Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue 112 Combo

2007, most likely. Specs are all described well below: 2 channels, no effects loop. I grabbed mine at a great price when MF (somewhat selectively) issued 20% of an entire order coupons to make up for the orders they muffed during their warehouse move. I got a lot of nice stuff on that order; this amp was the centerpiece.

Feature wise, it is sufficient. I don't touch the overdrive channel, so in some ways it has more feartures than I need. As for what it lacks, well, tremolo is always nice. I have the Fulltone Supa-Trem so I am not wanting, but we all like tremolo on our tube amps, don't we?

The pilot light on mine died out of the box. Have not felt inclined to fix it, tho pilot lights are a nice way to know juice is getting there when your on a gig.

I use it with: 1) A Revered Charger 290 with (duh) 2 P90s. 2) An 1987 Strat plus with the original Lace Sensors. 3. A Daisy Rock Retro-H semi-hollowbody (don't laugh) with 2 mini-humbuckers and a franken-telecaster with the standard tele pickup configuration. The Daisy Rock has the hottest output of the four and sends the bLues Deluxe into pretty gritty territory pretty early on the dial, while the Strat plus has the lowest output and gives me quite a bit of clean headroom, it seems. I also have a '70s bassman head and a Mesa Boogie Studio .22, and I would say the Blues Deluxe falls right in the middle in terms of how "early" it begins to break up, with the bassman being born dirty and the Boogie providing quite a lot of clean volume (or at least in its prime it did).

I would describe the amp's sound as very distinct and clear without quite being shrill (though frankly my playing style brings out the shrillness in most amps). I have found that running my mesa boogie satellite 1 12" cab as an ext speaker, in tandemn with the onboard speaker, softens and rounds the amp's tone quite a bit, so logic suggests that the amp's speaker is somewhat responsibile for its very sharp, articulate, and dynamicically responsive sound. I like/don't like that about it. You can see that a lot of people have swapped it out. I do not intend to. I don't want to give up "aticulateness" for an extra touch of warmth.

I routinely play through a friend's blackface Princeton and while I like my Blues Deluxe quite a lot, it does not have that old Fender blackface thing going on, not quite. Very decent amplifier though. Takes effects extremely well. Onboard Reverb is not bad at all. As other users have noted, it is a very responsive amp dynamically. I also often play through my drummer's Hot Rod Deville 2 12"--a close relative of this amp--and I MUCH prefer the Blue Deluxe. It is a much less sterile sounding amp. The Deville is a sonic ice pick, IMO.

Strange tapering on the channel one volume pot -- almost nothing until a big bump at "1" then reaches something very close to max volume beweetn 2 3/4 and 3.

Except for the DOA pilot light (it actually worked on first use, blew on second use) excellent so far, and I have probably gigged with it 50+ times in my first half year of owning it. I have added my own "vintage relic-ing" already ;)

No opportunity to use it yet, as I decided to let the pilot light slide. I mean, it's Fender. Leo doesn't answer the phone himself anymore...

I am not sure you can get a better amp for the price. I think it is certainly comparable to or better than The Peavey Classics that seem to dominate this price range. I've tried the Crate V-series and prefer this. The next step up is ALL THE WAY UP, in my opinion. If you can't go there, go here. Sorry. Born that way.

Hi Everybody!

My Blues Deluxe Reissue was made in 2007, shipped from the factory to my door still in the box!

The amp is an attempt to capture some of the magic of the old tweed Deluxe and Bassman amps of the 50s and 60s. In those days amplification was a different concept. Clean and loud was the goal, but with the amazing "defect" of tube distortion, rock was born!

The amp captures the concept and the era well, with a few welcome updates for us modern musicians! What at first seems to be a straight forward 2-channel amp with reverb, an fx loop and some nifty cosmetics, is in actual fact a multi-toned tweakers dream in a box.

The amp flies in the face of modern amp technology in it's tone structure and operation. Few users will find success with the neutral-tone-controls approach, which nowadays many consider to be the purists approach. With this amp, it's all about discovery and experimentation. The footswitchable channels add another layer of discovery and each channel is made to be played with, not left at 12 o'clock and ignored!

