Fender Deluxe Vintage Modified?????

[didgijimmy]

That four button footswitch that comes with the Fender Deluxe Vintage Modified make me like it.

Yeah, I like the way Fender packages their amps (at least, the ones I've bought lately). My Jazzmaster came with a Speakon speaker cable, a footswitch, a cable for the footswitch, and an IEC power cord AND a nice bag that all of it (with the head -- and except for the speaker cab!) fits into. It makes it easy to take to a gig (the total 30 lb or so with the bag loaded doesn't hurt, either).

Agreed. The footswitch on the VM is easily a $75 dollar value, built like a tank, and has about a 30 ft. cable to it. I think it weighs around 30 maybe 40 pretty light for what it is. And the black Fender Cover. You don't even get a Footswitch with a Classic 30 half the time.

 

[didgijimmy]

excited posting tangent over...

:d:d:d:d:d:d:d

 

[acidrock]

Agreed. The footswitch on the VM is easily a $75 dollar value, built like a tank, and has about a 30 ft. cable to it. I think it weighs around 30 maybe 40 pretty light for what it is. And the black Fender Cover. You don't even get a Footswitch with a Classic 30 half the time.

You know some guys obsess about custom pedals and pedal boards,if you give me a decent sounding amp with footswitchable effects Ill be happy.No batteries,no patch cords,less noise,compact.

 

[didgijimmy]

You know some guys obsess about custom pedals and pedal boards,if you give me a decent sounding amp with footswitchable effects Ill be happy.No batteries,no patch cords,less noise,compact.

That's pretty much how I feel. At first I was really turned off by the DSP in this amp to begin with, I'm pretty much a natural guitar to amp with an occasional wah and a phase 90 for wanking on some Van Halen kinda guy. But the 4 effects here are quality and tasteful, I can actually see myself getting some good use out of them. And you dont worry about using an efx loop or in front of the guitar, patch cables, buffers, True Bypass, or a tapdance. And the programming of them is really intuitive too. If your gonna put Efects in an amp-- this is the way to do it. I just can't believe I'm getting $400 in quality pedals in an $800 amp. (im really excited)

 

[lpdeluxe]

I'd kill for a 335. I play through the neck pickup of my $600 les paul copy right now, though I'm pretty satisfied. I can tell your a Jazz guy. Do you play anything else? Either way I know youll be blown away by the Bandmaster VM, especially for the price. And the chorus is great for Jazz.
Definitely try cranking the volume on the drive channel and then turning the gain up a little bit. That way if your playing a clean rhythm and need the extra boost for a solo, switch to the drive and its just enough.
Let me know what you think.
James

You've got me really cranked up in anticipation, now. It's late, and I went to a friend's birthday party and played harp with some guys I used to do folkie gigs with, back in the mid-90s (which I never do!) and I got a little stimulated. So here it is, late, and I have a new amp coming tomorrow. Life is good. Thanks for your input.

I think it deserves the crazy name. And yup its MIM.

Apparently all the Fender amps are MIM these days.

 

[stevieb]

You know some guys obsess about custom pedals and pedal boards,if you give me a decent sounding amp with footswitchable effects Ill be happy.No batteries,no patch cords,less noise,compact.

I'm on board that boat, too. Once I got familiar with the SCXD, the only pedal that comes with me now is my wah. Having just guitar, one pedal and amp results in good wa, too.

I'm certainly not a Fender expert, and not an amp expert either, but I think we are talking about different amps. from what I understand the Deluxe Reverb is a different animal than the Deluxe RI and the Deluxe VM, what I'm looking at is different than the other two. I thought the Deluxe Reverb was only one channel with no distortion (besides tube breaking up).

Perhaps they are different in design- but really, output and tone are what counts. I can't say any of the afore mentioned amps sound much alike (have not A/B'ed them), though.

From my understanding of the issue of "number of channels," the true vintage Deluxe Reverb does, indeed, have two input channels, which effectively gives it two output channels. Most modern amps that have a "channel switch" have only ONE input channel, but two output channels. I can't see much real advantage to the vintage design, except the ability to "bridge" your guitar input to both channels and thus have some blend of both channels (fun to do, but I see no real utility in it), whereas the modern, switchable design means you can have two different sets of settings at the push of the button (faster than the unplug-and-replug of a cable.)

As for all Fender amps being MIM- sure beats China...

 

[lpdeluxe]

I'm on board that boat, too. Once I got familiar with the SCXD, the only pedal that comes with me now is my wah. Having just guitar, one pedal and amp results in good wa, too.



Perhaps they are different in design- but really, output and tone are what counts. I can't say any of the afore mentioned amps sound much alike (have not A/B'ed them), though.

