Never be the first one to make noise on stage, or everyone will think your amp is too loud. Let the drummer give some good smacks on the snare first, and everyone will change their frame of reference for what is or isn’t too loud.
I played out recently and made the mistake to be the first to play. I had three people come tell me to turn down. I may have been too loud, but it was a sound check and I need to hear the other band members playing at the same time as me in order to know where to set my volume. From now on, I’ll wait for the drummer to go first!
Can't really explain how much this show has added to my guitar playing life...and for some reason this video feels like a good place to say it. Still can't express it, but suffice to say it's a LOT. Excellent episode. Where would we all be without you? I shudder to think.
I played at a funeral once.. just a guitar no other instruments . The man who passed was a massive guitar nut. So in his honor i turned up with a 50w marshall and 1960 4x12 cab. The vicar had kittens when he saw it but to be honest i kept it clean let the sound fill the church. It was an emotional moment.. one that i dont think a silent stage would have had the same effect.
This video is so well timed. The last year and a half I found myself buying new gear only to swap it out. Wash...Rinse...Repeat. Until I finally realized it was the option paralysis that was plaguing me. So I sold all of my gear (save a pedalboard of pedals) and landed on a Fender Princeton and a Gibson ES-335. Now, I am finding I am just focusing on the notes. It's glorious. I'm more inspired to play now than I have been in a very long time, largely because I'm not fussing with sounds.
Good call. The Fender Princeton makes everything sound good! I have one too. I like it even better than the Reverb DLX to be honest. Even more simple. Chimier. Even better reverb somehow too. Now you just need a Tele and you're good to go!
Hell ya, what a great great team you have there. I just found “the right” speaker for my Princeton. Works sooo well with 335 and Humbuckers (and P90). Makes a huge difference…
This has to be the best video you guys have done. You have demonstrated a very real useful way of setting up for a live-stage gig with amp/guitar along with pedals front-ended into amp. The gold top Les Paul demo from 3:45 onwards with the DR at 9 was just sensational - so many great, song friendly sounds. Good work gentlemen.
Because of some bad patch cables on my pedalboard, my sound cut off completely during my first guitar solo at a festival gig this summer. For the rest of the show, I plugged directly into my deluxe reverb RI and used my tele knobs to get all my sounds, plus the reverb and trem via the footswitch. I found I played even better for the rest of the performance because I was locked in with my tele’s dynamics
Consider a pedalboard bypass switch (if you go back to using pedals 😊). One click and you're straight into the amp. Saves time in that situation. Cheers
if your pedalboard is messing with dynamics, you need to check cables and input impedance(s) first. and invest in some knob-fixer donuts so you can set and forget the pedals you don't want getting jarred or have low-resistance/drift-y knobs.
@@brianmiller3287 I prefer all three of those over the DR. Especially the Super. It's... heavenly. However, there's no denying the DR is just infinitely more practical, both volume wise and "I like my spine in one piece, thank you very much"-wise. And the DR still is an awesome sounding amp in itself.
@@bakkels And the deluxe reverb can be cranked for some nice drive tones without having the cops called on you if you live in a home with reasonable separation between you and your neighbors.
It's amazing how the sound changes between 3, 4 and 4.5. You can hear it in the audio and Dans reaction is immidiate. Fantastic...great amp, great demo!
Well done on criticising the silent stage approach. There are literally certain venues I won’t play now as the sound engineer will just turn the guitar down to nothing. What’s shocked me is the amount of sound engineers who just listen with their eyes. I gigged a Marshall TSL60 for a decade which is (due to its rather strange jack of all trades design) a pretty quiet amp. Yet sound people would constantly tell me to turn it down. Then I moved to using pedals with a significantly less Rawk looking Blackstar Artisan 30 which can easily fill a room even in half power mode. The same engineers started telling me to turn it up. So I’m exasperated now and have moved to a Blackstar Artisan 15 head and 2 x 12 which has a ridiculously loud output due to its simple circuit. I’ve yet to have anyone tell me to turn it down. Perhaps this could be a future episode? Dan gigs a 100 watt amp in an inoffensive looking tiny box and Mick turns up with a 5 watt head built into some Randall Metalhead type enclosure. I think that would be fascinating to see how people react to perceptions of volume.
THIS! I had the band leader/keyboard player ask me to take a 15 watt Velocette off the stage while EVERYBODY in the band was complaining all we could hear was his loud loud piano monitor the entire set!
Watching this episode I can't help but be reminded of the Bonamassa quote: "THE GREATEST THREAT TO GUITAR MANKIND IS THE NOTION THAT STAGE VOLUMES NEED TO BE LOWER THAN THE VOLUME IN WHICH WE SPEAK”
I have a Deluxe Reverb that I use at home with a Weber Minimass attenuator. I can get great tone without peeling the paint off the walls. It’s a fantastic amp. Cheers from Texas!
