customer reviews
58 People rated this product :
7 out of 10
10 People wrote reviews
10 out of 10
"Give me Tweed, or give me . . . what else is there?"
Feature:
The amp came with a dust cover and a remote two button foot switch. The dust cover is heavy, olive-brown colored, tightly-woven nylon material with sewn-on, woven nylon edging. Nice looking, with the Fender logo silk-screened on it.
The foot switch (stows inside the amp with a velcro strap) has reverb and channel select buttons, is made of heavy duty aluminum with hard plastic sides, and an included extension cord. All work perfectly and are made to last. The foot switch needs rubber feet, though.
Quality:
My Blues Deluxe has been in action for about a year as of this writing and is working perfectly, exactly as expected. I do not, however, beat-up, pound, gash, thrash or throw-about my equipment. The Blues Deluxe is not intended to be a "roadie-proof" amp, for it is covered in beautiful lacquered, woven-tweed-cloth material (just like the vintage Fender deluxe guitar cases, straps and gig bags), which is not bullet-proof stuff. It doesn't even have metal corner protectors, so expect to be a little more diligent in the "take care" department, that is, if one doesn't want it to become stained, frayed, scratched or damaged from "stooge-boy" rough handling.
This amp is very well put together with no sloppy workmanship. Fender's quality control is as auspicious here as ever. I would not have purchased it had it been otherwise.
Value:
I give this amp an eleven on the value scale. One doesn't have to look too hard at the "other" amplifier manufacturer's prices to be convinced otherwise. Fender has achieved excellent value-to-pricing on this amp. There is no way I could build this amp for anywhere near it. Oh sure, it is now made in old Mejico, but that is to be expected these days. it proves not an issue with this amp though, and as stated earlier, this one is very well made, very cleanly put-together.
Desirability:
Hey it's tweed cloth! You know, like the ones they made in the fifties. It oozes cool. Y'all can have yer tolex. Give me tweed, or give me . . . nothing!
Sound:
What does an amp gotta have? Tone.
I bought the Fender Blues Deluxe reissue because it sounds good, looks good, is priced good and is in no way a pretentious amplifier!
Use of a Fender Strat or Tele with this amp is a no brainer if one wants to get out of it what it was designed for: clean, crisp and clear sound on the normal channel, and a slight yet distinct distortion on the drive channel. Tone. It's called a Blues Deluxe because . . . anyone?. . . it's for blues and vintage rock style music! Hey. It's not voiced for metal or any other style which requires extreme distortion or tons of knobs and switches and buttons and lights and stuff. Use an effects pedal if that's your cup of meat. I personally dig a DigiTech RP-350 pedal to achieve the effects which are NOT included in this amp, and I gotta tell yas, it sounds great coming outa this amp.
The built-in, adjustable reverb is actual and physical vintage Fender long-spring reverb. It's one of the things that made Fender amps so popular. It has its very own distinct sound.
This amp has a fantastic overall tone, which can only be described as "Whole Wheat." It has all the sharp, jagged edges nicely rounded off and still has plenty of color, but the kind color one WANTS in amplified sound. Not flat or dull or one dimensional, it exudes spacial flavors and intricacies not found in most amps in its class. It can be throaty and raw, but still the mids and highs come through nicely. And volume? Whaa? Here let me remove my earplugs so I can hear you. This thing can SPEAK when it needs to. I keep the volume knob at about 2 most times so as not to cause a nosebleed. This one goes beyond ten, or even eleven. This one goes to TWELVE!
I have read in some reviews of this amp that a different speaker can be put in to achieve sudden nirvana. So why didn't Fender put in said different speaker? Why did anyone buy an amp that needed a different speaker? I dunno, maybe some people just can't be made happy with what they have. You gotta hear one of these amps though, to really appreciate the great, smooth, rich sound. Suffice to say, I got one.
Ease of Use:
As amplifiers go, this one is a fairly easy to use. I mean, it has On and Standby switches, the ever-so-cool Fender gem light, enough Bakelite chicken-head knobs to keep it interesting (8 of 'em) and to dial-in the tone, 1/4 inch pre-amp out, power-amp in, foot switch and external speaker jacks. Not too hard for the average rocket scientist.
