Conference napalm::guitar

    
>    New reissue amps: blackface Deluxe Reverb!!!  YES!!!!!
    
     Oh boy, I'm in trouble now. Just when I thought I had this thing
     under control....and the next GTS Anonymous meeting isn't 'til
     next monday night.

     I. M. Screwed
     

    re: Harley Strat
    
    Oh boy!!! An axe that leaks and vibrates...
    
    Edd (closet Harley-owner-wannabee)

Great,,,
Lace Sensor Pickups for an acoustic.....

Now if Floyd Rose would only come out with that acoustic-whammy......

C. U. Lata

    RE: Harley Strat

    Heh heh. I have a '62 strat that's all apart because when I bought it,
    someone had given it a motorcycle gas tank paint job, i.e. a heavy
    automotive black finish with midnight blue curly pinstripe designs on it
    and a sortof batwing pickguard made of brushed black anodized aluminum.
    (Fortunately, the original greenish pickguard was in the case.) I
    stripped the old finish off and just about filled a 12 oz coffee can
    with it. This WAS a Harley Strat.

    --Ron

    Oops, checked the blurb again, actually the Pro Jr. *does* have tubes,
    but no channel switch, etc.  It's like an old Champ, just volume and
    tone.
    
    The Harley guitar apparently has a aluminum body, good choice for those
    who think a Twin is light.  8^)
    
    							Brian

    re: Harley Strat
    
    Does this mean you can't tune it?
    
    Dave

    Probably can't go fast on it either...
    :-0

re: can you tune it

sure but parts fall off everytime you use it! :-)


Coop, I know of a harley you might want to run against...it beats 427 vets in 
1/4 mile runs regularly, of course you gotta schedule a day when it's running..

dbii

    re: last few....
    
    The excess vibration might come in handy...........
    
    >8*}

    Would it be OK to play a Flatocaster thru a Yamaha amp?
    
    Edd

    Harley Strat = Makes a cool sound, but you can't keep it running too
    long.

    Does the blurb say whether the Pro Jr. has reverb? 
    
    Dave
    
    Does it mention the Bronco's "Dangerous Distortion" (mentioned in 685.59)?
    That one sounds like it's too much for me.  %^)

    Yeah, but can that Harley beat my FZ ??
    :-)

    re: -1
    
    only if you're pushing the FZ....uphill.
    
    8^)
    
    Steve who likes domestic guitar/toys and Foreign motorized stuff.

    Re: .13, Pro Jr.
    
    See .5, this thing has two knobs, volume and tone.  No verb, no
    nothing...  Hey it's all tube, ya need more tone, that's what the tone
    knob is fer  8^)
    
    The Bronco's distortion is "dangerous" because it's solid state  8^)
    
    						Brian

    re: .16
    
    Yeah, I read that; I just figured (hoped) maybe you gave an incomplete
    description. 
    
    Geez, I've got a fifties-vintage Rex practice amp, replete with peeling 
    tweed contact paper "Tolex", that has all those features, except it's 
    about 4 watts.  Gets a nice smooth distortion with both knobs all the 
    way up and humbuckers, but you can talk over it.  I was hoping Fender 
    was going to put out something a little more - shall we say - modern, a 
    15-watter with reverb, some gain, effects loop, stuff like that.  A 
    small amp, but a real one.  You know, sort of a "Pro Jr."
    
    Maybe I have to look at vintage Princeton Reverbs or something.  Did 
    Super Champs have reverb?
    
    Dave
    
    (Bitch, bitch, bitch!  Ever since the baby came, "When are we gonna get
    married?")

    Super Champs had reverb, no effects loop though.  $200-$300 used, when
    you see em (not often)

    Re: .17
    
    Yes, the Super Champ has reverb but guess what..when you kick in the
    overdrive, the reverb is disabled!
    
    The Champ 12 was close to what you are asking for, but that's been
    discontinued.
    
