Fender Blues Deluxe

This is a review for the Fender Blues Deluxe tweed from Mexico.
I had the blues devil and this is also a hot rod.
I love hate this amp, Its sitting on level TWO and above that is LOUD ASS.. Im not sure how accurate the 40 watts is because its plenty loud. Now that I got my complaints off, I LOVE this thing. Its super DEAD *** SEXY TWEED. Most good looking amp I ever had. They really got this thing to look vintage and arguable better looking then a real vintage..

All the Reverb and distortion is great, effects loop is handy. I opened it up and it looks like a SOLID STATE amp with tubes. Much different from my twin and my sovtek. That said I like it plenty.
Iv had these hot rods going on 4 years and I don't have any idea what the presence knob is yet every so often I give it a turn for good luck? Perhaps its an audience knob that makes more people show up to the gig? Appears to work 50/50 lol..

Lets see, don't try to mod it or screw with the tubes and you will be fine. Have an amp guy do it. Mine was gigged quite a bit and the old owner said he has a real amp tech go over it and keep it working for his gigs, new tubes and bias. I think if you want to make this a Boutique amp get your head examined its near solid state and get a better effects or vintage EQ for your own tone. New Webber and some new custom tubes if you wish and it wont break. Its very hot where we are and the thing hums along near silent. I think being mine is 5 years old or so and looks NEW might explain how/why I give this a 10 on reliability, DON'T mod unless your a guru, thats why we make amp gurus because they don't even play music they just repair amps in little dark apartments and they need food and water so take the amp to them, they will appreciate it.

I never used fender for anything, I have a tech do things for 1/10 fenders price.

lets see mine is from Mexico and this will mark my first mex gear, I have no china or Korean anything but its holding up and the construction is top quality. I LOVE how it looks and the over drive and Reverb are pretty good being this is NOT A Boutique amp! I like the light weight and sold my 2x12 twin and blues devill and got this. Its a perfect amp for small clubs, back of your trunk and week end events when you dont want to lug your 4x12. Hay i ts got a really sweet tone and fit and finish and reliability is nice. Just the correct amount of controls, not to many! Did I say its near solid state on the inside? All Tube Preamp and Power Amp, Tube Complement 3 X 12AX7, 2 X 6L6, SS Rectifier. Im surprised how expensive this amp is now on ebay. But its a fender and they are the best factory amp and you can get parts and service in every town, gotta love that if it blows on tour you can get a replacement anyplace but guys this wont be as high quality durable as a black face twin so take care of her, she has plastic crap on the inside and the outside looks better then Elvis coffin.

I'm sure you've seen the features on other reviews; a clean channel, a dirty channel, no fancy stuff. I have an original 1993 production model that was made in the Brea, CA plant. I had the overdrive channel modded that was a mistake, don't touch it. It's perfect for classic rock and blues. Definitely not for high gain applications, but it does sound great with a good overdrive pedal in front of it. I use it with a 2x12 lopo cabinet with vintage 30 copys instead of the speaker that's in it. Without a doubt more power than you would ever need for a small bar and even larger venues. Very loud considering the 40w power rating. 3 12ax4s and 2 6l6s, very simple.

I play mostly guitars with humbuckers in it except for a 86 esp with emg active single coils and an 81 and a jay turser 335 copy with a gfs dream 180 and a mean 90 in the bridge. This amp is loud, the most I have it turned it up in the bars I play in is 3 and that's out of 12 not 10. As I stated I've had it modded which I do regret so my tone controls are changed to replicate an old bassman. Even so, using the right stomp boxes, I can get about any sound I want out of this amp. The modded overdrive channel is about unuseable so I keep the amp clean all of the time and use a behringer vintage overdrive pedal as my main overdrive sound. Of course, it has the well hearlded Fender clean sound, clean as a whistle. Oh and the reverb is smooth as ever. Great overall sound, just wish I kept it stock.

I use this as my only amp every show. It has been in the shop a couple of times. This was due to my putting power tubes in it and not getting it biased. It blew the output tranny and eventually killed the low power supply in the amp. After these repairs it has been perfect, never lets me down. The amp tech put in a stronger output tranny after the original blew and supposedly had a power output of over 50w now. So, it's almost a super blues deluxe now.

