Need some advice................

[Fingers]

Guys,

I have a huge GAS on at the moment.................which do I choose.......?

I play a lot of Stones stuff and currently use my AD50 to good effect......BUT.......I now want a Fender amp.....but am having difficulty A/Bing these two........so please offer up your advice.

The one I get will be for 75% home, 25% gigging....I suppose I am looking to get close to the Keef Richards sound without a Twin Reverb......I have a number of stomp boxes including a Bad Monkey, Screamin' Blues, Milk Box Compressor........

This......Tweed Blues deluxe......40 watts...VERY LOUD.......should do the job......


Or one of these Tweed Blues Junior....15 watts.......



I can get either of them for close to the same amount of money........

Just need a bit of Fret advice.......as my thought is to the Deluxe, a good Big 'un will always beat a good little 'un...............but will it be too much at home?

I will be playing these through whichever I get..........

[Bloozcat]

Where will you be gigging, Fingers? A tube amp in the 15-22 watt range will do small clubs nicely, a bigger venue would require that it be mic'd, or maybe a bigger amp. The nice thing about lower wattage amps is that you can push them into that nice sweet OD without making everyone's ears bleed. 40 watts is loud for home use. I have a blackface Band Master at 40 watts, and it rattles the whole house when cranked. My 30 watt tube amps are just about as bad too. 15 watts is still loud for a tube amp.

According to one interview I remember with Keith Richards, he's fond of using his vintage Tweed Twin with a smaller amp slaved to it, like a Champ, Silvertone, or a Kay. He say's that he uses the Twin for clean and cranks the smaller amp for OD, seperately or in conjunction with each other. So it would appear that this is the way that Keef addressed the very same question you're asking Fingers.

The Tweed Blues Jr. uses 2-EL84's through a single 12" speaker, while the Tweed Blues Dlx. uses 2-6L6GC's through 2-12" speakers. It's a lot harder to get the desired breakup at reasonable volumes with the 6L6GC powered amp.

Another amp that I'm curious about that's in the same class as the Tweed Blues is the new Crate V18. It runs 2-EL84's at 18 watts through 2-12' speakers. I haven't had the opportunity to try one out yet, but on paper it looks like it might do clean to crunchy well in one package with the 2X12 set-up. I do like my Crate VC 30's tone, so this one has gotten my attention.

[duhvoodooman***]

If it's mostly for home use, I'd definitely recommend the smaller of the two amps. I have a 30W Peavey Delta Blues with a volume knob that goes from 1 to 12, and anything above 2 at home is painfully loud. Like BC says, if you need more volume for a certain venue, mic'ing the amp is always an option. That smaller amp will also be a lot easier to lug around....

BTW, I'd guess THIS little gem is out the price range you're considering, but it looks to me like the perfect Fender amp for home and small venue playing!

[Fingers]

You know the biggest problem I have is finding somewhere local I can try the lil' Blues Junior.................I tried the Deluxe and just melted with the sound that came out..............But I agree, I think for the times at home it is overkill..............I am unsure as to how much thicker the sound will be in the Junior..........

The Princeton looks interesting but over this side of the pond $ = £ and I could get a Twin for the price of it here.

Thanks for your advice.

[duhvoodooman***]

The Princeton looks interesting but over this side of the pond $ = £ and I could get a Twin for the price of it here.

As good as that Princeton Recording amp looks with the built in effects & attenuator, it seems way overpriced to me. It's produced in Mexico, which would seem to indicate that Fender could price it more competitively than this; somewhere in the $700 range would seem more reasonable, esp. when you can get a 40W Hot Rod Deluxe for $600....

[333maxwell]

You know the biggest problem I have is finding somewhere local I can try the lil' Blues Junior.................I tried the Deluxe and just melted with the sound that came out..............But I agree, I think for the times at home it is overkill..............I am unsure as to how much thicker the sound will be in the Junior..........

The Princeton looks interesting but over this side of the pond $ = £ and I could get a Twin for the price of it here.

Thanks for your advice.

The junior is a DANDY lil amp that is a full toned lil guy.

The Deluxe and Deville series are wonderful too..

From what you noted in your basic needs in an amp, I would tend to lean towards the jr.

It literaly is the lil brother of the whole Deville, Deluxe series, just parred down and with no FX loop.

