Special edition original Fender Blues Deluxe

Charon

My father is an amateur guitarist, he has an Original Fender Blues Deluxe (I think) special edition amp. He has had it from new but it is too powerful, for regular home use. He wants to sell it but has no idea of its is worth. I have been looking around the net trying to identify exactly what it is so we can advertise it correctly. The plate on the front says “Fender Blues Deluxe” which I think means it is a special edition. The date code on the quality control sticker inside says “FD”. After some research I found a website explaining the date code. It said the first letter represents the year

“A” being 1990 and the second letter representing the month. I deduced this meant Dads amp was made in 1996-April. A bit more research and I found the following site http://fender.wikia.com/wiki/Blues_Deluxe_Limited_Edition_1995. This website agrees the first letter is the year and the second the month but states that “FE” presents 1996-May not 1995-May like the previous site. If this new site is correct it means dads amp was made in 1996-April. 

It also states that the special edition only has the “Fender Blues Deluxe” plate and was made in 1996-May, 1996-June & 1996-July. Dads amp has the plate but appears to have been manufacture inspection dated 1996-April. So Dads amp was built/inspected the month before the official manufacture dates???

The best I can deduce is that he has a limited edition original fender blues deluxe from April 1996.

Firstly can any one offer any more advise and hopefully resolve the conflicts in information?

Secondly what is it worth and where is the best place to sell it (I just want o make sure my Dad isn’t ripped off while trying to sell it)?

olafgarten

Charon said:

My father is an amateur guitarist, he has an Original Fender Blues Deluxe (I think) special edition amp. He has had it from new but it is too powerful, for regular home use. He wants to sell it but has no idea of its is worth. I have been looking around the net trying to identify exactly what it is so we can advertise it correctly. The plate on the front says “Fender Blues Deluxe” which I think means it is a special edition. The date code on the quality control sticker inside says “FD”. After some research I found a website explaining the date code. It said the first letter represents the year

“A” being 1990 and the second letter representing the month. I deduced this meant Dads amp was made in 1996-April. A bit more research and I found the following site http://fender.wikia.com/wiki/Blues_Deluxe_Limited_Edition_1995. This website agrees the first letter is the year and the second the month but states that “FE” presents 1996-May not 1995-May like the previous site. If this new site is correct it means dads amp was made in 1996-April. 

It also states that the special edition only has the “Fender Blues Deluxe” plate and was made in 1996-May, 1996-June & 1996-July. Dads amp has the plate but appears to have been manufacture inspection dated 1996-April. So Dads amp was built/inspected the month before the official manufacture dates???

The best I can deduce is that he has a limited edition original fender blues deluxe from April 1996.

Firstly can any one offer any more advise and hopefully resolve the conflicts in information?

Secondly what is it worth and where is the best place to sell it (I just want o make sure my Dad isn’t ripped off while trying to sell it)?

Have you tried contacting Fender for more info?

ICBM

@MattFGBI will be the best to advise you on the dating.

Is he certain he wants to sell it? If he likes the sound of it and being too loud is the only problem, there's an easy solution to that...

http://thesuperheroesonline.co.uk/Fender-Hot-Rod-Volume-Pot-Module.html

This gives a very controllable low-volume sound - ask @Danny1969 for more info if you need it .

stephen.wood125

despite me being basically a nobody, I can definitely vouch for @Danny1969 's mod. It's made my Hot Rod Deluxe eminently playable at living room volume.

MattFGBI

Do you have any pictures of the amp?

sw67

I had one for 20y - Is it blonde tolex and oxblood grill cloth. Def get the mod. Its not worth much more than the standard one £350 ish. Mine took ages to sell and in the end i did a trade for a Marshall that i then sold on

ICBM

sw67 said:

I had one for 20y - Is it blonde tolex and oxblood grill cloth. Def get the mod. Its not worth much more than the standard one £350 ish. Mine took ages to sell and in the end i did a trade for a Marshall that i then sold on

I think you can get a bit more than that for them now, they're starting to creep up a bit. £400 doesn't seem too hard to get, maybe a bit more - not surprising when they're very nearly £700 new now.

But actually the original US-made ones are *less* desirable than the more recent Mexican ones - they have some reliability flaws that Fender ironed out with the later series, and they improved the taper of the volume controls too.

Charon

MattFGBI said:

Do you have any pictures of the amp?