Never have talked to Fender, I got the amp after the warranty ran out.

I've been playing for about 13 years and playing in a band for 8 years (I was playing in bars since I was 17). Not saying I'm an expert but I know what sounds good and this amp has it. If you play metal, beware but for everything else, it's great, especially for clean sounds. If someone stole it, I'd give them 12 varieties of hell and then get it back. If you can find a good used one, buy it. I doubt you'll regret it.

This review is the the 1990's USA made amp.

This amp has everything you need to play a guitar and really enjoy your sessions. It's not complex, there's no computer, no chips, no DSP. It's just you, your axe, a nice set of tubes, and a great looking amp.

Control tonal control via the standard knobs. There's 2 channels, clean & dirty. The tweed material can get dirty if misused, so don't rest your coffee on it. The tubes used & features are elaborated everywhere on the net if your interested. I understand the power supply is more reliable electronics but all other areas are tube powered.

The fender site has a pdf manual that describes all the features. The design of this amp is based on the famous & sought after vintage & rare bassman. They say it sounds similar. I never heard a bassman so can't testify to that.

Tone.

I pump noise from a 2004 US fat strat, a 90's standard strat, & a 90's Tele. You may have heard, there is nothing quite like a Fender Guitar through a Fender amp. You can consider that a truism. The amp really opens up with the fat strat on the dirty channel. I can't think of a better combo. The tone is just sweet. Think anything from Ventures, Jimmi, et al. Wow.

There is this chime you hear when the treble is set above med that just grabs your heart and doesn't let go.

I also use an assortment of pedals which expand the sonic range quite well.

In 10 + years she hasn't let me down.

PS: All ratings on this amp are 10's --- do ya see a pattern? :-)

The best kind: never needed - it's a Fender :-)

Been playing on and off 35 years. If I lost her, I would immediately go go out & buy a used US made 90's amp. The Mexican amps are probably the same, but there's something about a U.S. made Fender.

Brand New in September 2008. Came with a foot switch and a decent cover from Sam Ash. It has 2 channels but the overdrive channel is not very heavy sounding. Thats fine with me. I use a Tonebone Classic pedal for more gain on both channels. I like the reverb. I kept everything stock on it. At first the speaker is harsh but after one month it is finally broken in. So it sounds pretty good.
It is loud. At above 2 the sound is very loud so this is for playing live with a band, not for playing at home unless you live far, far, far away from neighbors.

Ok. It takes about 10 or 15 minutes to fully warm up. From that point on you will get killer tone from this for another 2 to 2 1/2 hours. After that it begins to fade a little bit probably from the heat. I noticed this when we played a 3 hour show. Nobody listening to the band noticed this but I did so I'm just saying.
I use a Gibson 2002 Les Paul Studio and a Montoya Strat copy. Both guitars are stock. I have a Tonebone Classic for more gain when I need it. Thats it. Guitar to Tonebone to the low input jack on the amp.
The clean channel is loud and clear. Gets tweedy with the bright switch on. Otherwise it is clean, clean, clean till about 7 on the Strat and 5 on the LP. Believe me when I say that 5 is about as loud as you ever need. After about 5 or 6 you get a little bit of OD from the clean channel. It's pretty nice sounding. The volume knobs go to 12 but after 7 there is no more volume to squeeze out of it so it just gets a little more compressed
The overdrive channel sounds exactly like a slightly overdriven tube amp running at full power, with the drive knob at 6 or above 6. Forget about distortion sounds on the drive channel because it doesnt get heavy distortion. It's a little bit of overdrive and maybe a little trebly boost but that's about it. It does have the authentic overdrive sound of a old Fender amp so Fender gets a tip of the hat for staying true to that sound, which is what I wanted when I chose this amp.
With the Radial Tonebone Classic Distortion OD pedal things heat up to the next level. I have the pedal set for a medium overdrive gain. It makes the clean channel sing and sort of gives that old time TS9 boost sound to the OD channel, with a lot of sustain and harmonics. The Tonebone is not really a distortion pedal. Its really a overdrive with a tube for the gain and tone. I tried a few other solid state pedals with this that I borrowed from a friend. A MXR distortion pedal was good. A Metal Zone was heavy and made a lot of feedback (I don't play that kind of music-yuk). A BBE Green Screamer was good but the BBE Crusher distortion pedal was muddy. I tried a boss chorus and a Keeley compressor. Chorus was sweet. Keely was the best sounding pedal of all because it completely focused the sound of the OD channel. For me the Tonebone classic is a real good matchup but the Blues Deluxe takes pedals with no problems.
I rate the amp as a ten because I wanted the classic Fender sound when I bought it and thats what I got. This amp will make you happy for country, classic rock, blues and rockabilly because thats what its made for. Hard Rock and metal guitarists probably wont like it much but it isn't made for that. I rate it a 10 for what it is.