With the feature batch on the brochure, plus the versatility of each channel, it scores a ten for features on my scoresheet!

I use a mix of guitars, ranging from cheapo junk from Korea, to the best of the best USA luxury models. My favourites are my 2007 Telecaster and Strat American Deluxe models with the higher output SCN pickups fitted, plus my baby - an Arctic White 1990 Les Paul Custom with those monster humbuckers that are as fat and creamy as the guitar itself!

I play a lot of styles depending on my mood. I spent many years in a band and we would experiment with any sounds that made us feel good. I like gear that allows a bit of lattitude and that can be pushed to do things that stand out. So why did I pick THIS amp?

I have a big 100 Marshall halfie sitting next to my Blues Deluxe. It's a great amp too and has severe power. It has THAT sound. You can sell the sound of a strat and a marshall to anyone and they will recognise it and love it. That said, the Blues Deluxe has a earned a much deserved place next to this beast.

The amp exudes class. It has a glassy, bassy tone which will show the player in you. It responds extremely well to picking dynamics in both channels and has the power and clarity to translate your gentlest touches to the audience. Digging in hard causes the amp to translate your aggression equally as well.

It has the sort of breakup you will recognise as a Rolling Stones trademark. But I said earlier that the amp is very versatile and that experimentation yields results and I've discovered that it does extremely well in the rock genre when attempting a bit of Pearl Jam for example. It is an off-the-shelf boutique amp! Listen to PJ's tracks Life Wasted or Severed Hand and you get the idea.

Driving the input with stronger pickups or perhaps an in-line booster will get you a really sleazy, filthy distortion with a really hard edge to it. It reminds me of a Rat a little, it Rat pedals had low crunch... weird but really interesting. It can be used to add a bite to a high gain distortion pedal as it remains clear and pronounced... Hard to describe. Like hitting someone with a huge egg - it smacks them hard but then covers them in thick goo... It's really cool!

There's a million tones in this amp. You wont get any Eddie Van Halen out of it without external assistance, but there's a lot to find if you are willing to turn the dials!

Ultimately it's aimed at the blues musician and it hits all corners in that respect. The lush reverb and resounding bass only serve to add credibility to it's blues pedigree.

OK here's the thing... I had some real issues with the tubes. The amp seems solid, but it was shipped via an online seller by UPS. Like I said, still boxed up, but I think the courier was a bit rough. I had 2 microphonic tubes... see Customer Support below! I haven't had any problems with the amp at all other than that and it seems pretty solid... fingers crossed!

Great. The microphonic tube thing. I e-mailed them and blasted Fender and Groove Tubes for putting their names on shoddy merchandise blah blah blah. Guess what. One of their guys emailed back and apologised. Quickly. He also sent me some replacement tubes in the mail! Great stuff. The amp was singing after that with no horrible rattles or anything! Well done Fender Support!

The price, the looks, the sounds. Great stuff! I toyed with the idea of a Hot Rod Deluxe, but the tone stack it voiced differently and I have that HRD region well covered with other amps.

I've been playing for about 17 years and I own a lot of gear, some real high end amps and guitars and I love this little tweed gem!

My one criticism (?) is that it's a little too loud for late night home jams. Who cares. It's worth upsetting the neighbours. If they don't like the sound, they must have something wrong with them because a more pleasing sounding amp will be hard to find, especially at this price!

Pretty straightforward feature set. Nothing fancy - Presence control on drive channel is nice. Bass, Mid, Treb, clean and master volumes. Like I said -- nothing fancy.

Great clean sound. Drive channel is crunchy - good for rhythms, but don't expect a singing, overdrive sound. I'm using a Boss SD-1 Overdrive pedal for leads and bigger OD sound and it works very well on top of the clean and drive channels with a little experimentation.

What really knocks me out about this amp is how it sounds with an external cabinet added on. I have a cabinet loaded with a Celestion G12T-75 and running this as an extension speaker is incredible. The Celestion is a little cleaner sounding than the stcck Eminence speaker.