From my understanding of the issue of "number of channels," the true vintage Deluxe Reverb does, indeed, have two input channels, which effectively gives it two output channels. Most modern amps that have a "channel switch" have only ONE input channel, but two output channels. I can't see much real advantage to the vintage design, except the ability to "bridge" your guitar input to both channels and thus have some blend of both channels (fun to do, but I see no real utility in it), whereas the modern, switchable design means you can have two different sets of settings at the push of the button (faster than the unplug-and-replug of a cable.)

As for all Fender amps being MIM- sure beats China...

The '65 Deluxe Reverb RI shares only its name, a couple of tube types, and its 12" speaker with the VM. I have to say, I won't be disappointed if the VM has a sound similar to the DRRI -- I checked one out at my local dealer and was VERY tempted.

All of my older amps (even the venerable B15N) had two, non-switching, channels, and into the '70s there always seemed to be at least two inputs per channel. I remember playing parties with my Silvertone Twin Twelve and plugging a couple of guitars and a couple of mics into it (back in the day when I owned microphones with 1/4" plugs) and it must have been a "selling feature." Relatively easy to implement, also. Conversely, all my modern amps (beginning with an '83 Carvin X100) have had only a single input, and those with more than one channel have had switching control by the foot pedal. And the amps with more than one input usually designate one as high gain and the other, as low. O tempora, o mores.

As to MIM, Bill Carson once said that Leo Fender hired mostly Mexicans to work at Fender, so it's not much different, just a hundred or so miles further south. I own two MIM Fender amps, and a couple of MIM Fender Precisions, and they'll all excellent.

 

[stevieb]

As to MIM, Bill Carson once said that Leo Fender hired mostly Mexicans to work at Fender...

Leo was hiring undocumented workers?? SHOCKING!

 

[didgijimmy]

Lp, did your bandmaster come in today?

 

[lpdeluxe]

Leo was hiring undocumented workers?? SHOCKING!

No, he wasn't. Orange County, California, was home to many Americans of Mexican descent (Mr Carson could have been more politically correct had he called them Latinos) and was largely agricultural at the time Leo Fender's family moved there. I went to high school in Riverside, about 40 miles away, and in fact I got my BA from Cal-State Fullerton (one more connection: I worked my way through college by running a 60' truck scale at the Sunkist Lemon Processing plant in Corona, halfway between where I lived in Riverside and Fullerton. On a visit to see my brother and other family members there in the late '90s, I discovered that Fender occupied the ground where the Sunkist plant had been).

Fullerton was dairy farms, Riverside was citrus orchards, and a great many Latinos settled there. Industrialization offered better pay and more regular hours, I guess. In any case, at Sunkist I worked with many Spanish speakers (and I later became a bilingual interviewer in the Los Angeles area). We took the Latin flavor to the culture for granted -- you can't get decent Mexican food in East Texas, such as you could find anywhere in that area before the national chains took over.

Thus Mr Carson's remark: Tadeo Gomez, whose initials grace many an early Fender neck heel, was American-born, as were a great many, lesser known others (see his book for the names of many more).

Lp, did your bandmaster come in today?

Yes, it did: it's terrific. It is sitting about 10' away from me, with the 335 plugged in, and it is plugged in its turn into a Hartke 115TP speaker cabinet. It really has a lot of personality, and the tone controls offer a lot of variation. I've mostly used the clean channel so far, but the drive channel will really growl. Very toneful, fairly light (22 lb) and handsome in that good blackface Fender way, even though, when you look more closely, it sure ain't no blackface. The reverb is nice, but (typically Fender, in my experience) gets pretty over the top once you get past 3 or 4 on the dial. I tried the chorus and delay, and they work as advertised, but they're not effects I ever use. Also typically Fender, the power and standby switches are on the back, and they are plastic rockers rather than the chrome toggles on real blackfaces. But I'm not complaining.

It responds very well to the tone controls and pickup selector on the 335: no generic tones here!

Eventually I may trade for a mellower cabinet, but no complaints so far.

If I get to a rehearsal tomorrow (Easter Sunday may interfere) I'll find out how it works ensemble.

One last thing: it was a scratch and dent from MF, so I got about $85 off. And no, it doesn't appear to be scratched or dented, and it came with all the goodies. I'm happy.

 

[RejectionNinja]

I can't see much real advantage to the vintage design, except the ability to "bridge" your guitar input to both channels and thus have some blend of both channels (fun to do, but I see no real utility in it), whereas the modern, switchable design means you can have two different sets of settings at the push of the button (faster than the unplug-and-replug of a cable.)

FWIW, Jack White when with the White Stripes was using two amps (I believe identical Fenders of some model?) side by side, one amp clean and the other smokin with high gain. I believe he was using an A/B/AB switch to go between his sounds.

