Yet another vintage amp history lesson today. Up to bat is
the immortal Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb. Manufactured
from 1963-1967, at the time it was released, it, along with the other
amps of the Blackface series, were game changers. It sounded great for
every kind of then-popular music, and had the two most desirable amp effects
of the day, tube-driven tremolo and reverb. It is hard to put into words just
how woven into the fabric of American popular music the BF Deluxe Reverb is.
The essential and most successful Blackface models were the Deluxe, the Super,
and the Twin. But Leo had his marketing act together for the BF’s. There was a
Blackface amp for every speaker and power tube configuration, and every
price point. The Fender Blackfaces were far and away the most successful
tube amplifier series ever designed. An instant smash to the point that
musicians were spray painting older Tweed models black, rather than suffer
the humiliation of playing an amp that looked like your Grandma’s luggage.
The Deluxe Reverb is legend. I doubt there was a ‘60’s/‘70’s/’80’s Country star
that didn’t use the Deluxe. Blues players made it their own. Pop players,
R&B, Soul, Funk guitarists all loved it. Any pro who played small clubs had one.
Its 1x12” speaker with 2 6V6 power section got right into its sweet spot in a
50-200 seat room. Sweet, snappy, and trebly with a sing-y, blues-y midrange the
Deluxe could do anything but hard rock/metal, and do it well.
Every pro I ever knew changed out the very average sounding stock Oxford 12”
speaker, they generally came with, to something better. Jensen C12Q’s, C12N’s,
JBL’s, Altecs, early Electro-Voice’s, even Celestion Blues. A BF Deluxe with an
upgraded speaker and a pair of RCA Blackplate 6V6 power tubes is one of the
all-time classic amplifier voices. If you can’t get a good sound out of one,
maybe electric guitar isn’t your thing!
Also, one of the most recorded amps of all time. My personal favorite example
is Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”. It is a little known fact that the Beatles used
BF Deluxes in the studio, heavily, on every record after “The White Album”,
not Vox’s as was generally assumed. The most famous current user is probably
Trey Anastasio (Phish) – his is modded to use two Celestion Greenbacks.
The patch features an optional Klon Centaur-style booster in front of the amp,
for some vintage grit. Twang on!