I looked at the reviews for this amp and in my opinion it is liked by players who like more clean sounding stuff but the heavy music players dont like it because it isnt brutal enough. All I can say is dont buy a blues amp if you want a Mesa Boogie or Peavey 5150. But if you want to play clean and a little overdrive, and use pedals for harder sounds then this is a good amp for that.
I own a Peavey Classic 20 and a few SS amps too. I highly recommend the Blues Deluxe Reissue and if I had it to do over again I would buy this again. I hope it lasts a long long time.

US made, 1994, tweed, owned since new. 40 watts, nice size, very gig worthy. No idea what the Presence knob is for, twirling makes no difference in sound. Otherwise, great amp when it's working (see Reliability section).

Nice, clean, tubey Fender sound. Plenty loud. A little fussy when it comes to pedals. Stays clean all the way up. Sweet, full tone. Just wish it was more reliable.

Totally unreliable. It has crapped out in the middle of more gigs than I can remember. I've replaced input jacks, tubes, circuit boards, you name it. Other people swear by their BDLs so maybe the guys at Fender were high when they assembled this one. I keep fixing it because it's a great amp, but then something else craps out. Gives "Made in the USA" a bad name. Maybe the Heche en Mexico version is more reliable.

N/A

Playing 20+ years. Love the sound, size, look of the amp. Don't like having to keep repairing it. Would not be seriously upset if it were stolen because I'd know the thief would soon have a non-working amp on his or her hands, which would serve him or her right. Again, other people don't seem to have the same reliability problems I've had, so mine may just be a dog.

It's all been said.

This amp represents the truest "art" of guitar signal amplification. It's not an amp built for some specific job like a Mesa Rectifier or a Marshall JCM 800. No...this is a true signal amplifier without all the bells, whistles and useless, tone sucking ******** that modern amps have become infamous for.
Yes, it has tone controls but turning them full up eliminates them from the circuit. On this amp, tone controls are a waste. Unnecessary. I suppose Fender puts tone controls on this puppy because no one would buy an amp without the ubiquitous "3-BAND EQ" on it. Good tube designs are extremely dynamic and operate best without tone controls. Some of the greatest amps ever made had a single on-off knob that doubled as a volume control. Old Harmony amps come to mind.
The Blues Deluxe is all that. For experienced players who can still remember what sonic nirvana sounds like : THIS AMP IS THE ****! I'm blown away.
I'm playing through this amp with a Les Paul standard. Pickups are SD 59 types. Talk about co operation between fingers, wood, strings, pickups, guitar electronics, cable, pedal and amp! The Les Paul sounds like a Les Paul is designed to sound. Unbelievable clarity, every nuance revealed. The lows are crisp as hell...not one ounce of mud in the low end. If you can really play the instrument, this amp will make love to your guitar. Beware, there is no place to hide with the Blues Deluxe. It accentuates every touch of the hand to the fretboard with clinical precision. Legendary execution. If this amp doesn't make you cry with joy and appreciation, the problem is YOU.
My signal chain is: LP Standard, 10 foot ProCo cable, Barber Tone Press, 10 foot ProCo cable, Blues Deluxe. I wet myself every time I hear the heavenly tone of my Les Paul through this diamond. Maximum pro quality sound.

Get rid of the pre amp tubes. They are chinese garbage-pure and simple. Use JJ ECC 83s tubes and you'll be satisfied. This is a PC board amp but that doesn't mean it's a piece of crap. Take care of her and she'll take care of you. Talk to Bob at Eurotubes when the time comes for replacing your output tubes. Keep quality components in this puppy and she will sing for you. With the UL approved plasti-jack inputs and outputs you'll need to be gentle with her. She will reward you with the voice of an angel.

