57 HW Deluxe vs. DRRI

[Wyatt]

 

silvertone 1482, maybe?

 

 

It's a excellent vintage option, it's circuit is near identical to a 5E9 Tweed Tremolux, which is just a 5E3 Tweed Deluxe with tremolo. I'm not sure how the voltages vary and there are some tube substitutions (12AX7 at V1 and a 6-volt rectifier), but the tone is there.

 

However, see my notes on vintage amps above. Vintage Fender's were the *most* durable and well-made American amps of the '50's and '60's, and they can be great and last decades more with some TLC. But the rest...Gibson, Valco (Supro, Gretsch, National), Magnatone, Danelectro (Silvertone), etc. are NOT made as well. Some used the cheapest, least reliable parts around, most are rats nests of point-to-point wiring, etc. So, there is even more care, and often a lot of component replacement to get this to be as reliable as an old Fender. Actually, it's all these other brands that made me decide from now one, I'm building my own clones of (non-Fender) vitnage amps instead of bothering to try and restore them, which often meant just flat-out gutting them.

 

Some other old, but less than reliable, amps started with the same base circuit as that Tweed Deluxe are Gibson BR6/BR9/GA20/GA30 and others and just about any Valco that used 2x6V6 tubes. But I warn that a vitnage poor-man's Tweed Deluxe is often a false economy.

[jhall]

 

There are some problems with the reissues Fender makes over PTP hand-wired stuff: 1. TUBE RATTLE. Something about these cheaply made PCB amps and how the tubes are mounted to a PC board makes the TUBES SHAKE when the amp is cranked. Sometimes it will do it on certain notes more than others. It really sucks. 2. Impossible to fix/mod easily. When a resistor burns out or a cap fails, the fact that everything is mounted to a wafer thin PC board makes it very difficult to replace parts. 3. Cheap transformers, cheap pots, cheap components, cheap cabs, cheap speaker etc etc etc.... 4. Overpriced for what you get. Seriously look into some tweed Deluxe clones or Deluxe Reverb clones from hand builders. Better quality at a cheaper price. Capitalism and all.

 

 

Have you actually worked on one? I have and I found it to be a very well laid out amp. And when I compared the DRRI layout to the Schematic of the original Blackface Deluxe Reverb it was indeed identical. Also I found it Fisher-Price toy easy to work on. Not to mention that the Factory replacement reverb tranny was plug and play. I for one found it a pleasure to work on as compared to those old warped ass fender turret boards that from that era are almost allways warped to the point that they are arcing against the chasis. I find the printed circut to be a step foward myself. There ARE good ones just as there are plenty of hand wired pieces of {censored} out there too.