Fender Amps

Shawn Brown · From: Ontario, Canada

I've been using a 1978 100 watt Fender Vibrosonic with my Fessenden steel. I'm starting to find it a little heavy to be carting it to and from the gigs, but I like the Fender tube amp sound. Does anyone use a Fender Deluxe reverb for steel gigs? I've been thinking of getting one. Would the 22 watt Deluxe be up to it, or is it too under powered?

Don Hinkle · From: Springfield Illinois, USA

way too underpowered.
Probably the best bang for your buck fender tube amp that will be loud enough is a hot rod deville.
Tony Prior turned me onto them a year or so ago.
I have the 2X12 model and it works "ok". It sounds good but still if you push it past 3 or 4 it will break up.
If you use input 2 you can get a little bit louder but I think that 4 X 6L6 tubes are MUCH better than 2.
Get a solid state amp.
Get a NV400 and a tubefex - you can make it sound like a fender amp and it will be loud enough to wake the dead.
Don
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mike nolan · From: Forest Hills, NY USA

Depends on the gig.... I use my '64 Deluxe Reverb most of the time..... but I am usually fortunate enough to play with pro musicians who have learned to keep the stage volume down, and let the sound tech handle the rest.

You might want to check out Headstrong Amps. They will put about anything you want in a Princeton or Deluxe sized package. I know of at least one Lil King Reverb outfitted with KT66s and a single 12"..... basically a 50 watt Princeton Reverb.

Steve Lipsey · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

Well, I'd say it completely depends on size of hall and whether you are mic'ed or not....anytime we play anything bigger than a small club, the amp is mic'ed....and the sound guy hates loud stage volume, it interferes with what he does for FOH....and it kills your ears.....so I use a 30 watt tube amp or even a 15 watter....

Back in the day, I used a Twin Reverb, but we were never mic'ed then and needed it....

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

These days I'm using a pair of ZT Club amps.

http://www.ztamplifiers.com/products/club.html

These little suckers put out 200 watts, and weigh only 22 pounds.

But they tend to sound sterile, so I tweak the sound with a Sarno Black Box, and a POD XT. The POD is set to default to a Plexi 100 amp simulator with four 10" speakers, plus a very tiny amount of compression and stereo chorusing. (I use Rich Schmidt's compression setting.)

The combination sounds great. And the whole rig weighs less than 50 pounds.
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Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

I have a 2005 Blues Deluxe Reissue and an extension cab, put a 12AT7 in the front end of the amp to improve response and reduce gain a bit, and a pair of K120's in the cabinets deliver big punch and clarity at 40 watts only. Internal Accutronics type 9 reverb tank sounds great, so I'm done shopping.

The Hot Rod series have an IC op-amp in the circuit that I found brittle sounding, the all-tube BDR has the mojo going on...

Rick Kreuziger · From: Merrillan, Wisconsin

Alex Piazza · From: Arkansas, USA

I use the fender hot rod deluxe. I like the way it sounds. its 40 watts and just a 12 inch speaker. not too heavey. miked up in a decent room i dont go above 5-6 on the volume. stays clean enough for me. Its got a big dark fender sound. Ive used the deluxe reverb and it just sounds too midrangy for me

Shawn Brown · From: Ontario, Canada

Thanks for all the advice. I won't be buying the Deluxe reverb.

Brian Herder · From: Philadelphia, Pa. USA

I wouldn't count out a Deluxe Reverb. Like others said, it depends on the gig. I often play in a large band situation with just a little Victoria 2012 (tweed Deluxe), but it's mic'd through a real PA and I am always surprised by how good it sounds (with an RV3). I also use a Super Reverb with a 15" Weber and a Sho Bud xmas tree most of the time. For little singer/songwriter things I like my Princeton Reverb with a 12 stuffed in it. Of course big power is preferable, but I think smaller amps are too often overlooked. You could try a Deluxe and keep the Vibrosonic for the big jobs. All that aside, if the job involves C6 (pedal), or is a typical loud band in a bar, the big power and speaker are a must. Of course, your results may vary.

Dave Hopping · From: Aurora, Colorado

Shawn,another way around the problem is to install the chassis and the speaker in separate cabs(and maybe also go to a Neo).Might involve some bux,but probably less than what you'd have to lay out for a new amp.There are a lot of aftermarket cab builders,and I seem to recall someone here does that too,although names escape me.

Brendan Mitchell · From: Melbourne Australia

I play in a quiet 3 piece and use a Vibro Champ !

Atom Schmitt · From: Nashville, TN

Wow. These are some interesting responses. Right now for BF-style Fenders, I've got a Vibrolux, a Deluxe, and a Vibroverb (with a Twin OT). Obviously, the 15" and the high power of the VV make that my go-to steel amp but I can't really get the volume past 3 or so without pissing off the sound guy. I pulled out the speaker to replace it with a JBL I had sitting on the shelf a couple hours before my last gig with it, and much to my chagrin I found that the JBL wouldn't fit due to the bigger transformer and where it was located on the chassis, so I ended up in an unexpectedly tight spot that night. However, that tight spot had me trying something new that I rather liked - a Victoria 80212 (high power tweed Twin) with a Strymon Blue Sky reverb out front.