Started playing semi-pro in 1968. I'm a Les Paul player, period. This amp lets the TRUE sound of a Les Paul come through. It lets the guitar's tone and volume knobs tell all sorts of different, interesting stories. I love the blues, modern country and classic rock. It's a miracle that sound this good can still be bought for 700 bucks, off the shelf. This is the best amp that Fender had produced since the 60s.

This is the reissue version made in 2007. It's a very simple amp that just sounds great on either channel. Shared 3 band with bass, mid and treb controls. Presence and reverb. Effects loop and standby switch. Two preamp tubes, a 12AX7 inverter/driver and a pair of 6L6 / 5881 power tubes.
Very cool looking tweed on chrome with a brown grille. LOUD. Compared to the "modern" amps out today it is a lightweight for features. That's what it is SUPPOSED to be, a simple amp like those of yesteryear. Nice poly dust cover with silkscreened Fender logo. Two button footswitch included (channel switch and reverb switch) Weighs about 45 pounds.
This is my gig amp. I practice with a Peavey Bandit with 80 watts. The Blues Deluxe is just as loud, no problem..by the way, volume setting 1 is mute. No sound until you move to volume setting 2 on the dial...just like the really old time Fenders, and all knobs go to 12, Nigel!

Mine came with GROOVE TUBES 12AX7, V1 and V2 preamps. I replaced only these two tubes with JJ preamp tubes because the Groove tube 12AX7 tubes are crap. They rattle like all hell is breaking loose. Totally microphonic. I knew this when I bought the amp and ordered the JJs to cure the sicko Groove tubes. I left the stock tube in the phase inverter slot and kept the stock output tubes and stock speaker intact.
I have several Gibson Les Pauls. Some with ceramic pups, some with alnico pups and a couple with p90 pups. I don't own a guitar with "traditional" single coils. I plug straight in to the BDX and use the Fender footswitch when necessary. I set the clean channel to 7 or 8 and the OD channel to: MASTER-10, CHANNEL VOLUME (gain) at 3 or 4. So the overdrive is at higher volume than the clean but not very much distortion going on. I let my volume and tone controls CONTROL this amp. One thing about Gibson Les Pauls is that they are wired right. With just the volume pots on the guitar, I can move the clean channel from squeaky clean to that edge-of-breakup sound. On the drive channel it works the same albeit with more crunch on the sound. I have all the amp's tone knobs on 12. I never use the tone controls on the amp, only the presence and reverb to affect the sound. Everything else comes from the pickups, my hands and the amp. The BDX is not noisy at all beyond a slight (less than most tube amps) hum that is inaudible when playing. I always plug into the low gain input of the BDX. Never used the loop-no comment on it.
The BDX was created to capture that essential old-school Fender sound that is low gain, luscious, round and chimey sounding. I play the blues, some old-school rock (Stones, Zeplin, BTO, Credence, Southern Rock) and jazz-blues styles. The BDX is spot on for these styles. Really it is delicious and amazing for it's price. Right out of the box it produces a killer old-school Fender vibe. No question that you are playing a Fender amp.
The BDX is not meant to use in your bedroom. At its lowest volume setting it's tolerable but your apartment building neighbors will be calling the men in blue uniforms if you play this thing on volume setting 2 or above in your apartment. Unlike a lot of tube amps the BDX sounds really, REALLY good at low volumes. I give it high marks for that, alone.
Real quick let me say that I have played Strats and Telecasters through this at the same settings mentioned above. These guitars kill through this amp. I also tried out a Barber LTD, Digitech Bad Monkey, BOSS Metal Zone. Fulltone Fat Boost and Fulltone OCD with the BDX. I'm not a pedal guy but the BDX will do your pedals right-I can vouch for that.
In a nutshell, the BDX will cop otherworldly tones once you get rid of the bad preamps and allow for a reasonable break in period. It is easily capable of giving the high end, high priced amps in its class a run for the money. Of all the Fenders, VOXs and Boogies that I played while searching for a new gig amp, I always came back to this as my benchmark amp. It was the right size, lightweight, came with footswitch and cover and I honestly couldn't find anything that else that sounded superior to it in the sound category that I like, so I bought it.
From beautiful, shimmering cleans to light, crying, bluesy OD to old school rock tones this is the amp to have. I played and owned many many early 60s to late 70s Fender amps through the years and I can vouch for the authenticity of this amp. The Blues DeVille models are nice too-just bigger than i need. Nothing beats this amp in the "under $1500 bucks" price range. Honestly, it's a steal at 600-700 bucks, brand new with a 5-year warranty period. It looks cool as hell too. Awesome good tone on a beer buget, in my opinion.