I had my buddy's late Father's 1964 Deluxe Reverb over at my place for several months, a couple years ago. I refurbished it, added a grounded power cable, new speaker, new filter caps, power tubes and an NFB switch (using the old ground switch), as well as a couple other little things. It's almost entirely stock, aside from a few new caps. I sure miss having it around, because man oh man, it's an absolute JEWEL. I consider myself lucky, though, even just having an old "drip-edge" 1968 Vibro Champ.
As an owner of a DRRI I found this video to be one of the best you guys have done. I also use a small pedal board which includes a Wha pedal, TS9, Super Phat Mod, CE-2 and a Carbon Copy. Now I’m considering an EQ pedal. Job well done guys
Didn’t know that amp could do that until I worked for the Guess Who. They ran them hot through a Marshall 4x12 with greenbacks. Gave me a whole new perspective of Fender amps. Haha.
Speakers are a huge part of why there's preconceptions around the Deluxe Reverb. So many session pros have been playing Deluxe Reverbs modified into heads running into larger cabinets. It's a sound people are used to and enjoy, but don't know it's coming from this amp.
I have just figured this out recently! Albeit with my own Fender Champian 40. My old pedal board had a veritable smorgasbord of a bit of everything, but now consists of just 6 pedals reverb & trem being two of them. Guess what? I'm sounding better and more consistant: using my volume & tone knobs more and enjoying getting to know my sound much better. It works! Great show guys. 🫡
I played in a 80's--90's--present day rock band. Using a Mesa Boogie Subway Rocket 20 watt 1x10 combo. Just using the clean channel, and having a Xotic Super Sweet Booster-Revv G4 distortion-JRockett Audio The Dude in the front. After one song, I was told to turn down. The clean channel is very clean, on about 6....in my mind, I'm telling the soundman "dude, this isn't a John Denver tribute band!!!!"....but I stay quiet, and turn the amp down, just a bit. The amp is behind me, tilted up to the back of my head. Got thru the gig. Afterwards, I realized the soundman is on my side of the stage, maybe 15-20 feet away....So the next time I played with the same rig, I placed my amp behind the PA's subwoofer on my side of the stage pointing to the back wall, set the amp where I wanted, never had any problem hearing myself, never heard any complaints from the soundman. Lesson learned.
Volume: playing loud is fun and toneful, but if the audience don’t want it, then it’s too loud. It’s not necesarily ‘the wrong audience’ because I go out to pub gigs to socialise with friends and watch/listen to a band. If the former is impossible because the volume is too high, I’ll go elsewhere. I don’t want to be restricted to bellowing in my friends’ ears once every 3 minutes. There is such a thing as ‘too loud’ in pub venues. Gigs in music venues - yes play as loud as you can, people have paid to expect it. But I think most of your audience play in pubs/bars (certainly in the uk)
I'm not saying you're wrong. Actually, I completely agree. However, there _is_ a certain base volume that is needed for a band to sound good. And even though I'm a guitar player, that base level should be centered around the drummer imo. A snare only sounds good when it gets hit pretty hard. That's the base level for me. The rest of the band has to adjust volume to be able to be on the same level. We just gotta restrain ourselves and try not to turn up the volume bit by bit as the gig progresses 😄
This is also where volume management techniques come in handy. You keep the volume respectable and manageable but still push the amp. Load boxes, attenuators, plexiglass, these things go a long way.
I totally agree. I've gone into venues where the band was playing at deafening levels and it's just not enjoyable. I love playing loud, there's nothing like an Ampeg 8x10 cranked up, but too loud is too loud.
Deluxe Reverb my favourite amp of all time. The encouragement to stop being ashamed is a great one. Is the DR too loud for home use. I certainly don't think so. I live in the top flat and have talked to the next door neighbour and the folks downstairs and they just say they think its nice. And I have assured them that if they need quiet just come knock and there's absolutely no hard feelings. Its happened only once. So this is my advice to all of you - don't apologise for volume. Think about how loud a saxophone is for example. Don't be ashamed just play your best and use your judgement. I won't practice scales for an hour with the DR. I'll jam and play musical. Before you know it you won't feel self conscious. Also fantastic advice regarding pedals. I only own a telecaster, a simple chorus, a simple delay, an overdrive and a compressor. Its enough. If I want options bonanza I can plug into my computer and have everything, but it makes me a worse guitar player.
My kind of rig. I’ve told people for years you can play louder if you play better. When asked how I get my tone, I’ve said as much volume, treble and reverb as you can possibly stand- then push it a little more!
Why I sold the best amp in the world! - I bought my 70s silver face Deluxe Reverb from a local guitar tech for $500 in the early 90's. I love the tones and just wanted to have it. As a home player that doesn't do any gigging and I will not ever gig, it's just sat around and been pulled out every so often and played for a little while and enjoyed and then put back up for months. I've started playing again and I have a helix LT and a headrush pedal and fr speakers and monitors that give me a beautiful stereo surround sound. The Halo and Bigsky MX add to my stereo mix. I do have a couple of small amp heads, a Peavey Valveking 20, a mini Soldano and a PRS mt-15 along with two 1x12 cabinets. I also get nice separation of sound from the two speaker cabinets. I just felt like that Deluxe Reverb needed to be played by someone who's gigging and who mikes it up and enjoys it regularly. As good as it sounds it's not easy to get it to that perfect volume in my home without bothering everyone and I still would always choose my stereo surround sounds when I'm just jamming around because it just sounds fuller and bigger and better. A single 12-inch speaker amp that I have to crank up to get to its sweet spot without an effects loop and other speaker outs this wasn't the best thing for me. I'll miss it but I realize I made the right decision.