It has its own sound - get the full thumpy bass response of the clean channel with all the crunch and scream of the high gain in one sound. That's when it dawned on me why someone would buy the Line 6 Pod X3 with dual signal chains.

 

[didgijimmy]

No, he wasn't. Orange County, California, was home to many Americans of Mexican descent (Mr Carson could have been more politically correct had he called them Latinos) and was largely agricultural at the time Leo Fender's family moved there. I went to high school in Riverside, about 40 miles away, and in fact I got my BA from Cal-State Fullerton (one more connection: I worked my way through college by running a 60' truck scale at the Sunkist Lemon Processing plant in Corona, halfway between where I lived in Riverside and Fullerton. On a visit to see my brother and other family members there in the late '90s, I discovered that Fender occupied the ground where the Sunkist plant had been).

Fullerton was dairy farms, Riverside was citrus orchards, and a great many Latinos settled there. Industrialization offered better pay and more regular hours, I guess. In any case, at Sunkist I worked with many Spanish speakers (and I later became a bilingual interviewer in the Los Angeles area). We took the Latin flavor to the culture for granted -- you can't get decent Mexican food in East Texas, such as you could find anywhere in that area before the national chains took over.

Thus Mr Carson's remark: Tadeo Gomez, whose initials grace many an early Fender neck heel, was American-born, as were a great many, lesser known others (see his book for the names of many more).



Yes, it did: it's terrific. It is sitting about 10' away from me, with the 335 plugged in, and it is plugged in its turn into a Hartke 115TP speaker cabinet. It really has a lot of personality, and the tone controls offer a lot of variation. I've mostly used the clean channel so far, but the drive channel will really growl. Very toneful, fairly light (22 lb) and handsome in that good blackface Fender way, even though, when you look more closely, it sure ain't no blackface. The reverb is nice, but (typically Fender, in my experience) gets pretty over the top once you get past 3 or 4 on the dial. I tried the chorus and delay, and they work as advertised, but they're not effects I ever use. Also typically Fender, the power and standby switches are on the back, and they are plastic rockers rather than the chrome toggles on real blackfaces. But I'm not complaining.

It responds very well to the tone controls and pickup selector on the 335: no generic tones here!

Eventually I may trade for a mellower cabinet, but no complaints so far.

If I get to a rehearsal tomorrow (Easter Sunday may interfere) I'll find out how it works ensemble.

One last thing: it was a scratch and dent from MF, so I got about $85 off. And no, it doesn't appear to be scratched or dented, and it came with all the goodies. I'm happy.

Yeah, sounds like you got a deal. I'm at a moral dillema because the guys at my local store showed me the VM, otherwise I would be getting a Classic 30. They sell it for $800 there. My buddy who works for GC distributing, can get it for me for around $600. I can afford $600 now, but I'll have to wait two weeks to be safe with $800. Let's not turn this into a moral thread though...

I found the Reverb acceptable for what I would need, and though I haven't used a chorus/vibrato normally, I think it sounds too good on the amp to pass up.
Have fun with it.
James

 

[lpdeluxe]

Thank you. A friend has a Classic 30, but he also has a '67 Super Reverb, so the Peavey doesn't get much use. He has kind things to say about it, but I've never actually played through it. I'm pretty much a Gibson-guitar-into-a-Fender-amp guy.

Whatever you get, enjoy it. They're for playing music, after all.

 

[didgijimmy]

Thank you. A friend has a Classic 30, but he also has a '67 Super Reverb, so the Peavey doesn't get much use. He has kind things to say about it, but I've never actually played through it. I'm pretty much a Gibson-guitar-into-a-Fender-amp guy.

Whatever you get, enjoy it. They're for playing music, after all.

Yup. I was nearly sold on the 30 especially because of the value. Very affordable amp with warm cleans, great blues tones, and it likes pedals. But the Deluxe VM is just a step up on all acounts with some nice effects and that great Fender clean. Plus for only 200 more than the 30 its a tremendous value. All the guys at the local store are convinced that if this thing takes hold it will absolutely do away with the Deluxe RI. The VM has similiar cleans and a much better overdrive (less buzzy).
Anyway, enjoy the Bandmaster. Do you post your stuff in the clinic? Would love to hear this thing in a recording.
James

 

[lpdeluxe]

I haven't posted there.

The BM is put aside, for now: I had some work to do on my fretless P (rewired it with a cap the same value as on my Classic '50s) and the 335 (adjusting the action) and next up I'll solder chrome pickup covers on my SG (seeing pickups without covers is like seeing people in their underwear -- maybe that's just me).