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqtXkdlpAN9vj-F_0_bCU1PjaHTuAQ
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqtXkdlpAN9vj-F7yeDUjUyadbkteQ
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqtXkdlpAN9vj-F6GW3rl0DDZjxb1w
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqtXkdlpAN9vj-F-jZIoXz1GckH2ow
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqtXkdlpAN9vj-F9BXcPTqoIKMZGvg
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqtXkdlpAN9vj-F8AKYr4odL-NUsqQ

Charon

olafgarten said:

Have you tried contacting Fender for more info?

Nope. Good Ideal, I will give it a go.

Charon

ICBM said:

@MattFGBI will be the best to advise you on the dating.

Is he certain he wants to sell it? If he likes the sound of it and being too loud is the only problem, there's an easy solution to that...

http://thesuperheroesonline.co.uk/Fender-Hot-Rod-Volume-Pot-Module.html

This gives a very controllable low-volume sound - ask @Danny1969 for more info if you need it .

I mentioned this to my Dad and he said there are two issues. 1st, he drives it hard to get the sound he wants, using this device would you still get the distortion he's looking for when driving it hard? 2nd, (and this is the killer) he tell me it is too heavy for him to move around.

Charon

Charon said:

My father is an amateur guitarist, he has an Original Fender Blues Deluxe (I think) special edition amp. He has had it from new but it is too powerful, for regular home use. He wants to sell it but has no idea of its is worth. I have been looking around the net trying to identify exactly what it is so we can advertise it correctly. The plate on the front says “Fender Blues Deluxe” which I think means it is a special edition. The date code on the quality control sticker inside says “FD”. After some research I found a website explaining the date code. It said the first letter represents the year

“A” being 1990 and the second letter representing the month. I deduced this meant Dads amp was made in 1996-April. A bit more research and I found the following site http://fender.wikia.com/wiki/Blues_Deluxe_Limited_Edition_1995. This website agrees the first letter is the year and the second the month but states that “FE” presents 1996-May not 1995-May like the previous site. If this new site is correct it means dads amp was made in 1996-April. 

It also states that the special edition only has the “Fender Blues Deluxe” plate and was made in 1996-May, 1996-June & 1996-July. Dads amp has the plate but appears to have been manufacture inspection dated 1996-April. So Dads amp was built/inspected the month before the official manufacture dates???

The best I can deduce is that he has a limited edition original fender blues deluxe from April 1996.

Firstly can any one offer any more advise and hopefully resolve the conflicts in information?

Secondly what is it worth and where is the best place to sell it (I just want o make sure my Dad isn’t ripped off while trying to sell it)?

P.S. He wants to sell it to get a 15W deluxe junior. He say's he'd be happy with a straight swap with someone who's needs more power than their junior can supply. Is this a fair trade? 

It comes with the official foot pedal and instruction manual.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqtXkdlpAN9vj-F-jZIoXz1GckH2ow
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqtXkdlpAN9vj-F6GW3rl0DDZjxb1w

Charon

ICBM said:

@MattFGBI will be the best to advise you on the dating.

Is he certain he wants to sell it? If he likes the sound of it and being too loud is the only problem, there's an easy solution to that...

http://thesuperheroesonline.co.uk/Fender-Hot-Rod-Volume-Pot-Module.html

This gives a very controllable low-volume sound - ask @Danny1969 for more info if you need it .

I Spoke to Dad about this and he said there are two issues. 1st he said in order to get the sound he wants he needs to dirve it hard. Would he still get the distorted driven sound he is looking for if using this device? 2nd (and this is the killer for this option) he said it is to heavy for him now to move around.

Charon

deleted repeat post

ICBM

If the weight is an issue then the volume box won’t help unfortunately. He may be disappointed in a Blues Junior - it just doesn’t sound as good as the Deluxe. If he can do without reverb and is cranking it to get distortion, a Pro Junior would probably do the job better though...

57Deluxe

Charon said:

I mentioned this to my Dad and he said there are two issues. 1st, he drives it hard to get the sound he wants, using this device would you still get the distortion he's looking for when driving it hard? 2nd, (and this is the killer) he tell me it is too heavy for him to move around.

Q: Why is your Dad not here discussing this with us all?? - Get him signed up!

Charon

He,s in his 70s, learning new things is hard, he’s not very tech savvy. I just about got him using YouTube. 

Charon

Charon said:

olafgarten said:

Have you tried contacting Fender for more info?

Nope. Good Ideal, I will give it a go.

No reply from fender ☹️

victorludorum

Matt from Fender is on here, and he's replied above. No doubt he'll give you an update soon, as he always does.