How to improve a Fender Deluxe Reverb 65' RI
Hello everyone,
I'm a huge Jim fan and I'm really pleased to be a part of this community.
I recently bought a Fender 65' Deluxe Reverb Reissue and I thought about changing a few stuffs to enhance the sound (speaker, tubes, changing the bias...).
I read a lot of stuffs and now, I feel a little bit lost. ;-)
I need a sweet, mellow clean sound, not too ice picky, great reverb.
Hope you could help me figure it out.
Jim, if you were a deluxe reverb user, what would you change on this amp ?
I'm a huge Jim fan and I'm really pleased to be a part of this community.
I recently bought a Fender 65' Deluxe Reverb Reissue and I thought about changing a few stuffs to enhance the sound (speaker, tubes, changing the bias...).
I read a lot of stuffs and now, I feel a little bit lost. ;-)
I need a sweet, mellow clean sound, not too ice picky, great reverb.
Hope you could help me figure it out.
Jim, if you were a deluxe reverb user, what would you change on this amp ?
Comments
My friends Steve Cardenas and Jamie Fox who excellent/great/accomplished guitar players - both *love* their 65' Deluxe Reverb Reissues.... I can't say I've had the same experience.
I don't like em.
I've experienced a stubborn threshold that won't allow distortion or compression. Older Deluxes break up and compress, as God intended it! I don't know why creamy tone is absent, but I intuitively suspect solid state circuitry in the newer '65's (just a wild guess, I have no supporting facts)
If you don't want to "divorce" your 65' Deluxe and want to try to save the marriage ...
I would recommend a replacement Celestion speaker... or biasing it a bit "hotter". Or ask a great amp repairman what they might suggest...
in Brooklyn .. Eugene is the MAN!
Southside is a small "guitar clubhouse" brimming with happening vintage guitars and gear. Amp wiz Eugene knows Fender amps like the back of his hand... and also makes really great guitar effects. Quick turnover times too....
www.southsideguitars.com
South Side Guitars
718-218-8201
www.southsideguitars.com/contact.html
303 Grand St
Brooklyn, NY
11211
I'm truly happy to know you have 2 talented friends who like their deluxe reverb reissues, it gives me hope. :-) I don't wanna get divorced. ;-) But I really hesitated with a princeton reissue.
You're right, changing the speaker would be a real good deal. Which Celestion do you think about ? Older or new one ?
I've read a lot of good reviews about Weber 12F150B and Eminence Cannabis Rex.
I've planned to replace tubes too :
- let's forget the V1 because I only use the vibrato channel
- the preamp tube in V2 : GE 5751
- the reverb driver tube in V3 : RCA 12AU7
- the reverb return tube in V4 : JJ 12AX7
- the vibrato tube in V5 : no change planned
- the PI tube in V6 : JJ 12AX7 for more warmth and drive at lower volumes
- the power tubes : EH or JJ or Tung-Sol 6V6's
- And finally, Elreclusa, the Tube Rectifier is a Groove Tube 5AR4 and I don't know if I want to change it
For the BIAS, I read that the DRRI comes with an extremely cold factory BIAS setting around 20mA and it might be nice to adjust it for 27mA
Finally Jim, I'd like to thank your for the Eugene address but I'm really far from Brooklyn, I live in France (close to Switzerland and Germany).
Only slightly related, but i remember reading about a session guy, can't remember his name at the moment though I know he played on a bunch of Mitchell Froom productions, who put Celestion alnico blues in Deluxes and swore by 'em, and I've always been curious how that would sound. Cheers!
I own a DRRI as well and have been looking for an improvement. My problem has always been the lack of that bouncy, crisp, detailed attack that vintage blackface amps seem to have. I must say, these are still extremely nice sounding amps completely stock as well.
That being said I saw this video a while back. I priced it out and its pretty pricey to do what he did but I thought it was very interesting. This video goes through Steve Trovato's search to improve the DRRI. Like any gear review or endorsement....I always take it with a grain of salt.
I brought this up to Eugene at South-side and he seemed to think it wouldn't make that much of a difference. I still really want to see how they would sound - in the back of my mind I really want to believe this could do it. Read some of mercury magnetics info on transformers. It might convince you. It certainly got me going...
Thanks for your information about Mercury Magnetics Improvement. It seems really interesting. Did you change it ?
Personally, I recently changed my tubes and the sound was really amazing after that. A little bit less aggressive in high frequencies and a better reverb sound too.
I still want to change the cabinet but in France it's really hard to find "Weber speaker". I hesitate with the Cannabis Rex from Eminence which seems to fulfill some DRRI users needs.
Any experience with that guys ?
Cannabis Rex speaker is great for Deluxe Reverb but it's very loud (102 db). I like WGS G12C (96 db) and Weber 12F150 (96 db)
Anyone has any experience with that ?
Jim, which Celestion speaker is on your mind ? A G12M for example ?
I'm afraid to crunch very early and to lose a bit of my clear sound ? What do you think ?
http://jimcampilongo.com/about/gear.php
Celestion G12M-65 creamback
http://celestion.com/product/123/g12m65_creamback/
Eminence Private Jack
http://www.eminence.com/speakers/speaker-detail/?model=Private_Jack
Eminence V128
http://www.eminence.com/speakers/speaker-detail/?model=Legend_V128
WGS Reaper
http://wgs4.com/content/ReaperHP
The thing that scared me, it's the Eminence's sensitivity, around 100db for both... I think it's too much.
I play a telecaster with single coils through a TS9 Ibanez, amp reverb and vibrato sometimes. I like moody, creamy sound, smooth and dynamic at the same time and I hate ice pick.
I'll tell you how it sounds with this upgrade, looking forward to hear it. :-)
Do you have similar feelings about the PRRI? I see you have all Vintage PR's... altho I know you do have an orange PRRI... just wondering if the DR/DRRI "differences" you have noticed also appear in the RP/PRRI comparison?
Very warm and balanced and it's not already "broken-in". I'm very happy indeed with that change of speaker. :-) Thanks Jim for the Celestion advice. :-) It's really a good improvement for that DRRI.