dougmjones's Full Review: Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb Combo Amp
This is one of the best reproductions or copies of a vintage amp I have owned and played. I have a custom shop built Fender Vibroking as well as a variety of classic vintage fender amps. This amp is reliable, sturdy and in almost every way identical to the original in sound, tone and reliability.
This amp is easy to carry and small enough to easily and safely transport in a automobile. Easy to carry your entire rig into the gig in one trip from the car to the club. This is important to prevent theft and overall convenience.
This amp adjusts so easily and gets the tone I need with practically zero adjustments. In fact I don't even bother with sound checks. If it's a large stage or show I simply elevate the amp on a bar chair behind me and hang a Shure SM58 microphone over it and mic it to the sound PA system for added volume. I sound just as good as the guys with the huge stacks, chuckle, maybe even better. I focus on playing guitar. They focus on playing with knobs. Large amps are all ego, insecurity and battle with others onstage.
I noted this reproduction has a 3 wire 1/4" inch jack for the reverb and vibrato pedal unlike the unreliable and flakey RCA jacks on the vintage model. This is actually an improvement. The Vibrato also sounds awesome and is perhaps better than my vintage amps even though the little transducer is brand new after all.
It took me many years of trial and error and buying Mesa Boogies and other custom amplifiers to finally come full circle back to the Fender amps that I started with. I am so happy now that I saved my black face 1963 Super Reverb Amp. Unfortunaltely overseas collectors have grabbed all the vintage models and driven the price out of site for real players. So my only options for an affordable vintage sound is to buy the reproductions. At least if this amp gets stolen or damaged I don't feel too bad and can replace it.
The soft vintage 12" speaker sounds identical to my original 65 Deluxe and sounds amazingly accurate after only a short break in period. I never play the Deluxe with so much BASS that the speaker flubs and wobbles. This allows me to get the most out of the speaker without destroying it. Some consideration has to be made when playing a live show with an amp with only 1 speaker. The two Sovtek 6V6 powr tubes provide a warm and amazingly bold and firm tone. The amp doesnt fall apart at loud volumes and become mush. It did notice a point on stage with musicians that have no dynamics or awareness of volume began to drown me out.
If your Jazz or Blues band plays louder than this amp you need to find some more hip players to Jam with. This is not the amp to have for guitar jammer wars. It has all tube construction and no transistors or solid state amplification is hiding inside. There are no pointy Peavy logos on it and no cheesy effects. This is the meat and potatoes American amp.
The controls , switches and every aspect are identical to the original '65 Deluxe except the circuit board inside is more modern compared to the beloved bread board and hand wiring seen on the custom shop models or a real vintage amp. This normal robs from the purist tone potential with most models like the BassMan Tweed and others. I think this amp sounds amazingly close to a real one compared to those other over hyped models.
The channel on the left which is rarely used has the same controls as the right channel but the right channel also has the vibrato and reverb controls. The tube layout and all aspects are about 99% accurate in detail and the power switch is found in the old familiar place for those Vintage players who want a replacement so they dont have to wear out their vintage collectables. They should ship these with the Violet/Purple Jewel lens since people don't usually like the RED stock lens. GC6L6 power tubes can be used also to provide more headroom and less overdrive. This is an old tube amp trick that doesnt increase the power at all but does change the character of the amp. The Tube bias would have to be readusted in that case though. See the Tube Amp handbook published by Groove Tubes.
I think this amp sounds just as good and not much less loud than my 2500 dollar VibroKing. The reverb spring could be better but I am very picky and I only like certain reverb units even on the old vintage ones. I like a deeper thicker reverb that has the depth but doesnt ring on and sustain forever. I've done some slight tricks with some foam inside the replica reverb can in this amp and I got it sounding almost identical and perhaps in a blind folded test better than my original vintage model.
Overall I cant say enough about this amp. If you want the same convenience and size but a little more power the custom shop version of the VibroVerb with cream knobs may be more desirable to you but will cost about twice as much as this one which can be found for about 630.00 dollars US on the street if you go to the giant guitar warehouse stores where the zit faces teenager gives you a great price and horrible service. In fact someone had broken a knob off my first one. I had to drive back 2 hours to pick up another. I checked it over first that time. I also had a bad tube cracking ever so slightly. These things can be from shipping or store tossing the amp around too roughly. SO I had to strong arm the idiots at Guitar World into giving me another amp. I had only bought the other one 4 hours earlier and I didnt want to be swapping tubes around. I dont like to loosen the pin sockets up from tons of swapping. I also bought 2 of the 1.00 dollar spring clips that are used to hold tubes into the sockets. Marshall and other brands use these and I like them. I dont want a tube to fall out of socket during a trip. They installed with the four existing phillips screws in 5 minutes. Now the tubes are help in with the clips and springs. I had to also buy a Fender cover fot the amp and to beat all it doesnt even fit right. This is a dealer screwup since these large guitar world type stores are absolutely clueless and don't deserve the business they are stealing from the mom and pop music stores. But in fairness the stupid mom and pop stores try to gouge customers too much and deserve it somewhat.
I have to give Fender an over 9 on scale of 1-10 for effort and true reproduction of the classic original. On value this one is a 10. On tone this one is a 9.5. My Gibson ES-335 absolutely this amp sing like a bird. My fender stratocaster sounds just like the Fabulous Thunderbirds and SRV. What more can you ask ? I can see why so many legends secretly used this amp to record all the classic rock, blues and country hits. This amp was used often with the volume at 10.
One trick before I go. Leave the BASS on 3-4 and dont over use it. Keep the treble and midrange on medium 4-6 levels. On a Gibson or humbucker guitar play the guitar at full volume and treble and the amplifier volume on midrange 3-5 setting.
For a stratocaster try this way of thinking. Adjust the guitar volume and tome to half. Adjust the amplifier volume up to 8-10. Then slowly turn up the guitar to get to the volume you want while the amp remains almost wide open. Then add and remove treble on amp to add presence. This will make the fender sing and sound fat at lower club volumes with the thinner sounding fender guitar. This trick helps me get a Gibson like tone from my stratocaster without stomp pedals and distortion boxes. Try your own tricks but don't turn all amps to 10 on all the settings.
On a good fender vintage amp I can turn the volume to 10 but if the bass, mid and treble are all set to 0 no sound will come out. Only when I begin opening up the tone knobs will I begin hearing the guitar. This means adjust your tone from the low settings upward. Just turning all knobs up is pointless and you will never really find the different tones in your wonderful fender amp.
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