Electric Guitar Review

Vintage Tweed Sound & Style

An All-Tube Amplifier With A Few Modern Touches

Much to their credit, when the demand for retro sound equipment began to ramp-up in the early ’90s Fender was right on top of it — they released their super-cool “Tweed” series of all-tube amplifiers in 1993 and I bought one at a Music Expo that very same year.

Amazingly, a few years later I saved up for nearly 6-months to purchase the incredible ‘65 Fender Twin [see my review] but now, almost thirteen years later, that big, black Twin has been long since sold off, and the old Blues Deluxe is my guitar amp of choice.

It was the hefty weight of the Fender Twin that did it in.

The Blues Deluxe however, while not necessarily on a par with the Twin for sheer volume & sound quality, is a downright feather-weight in comparison, making it a pleasure to toss into the back seat of your car and haul into a club a few nights a week.

And these beauties are no slouch in the features department either — the Blues Deluxe sports modern channel switching [clean & overdrive channels,] old-school Fender spring reverb, an effects loop, three preamp tubes [12AX7,] two output tubes [6L6,] and then the whole 40 watts of power is pumped through a single 12“ speaker.

Now, admittedly, if you’re looking for some serious Marshall-style overdrive, well, you’re just plain looking in the wrong place, but for a soft, bluesy, rather crunchy overdrive and sustain, the Blues Deluxe absolutely sings. In overdrive it can easily break out from behind your average rhythm section, and in its clean channel it produces almost bell-like tones. This thing produces a warmth that you can only really find in an all-tube amp.

Ultimately what I like most about Fender’s Blues Deluxe, and what brought me back to this little tweed beauty even after experiencing the lush performance of the Twin, is its all-inclusive nature… see, I’m a no-nonsense kind of guy, and having a good reverb, plus both overdrive & clean channels all in one amp means less luggage to haul from gig to gig — no extra cables, no extra stomp-boxes.

You just drop the Blues Deluxe onto the stage, plug in your guitar, and you’re ready to play. It’s that simple…