Played through a Deluxe Reverb the other night...

[daemon]

So I had a gig at a place with notoriously bad power, and as I feared my amp buzzed like a mother. A buddy of mine had a Deluxe Reverb, so I plugged into that and not only was it fairly quiet, but it sounded beautiful. Loud enough to keep up with my heavy handed drummer and still sounded fairly clean. Now I have to figure out what I'm going to sell to get one . Bonus, there's one in Surf Green coming!

[mekhem]

They are good if you need the volume

[Embenny]

They're a gig & studio standard of the last 50 years for a reason. Killer, killer amp. Never seen that surf green before though!

[daemon]

I'm probably going to go with the wine red one. Slightly cheaper and super classy.

[Groovy Tunes]

The new Silverface Custom Deluxe sounds even sweeter!

[ifallalot]

The new Silverface Custom Deluxe sounds even sweeter!

I concur. And you can jump the channels

[fortytwo]

I had one I really liked, but still ended up selling for some odd reason.
Not to long after I sold it, regret sat in, and I ended up buying another one that sounds even better than the first one I had.

[Groovy Tunes]

I had one I really liked, but still ended up selling for some odd reason.
Not to long after I sold it, regret sat in, and I ended up buying another one that sounds even better than the first one I had.

Looks like it worked out in the long run!

[andy_tchp]

The new Silverface Custom Deluxe sounds even sweeter!

I concur. And you can jump the channels

I don't. The '68 Custom' amps I tried out (the Deluxe Reverb and Princeton Reverb, lined up in the same room next to their '65 Reissue' cousins I was comparing them with) sounded incredibly boxy/nasal and rattled like an old car at any kind of volume above speaking level



Edit: For clarity, and correcting the name of the series I'd gotten wrong initially. It was early...

[mekhem]

I'm probably going to go with the wine red one. Slightly cheaper and super classy.

The red ones have a different speaker to break up earlier - something to know....

[jdr1014]

The new Silverface Custom Deluxe sounds even sweeter!

I concur. And you can jump the channels

I don't. The 'Custom Deluxe' amps I tried out (the Deluxe Reverb and Princeton Reverb, lined up in the same room right next to their '65 Reissue' cousins) sounded incredibly boxy/nasal and rattled like an old car at any kind of volume above speaking level

This I concur with. The "custom" versions don't sound as much like the classics. I prefer the blackface reissue models - classic BF tone to start with, that can be "colored" if desired. Can make dirt from clean but not clean from dirt.

[Despot]

I used to run a DRRI for a few years - it was my first 'proper' step up amp from the Hot Rod Deluxe that I'd gigged for years. And it was a glorious amp - the tremolo and reverb in particular were a noticeable improvement over what I'd been using before and it just sounded ... well ... good. I can't recall it ever sounding bad actually.

Time moved on and I found that I'm really only a stay home player these days. The Deluxe was too much amp for that. I've gone through every permutation and variation of combo amp over five years and finally settled on the one everyone recommended at the start of that process - a good/decent silver face Princeton Reverb!

That being said, there is a legit blackface Deluxe Reverb for sale here in Dublin ... and it is a glorious sounding thing. If I was to find myself playing live again in the future I think I'd go to something like that (or a SF Deluxe Reverb).

[daemon]

I'm probably going to go with the wine red one. Slightly cheaper and super classy.

The red ones have a different speaker to break up earlier - something to know....

Oh really, hmm, may have to rethink that. The one I played through was the black version.

[Despot]

Yeah ... those non-black/original style versions are all FSR (Factory Special Run). For the most part they have the changed cosmetics (i.e. 'custom' coloured tolex rather than black, sometimes different cloth too) but also different speakers.

If you liked the blackface reissue then you want to be sure that whatever you buy is fitted with a ceramic Jensen speaker. Some of those runs have Celestions or Eminence speakers fitted - as well as one with an Alnico rather than ceramic Jensen. This isn't a bad thing - I really love alnico speakers ... particularly Jensens - but if it's that blackface sound that you want I would look for one of the FSRs that has the 'standard' ceramic Jensen fitted.

The other option is to see can you find an original silver face from the late '60s or '70s - Deluxe Reverbs can sometimes be picked up for close to the price of the reissues, and they're great amps. I've played the reissue Princeton and also own two old SF Princetons ... the SF and reissue are clearly the same amp and sound very similar, but the SF just seems to have all the good things about the reissue and then more.

[matbard]

My '68 Custom Twin Reverb sounded really better than the '65 Reissue counterpart. Same with the '68 Custom Deluxe compared with the '65 Deluxe