Hopefully this afternoon we'll hit it for practice. A couple of friends and I are preparing for a gig, almost all original material; one guy is fairly new, and is learning the bass parts. We are also gearing up for a performance of what we call the Baptist Blues Band at our church a week from tomorrow. We do Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Mississippi Fred McDowell, at least that's what we've done so far.

As I say, hopefully, because I want to hear the Band-Master sing along with a bass and acoustic guitar.

Here's my unsolicited advice: buy the Deluxe VM. Otherwise you'll always wish you had...but if you buy it, you'll probably never give another thought to the Peavey. I speak as one who settled for an Epiphone Sheraton II because I didn't want to put out the bucks for a 335 -- as they say, "buy cheap, buy twice." The Epi is long gone, and I'm in love with the Gibson.

 

[ggunn]

From my understanding of the issue of "number of channels," the true vintage Deluxe Reverb does, indeed, have two input channels, which effectively gives it two output channels. Most modern amps that have a "channel switch" have only ONE input channel, but two output channels. I can't see much real advantage to the vintage design, except the ability to "bridge" your guitar input to both channels and thus have some blend of both channels (fun to do, but I see no real utility in it), whereas the modern, switchable design means you can have two different sets of settings at the push of the button (faster than the unplug-and-replug of a cable.)

As for all Fender amps being MIM- sure beats China...

I don't get what you mean by "two output channels". A Deluxe Reverb has two input channels, but they are blended into a single channel of power section.

And FWIW, bridging inputs on an old (maybe a new as well) Fender amp will give you some phasing issues because the vibro/reverb channel goes through an extra gain stage and reaches the power section with reverse polarity from the normal channel. If you bridge the inputs and turn the channel volumes all the way up, it will be quieter than either channel by itself.

I use an A/B switch to switch inputs on my Deluxe. One channel is set bright and sparkly for my Strat and the other is set a bit dark for my LP.

 

[Toker41]

I'm always leery when it comes to "Vintage" amps. I remember sitting with Tom Kieffer, and his buddy brought in a 69 Marshall head, and hooked it up for him. He plugs in, and starts playing. Full of hum, and buzz. Tom starts shaking his head saying "Yeah, sounds really great". Meanwhile, I look over to his sound tech, and he is hanging his head, and shaking it while rolling his eyes. Give me a reissue any day. My Fender Twin reissue sounds every bit as good as my vintage Twin, without the noise, and scratchy pots. If it wasn't for the collectible side of the Vintage, I'd throw it in the trash.

 

[Toker41]

Yup. I was nearly sold on the 30 especially because of the value. Very affordable amp with warm cleans, great blues tones, and it likes pedals. But the Deluxe VM is just a step up on all acounts with some nice effects and that great Fender clean. Plus for only 200 more than the 30 its a tremendous value. All the guys at the local store are convinced that if this thing takes hold it will absolutely do away with the Deluxe RI. The VM has similiar cleans and a much better overdrive (less buzzy).
Anyway, enjoy the Bandmaster. Do you post your stuff in the clinic? Would love to hear this thing in a recording.
James

I still have the first Classic 30 I ever played on stage with. Although it still sounds like the day I bought it (I take really good care of my amps), no matter what I do...it sounds dated. As soon as I plug it in, it sounds like the early 80's. It's a fun amp for nostalgic reasons, but I wouldn't use it for any modern recording. I am always amazed at the resell value of them, and even more amazed at the redesign.
Shame Marshall can't do it with the JCM800. I'll never understand the lack of a GOOD reissue on that one.

 

[lpdeluxe]

I'm always leery when it comes to "Vintage" amps. I remember sitting with Tom Kieffer, and his buddy brought in a 69 Marshall head, and hooked it up for him. He plugs in, and starts playing. Full of hum, and buzz. Tom starts shaking his head saying "Yeah, sounds really great". Meanwhile, I look over to his sound tech, and he is hanging his head, and shaking it while rolling his eyes. Give me a reissue any day. My Fender Twin reissue sounds every bit as good as my vintage Twin, without the noise, and scratchy pots. If it wasn't for the collectible side of the Vintage, I'd throw it in the trash.

I'll let you in on a secret: "vintage" amps can be repaired. My '63 Sears Silvertone Twin Twelve [perhaps not the first one you think of when you're dropping names] goes into the shop every decade or so for new caps and maintenance. It's still going strong. Point-to-point wiring may or may not sound "different" from circuit boards, BUT it can be easily repaired.

However, the "vintage" as in "vintage modified" (VM) in the name of the amps being discussed is simply a marketing ploy.

 

[ggunn]

I'll let you in on a secret: "vintage" amps can be repaired.

True dat. My '64 Deluxe Reverb and my '67 Super Reverb still sound great. They require a little bit of maintenance from time to time, and both have had minor mods, but they are sill very much vintage.