Fender Blues Deluxe

1995 Fender Blues Deluxe, all-tube combo. Blonde tolex covering, (offered in 1995 only, I'm told) oxblood grille. This amp has a clean and overdriven channel, footswitch controlled. 40 watts driven through a 12" Eminence-designed speaker. There is a preamp circuit, and you can drive a cabinet or another amp off this... although it's plenty loud on its own. I play in a Christian band, and we do Rock, (lots of) Blues, Country and Jazz styles, and find this amp versatile enough for all, (maybe a little throaty for some Jazz).
My only complaint is that when you're facing the amp, the controls are upside down. I use my amp as my monitor, so this is important to me... the Hot Rod series has "corrected" this.

My guitars are:
1)a 1995 Fender Telecaster MIJ with Strat Texas Special neck and middle P/U's, Tele Vintage P/U in the Bridge
2)a 1981 Schecter US Strat with standard S/S/S Schecter P/U's
3)a 2002 Epiphone Les Paul Standard with "Gibson" 'buckers (until I can afford the real deal, or drop some Burstbuckers into it!)

I use a range of Boss pedals, plus a TS-9 Tubescreamer. I also have a surprisingly realiable and versatile Digitech multipedal.

This amp really replicates that warm bluesy tone, especially when I'm playing my Tele. At med-high volumes, the clipping is just about the sweetest sound I've ever heard. This amp is far and away the finest of the pack for my style. Way warmer than the newer Hot Rod DeVille, and 25lbs less to lug to gigs.
I find that this amp has very little noise for a tube combo.
There is very little versatility of sound for this amp... clean or drive, that's about it. At higher volumes, the clean channel does distort, but it's a nice warm fuzzy distort, not that "big mosquito" distort you get from less ballsy amps.

This amp has never failed. I have used it indoors and out, on a lot of gigs... because we're a Christian band, it hasn't seen the bars... typical Fender reliability.

I also have a Hod Rod DeVille 2*12 combo, and have owned 2 solid state amps: an 80's Fender M-80 2*12 combo and a Roland 1*12 Blues Cube.... there is absolutely no comparison between the latter two and the Blues Deluxe. These are getting harder to find, but are well worth the investment if you track one down.

Two channel tube amp, tweed style, made 1996, see other rewiews for detailed description of features. It's the forerunner to the current Hot Rod Deluxe amp. WHAT'S GOOD: Has an effects loop (which I use with slap-back echo). WHAT'S BAD: Confusing layout. White upside down lettering on chrome panel, illogical order of knobs. Supposed to be "vintagey", but try to read it under gigging conditions and you'll see what I mean! By the way: Who needs all these controls? Most classic amps had just one or two tone-controls, the Champ had none. Fender, wake up!

I use it with a Fender 50's Tele Reisssue (Tequilacaster). Heroes: Steve Cropper, James Burton, Scotty Moore, Merle Travis - so you know what styles I play... ;-)
The clean channel has "it": Classic fender sound. Clean, bright tone, very lively.
The spring reverb goes all the way from decent to surf and sounds very full. Well done, Fender. The drive channel is harsh sounding, but not more so than older, high powered Fender amps (think: Twin Reverb).

The solder joints were sloppy. I had a tech fix it, when I bought the amp (used). Other than that: no problems so far. Own it since 2001, have been gigging with it.

Never dealt with them. But you can download schematics at Fender's homepage.

The envelope, please: It a good amp for blues, rockabill, country, swing jazz and stuff like that. Hard rockers, metalheads stay away! It suffers from too many features, but has the sound. It's loud, too loud in my opinion, as you can drown out a "normal" drummer at half volume, even before the amp starts to go into overdrive. If I had my way, Fender would make a tube amp with tube rectifier, 25 watts power, one channel with volume, bass, treble, reverb controls, and that's it! Oh, and a 15 inch-Speaker would be nice, too. Until then, I'll make do with this baby.

The Blues Deluxe Started in 1993 and they stoped in 1997 and started to hot rod the amps.It has two channels that you can slest by hand or by footswitch (clean/overdrive.)My self I like to keep the amp on clean but just turn the volume all the way up. I play in a rock band with a drummer and its loud enof. If all you want is clean tones you might want to get something with 60 or 100 watts. This amp is great for Jazz, Bules, and Rock music or anything eles out there today.The great thing is its light 45 pounds.I dont know if I have to tell you this it is tube dont buy anything but tube its the bust sound.