I have had it for 7 months with no major issues. I'd say I have gigged with it about 30-40 times at shows where I could open her up to "loud as hell!" volume settings. Not one hiccup or problem. She holds together damned well at high volumes and sounds killer. Gig without a backup amp? NOT SMART. I bring the Bandit along because you never know but so far no problems at all with the BDX. It's a shame that the groove tube preamps are so lousy but the replacements cost less than 30 bucks and they'll last for years and years.
Irritants? Yeah, there are a few. The lettering on the chrome practically wipes right off! C'mon Fender, what's up with that? The tweed cloth covering stains and tears and is more fragile than thick tolex coverings so there's something to be careful of as a trade off for the retro looking cabinet.. There are no corner protectors on the stock amp. I bought some silver ones and installed them. If I had it to do over I would get black ones and paint them dark brown to match the grill. I read somewhere that you can remove the amp from the cabinet and apply a protective polyurethane or lacquer finish over the tweed. I've seen this finish on other Fender amps and it really mellows the look.
I'm taking off 3 points for no corner protectors, ****** preamp tubes, lettering rubbing off and lack of lacquer. But I will say that there have been no major problems at all. Hey, it's young at 7 months old.

5-year warranty. Tubes are warranted for a couple of months.

Played my first gigs in the 60s. No ****. I have played Fenders all my life and i am dyed in the wool as far as the Fender sound is concerned. I have owned Princetons, Deluxes, Twins, Supers, Pros and Champs-blackfaced, silverfaced et al. Always played Gibby guitars.
Fender disappointed me in the 80's but came through in the 90's with the Blues Reissue amps-which had some quality issues, I admit. When my Showman rig died of old age I was either going to buy a "vintage" setup or a reissue. Vintage cost mucho bucks-so that option died quickly. I looked at VOX amps (way too heavy and way too expensive) and Mesa combos (WAY too expensive and didn't have the sound I wanted) and finally came back to the Fender Hot Rod (don't like them at all) and Blues combos. Can't fault the Blues Deluxe..it was just what i wanted. like I said the 60 watt DeVille models are very nice too...just too big for an old 60+ player to haul around at my age.

Purchased new in 2006, 60th anniversary edition Blues Deluxe Reissue.
Two channels. Clean and drive. Effects loop. Fender long-spring reverb. Special-design Eminence speaker, Chrome toggle witches, glass gem light, chicken-head knobs, tubes, lacquered tweed covering, nice duty dust cover, two button foot switch, chrome panel with white letters in the reverse-view mode, like yer standing BEHIND the amp when you adjust the knobs. Good idea, here.
Use this amp in my studio. It has the 'powah.'

I've read many of these reviews here and naturally there are a wide spectrum of opinions about this amp. Since I demoed this one at a dealer, got to see and hear it first, there were no surprises about its abilities or lack thereof. In its price range, this amp darn near puts 'em all down. I took my Telecaster and Stratocaster in for the amp demos, and after playing through a dozen amps, I preferred this one to almost every other in the store, except the Fender Hot Rod and Vibrolux. These amps really like my guitars.

The sound is good, even at low volumes (had to keep it low inside the store) Very clean clean channel, decent bass, great overall tone. In the studio, at higher volumes, it gives fairly well-rounded tube and speaker breakup for a nice, rich tube sound. The drive channel, though slight does distort some, but not much, until you set it at 12 and crank that sucker up. Then you've got your distortion. A little too much. It losses a lot of distinction in the mid and treble-end whilst the speaker is flapping about in it's frenzy.