All in all, the Blues Deluxe is a sweet sounding amp on its own. Adding a second cabinet of your preference can really sweeten the tone.

My first one was defective. Returned it to Guitar Center and got a new one.

Not used

It's a solidly built amp, nice tweed and grille, sounds great and will probably hold its value for years. Nicely done, Fender.

Just an update on my previous entry

After a few months use, the amp and speaker are now run in and the tone has changed. The slightly trebly fizz has gone from the drive channel, the sound is much warmer and graunchy. You can still get some great rude sounds out of it but it is definitely a more coherent fuller tone now after a few months rehearsal studio usage. I've started using a hotplate with mine and the combination seems to work well. Without the hotplate, even with the rest of the band, I had to have the volume at a very low setting. The hotplate lets the power valves sing. My favourite sound out of this amp is the neck pickup on my Bare Knuckle Apache PU'd Strat and 50% gain - open G tuning and start playing a stones classic riff. I've never got close to a Keith Richards rhythm tone before.

My Blues Deluxe was made in 2006. I'm using it for classic rock n roll, bluesy rock n roll and light jazz. Our band does some hard rock too, so I have a Radial Tonebone Classic to push the BD's OD channel for that. The BD has two channels: Clean and Overdrive. They share 3 band EQ, reverb and a presence control, plus an effects loop. The channels and reverb are switchable with the included footswitch. Solid state rectifier circuit.
The BD develops 40 watts of power from a duet of 6L6 tubes. In the front end there are two 12AX7 preamp tubes for gain and a third in the power section as the phase inverter/ driver. I only wish it had a tremolo circuit. Its best feature is its tone, then there's the signal transparency and note clarity. I could go on and on...it's just a beautiful sounding amp for its price range.
By the way, this is a performance amp so it's meant to be played at volume levels that are way too high for bedroom rockers. It sings and comes into its own with the volume at halfway to three quarters of the way to 12. (Yes, all knobs go to 12, Nigel.) At those settings the BD is LOUD, and pretty rich sounding. For the styles I play, the BD is versatile-sweet clean, sweet overdrive and sweet solo tone with a pedal. Oh yeah, it comes with the footswitch and a nice amp cover. And the tweed covering is so cool! The previous owner did a pro quality lacquer job on it. Whoa...how nice is that?
Mine is stock except for the preamp tubes. The crappy chinese "Groove Tubes" that came with it were lifeless and way microphonic. I have a box of USA and British made 12AX7 tubes that I acquired over the decades so I grabbed 3 and stuck 'em in. Problem solved.

Real Deal blues and classic rock is what this amp is made for, which is why I chose it.
I'm mainly using humbucker equipped Les Pauls with this amp. I have a couple of Jay Turser Les Pauls with decent aftermarket pups and a Gibson LP Studio with stock pickups. I have an Ibanez SA 160 with single coils, too. They all sound good with the BD.
The clean channel roars with strong lows and a rich top end sparkle. True Fender tone with the right settings (pretty close to the Fender "classic" 6-6-6.) It remains sweet & clean to about 5 on the volume knob, which is plenty loud. After 6 the amp will overdrive and produce those "in-between sounds" that output sections are revered for. Nice job, Fender. The amp doesn't really get louder past 6-7. This is a channel clean and sparkly enough that it can be used for surf music. When you need that twinkly Fender bell-tone chime, the clean channel does not disappoint. Very old-timey. Notes and chords are clear and musical. Not one drop of mud here. You can hear every string ring out with clarity. I can actually hear the strings against the wood of the fingerboard. That's with the Les Paul...don't even get me started on the Ibanez. Single coils are just plain stupid with this thing. Amazing tone quality for the price.
The OD channel catches the overdriven Fender vibe perfectly. They even shaved some of the bottom end to compensate for the increased gain so it wouldn't tub out at gig volumes. Whoever designed this amp did a good job in keeping this channel's gain structure simple and below the threshold of distortion. As with the clean channel there is amazing note definition and clarity that is both musical and sweet! The OD channel is good enough to use instead of a pedal, if you know how to work it right.
I'm using a Tonebone Classic pedal with the BD. As a boost for the OD channel it works just fine. It adds a lot of sustain and wakes up the harmonics. Gives the BD enough of a boost to use it for soloing.
Bottom line on sound: If you want to hear that unmistakable Fender old-school charm, then this is the kind you want. You're not going to get an 80's hard rock tone from the BD's OD channel, or even an AC / DC tone. That's not what the BD is made for. There are better amps for that sort of thing. For sweet bell-tone cleans and creamy overdrive the Blues Deluxe will do you proud. It's made for blues and classic rock tones, which it excels at.