I use a Fender STRAT and a TELE. The one Strat I have has Texas special and the other has 60's pickups. I have a Fender Vibro King and the deluxe I think sounds better. I mean 2000$ or 350$.I crank the volume and it?s not noisy at all.

With this amp I never had any problems.

You will have to buy it used so allot of warranty are linited. But the guys at fender are nice so they will help you if you heed it.

Put it this way for the money it?s the best thing out their. And I would buy an another.

96 bought new after calling every dealer in town to get best price. Features as stated before. I'm writing this review based on the intended design, NOT in comparison with modelling or multi-channel do it all amps. As the name implies, this is a BLUES Deluxe....designed for clean to lightly driven tones. 'Drive' should be footswitchable and control lettering is difficult to read. Alone, this is not a versatile amp, BECAUSE, it's not designed to be such.

I've used several guitars with this amp, old Carvin...94 PRS Custom24...02 PRS Custom24...82 LP Custom...00 Epi LP. Haven't tried a pure single coil, (Hey JP...bring your Strat over!). Sometimes use a Mesa V-Twin in front. Great deep clean and lightly driven sounds. It's not a pristine clean but more of a bluesy clean. Much more bass than expected from a 1x12 and plenty of volume for it's range. EQ is fairly subtle, which i prefer, since a wide ranging EQ generally yeilds more unusable tones around a smaller range of usable. Has it's own sound, (and it's a good one), not an attempted copy of anything else.

Very well built aside from a few plastic parts that can easily be replaced. Only problem i've had is the pilot light quickly burned out. Tried new GT 6L6s but liked original tubes slightly better.

Never used, thank God.

I've played since the mid 70s with cheap gear until last few years cuz i can now afford the good stuff. Let's see...original POD (don't use as a pedal into a guitar amp, go direct, to power amp, or headphones),...Mesa 20/20 (NICE! Great with POD),...Rocktron Taboo Twin (best hybrid design i've heard with possible exception of Fender Cyber Twin)...Yamaha Dg-1000 Pre-amp...Mesa V-Twin...Behringer 4x12 stereo cab...pedals and practice amps. If stolen i'd probably spend more for a blackface reissue or boutique amp just because i can but for the money you can't beat the Blues Deluxe. Mints are starting to climb back up in price on ebay...even to more than i paid new. Front facing black control lettering would be easier on my eyes. Since i'm careful with my equipment, the couple of cheap plastic parts have given me no problem. Excellent value!

It's a 1994 Blues Deluxe, it has spring reverb, 3x12AX7 on the preamp
& 2x6L6's on the power amp. Two channels clean and drive w/ stompbox, fx loop, but no headphone jack and it's better this was. Has total output of 60W but 40W RMS on the Eminence Gold Label speaker. It is
loud as a motha... For what it's ment to be it's just perfect.

I use Hohner strat copy, w/ Kent Armstrong HSS setup. I play mainly
blues so I find it very useful, imagine that. It is not niosy but that
depends on tubes so be careful when U buy used one. Sound is very mellow and smooth on clean and bluesy when overdriven. It a all round blues amp. Nice long sustain and definition on drive but would be much better, crispier with better speaker. Try to get some Celestion or Jensen with 70Hz-5KHz or 6KHz response speaker. But in the end it's a damn good amp.

Nope, noting wrong yet.

I don't want to comment those sluggish sorry ass mothas.

I've been playing since I was 9 years old, so that makes for some 13 years. I own also Marshall Blues Breaker, Korg CHR1 chorus, XYZ Volume Pedal and Boss PW10 Wah. It all works just fine! If U have a chance to buy this amp - BUY IT. But don't give more than 400 bucks.
It a good amp!

1993 tweed blues del. a stand-alone distortion machine but i dont need a whole lot of that anyway. i actually hit most of my notes with the pick -a novel idea!!!
it is a two channel amp, footswitchable, pre-out/power-in effects loop with no blend pot. if you have a pedal that colors your sound in bypass, it will still do it here. no headphone jack. all tube w/pcb fixed bias, fixed 8-ohm, 15-18" spring, solid state reverb.
use amp in project studio and occasional gig. 40 watts of power and as of now it has plenty o swat for me.