I felt the speaker was perhaps a little light-of-magnet, or soft-of-cone for the extremely high volume levels, so I put in a heavier Eminence-recomended 'Swamp Thang' just to see how it sounded compared to the original. Uh, now we be talkin' about driving! Though I really like the original speaker's overall sound at lower volume levels, the 'Swamp Thang' does a better job when things heat up. It has the same basic voice, but it is more pronounced, more spacial, and definitely handles the high volumes with better articulation and clarity. A separate cabinet with both speakers in action would be the ideal here. I'm on it.

The overall sound of this amp as I bought, though, is very good. I have heard few that please my ear more. One could figure Fender know what they are doing.

I've had Fender products for years, decades. They are pro-grade tools of the trade, not to be mistaken for light-duty junk. I depend on their reliability and get it.

Best used by not needing it.

Beautiful amp. Well made. The vintage tweed looks don't hurt it either, but it's not indestructible. Use a little TLC when hauling it around, if that's what you do. It has no corner protectors and can be scuffed and stained, so let no one put stuff on it. It's an amp, not a table.

For the money, and let's face it, at this price you can buy some pretty good transistor amps, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better sounding, nicer looking forty-watt tube amp. And it is a Fender, after all, which is iconic to begin with. You want Fender sound, you buy Fender. This part requires little imagination or brain powah! It matters not, really, where an amp must be manufactured in order to be competitive in the market. If you must buy American made Fender Tweed amps, look to spend three times as much in the onset. This one has ultra-value. Oh, another thing; all the knobs go to . . . not eleven, but twelve!

made in mexico 2004

2 channels (normal and drive)

spring reverb

brightness switch

3 12AX7 pre-amp tubes

2 6L6 output tubes

Use the amp for band practise and live

I use a two eastwood guitars:

* classic 6 (gretsch country gent. copy) with filtron style p'ups
* nashville 12 (epiphone riviera 12 string copy) with NY Mini HBs

both sound great thru it but my tele thinline sounds the best with this amp.

I play in a 60s guitar pop style band

the clean channel breaks up quickly so humbuckers are a bad idea if you want articulate cleans. a tele works great tho. the brightness switch can be a good or bad thing. great for giving humbuckers bite.

I had problems with this amp regarding the sound quality. up until yesterday i was never satisfied with any tone. i replaced all the valves with sovtek and electro-harmonix ones and now it sounds great and alot louder. i think my amp originally had dodgey pre-amp tubes.

I'm going to buy a matching tweed 112 cab with the celestion vintage century speaker (80w) and i'm sure i will love the increased clean headroom and bass response. i will also replace the stock speaker to a vintage 30 or vintage century. the stock speakers sound too harsh.

i wont rate this amp a 10 because nothing will ever sound "perfect".

it has never died on me....

like i said before, the stock valves were shit and once i replaced them it has been great. touch wood. I was going to sell it and buy a deville but now i'm sure i'll keep it.

i've heard that these mexican blues deluxes and devilles are second rate incomparison to the US made ones of the 1990s. I've heard that alot of people have had problems with this amp.

*****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fender are awful.

considering the problems i couldn't give it a 10 but its soooo very pretty and i love it.

I will be hopefully be buying soon a new vox AC50 head so i'll let all you folks know how that goes.

Hi, This is an updated review on the amp that I have had for 2+ years.

I'm going to re-rate the amp based on the changes that I have had made by Ben Fargen at Fargen Amps.
The issue I had with the stock amp was that it sounded OK, but did not sound GREAT.
What was lacking was BLOOM and Fullness, and it would sound thin and harsh at times when pushed in a live gig.
Now, after Fargen's work, swapping out the speaker for a Weber, which I had done years ago, the amp sounds GREAT!

No problems

I've been playing 40+, and now performing out again on a weekly basis with a great blues band.
The stock amp and I had a sort of love-mmmmmmm relationship.
What Ben Fargen did was upgrade the caps, installed a Mercury Transformer that was twice the original size Fender put in the amp, and added some of his special touches.
Believe me, and I play, I can be very focused on what the amp is doing, and these changes that were made make a world of difference in what this amp can do.
The headroom has been improved, bloom and clarity are there, and over-driven tones sound fat and rich.
Cost of the changes, around $300, but I have an amp that sounds outstanding.
I also play a Fargen 30 Watt Blackbird for my Blackface tone, and now this for my 57 Twin Clapton sound.
Ben can be contacted at www.fargenamps.com
He does great work .... enjoy