• alan
  • Silver Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-11-26
  • Posts: 69

Topic: HELP USE OF BLUES DELUXE AND PEDALS TO MATCH WITH

I wanted to buy a twin amp 57 but was afraid by the price and by the eventual too loud tone and too plain characteristics

so I finally bought a BLUES DELUXE which I think has rougly the same characteristics except for the rectifiers and theloud

speaker AND OF COURSE THE PRICE!

.Anyway,at first, this amp gives me a quite good blues sound with goldtop on the second channel:nice clear

tone with a great reverb ,nice dirty tone without too much gain (3 OR 4) both magnified with the TS9  on 9

I found boss ME 50 quite good with the amp too.

Nevertheless I lacks of more drive to play some harder stuffs!

what do you tnink of this amp, do you find my comparison with twin amp right and which pedals would you avise me to ply

harder:sole led zep stuff?

  • From: Lancashire
  • Registered: 2008-02-26
  • Posts: 700

Re: HELP USE OF BLUES DELUXE AND PEDALS TO MATCH WITH

The newer versions I find they sound really brittle and bright. However using the clean channel only (which takes pedals extremely well) you can get some great blues sounds. My OCD runs great thru it, as does the fulltone 69. It is quite like a twin in some respects. The trick with the amp is to tame the high end, you might not notice it sat near the amp but people out front will start to bleed from the ears sad. I run bass at 3 mid at 11 treb at 11 presence at 2 reverb at 5 and volume at 8-9 it will be loud but you can control that from the guitar, you have to really crank these amps smile or atleast in my opinion anyhow.
Good luck

  • From: North Carolina
  • Registered: 2008-10-26
  • Posts: 2,926

Re: HELP USE OF BLUES DELUXE AND PEDALS TO MATCH WITH

I have a Hot Rod Deluxe which has a little more gain on tap but in my opinion sounds very similar in the Clean channel.  I also read on here Bonamassa thinks HRD was a little less brittle.  Just look in the section about Joes Amp input.  Anyways I was going to suggest this setting that I use on my HRD and hope it helps.  Bass 4, Mids 12, Treble 6, Pressence 12, Volume and Reverb to your taste.  Next get some kind of boost pedal in the effects loop.  I use a Compressor pedal with the level turned up all the way and Sustain turned up just a little louder then the volume of the amp with the compressor off.  When its clicked on it balences everythings volume but louder.  Because its a Compressor pedal every note is the same volume I'm just using it as a booster pedal, I'm pretty sure a clean boost or a even your TS9 with the level turned up and the drive turned down would get that powerful blues sound.  Just give it a try, and see what you think I'm not sure it will work with a Blues Deluxe but I've heard a lot of people tell me they thought I ran humbuckers in my Stratocaster as thick as it sounds, btw I use the distortion channel of my amp.  A lot of people on this sight say its rubish and that the amp doesn't have enough gain to pull off Zeppelin or the kind of stuff Bonamassa is doing, but I disagree.  I think its just easier to get a Marshall and a Les Paul to do what they want but if you work work with that amp hard enough you can get any blues rock sound you want or need out of that Gold top you got.  Good Luck!  Keep playing with it and look at what Joe said about the Blues Deluxe on this site.

AD3THREE's Website

  • From: kentucky
  • Registered: 2008-03-06
  • Posts: 304

Re: HELP USE OF BLUES DELUXE AND PEDALS TO MATCH WITH

it's ironic that you have raised this question.....i just bought a blues deluxe reissue about 3 days ago.

i had a 65 twin reissue for about two years and just could not get into it the way i wanted.....that amp sounded very harsh and brittle to my ears and did not take pedals very well.  it was ungodly heavy and at the end of the day to be flat out honest just wasnt very useful to me.

i own some pretty good rigs in having a mesa/boogie triaixs, mesa/boogie 20/20 power amp, marshall JVM, egnater rebel 20, digitech gsp 2101 and a boss gt-8......so i got alot of stuff at my disposal.....BUT

the one thing i felt was missing was that sound that is unique to having a fender guitar plugged into a fender tube amp.  there are several fender amps out there much more expensive than the blues deluxe but i absolutely love this amp right now....to my ears it provides some great fender tone and so far has taken pedals real well....plus to my pleasant surprise the drive channel on the amp is actually usable.....so it has been a real nice addition to my studio and i'm glad i got it.

masque's Website

  • From: Scotland
  • Registered: 2009-02-11
  • Posts: 453

Re: HELP USE OF BLUES DELUXE AND PEDALS TO MATCH WITH

I have been looking into getting as hot rod deluxe very recently (sorry if hijacking the topic). When I first bought my OCD v4 i tried it out with a hot rod deluxe and loved the tone. I played it with a les paul standard on the clean channel only and was able to get into the bonamassa ball park with this pedal and amp. You could try adding some delay and reverb to smooth it out and stick a plexi baffle in front also.

  • From: East Midlands, UK
  • Registered: 2008-06-30
  • Posts: 164

Re: HELP USE OF BLUES DELUXE AND PEDALS TO MATCH WITH

I think there's quite a few of us that have blues deluxes on here. I've had mine now for 3/4 years. It's both annoyed me and amazed me at times. It can get quite harsh, mainly as you turn it up. Live, in run it on 3/4 and use a drive to get my heavier sounds. Makes a really good platform for cleans and pedals. Also, I have an epiphone goldtop with p90's and use this with the blues deluxe sometimes. The slightly hotter output pickups, compared to my favoured strat, really help make that drive channel sing. Throw in a nice drive to boost it over the edge a little more. Marshally flavoured pedals work really well with it, something like a box of rock or caitlinbread dirty little secret might worth a try.

Fender 60's Strat>Fulltone OCD V4>>TC Electronics Polytune>Orange Dual Terror>Torres 2x10 Cab(with a vintage 30 and a greenback)