-12" tube combos, with enough wattage that I could use live if the occasional gig popped up.

What's the concensus on these? Interested in knowing if the distortion is smooth.. I like pre amp over power amp distortion. How about build quality, and reliability, etc? Assuming they may sound better with a Strat or Tele than an LP. But if you have experice there, please post it.

[JohnnyB]

I used to have a Blues Jr., have played at jams where other guitarists brought their Blues Deluxes, and have had a Top Hat Club Deluxe since 1998. I've also tried various amps at music stores through the years for the hell of it.

I guess the issue I have with Blues Deluxes can be sorted out (somewhat) with a tube swap and re-bias, but to me they generally sound brittle and a bit harsh up top, especially compared to the sweet liquidity of Top Hats.

The mass-produced combo that impressed me is the Traynor YCV40. It's so good that I felt that i could have easily replaced both my Club Deluxe and Mesa DC-10. Of course it didn't have that last bit of sweetness of the Top Hat nor the brute power of the Mesa, but its functionality overlapped each amp by about 80%. I played my Newport through it at the store until I'd overstayed my lunch hour by around 1-1/2 hrs (oops). They're ruggedly built with plywood cabinets and have a metal grille between the grill cloth and the speaker for more protection. They have two channels and a pedal. One channel is sweet and clear, the other is classic rock overdrive.

They can be had new on eBay from authorized dealers for $599-649 with free shipping, or used for $300-350 in excellent condition. GC has a used one on their website for $349. They are ridiculously good at that price.

[ArnieZ]

I owned one when they first came out. Pretty loud amp, very nice cleans but a little darker than a deluxe reverb. Digital reverb, solid stae rectification, takes pedals well. The drive channel is not so great. Build quality is just fair. The input jacks on mine were plastic and broke a couple times. The input jacks werea a small enclosed circuit that soldered onto the board. Disassembly was not difficult but it was tedious. All in all I liked the amp but like the Deluxe Reverb RI much better.

ArnieZ

[jaberwock]

Owned one for three years, I was impressed with how good it sounded for the price, sold it to a friend who has since had to replace the reverb tank, and have the PCB fixed for cracks in the copper tracks around the output tubes twice, but he treats it pretty hard.

Clean channel sounds great maxed, the drive channel could some times sound a little " fizzy " to my ears, reverb very good at this price point. I imagine with some parts upgrades it could sound even better.

Overall a good sounding combo, but heavy, and the PCB's are prone to reliability issues.

Jaberwock

[hardheartedbill]

They really suck. Seriously ratty sounding

[JohnnyB]

They really suck. Seriously ratty sounding

I was being diplomatic before but--my thoughts exactly.

[Turdus]

They really suck. Seriously ratty sounding

I was being diplomatic before but--my thoughts exactly.

Thanks all. This is why I seek knowledge here. Based on these statements, I won't bother to check one out.

[mukuzi]

i took a look inside one last week, it looks like the drive chanel has an opamp. if i`m thinking about the same amp, the CB looks like fender use it for a few different models

[Steve Haynie]

The TopHat is paid for, and top quality. Can you play with knob to find good tones at lower volume settings? The Blues Jr. would have a different tone, so why not experiment with new tones in your old amp?

Would you downgrade your guitar just because you are not playing out as much?

[JohnnyB]

The TopHat is paid for, and top quality. Can you play with knob to find good tones at lower volume settings? The Blues Jr. would have a different tone, so why not experiment with new tones in your old amp?

Would you downgrade your guitar just because you are not playing out as much?

The Top Hat takes pedals up front very easily. When I want some dirt with it, a Maxon OD-808 works very well.

That's good advice from Steve. If you'll be playing for your own pleasure, why not just keep the amp that makes the tones that make you feel good. The Top Hat is a very expressive amp.