I'm pretty new to PSG and sort of assumed the wattage was partly something people prefer for the headroom and the girth of the sound you get out of a big amp, not so much the maximum volume you'd get out of the amp if you turned it up to eleven. I practice at home with the Deluxe and it's fine, but if I tried to gig with that I think it would sound pretty thin compared to what I get out of the bigger amps. On the other hand, the band I'm playing with has been pushing closer and closer to IEMs for everyone in the band and more carefully controlled stage volume than we're already using, so it's kind of nice to know that it's possible to scale back to a smaller amp if we can get the rest of the volume low enough to pull it off.

That said... good luck getting the drummer's stage volume down (without a lot of expensive shielding, anyway). I think I'll always need a certain baseline of clean volume and I doubt I'd get it from a Deluxe.

Steve Lipsey · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

There is also the simple mod that Brad Sarno mentioned in my thread on odd input circuit hum in the Electronics section (which turned out to just be the effect of a single coil pickup on a high gain input).....I added a switch to the back panel to do this when desired

...clip the capacitor from cathode to ground on the input tube, gives you more clean headroom and makes the amp, as Brad puts it, "Steel friendly"...

My gig amps are a 15 watt Matchless combo and a 30 watt Matchless head/cab...

Stuart Legg · Posted 7 Nov 2011 1:51 pm

If you like your big amp and you're not flying take the speaker out and put it in a cabinet.

Brian McGaughey · From: Orcas Island, WA USA

I had Rick Johnson build me seperate cabinets for the head and for the speaker of my '76 Vibrosonic.

It's one more piece yeah, but less weight per carry and more options on tight stages with piggy back set up. The head is never on top of the speaker cab, actually. Usually at my feet with the speaker cab behind me wherever it'll fit.

You start to have some different speaker options with one head this way, too.

Shawn Brown · From: Ontario, Canada

Some very interesting ideas from everyone regarding tube amps. Thanks!

Steve Lipsey · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

Just ordered a ZT Club for those days when hauling an 85lb amp isn't feeling like the right move...had a nice talk with Mike Perlowin about it, seems like a good option to have (with a Sarno Black Box, of course).

They are out os stock pretty much everywhere, but Musician's Friend has a couple of used ones at good discounts (one looked like the speaker had been removed, the others look OK)...

Kerry Hutcherson · From: Richmond, Virginia, USA

Shawn, I use a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, and it has worked well for gigs and recording. I've also recorded with a Fender Twin Reverb (the '64 Reissue), and it worked well, too. I noticed that someone else on the Forum mentioned that he plays through a Vibrochamp. I tried one of those once and was surprised how much I liked it for certain things. It led me to play things totally different than I would when using the Hot Rod Deluxe, so that's something to think about when switching amps: how might this open up new ideas for my playing style?

Shawn Brown · From: Ontario, Canada

Kerry, I'm going to see if I can borrow a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and try it out. Sounds like it could be the answer (I'll keep the Vibrosonic anyway). Good to hear from another Richmond resident, as I live in Richmond, Ontario.

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

An example of Rick Johnsons work--black cabs I once owned. Those are 15" speaker cabs. You can leave one home if you mike your rig or have a small venue. The head cab and speaker cab arrangement is very manageable. The head goes next to my steel seat for easy tweeking and beer holder, and the speaker gets placed where it's needed on stage--always where I hear it the best. We mike the instruments anyways. Bigger venues, I take both cabinets for a fuller sound.

I do the cab setup like this because I refuse to give up tone because of weight. My current cabs are green with gold grill (for my twin and vibrosonic)--my favorites.

This is just one of many approaches. Works for me. Smile

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Steve Schmidt · From: Ramsey, MN, USA

once you get the Fender tube sound in your head, it's tough to use any thing else. I'm almost 55 and I still lug around a 68 Fender Twin for Steel and a 66 Fender Super Reverb for my tele or strat. It still gets it done. Get yourself a 2 wheeler.

Stephen Cordingley · From: Ontario, Canada

Shawn:
If you mean Richmond Hill, I'm nearby in Pickering.
I have a number of Fender amps you could audition for steel to help you narrow down what you're looking for.
If weight is really the issue, though, it may be a moot point: larger amps tend to have larger speakers, which weigh considerably more.
The 15" speaker creates the headroom many want in a PSG amp, but it is also what makes the amp inconveniently heavy (for example, a Fender 75 with a 15" speaker has tube warmth and back wrenching bulk)
Let me know if you're interested in hearing a Deluxe Reverb etc.
Stephen

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

It's only a couple lbs. difference, if that, between a 15" and a 12" speaker of the same make/type. For instance , an EV 15L and an EV 12L are very close in weight. But an EV 12L(12") and a 12" stock Fender stamped frame speaker has a lot of difference in weight.
The real culprit on the big amps are the big transformers to push that power--big iron=big power. Then cabinet size--4 tens or 2 12's or one 15"----many factors to consider. A twin reverb with a pair of EV's out weighs a Vibrosonic with a single EV 15L--the twin and the vibro are essentialy the same amp except speaker configuration and 4 ohm in the twin, and 8 ohm in the vibro. So many factors show up in many of the models.
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John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

I found splitting the cabs to be a good option. When you carry them, they're balanced. Rick Johnson's cabs, that match my Dr. Z Maz Jr;

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