So I was able to pick up a used 90s’ made Fender Blues Deluxe for about $500. I had tried out this amp about 5 years ago at Steve’s Music in Toronto and really was impressed with the clean tones it produced. Now that I have owned one for a few months now, I can give it a real review. And if you are looking for sound clips, I made some, just scroll down the page.
The Blues Deluxe is a 2-channel amp with lots of controls for EQing included a presence and reverb control. So there is a lot of variety to shape your tone for the tweakers out there. It also takes pedals pretty well.
The reverb on the amp is very very nice. However, if you are playing with a lot of overdriving effects, I would set the reverb really low or off completely for the best outcome.
As for Pedals, I tried the amp with my Teese Picture Wah which sounded quite nice. My favorite was using a combination of my FoxRox Aquavibe and Earthquaker Devices Organizer. Got some very trippy sounds this way.
Back to the amp itself, once you start cranking the clean channel, thats when the tone really starts coming in. The clean channel sounds much much better than the overdrive channel. So I would suggest using pedals on the clean channel if you want the amp more dirty.
Overall, I’m quite pleased with the amp for the price. It has a good sound, can definitely hold its own with a drummer at 40 watts. I can wait to experiment with different speakers/tubes to get it more to my liking! View the Blues Deluxe on Amazon.
Fender Blues Deluxe Sound Clips:
Blues on a Fender ’68 Reissue Strat