Too soon to tell. Seems solid. Only had it a few months. Wish it had corner protecters.

This is the amp you want if you're looking for an old school Fender sound at a reasonable price. Don't get one for the house or the bedroom. It is NOT a bedroom amp. It sounds killer at high volume levels but loses its charm at low volume levels. Buy it as your gig amp and you'll be a happy camper. I think I can promise you that much.
I have a Fender Blues Junior and a Roland Blues Cube 30 as my other amps. Can you tell that I tend to favor a more bluesy sound? :D
The Fender Blues Deluxe is simply the best amp in its class. Go get one!

See the others below. You know what this amp is all about: TONE!

I've owned many Fender amps over my 38 year career. This is the first and only "new" Fender I liked well enough to buy. The reverb isn't all that great compared to my old time Fenders and I think Fender should have put a trem in this amp but I have to give them a perfect rating for the tone. It's just great. I can get a trem pedal and the reverb is passible. I love this amp.

After 38 years I want a nice 40 watter that isn't too heavy and comes all in one cabinet. I tried a whole lot of amps including some nice solid state combos. When I plugged in to this it was all over for me. Bought it immediately and never looked back. Perfect Fender tone. Sound this good is boutique...but the price is way under boutigue. Champagne tone on a beer budget. Go get one.

This is a 2006 model, made in Mexico. Laquered Tweed with the usual features listed over and over somewhere below. Of all the "Hot Rod" Fender re-issue amps this is the simplest and least powerful "Gig Worthy" model. It also sounds the best-at least it does to my ears. I tried out the various 1 by and 2 by twelve 40 and 60 watt models and I walked with this one after all the listening and playing. It's plenty loud for the clubs I play and I can crank it enough to make it cook properly without having to be told, "Hey man...it's way too loud. Can you turn it down?" I hate it when that happens, don't you?
Anyway...it's a simple straightforward, lightweight tube amp with simple controls, simple footswitch for channels and reverb, and a nice rich sound. Simple is better for me, so I love it's simplicity.
As for the features, I'll put it like this: Compared to a late 60s Fender combo amp this one has channel switching and an overdrive that can be called up with a foot switch. That's a big step up from the Fenders of yesteryear. Everything else aside...it has a wonderful, beautiful sound, which is its best feature by far. I'm not going to rate its features because its lack of features is one of its finest features!

