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Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb on the cheap


Lockbody

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$600

I've been cruising my local Craigslist looking for a smaller amp than either my Super Reverb or my Boogie Mk IV, which I was tired of schlepping around (and had just sold). Due to my budget, I was mainly looking for either a silverface Princeton, Deluxe, or Vibrolux Reverb. I had inquired about a few, but none worked out for one reason or the other.

Then last Friday I saw an ad for "66 Deluxe Reverb chassis only". Turns out it was an whole amp, but it had sat in a wet basement for quite a while and the cabinet was rotten, so he was just selling as the chassis. He was going to fix it up and had a cap job recently done, but was opening a new business the next day and needed insurance money right now. I know the guy, so when he told me that it fired up and sounded great I trusted him, so I bought it.

The bottom of the cab was so rotten it fell off the cab when the guy first picked it up. The bottom back panel feels like paper, and the speaker was a mold garden.

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The amp? It had a lamp cord for a plug, which I figured was within my abilities to mod to a three-prong, so I did (Thanks internet!).

Lamp cord

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Post Mod

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When the cap job was done, the tech had cleaned and re-tensioned the tube sockets, so I knew I was good there. Some light surface rust here and there, but the transformers looked to be in good shape.

The speaker is fried, so I swapped in a no name Eminence speaker, hooked up the half-rusted reverb tank, grabbed a Strat and turned it on.

Wow

So that's a blackface Fender, eh? Now, my '74 SR is a nice sounding Fender in its own right, but this... First of all, other than new EH 6V6s, the rest are a mix of RCA, GE, and Amperex tubes, with the RCAs in V1&2, so I know that has something to do with it, but that big, glassy clean, the bit of 6V6 growl, with that full, loose low-end... Let's just say I'm not sad I sold my Mk IV to buy this rotten, old amp.

So, while the tech who did the cap job made it workable, it still needs some TLC. There's reverb bleed through on the normal channel, the tremolo doesn't work, plus there seems to be, to me anyway, some abnormal speaker movement (read: a lot) when you really dig into the lower strings with a little volume.

I just ordered another cabinet for it from Mather, but for now I just made a new bottom out of pine board. It works and is mostly invisible. I know I should get the 12k5-6 speaker reconed, but I've read that there a lot better speaker choices for a DR out there, so I'm in no hurry fix the stock one.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. Even with a new cab and an once over by a tech, I should still be in < $1000 for a great amp.

66DRsm_zps3e342f64.jpg

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Great snag! I once had a original '65 DR and a '74 DR...the difference was substantial, playing through the '74's 'reverb' channel was like playing through the '65's 'normal' channel regarding tone...and playing through the '65's 'reverb' channel was pure heaven! The '74 was perfectly good sounding, but it just didn't have 'it'.

Edited to add: I'd be curious to see what the outside of the transformers look like, after being stored like it was. The inside of the chassis and the front panel don't look bad at all! BTW, my original '65 DR came with a 'lamp cord' power cord with a Bakelite plug, same goes with some BF Champs & Vibro-Champs I once had. I've also seen original '60's Fender speaker cord for piggyback amps that looked suspiciously like lamp cord. I'm no expert at that, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if your power cord was original.

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For kicks, pull the primary preamp tube out of the normal channel. It will disable that channel but won't cause any damage. See if you like the tone from the reverb channel better. You should sense a bit more gain.

I have a '67 Deluxe Reverb that I absolutely love. I've tried many speakers in it and settled on a Weber Alnico silver bell. A very close contender was an Eminence Cannabis Rex. Both tighten up the low end nicely without dramatically changing the tone of the amp.

Congratulations on preserving a great piece of history.

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Thanks everyone! When I got there to pick it up I wondered to myself what the hell I was getting into, but when I fired it up Saturday morning all doubts were removed. Of course, it's no where as big sounding of an amp as my Super Reverb is, but turn it up to around 7 with my SG and you really start to hear those 6V6s take off.

BadgerDave, With my Super, I normally use an ABY pedal to send my nasty boxes just to the Normal channel, but I just might try pulling V1 on the DR. What about the other trick for more gain - 12ax7 in the PI and disconnecting the tremolo intensity? You ever do those?

I'm also thinking of getting a 2x10 baffle made at the same time.

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Btw, can you use the original grill cloth, handle and metal corners on the new cabinett? I would have tried to keep as much as possible of the old stuff.

I played my Deluxe Reverb II last night. It's my most favourite Fender amp ever. With some of my old Hamer's it sounds like pure heaven.

But I've always wanted to try a real 1960's DR. Maybe some day. They are so expensive here. Usually around 2 500 dollars or more for a nice example. Way out of my price range.

Does it sound great for both clean and overdriven sounds?

Here is a clip of a silver face that sounds great over driven. Mine has a bit more mids when I crank it. But I think it might be that I have an Eminence, and in this clip it's a Celestion. My speaker (R,W&B ) does both the cleanish Fendersounds great, and the overdriven sounds. It's a mix between a US and UK speaker in sort.

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I looked at MojoTone, but went with Mather Cab out of Nashville. Great cabs and construction (from what I've read) and they're right next door in TN.

I'm also having a 2x10 baffle made so I can swap it out and have a mini Vibrolux Reverb when the feeling hits.

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  • 1 month later...

So here's the final result with the original baffle loaded with a Weber 12F150 12" ceramic magnet speaker.

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I can't recommend Mather enough if you're looking for a replacement cab for an amp. Looks, fit, finish, tolerances... everything is perfect. All the original parts from the old cab moved right over.

As mentioned above, in addition to the 12F150 in the original baffle, I've got a Electrovoice EVM-12L for the new 1x12 baffle (the jury is still out on whether I like the EV with my DR), and I also got a 2x10 baffle that I've put a Weber 30w 10A125 and a 25w 10F150-T. I read that combination of speakers is the favorite of one of the guys at Weber, and sure enough, it doesn't disappoint. Just a great combo of sweetness and compression out of the alnico 10A125 and aggressiveness out of the ceramic 10F150-T. I really like the 12" Weber, but I love the 2x10s. Highly recommended.

*edit*

I forgot to mention that I replaced all the old Mallory cardboard caps with Sprague atoms, replaced and upgraded the bias cap, learned how to bias an amp, and biased it to 70%. I checked it when I swapped the 1x12 and 2x10 baffles and it had drifted up to 75%, so I probably need to check it again sometime soon to make sure it's staying put. I think this amp sounds a bit better at 70%. More sparkle, less bluesy grind.

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