An Amp question

Phil Sikes · Post by **Phil Sikes** » 20 Jul 2005 11:23 am

Has anyone tried the Fender Blues Deville amp with a steel? I have been made a really good offer on one and it seems as if it would make a pretty good in home amp for me. Any help will be appreciated..

Phil

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MSA U12 Classic

Dave Grafe · Post by **Dave Grafe** » 20 Jul 2005 1:14 pm

I don't know how they are for clean tone at volume, but it's a great guitar amp, supposedly similar in sound to the old tweed bassman or bandmaster. If it's a really good price and it's for practice only I don't see how you can go wrong picking it up.

James Sission · Post by **James Sission** » 20 Jul 2005 3:22 pm

I just got a new GFI guitar and I am still in the learning stages of things. I wanted to buy a peavey amp, but in the mean time, I have been practicing with my guitar amp, which is a Fender "Hot Rod" Deluxe. Now mind you, I am new and still experimenting with it as far as steel goes, but I cant seem to get the thing dialed in to where the high notes sound good. To me, they sound like a honking horn when I play any harmonics, but the low strings seem to sound really good as far as tone and sustain are concerned. I am going from the GFI to a matchbox to a goodrich L120 to a profex II and then to the amp. I have tried all kinds of EQ settings and nothing seems to eliminate this problem. I think the Peavey would have the "crisp, tonal sound" that this fender is missing, but I could be wrong, I may be doing something wrong. I have run the problem past Bobby Bowman and he made some suggestions that helped somewhat, but I still seem to get that "mild, mellow, tube effect" as opposed to that "powerful, crisp tone" sound that I hear from the peavey. Maybe this was of no help at all, but I thought I would at least throw it out there for consideration....James

Phil Sikes · Post by **Phil Sikes** » 21 Jul 2005 12:43 pm

I have the Deville at home now and am starting to tweak the controls a bit. This is not the Hot Rod version so it is a little more mellow and not quite as hot. So far so good but it still needs some tweaking before the final verdict.

Phil

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MSA U12 Classic

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 21 Jul 2005 7:20 pm

I just used one (4x10" speakers, right?) a few weeks ago on an outdoor gig - it was provided as backline. I had trouble getting a clean tone out of it, actually. I really didn't have a lot of time to tweek it, but it seemed to have a strong, hot signal that probably would have made a telecaster scream, but it didn't do the job on giving the steel a nice clean tone. I made sure I was in the clean channel, but clean wasn't clean enough for me. I guess it's all personal preference. I've used a 4x10 Deville in the past with similar results on pedal steel. I find a 2x12 better, and a 15" the best overall. With a lap steel, who knows....the Deville might have been perfect. But the pedal steel didn't sound too good through it. I also have an MSA 12, so your experience may be similar. [This message was edited by Chris LeDrew on 21 July 2005 at 08:21 PM.]

Joseph De Feo · Post by **Joseph De Feo** » 23 Jul 2005 3:43 am

I played out with my Blues Deluxe for many
years (guitar) and have also used Devilles.
Both of these amps tend to have a hot,
unrefined sound right off the line (1-2 on
the Vol. knob). But, with a little creative
tube work they make great workhorse club
amps. For Guitar: pull the sovetek 5881's and try Phillips, small bottle 5881 or 6L6wgb (sweeter breakup, less honk). If you need more note definition, pull the first
12ax7 pre amp tube and replace with a grey
plate, GE 5751. For pedal steel, which
is a much hotter signal, you can probably
go down in gain to a 12au7 in the first
pre amp position, but change the power tubes
to Sylvania 6L6's, which had higher headroom
than the Sovteks. These are a couple easy
tweeks that anyone can do, without going
inside the amp, where there are dangerous
voltages. You could also swap out that
Eminence speaker for Celestion Anniversary
30 = Guitar, or EV = Pedal Steel. As I said,
you can turn them into really good giging
amps, I did, for years. Hope this helps

[This message was edited by Joseph De Feo on 23 July 2005 at 04:45 AM.]