    							Brian

    Not so fast barfbagbreath...  you can turn up the preamp volume on
    a Super Champ, kick in the mid-boost, and get mucho blackface-like
    distortion WITH the reverb intact.  Reverb gets disabled in high gain
    mode with the extra tube stage, supposedly because things could get
    a little "unstable".  I haven't found this feature to be a big problem.
    
    /rick

    Hey pencilneck, you were the one who told me about the reverb getting
    disabled in the first place!
    
    							Brian

    I've seen Fender schematics where the boosted signal is actually taken
    from the triod driving the reverb pan. These were 70s and early 80s
    models. Could it be that sort of design that requires disabling the
    reverb?

    --Ron

    Re: .22
    
    That was the secret of the old Ice Cube overdrive device, it used the
    extra gain stages for the reverb.
    
    Since you mentioned schematics, I thought I'd throw in the fact that on
    many Fender amps of the 70s that had line outs, it's not a preamp out 
    but really a tap off the output transformer via a dropping
    resistor...so while you don't get the effect of the speaker, you *do*
    get all the power amp coloration using the line out.  This is also
    found in some Music Man designs.
    
    							Brian

    re .22
    
    yeah, cool idea but I've seen the Super Champ schematics and as I
    recall this isn't what they did.  They just intentionally take the
    reverb out when the extra tube stage is kicked in
    
    re Brian
    
    well, the secrets out; Brian really asks me for all the answers he
    posts in notes :-)

    I play semi-occasionally in sort of a small big band group.  Most of
    the members played together in my college jazz band, and our typical
    gig is a wedding reception for a couple that wants something diffent
    than your typical wedding band fair (no, we don't play "Proud Mary"). 
    We played fairly frequently shortly after college, but as the years
    have passed (and we all got married, had kids, etc.), the time between
    gigs has increased significantly.  
    
    In fact, its been three years.  I had more-or-less given up on us
    playing again (I live about 100 miles a way from the majority of the
    band members, so it makes little sense for me to find us gigs).  
    I used to use a Fender Deluxe 85 (a small solid state combo with a
    single 12" speaker), but I've sold it, since I was never THAT crazy
    about it, and wasn't using it for anything else).  So when I found out
    we had a gig this summer, I decided I needed a new guitar amp.
    
    When I got rid of the the Deluxe 85, I thought my '68 Fender Deluxe 
    Reverb would be adequate, if we ever played another gig.  When faced
    with the though of actually using it, however, I began to grow
    concerned:  I'm not sure it can be loud enough and still clean enough
    for jazz; and it has not been the most reliable amp over the past
    couple of years (it has an occasional fit, and despite three trips
    to the amp doctor, the problem still shows up now and then).
    
    So I was in the market for an amp with the following:
    
    		o Reasonably portable
    		o Nice clean sound, tubes preferred
    		o At least one 12" speaker
    		o Reasonable price
    
    A local music store had a sale last weekend, so I decied to check it
    out.  I came home with a new Fender Blues Deluxe (I guess if Fender
    makes an amp with Deluxe in its name, I have to buy it).  
    
    The Blues Deluxe is a 1x12 combo with tube pre-amps and power amp.
    It has two channels: a vintage clean style channel, and a "drive"
    channel with a master volume.  It uses 2 6L6 power tubes and 
    puts out 40 watts (or possibly 60, the manual is not consistent).
    Styling is retro-vintage, like a tweed bassman.  The store had them
    in both tweed and and blond tolex.
    
    The amp is pretty basic.  The 3 band EQ is for both channels.  It
    comes with a footswith to switch between the normal and drive channels.
    Tubes are used in all critical areas, but some transistors are used
    too (e.g., for the effects loop).
    
    I tried it out with a Gibson ES-165 Herb Ellis (nice guitar) and
    was quite pleased.  My Deluxe Reverb does sound a little better,
    but the Blues Deluxe does a pretty good imitation.  Some things
    I really liked:
    
    	o Although the drive channel can be set for a nice crunch,
    	  it can also be set quite clean, allowing me to use the
    	  normal channel for rhythm and the drive channel for lead
    	  without sounding inappropriate.
    
        o Nice sounding reverb, with a full-sized reverb tank (enclosed
    	  in black tolex, just like they used to).
    
        o Lots of useful sounds
    
        o Good presence control
    
    
    So I bought it.  After a couple of sessions at home, I'm even more
    pleased.
    