Everything I have to say is about a totally STOCK Fender Blues Deluxe. No modifications, no new tubes or speaker. Okay?
Once upon a time...back in 2003 I think, I was fortunate to come across a nice old FENDER BANDMASTER REVERB AMP TFL5005-D (1968). This was the short lived piggyback head with a tube driven reverb inside. Forty watts. Tremolo. Original RCA Black Plates. Paired up with a no-name 2X12 cabinet this head produced a tone that I would have to characterize as one of the top 3 tone signatures I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing with my Les Paul. It reminded me of the old Fender Bassman amp I had in the late 60s. Too bad it belonged to a friend who was WAY never going to part with it. Who could blame him? It was the perfect Fender tone at the perfect power level.
Fast forward to the auditioning of all these re-issue Fender amps in 2006. Plugging into the various Hot Rods at the music store was okay and mildly interesting until I moved my guitar cable into the low impedance input of Mr. Tweed Blues Deluxe. Whoa there. I heard that good old bell-like tone of the Bandmaster Reverb. Unfettered, open, breathing tone that came out of the stock setup no matter where the dials were set. Yeah-that's MY KIND of amp. Paid the cash and took her home. The rest is history.
I have two Les Pauls..a goldtop and a studio. 490r and 498t pups on the Studio. P-90 setup on the goldtop. I also have a Strat clone with a nice set of aftermarket, "Texas Style" pickups. All sound just great through this little guy. Using a few pedals for overdrive and clean boost, on both channels. That's all I need if I have to go beyond clean or a smooth, light overdrive, which this amp does wonderfully all on its own.
The clean channel is rich and soulful with that Fender bell-tone that reminds me of the good old days: circa late 60s Fender Bandmaster Reverb-you get the picture. The drive channel on this amp is just perfect. It's a drive channel that resembles the effect of a tube screamer-nothing more. This is an amp that will serve old school guys who go to their tone and volume knobs about 50 times in a two-hour show. I don't think I ever open up my Les Pauls fully with the Blues Deluxe because they push the front end just a little too hard for me. Not a problem. This is the amp that feels like a well worn pair of jeans to me. it reminds me so much of the good old days of my misspent youth, before there were pedals or channel switching amps. I love this amp and I seriously doubt that I'll ever really look at another amp and wish I bought it instead.
Plenty loud enough for your average club or church setting, on its own. With a basic SM 57 you can go through the PA, should you need it to be louder than it is on its own. Oh yeah, nice reverb too. Plus, it's only 50 pounds.
I'm a blues guy first and foremost. I also do classic rock of the 60s, 70s and some modern stuff too...90s grunge, rock stuff. I use Les Pauls mostly. This amp does all that with just a few pedals. I'm not a heavy effects guy...reverb, trem and overdrive/boost is all I need for this.

Too soon to tell. I have a Blues Junior as well as the Blues Deluxe. Neither amp impresses me too much in terms of build quality but then again I'm from an era of heavy duty chassis, point-to-point wiring on an eyelet board, hard-wired pots mounted on a chassis-not a PC board to be found. These are wimpy by comparison, but the thing is; take care of your gear and it will last. So the jury's out for now. No opinion on this one.

I'll fix my own.

Hey, I love this amp for what it is. It's a simple tool for squeezing good blues, rock & jazz tone out of an electric guitar. Even country music players can use it. It IS a blues amp so the heavy stuff won't work with one of these as well as with a Marshall / Peavey / Boogie. This is about sweet, fat, round, chimey cleans and/or a little bit of hair on top of sweet, fat, round, chimey cleans. This is just PERFECT for me. I would buy it again and I would buy the Blues Junior again, too. Nice job, Fender.

My amp is brand new, made in 07/08 as far as I know. I play a wide variety of music, but mostly blues, classic rock and funky numbers. I sometimes go a little bit heavier with the help from a fuzz pedal, but never too over the top. If I wanted a heavy sounding amp, I wouldn't have brought this one now would I?

The Amp has 2 channels, 1- clean, 2- drive. Reverb is fantastic, maybe not quite as good as a Deluxe Reverb amp, but that is about double the price so who's complaining?

I play basically around a slightly driven sound, with some reverb, and then control the rest of the sound with a couple of well selected pedals and guitars. Funky clean, rock overdrive and blues breakup is as easy as 1,2,3.

The EQ is the same for both channels, but i've gone from a AC30CC2 to this, so its not like i'm not already used to that.

Its a 40watt amp, that would rip your face off if turned right up. Fenders are loud so get rid of any pre-conceptions that you only need 100watts. On its own its loud enough for pubs, stick a mic in front of it and give me a good monitor mix and i'd be happy to play it at Wembley.

I said before i've come to this from a Vox AC30CC2. This is also a great amp. BUT - when you drive it, I think it gets just a little bit too trashy. If you like that, cool, its not necessarily a bad thing, but now i'm not using it with a PRS (which was my main guitar when I purchased it) which has SUPER SUPER SUPER clear pickups, i'm not loving the tone as much.

The fender has a lot of clarity. Its a really warm, bright sound with a lot of bite if you want it. The Reverb is very warm and lush sounding, the amp sounds great. I used a Strat and a 335 and between these two guitars, my small pedal board and this amp - I can get every sound one could ever require. I use a Fuzz Factory, Keeley TS808, Cry Baby and Line6 DL4 - and I swear I can go from SRV, to ACDC, to Hendrix, to Rage against the Machine with the click of a few buttons!