used mostly with LP standard (split coil bridge-seth lover neck) and epiphone strat clone with fender mexi (i think) pu's @ neck and middle and cool rail @bridge. i use this guitar for the scattered slide work i do and will use it much more when i find another neck for it (or just break down and buy a damn strat)
amp is very limited (almost garbage) as a stand-alone unit. i run it through a 4x12 fender cab w/vintage 30's (the newer ones)
clean channell will get a suitable bluesey breakup only when having put a set of tubes rated no higher than 4.5.it has no distortion. chan2 just overdrives the clean channel but the tone controls are NEVER good for both channels.

amp is very reliable. have used it w/o backup. amp will be hard pressed to fry, i keep a close eye on all three of my tube amps, constantly checking things. i love tinkering with amps and manipulating tone. i currently have 5 different duets of 6L6's that i swap in and out for different colors.

i sometimes like dealing with fender and sometimes i cant stand the fella's in fullerton. they have some strange ways but concerning this amp, the only dealing i yhad with them was to purchase a schematic (i think the blues del. was the only amp they have ever built that wasnt available for download (5-freaking bucks!!!!! that would have bought 2 sets of strings)there is a fender dealer everywhere (almost as plentiful as peavey)

been playing since i was about 6 but only got back into it a couple years ago, after a 10 year hiatus. i was plying but not trying to advance. im all better now.
if it were lost or ripped, i wouldnt get another.

after all that was said about the amp sounding bad, i was ONLY talking about its individual voice. this amp is a great vehicle to experiment with effect and its reverb is very good as all fender reverb is. (even the transistor kind) the blues deluxe also can be modified (bias pot, tube rect, torres sells a eyelet cirquit board that is a clone of the old fender deluxe's and everyone i have asked about it says it completely transforms the amp from very average to excellent. this is the next project. the board is not expensive but getting it proffesionally installed is. i have already changed a few of the caps and it helped the treble a bunch.

this is the chain; guitar lp or slopiphone into volume into original crybaby into marshall bluesbreaker od (old blue writing one) into boss amp factory. the only effect i run in the loop is a yamaha EMP100 multi processor (chorus, flange, phase, million delays, verbs) this is a very good unit for that type stuff. it is digital but it really sounds analog. emp also has reverse delay, echo. and then the amp runs into the 4x12 cab which sometimes runs into some folks ears.it is here wher the chain of signal gets muddy and maybe you dont need to know the sordid details.

i run the amp through an a/b/y that switches between the bd and/or peavey classic 50 head ran through a 2x12 laney cab (shit box) with awesome speakers. vintage 30's (old ones)

Early model I think. Tweed. Bought it as a back-up and to use as a stage amp when hosting jam sessions. Sounds good for most of the stuff I do. Changed the speaker to a Naylor 12, and changed the output tranny tap to the 4-ohm to sweeten it up a bit. Building a 2-10 baffle to drop old stock speakers in it to vintage it a bit. Add a cathode bias on the power tubes to give it a bit more squish.

Tele 52RI w/duncan musical magnets, Clapton Strat with gold, silver, blue lace sensors.
Has a great smooth breakup about 8 on the clean. Don't use the distortion channel yet.
Its gotten quite a few looks from other players.

#1 input jack went south, replaced it with the channel switching jack (same part). Put the the bad jack in for the switching jack and it worked great. No repair bill, no parts bill. Just a few swear word getting the thing a part.
Its never given any trouble on stage.

Its used at GUITARCENTER. Got a schematic off the web.

Been playing in blues dives around detroit. Use Fender silververb 2-10, Naylor DevilDog. Occasionally use an IBNZcheap-o echo, or VShomeplate overdrive pedal.
I'd buy another if I could get the one with the Blonde Tolex.
The tone is decent.

I bought mine new in 1997, but I think it was made in 1995.
All valve (tube) with clean and overdrive channel plus reverb.
Channel foot switch, pre-amp in and out,
40 Watts RMS (I think). Anyway, it's more than loud enough for the pubs, hotels and clubs I use it in.
Nice tweedy "retro" box and grill,
Emminence Speaker

I use a Gibson Les Paul Standard, a Flying V, Standard US Strat and a Rickenbacker 360.

The clean channel can give a nice full jazzy tone or a lovely round Claptonesque/Chris Rea out-of-phase sound with the Strat. Spot on 60's Beatle tone when used with the Rickenbacker.

The dirty channel won't give you axe head, megadeath, blow it out your pants filth, but I do get a great and full sounding "rock" overdrive (a la the Dire Straights "Money For Nothing" riff) from my Les Paul and Flying V. Both the Gibsons also generate a nice blues overdrive from the clean channel when cranked up over "4" or "5". The Strat sounds crap through the O/D channel. Seems like it needs the humbuckers to get the best out of it. On the other hand the clean Strat noises are great.