    If size and weight were not issues, I'd prefer a '65 Twin re-issue,
    but for me the Blues Deluxe is more practical.  At a little over $400,
    it's a great value.  My only complaint, is that while I love the
    vintage styling (even if my wife thinks its ugly), it is a bit more
    conveniant to have the control knobs on the *front* of the amp.
    
    FWIW, I bought a blond one.  Of the two that were out in the store, it
    sounded the best (not that the blond tolex has anything to do with it).
    It looks great with my blond (all natural maple) ES-175 clone.
    
    Jim (happy in tone land)

    I think the power rating on the Blues Deluxe is 40 watts.  The Blues
    Deville, the next amp up in the line, also uses 2 6L6s but they squeeze
    60 watts out of em.  Perhaps the two amps share the same manual, hence
    the 40/60 inconsistency?
    

   I demo'd one of these the day I bought my Fender Performer 1000.  I thought
   the "drive" channel lacked, well, "drive".  I demo'd it side by side with a
   Peavey Classic 50 (same basic design), and found the Classic to have a 
   better crunch/drive sound than the Fender.  It probably would do real well
   for jazz though, given you don't need a good deal of distortion.

   I'm still real happy with the Performer, I must say.  Tube preamp, MOSFET
   power amp.  Sounds great, is compact and lightweight;  can't ask for more.
   And I saved about $100 by not having to have "all tubes".

   -- Sam

    RE: "drive" channel lacking "drive"
    
    That's exactly why I like it.  Alot of amps' high-gain channels have
    too much gain for me: you either can't get clean, or (for me) the
    useful "clean to slight crunch" range is between 1 and 1.3.
    
    If I wanted crunch, I'd just use the '68 Deluxe Reverb and
    crank it up.  Of course, my definition of crunch may be different
    than yours.  FWIW, I can't imagine turning up the gain on the
    drive channel of the Blues Deluxe beyond six or seven.
    
    I'll probably still use the Deluxe Reverb most of the time when I'm
    playing at home.  Actually most of my playing at home is on acoustic,
    anyway.
    
    I've demoed the Peavey Classic 50 a number of times, and while it 
    sounds nice, it (to me) seems to lack some of the classic Fender 
    tube "sparkle" I love so much.  On the other hand, it probably spurred
    Fender to make the new tweed line, so I give thanks to Hartley and
    his boys.
    
    Maybe I've should of tried out a couple of the amps in the Performer
    series.  I guess I've been disappointed so many times by amps claiming
    to give you the "tube" sound without the hassle of tubes, that I've
    given up trying.  I know, the performers have tube pre-amps, but I've
    always felt the power tubes are key to what make tube amps special.
    Come to think of it, tube pre-amp, solid-state power amp is the only
    combination I've never owned.
    
    Glad to hear your happy with your Performer.  It's good to see
    Fender putting out such a nice variety of quality products (and
    at reasonable prices to boot).
    
    BTW, the Pro Jr. is cute, but I'd just as soon see it as more of
    a tweed champ re-issue.  Actually, I'd like a Princeton Reverb 
    pre-amp coupled with Champ power amp into a single 10" speaker.
    At 6 watts, who needs a master volume...  It would make the perfect
    practice/recording amp.
    
    Jim

   Re: the Fender "sparkle".  That's why I ended up with the Performer instead
   of a Classic 50 or Blues Deluxe.  It does the Fender sound in spades, and
   also has all these neat Boogie type sounds built in.  No need for an over-
   drive pedal here.  I (also) recently picked up an acoustic/electric guitar
   and I'll tell you, that "Fender clean" sound can't be beat in that
   application.  I've been trying for years to get the "tube" sound without the
   tubes.  :-)

   -- Sam