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Vintage threads from the first ten years

blues/hotrod deville schematics

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12/28/1997 6:51 PM
jon	blues/hotrod deville schematics hi i'm new here anybody have schematics for these amps or know where i can get them? thanx jon

12/29/1997 2:36 AM
Jerry	Hi Jon, Call Fender, I think they are only $5 mailed directly to you. They are also included with the amp. If you know someone that has this amp then buy them a beer and borrow the schematic to make a copy. I haven't seen this schematic on the internet. Jerry

12/29/1997 6:07 AM

thanx for the tip.
i'm considering picking up one of these; from the reviews, they seem to be better than the bassman reissues. know of any side-by side comparisons to the original 50's bassman? I hear from a recording production buddy that they're lacking that....well... something.

Are there generally agreed upon improvements?
An amp tech locally tells me the'yre not fun to work on, PC boards and all. Also not too dependable/flexible 'cause of no point-to point.

I've got a '68 Delux Reverb that I love; just need more headroom. Don't want to modify it with 6L6 or anything; I'd like to have a louder amp with that tone and not have to give up my first born for it. Sound familiar? so far , these devilles seem to come closest to what i need...but.

12/29/1997 10:59 AM

Hi Jon,
Gosh you sound like me. I've always wanted a blackface Super Reverb. I couldn't find one so I bought a Hot Rod Deville. Four 10" speakers and all. It just wasn't the same. I then found a '68 Deluxe which I just loved. I did the cap job and retubed and fixed the vibrato problem. It was the b/f circuit so nothing else was needed. It's a GREAT amp for jamming at friends houses and a super harp amp. THEN I found a '66 Super Reverb for 7 bills! It had a buzz which turned out to be speakers. Ouch! and a $100 later but IMHO this is THE amp. So now I have the Deville for sale. Your tech is right about the reliability of the pc board crap. It is NOT an amp that will be around much more than 10 years and a lot of techs will refuse to work on them. My point is that your "but" indicates that you are not certain that this is the way to go. Look for a silverface Super Rev. (pre-Master vol.). They can be found in the $500 - $700 range and are easily modded to b/f specs. As far as the Bassman RI, I know of several people that have them and are changing out the pc board with a Hoffman p-to-p board and upgrading the power transformer but geez after this they could have bought a Victoria or even a b/f Super Rev.
Jerry

12/30/1997 8:24 AM

My 2 cents: I work in the commercial electronics industry. I was around when things like pinball machines went from electromechanical score motors and hand made wiring harnesses to pc boards and computer made wiring harnesses. In the long run it made for easier trouble shooting and service but to the users/operators it was a terrible change. Lots of complaints about reliability and service. No more point to point trouble shooting. And many mistakes were made. Today many of those same operators cannot live without their multimeter and test points. And they don't service older equipment. (I doubt if they can) I see the same parinoia about new amps. A well made pc board will be reliable for many years.
Anyway, I definately agree that some older amps when tweaked can produce magical sounds. But don't you all think that in time,probably through forums like this, mods will come out for newer equipment? Don't be afraid, dig in!!!

But isn't that based on the see and hear the complaints from

1/5/1998 1:45 PM

I've got a 4x10 deville and just picked up a used RI bassman. I like the bassman better because it breaks up sooner...a lot sooner. I a/b'ed the amps and they sounded similar. I changed the tone stack on the bassman to the original values of a 59 and was knocked out by how great (vintage ) it sounded. I never liked the overdrive on the Deville. I bought it because it was a very clean sounding amp with reverb. Personally, I don't need 60 watts so I'm going to sell the deville and stick with the bassman. They are both wonderful amps....I'd love to hear the tone stack mod on the deville!! The Pcb comment is bull the only problem with the amp is the cheap plastic input connectors that fender uses. I removed them and replaced them with metal switchcraft connectors ( like the ones in your 68 deluxe). Never had a problem other then that. Don't get me started on point to point (read my post above)....Ron

1/5/1998 4:12 PM
jason	I have a fender blues deluxe and just picked up a bassman re-issue last week-end. Though the deluxe is only 40 watts and the bassman is 45, the bassman breaks up much earlier (to my liking).Tell me about that tone stack mod you did(I can work on PCB's). I'd love to try it. thanks, jason

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