Is My Fender Deluxe Reverb Jacked?

[electropoet]

Hey y'all...

I recently got a hold of a 65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue (DRRI)...got a good price...but bought it without hearing it. It has the Weber speaker...but was making some noise so I took it to a fender amp guru in Austin. He replaced a couple tubes, a bunch of capacitors, worked on the grounding, tweaked the bias, etc, etc.

Anyways...the noise I was hearing is reduced...if not gone...BUT...

This thing seems to be breaking up really early. I mean...I'm digging the sound to a point...but there is very little clean headroom. What I notice is that lead riffs still sound nice, bright and clean...but when I hit a chord with the volume anywhere above 3 it starts to kinda get rough (but in a nice tube over-driven way...especially with low notes...ala the low E string).

Is this normal? To get a nice clean tone...the volume has to be pretty low (<2)...and then to get the full on distortion (volume above 6) the amp is at least 3-4 times louder.

I thought DRRI's had a lot more clean headroom...do you think it has been biased too hot? Or could the tubes be in need of changing?

Thanks.

[Croaker]

Was it breaking up before you took it to the amp guy?

As far as the bias goes, thats a range that could be set so the tubes run hotter or colder, hotter breaks up a little more.

You might also wanna try a lower gain preamp tube in the driver slot, might clean it up some.
******//www.diyguitarist.com/GuitarAm...ble/patgf1.htm

I never tried the re-issue, only the vintage ones. Two 6v6 tubes is about 25 watts so it will break earlier than an amp with 2 6L6 tubes....for instance a 65 vibrolux

What kind of pickups on the guitar you used?

[peeder]

Sounds about right to me...They invented an amp to "solve" this headroom "problem." They called it the Twin Reverb.

[popvulture]

Yeah, that breakup you're hearing is usually why people buy Deluxe Reverbs to begin with. Try turning the mids down a little bit and you'll get less saturation.

[popvulture]

PS they're awesome amps. Playing through 2 of them sounds soooo good.

[electropoet]

Cool...it does sound good. I guess I just confused bright with clean...i know the twin reverb sounds clean...but way loud. Anyways...paired it with my vox ac15 coming from a nice stereo ce-1 clone and I almost fell over...it sounded amazing...just wanted to make sure it was good to go. Thanks.

[richiepalooza]

Take it to Steve at Austin Vintage. or if you want to drive down to San Antone call Ross, the Ampmonster. ampmonster.com

Personally, I can't stand those things, so, if I had to play a DRRI, I absolutely have the transformer changed.

[electropoet]

Originally Posted by richiepalooza

Take it to Steve at Austin Vintage. or if you want to drive down to San Antone call Ross, the Ampmonster. ampmonster.com

Personally, I can't stand those things, so, if I had to play a DRRI, I absolutely have the transformer changed.

What can't you stand exactly? Its a bit dirtier than I expected...but for rock rhythm it sounds very nice...and then when you switch to lead its really clear and powerful. I had a good deal of stuff done to the pcb...and the grounding improved...but the guy I took it too (who is a fender amp expert...vintage though primarily) didn't seem to think the transformer is a real worth while investment...and I'm inclined to agree...the law of diminishing returns I guess...it'll never sound like a real 65...so deal with it as it is, i guess. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't getting shorted any clean headroom...as I'm pretty sure he biased a bit hotter than usual.

FWIW-I am very interested in the Fargen rebuild if I really want to slut out though...It'd be awesome to have a tweed circuit on the 1st channel. We'll see.