Heck, I love em all, wish I had one of each. But for mostly home and light band dutys in small to mederate sized clubs, the Jr would be my personal first choice.


Good hunting!

____________

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...?bandID=676362

[Duff]

I tried out the Blues Deluxe and the Tweed lacquered hot rod deluxe with the jensen speaker. I liked the hot rod deluxe a lot better to my ear. It was really great with the tone. I bought one at a great price new, but a plain black hot rod deluxe would be just fine. To me it was outstanding sound and I chose that over a VOX AC15cc1 which has some outstanding tone itself but lacks knobs and buttons to adjust things with. The Hot Rod Deluxe has enough controls to get lots of sounds and the two overdrives are great in my opinion, although a lot of people complain about the more drive, I like it.

I also picked up an inexpensive VOX Pathfinder 15R, solid state that is an awesome amp for home use. I can't say enough about it and was using it tonight. Then I switched over to my five watt Crate Palomino V8 with the 10 inch Celestion speaker. What a great sounding amp that is. Only five watts, but five serious watts; more like thirty solid state watts. This Crate rocks and does the blues great too. Another great amp for use in the safe confines of home. In a gigging atmosphere I would use anything that sounded adequate but could withstand the abuse that might be expected in close quarters with hoards of drunks, and so forth. I'd be happy using my cheap 120 watt two 12 inch speaker combo on a gig where I would have lots of power and not too much to lose; even though I like this amp a lot. It is a Rogue, less than a year old, and sounds good. Its shortcomings are compensated for with high quality pedals, and clean it sounds really good and extra strong.
Lately I'm leaning toward low wattage amps like the five watt Crate Palomino V8. What a nice item. And the VOX Pathfinder 15R is not a valvetronix chromie, painted black or otherwise. It is a great sounding amp without all the ultra modern circuits present in the valvetronix and amps like that. I figure I can get pedals that have specific circuits I might want. I do this. I might get one of those Toneworks ax3g's and try that out with some amps just for the fun of it.
I think Fender amps are great. That little Blues Junior is a great amp, no doubt about it. The bigger ones are also really nice, in my opinion.
In conclusion, in my hands on checking out of the Blues Deluxe and the Hot Rod Deluxe, I liked the sound of the Hot Rod Deluxe significantly better. The Blues Deluxe didn't have some of the features of the Hot Rod Deluxe. But my Hot Rod Deluxe is the limitted edition lacquered tweed version with the jensen speaker. It is definitely very loud and I can't imagine a drummer intimidating you easily or for long, considering you could kick in that "more drive" button, etc. The Hot Rod Deluxe I find to be a really pleasant amp to play, very easy to get along with; easy to get the desired sounds out of, and built solidly.

Duff
Winfield, Pa.
mjbolduc@dejazzd.com

Hope these hands on comments help. All BS aside, I really like the vintage tweed HRDlx but a plain black one would be equally nice. It's just a different visual vibe and the speaker might or might not be found a pleasing, depending on your ear.

[TS808]

The Blues Jr. is still a loud little amp, and I think you might find it to be a bit too loud for home even. The problem with the Fender Hot Rod series amps is the volume control. Between 1 and 4, the amp screams and as you turn up the volume, the volume increases at a decreasing rate. Also keep in mind the following (this is a great guide):

40 watts is 94% as loud as 50 watts.
30 watts is 86% as loud as 50 watts.
25 watts is 81% as loud as 50 watts.
22 watts is 78% as loud as 50 watts.
20 watts is 76% as loud as 50 watts.
18 watts is 74% as loud as 50 watts.
15 watts is 70% as loud as 50 watts.

Even at 15 watts, it's still 70% the power of a 50 watt amp.

I think the Fender Hot Rod series amps are EXCELLENT amps, as are the Blues Deluxe, Deville, etc.... just extremely loud.

You can replace the volume control with a pot that won't jump as much as the stock one between 1 and 3...I think it's a linear taper pot (correct me if I'm wrong) which is an inexpensive mod, but will void the warranty.

[Tone2TheBone]

I've played through the HRD amps when trying out pedals and guitars at shops and while it is loud by itself it does sound good, even with pedals. I must be deaf by now Voodoo if you think anything past 2 on your Peavey is painfully loud. It gets cookin' past 6 without pedals. Wha? What did you say?

[Spudman***]

Fender's Hot Rod Deluxe just won the Editor's Pick in Guitar Player magazine. FYI