Fender 65 Deluxe reissue - School me

shaunm

I have always been curious about these and I am wanting to take my 5e3 led sound in a new direction, which I am sure this will do. However, I have a few rocky numbers in my band and I don't know if this amp will live with that (by rocky I mean riffy Zep type music). 

Does the ddri take drive pedals well? 

I use my Fuzz Face quite a lot, how well does the amp take Fuzz? 

Volume - loud enough to gig (pubs and small clubs)?

Reliability - are they decent things?

RandallFlagg

First off stop using the lame American expression 'school me' it's shit. 

I'm sure others can help you with the amp! 

shaunm

Meanwhile, back on the amp help front.

tone1

I think PGS Andy used them to demo all the pedals, so I guess they must take pedals well 

shaunm

tone1 said:

I think PGS Andy used them to demo all the pedals, so I guess they must take pedals well 

Good point

octatonic

Andy used a 65 Amps Soho for quite a while.

Jez6345789

No personal experience but was talking to a friend who was saying he struggles at bigger gigs with his as the other guitarist has a 100 watt H&K and the 65 deluxe struggles to punch above it 

Lebarque

Fuzzface no
Loud enough yes
Build quality hmmmm

shaunm

Lebarque said:

Fuzzface no
Loud enough yes
Build quality hmmmm

Is it all Fuzz pedals that they don't mix well with or just fuzz face types? 

As a general pedal platform?

Lebarque

There are usually Blackface-type amps in the classifieds here. I'd take a Carr, Tone King, Morgan, Headstrong, Rift over a DRRI. Sad but true.

ICBM

shaunm said:

Does the ddri take drive pedals well? 

I use my Fuzz Face quite a lot, how well does the amp take Fuzz?

They're not great with harder distortion and fuzz usually - they can get a bit fizzy and harsh - although it's better if you use the normal channel and jumper to the vibrato for a bit of reverb.

shaunm said:

Volume - loud enough to gig (pubs and small clubs)?

No - not for tighter rockier sounds. They're fine for bluesy overdrive where you want a more saggy compression/overdrive. A solid-state rectifier and 6L6s will tighten them up quite a lot though.

shaunm said:

Reliability - are they decent things?

Yes.

uncledick

Supersonic 22 is possibly more suited to what you want than the drri.  Takes pedals well and is bloomin' loud.  My only complaint would be that it doesn't do quiet particularly well.  Strangely, it's ok at home volumes but when you're a little bit louder - say 2 on the normal volume knob - the response can be a bit aggressive.  An attenuator can let you push it a bit harder, and then things smooth out.  

Lebarque

shaunm said:

Lebarque said:

Fuzzface no
Loud enough yes
Build quality hmmmm

Is it all Fuzz pedals that they don't mix well with or just fuzz face types? 

As a general pedal platform?

Fuzzfaces just don't seem to work with Blackface IMO, although I've heard people say they can if you stack them with a tubescreamer (which work great with Blackface in their own right - SRV etc.). I've had good luck with Mojohand Zephyr / Analogman Astrotone (Sam Ash fuzz) which work great with Blackface. I believe tonebenders are good too, but haven't tried one myself.

57Deluxe

Nice amps, in fact all of the classic BF amps are. The Twin and Supers will allow you to go into mega rock territory with your pedals with aplomb though...

noisepolluter

I commented just now on another thread (and started another a few weeks ago) on my own experience with a 65DRRI with pedals etc.  Would just echo that it goes plenty loud but the cranked sound is indeed quite bluesy/blues-rock at a pinch. 
Feel free to chuck me a pm if you have any questions

ChrisCox1994

Still my favourite amp. have owned a blues junior, blues deluxe, mesa stiletto, mesa express 550, suhr badger 30 and others.

Its the best "blank slate" amp that sounds great clean and compresses just at the right point to get that 'bounce' on the notes.

It takes pedals very well, including fuzzes in my opinion, its not too heavy, not too small, looks great, reverb is fantastic.

They benefit from a speaker change - especially to celestians (i like the creamback 75)

jacksparrow

clip the bright cap is a useful mod, hell i even clipped the bright cap on my 66, just sounds better to me. and takes pedals better.

shaunm

Well I am picking one of these up tomorrow so I will need some kind person to school @RandallFlagg me on how to clip the bright cap. 

In all seriousness ive read a few pieces on clipping the bright cap. It seems like an easy enough mod.

noisepolluter

shaunm said:

Well I am picking one of these up tomorrow so I will need some kind person to school @RandallFlagg me on how to clip the bright cap. 

In all seriousness ive read a few pieces on clipping the bright cap. It seems like an easy enough mod.

At the risk of harping on, I'd really recommend the Fritz D Cat mod instead. That way you get two blendable (or switchable with ABY) channels, one bright and one normal, both with verb and trem. Being able to balance the two voicings (with same polarity) gives lots more control over the amount of brightness, and you might sometimes find that you actually want the full-on bright cap twang for clean stuff or very sizzly strat/tele drive sounds 

I had the Fritz mod done at the same time as a service and a replacement speaker cable (stock cable and jack did not inspire confidence!) and it cost me £100 all-in. 

Ok, trunking out now...!

Tuscan777

I used one as supplied backline once, thought it was ace, able to get a good clean sound very quickly and it liked my pedals (not that I use a great amount). I might buy one if I ever shift my Cornford.

57Deluxe

/\ I can get a driven Deluxe tone from my Cornford Roadhouse - but it requires A.) my special Pedal and B.) having the additional 1x12 in parallel.