Support:
As expected, Fender has ubiquitous factory-approved dealers to handle and take care of its valued customers. It has always been that way, as it should.
I don't understand why anyone thinks it necessary to call Fender on the phone or email them for assistance. "Hello, is this Fender? Can I talk to Fender?" Why, if that were the case, Fender would be swamped with all manner of not only valid, but largely nonsensical and imbecilic queries that require an expensive, unnecessary army of people to do nothing but answer phones and emails. Not very productive, and certainly drives the cost of doing business through the roof. The army of existing Fender dealers are more than capable of solving problems, I know, as I actually had a small one, once.
Overall:
I invested some serious investigative time prior to my decision to purchase this particular amplifier, so as to make sure I made the right choice. I did. This amp is beautiful, in sound, in looks, in smell. That's right, it smells good too. All tuby and warm. You think that's weird? Well, I bet most people like that smell.
Anyway, after playing many, many amps, this one had the vintage vibe I was after. It was not a hard decision. I also liked its cousin, the Hot Rod Deluxe, but at the time, the "Rod" didn't come in tweed, so, even though I don't get the third "more drive" channel the "Rod" has to offer, I do gots the tweed, and I have not looked back. Now, if this here amp ever decides to blow-up, or burn-down, or burn-up, I would get another just like it, or, I would go broke and get the hand-wired version; the '57 amp or the Twin Amp to go along with my '57 Strat. Whooee!
Submitted: 3/11/2008
Style of Music: Uh, Blues, vintage rot and role
5 out of 10
"Don't Buy This Low-Grade, No Quality Control from Fender, Junk"
Feature:
Very limited on features to say the least. You have a channel select switch, and a pseudo reverb that doesn't work 3/4 of the time. When I bought this amp, I had to go through 4 units before I got one that actually worked with the footswitch (reverb). In my opinion, there is something wrong with the reverb portion of this amp. QA on Fender's part is horrendous.
Quality:
Tweed material is low-grade made-in-Mexico straw in my opinion. The thing is getting frayed everywhere in terms of the tweed thread breaking leaving portions of it sticking out all over the enclosure. The backplate (tweed also) doesn't fit the unit correctly, so there's a visible gap both in front and back of the control section on top. Again, Fender's QA needs to be addressed.
Value:
Not really worth the asking price of 650.00 plus USD. Should be more in the range of $350.00 tops.
Desirability:
The yellow tweed look is getting old. Vintage is nice and all, but the qualit of the pseudo-tweed material (made in Mexico) is low grade cheap stuff. Almost like those cheap straw hats you can buy at flea markets. No kidding, the construction of this unit is crap. Not to mention the white paint on the top to identify controls will rub off within 3 to 4 months of use. Seriously, this is a garbage made unit. I wonder if it would be higher quality if they quit outsourcing to Mexico?
Sound:
Excellent clean tones, but the distortion end is garbage. The reason I gave it a 10 is that it does replicate the true-to-form Vintage Fender bell tones and chimes with the wind.
Ease of Use:
Easy contols (due to not having many to deal with in the first place). In other words, don't expect much in terms of controls. It has the basics if you get my drift.
Support:
Called on this one several times and e-mailed. Only response I would get is "take it back to the dealer." No real technial savvy person available to answer REAL questions. The bottom line, Fender's support team is subpar in my humble opinion. If I were basing the purchase on technical support, I wouldn't buy Fender products.
Overall:
It's really crap, but I figure I would give it a 5 based on the good tone on clean channel. The drive channel is virtually worthless, so if you're going to use a Gibson Les Paul (or other LP brand) to play rock or heavy metal, steer clear of this wreck waiting to happen. If you're into the Blues, then it's worth purchasing, but not at the price it sells for currently. More along the lines of $350.00 tops would be reasonable. I would say go to eBay and buy a used one there. You'll see how many are available which should speak for itself. People don't sell good gear for cheap that they've only have for a few months. Rather than eat restocking fees from vendors, they're opting to list them on eBay. (IMHO)
Submitted: 11/4/2007
Style of Music: Blues, Classic Rock, & Jazz
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