It hasn't packed up at a gig, but the channel switch jack socket broke a month or so after the warranty ran out. I took the thing apart to replace it and was surprised by the poor quality of some of the hardware - most notably the cheap and nasty plastic jack sockets and weak, cross threaded PCB mountings. Having said this, the design seems very well thought out - multiple board mountings and a nice "swing down" chassis mounting. To me it seems as if this amp was very well designed, only to be spoiled by the production people (or the accountants) who seem to have skimped on component quality to keep the costs down.

Never dealt with Fender

I've been playing since 1976 (yes ... I'm an old fart) This is the only gigging amp I own, although I do have a 1960's Princton for annoying the neighbours. I gig twice a week and so far the Blues Deluxe hasn't blown up. In the past I've had an AC15, a Twin Reverb and a Dual Showman. All were reasonably reliable, but the Blues Deluxe makes much better noises than the other Fenders and is as good as, but louder, than the AC15 with the additional advantage of reverb.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd probably buy an Ashdown because they're more readily available and easier to service in Central Europe (where I live) ... and also have a decent sound (our other guitarist has one), but I won't be part exchanging my Blues Deluxe for one.

I won't repeat the features already described in great detail by the rest of you. I wish it had built-in tremelo, but my Boss TR-2 does just fine. I love the vintage tweed and knobs. It's not to big and heavy to take to my weekly jam sessions.

What can I say other than I love the punch of this amp for blues! I can get that great growling needles feel out of the amp without turning it up to loud for the small pubs I play in. I use a Fender Am Standard with heavy strings. I'm happy to say that my stock speaker died today, so based on the recommendations of many of you, I'm going to pick up a nice sounding Jenson or Weber. I also plan on swapping out the stock speakers and adding some biasing. Then, I'll have a "10!"

I've had the amp about 6 years and the only break-down was the stock speaker, today - Thank you, Lord!

N/A- Haven't required it.

I bought this amp when it was about 6-months old from a guy who was into more distortion than this amp was designed. I'm so glad he sold it! I was looking at a Mesa-Boogie about the same time and I'm glad I made the choice I did. I get compliments all the time. Sorry - not for sale in my lifetime. This is definitely a keeper. I LOVE THIS AMP!!!!

Trebble, Mid, Bass, Presence, Bright Switch and Overdrive channel. I dont use the overdrive channel to often. The tone controls seem like they're interconnected and when you adjust one it seems to effect the other one next to it, more so on this amp than any other I have owned or used. It will take a little playing around to get it how you like it.

My main Guitar is a Lonestar Strat and when I gig I always bring a American Standard Strat with Texas Specials as a back up. I also have a Gibson ES-135 with PAF's that really push the amp and and make it break up very nice. This amp sounds great with my music style which is predominantly blues, 50's to 70's R&R, and Surf. I mainly use the clean channel and put a bunch of efects in front of it. I have a TS-9 tube screamer that has been retro modded to a TS-808 that really works well with this amp and I use a Mesa V-Twin pedal for high gain. This amp amp is loud for its size. I highly recommend replacing the original speaker that came with it though. I use a Celestion Vintage 30. The clean channel starts breaking up around 5-6. I have gotten many compliments on my sound with this amp, it's very warm sounding and I do back of the bass to about 4. I run the mid at 6, trebble at 7, presence at 7 and the bright switch on. Dials go from 1-12. I really like the sound I get from this amp.

This amp has been very reliable from 1996 to 2003. I either gigged or jammed at least once a week plus practiced a lot with this amp since new. The input jacks are cheap and I had it replaced one when it started to crap out about a year ago. I put in new Svetlana tubes then and had the shop tech add a bias adjustment too. It sounds even better now. I highly recommend the guys at Top Gear in San Diego they're very friendly/helpful and do good work.

Never had to use it

I've been playing for about 34 years. I'm giving this amp a very good rating because it definatly meets my needs. It is not to heavy to lug around it has great sound for the price I paid including the cost of a better speaker. It has been hauled around in my truck a lot and held up very well considering it's circuit board construction inside. If it were lost or stolen I would truly be bummed out and would get another, maybe two and go stereo. In fact I may get another anyway if the price is right. I have three other tube amps, two Fender combos and an older Carvin halfstack which sounds very Fender/Mesa Boogie.