I looked at a LOT of amps before buying this one right through the spectrum of ??200 - ??2500. I also tried a Bassman and a 57 Reissue. Both are really nice amps and sound great, but aren't as usable in the real world. Not every pub is going to let you drive your amp to 5 to get that sweet spot, and they don't come with any reverb (which is something I use a lot). YES, they are great amps, but why spend an extra ??1000+ if for nothing much more than snobbery value?

This amp is stock and will remain stock. I don't understand these people who buy these amps and change tubes/speakers etc. If you don't like the sound of this amp - keep looking?

I've heard mixed reviews about Fenders, but I believe as long as you treat it nicely, look after it, as with all things it'll never let you down. I suppose only time will tell if this amp is going to fail on me.

i've dealt with Fender a few times and I don't have anything too bad to say about them. They aren't the best, but they aren't the worst. And knowing how Warrenty repairs work anyway, even if somethign did go wrong i'd probably still have to pay something? So ce la vie.

Fender Custom Shop 60's strat
Gibson ES335
ZVEX Fuzz Factory
Keeley TS808
Jim Dunlop Cry Baby
Line 6 DL4
Korg DT-10 tuner
and now the finnisher to the set, the Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue.
It sounds great, it looks great, its ??550? I honestly can't find anything wrong with this product? If you know what your doing and have a brain out of your *** - this amp will give you the tone you desire and much much more.

Great Features...EQ, Foot Switch...

Talk about bottom end WOW! Not shrill or muddied...decent tone! Used to playing through a Vibro-King but need a lighter Amp because of my back...I can notice the Deluxe is less than in areas but it certainly holds its own!

Brand New! Don't know yet. I won't fool around with anything Fender has here...I've learned my lesson about fixing things that aren't broken...leave them alone! So far so good, very dependable...

Fender can be ugly...

Great Amp and Great Value.

2005 Blues Deluxe Too many negative posts for this amp.

Very versatile. All the needed features. It was not intended to be an option to a Marshall amp or a Mesa. It lacks the "more drive" button from the Hot Rod Deluxe... If you needed that you could buy the Hot Rod.

This is a primo amp, not a practice amp. It is supposed to be loud, for gigs and large areas.

Funny how so many folks buy a $600+ amp and then start tearing apart and rebuilding it with Celestion spkrs and new tubes. I am surprised they ever bought it in the first place. First, the shimmery high ends seem to repress the mid range? Well, the tone knob on the guitar helps... a lot. This amp, therefore, is able to accommodate Teles, Strats, HMBKRS, country blues, jazz etc. with many mixes of sound. Secondly, the AMP is NOT a Marshall. Why Frankenstein the amp when you really want a Marshall? I know how to use the knobs and I like the sound.
Honestly, I think guys love the tweed look and buy it on that basis alone.

It is dependable, as long as you don't mess it up yourself. I have found lots of these (in music stores too) which have the pre-amp tube stablizer removed. This will assure the player of all the tube symptoms mentioned here: noise, rattling etc. The stabilizer is NOT a shipping thing, it stays on the AMP.

Fender has a 5 year warranty on these! Depending on the shop and your patience, the service should be fine. Fender is a huge company and they have their share of Bozos to deal with, but overall they try hard.

I have experienced relatively good things over the years.

Been playing since 1967. I have too much gear and am selling some off. I would not be able to afford another one of these, so if it was lost it would be a sorry event. Life goes on.

Compared the Blues Deluxe to the Peavey Classic 30, Fender Blues JR and Hot Rods, Genz Benz diablo (nice), and several boutique amps. This was simpler and more affordable than the boutique options...

Have you ever seen guys who ALWAYS start tuning guitars (which are already perfectly tuned) before they have heard the notes... then they leave them out of tune? And then they blame the guitar? That's what comes to mind with all the nonsense going on with people rebuilding good amps to capture one different sound... If it ain't broke don't fix it... keep looking for another amp... it is probably out there!