LADS! Another bloody brilliant video. I’ve just gone and got myself the Victory Kraken V4 amp pedal so I’m looking forward to building out a modest, but beastly, pedalboard that includes my wonderful Strymon Cloudburst. Just when I think of going down the modeller route, you two and your infectious passion and wealth of expertise has saved me from option paralysis in the long run by keeping me analog-ing all night long. Cheery bye! Chris from Felixstowe.
I had an outdoor festival gig this weekend. I wish I watched this first. I set my Deluxe Reverb (79 silver face) to just over 4 (volume), 6 treble, 2.5 bass, as I usually do. The sound guy told me to turn down (he was quite red in the face). Instead of turning down the amp, I should have used my overdrive to turn down, and then turn it back up when the gig started to be heard over the drums and bass (our first song was our sound check). My amp was far back and out of reach... Damn it! It sounded fine, but did lack the liveliness of the DR turned up. Next time. Thanks for a great vid guys.
There's a yearly retro music/culture festival in the town I live in which features music ranging from 1930s-2000s. One year featured a The Doors cover band, and before the band started playing I noticed the guitarist was plugged in into a vintage Super reverb, and was like ok wow this is probably gonna be great. The concert was really good, and the guitarist nailed all the parts spot on and sounded awesome. I went by to compliment his playing and ask about the Super reverb. Turned out he usually plays his Hot Rod Deluxe, but the event organizer offered him to use the Super reverb they had, which he happily accepted, and used it for the first time in a live situation, said he bonded with it immediately and was mind blow at what a difference it was to play comparing to the Hot Rod, as he never played a vintage blackface amp before that.
Listening to Mick’s “amp on 9” demo takes me back to 1970. I was 15 years old, and we had just taken in a blackface non-reverb Deluxe on trade. My parents were running errands, and I was alone in the house. I cranked the amp in our basement teaching studio, and was gobsmacked at the range of clean and dirty tones I could get out of it without driving the neighbours crazy.
Great video, guys! I am an owner of two deluxe reverb amps, and I love the sound. I have found that now I have the tone I have been looking for for years. Now, I can really begin to focus on the theory and notes behind it. I think once you get the sound you want, then you really begin to take off as a player.
I’ve owned a DRRI and loved it. Switched to a Pro Reverb and love it even more. Just gives a little more clean headroom I personally find I need that I can’t get from the DDRI.
You seriously nailed why the Deluxe Reverb is the desert island amp for most players! I appreciate the mention of the VOX AC15 as another alternative to this approach. Back in the 90s when it was decided that it would be hard to build an actual AC15 reissue with the scarcity of reliable EF86s, my concept (as VOX USA Prod. mgr.) was to build a baby AC30TB (with added reverb) that could compete with the Deluxe Reverb and be a more portable gigging amp for VOX as the AC30TB is a beast! -Cheers!
I love a hot EL84 vox style amp cranked up and just singing ! My AC30 style amp got rid of tremolo, kept the reverb. And added a drive channel and it's awesome !
On your point about 'Apologising for volume' I 100% agree with you. I moved back to amps and pedals with a dual mono rig, two guitars heads and two 4x12's earlier this year after using a Kemper and having full silent stage for 2 years. Our bass player moved over to a Bass amp and a 4x10 as well. The difference from our audiences reaction, the feedback we've been getting from people and just the feel on stage is just night and day - We've had engineers coming to us and saying how fun we are to mix the whole time we've been playing, and even now they're still saying how fun it is to mix!
Most people would be shocked if they had a look at the pictures of the places that Cream and Hendrix were playing with a 100w Marshall stack (or two!) in the mid-60s, places like the Marquee, Klooks Kleek, the Ricky Tick etc. Some of them are pretty much upstairs rooms above pubs, they'd hold 100 people if they were packed like sardines. If they could use 200w of cranked Marshall Plexi without anyone dying then your average venue can cope with a 20-50w 2x12 amp!
It depends on where you’re playing, and it depends on who YOU are. Any venue would fill to capacity if Clapton or Hendrix were playing, and no one would care that it was too loud to carry on a conversation with the ladies or your buddies (or order a drink or food) Not so much for the average 90s cover band playing out in the suburbs on 2-for-1 wing night. There’s a difference between being the star of a fresh new music scene and being any other kind of working musician. If you’re not sure exactly where you and your band fall in that hierarchy, I advise you to crank that tube amp like a rock star who just don’t give a &@#%. If the bartender or house manager doesn’t sort you out in about 15 seconds then congratulations! Make sure they get your good side on the cover of Rolling Stone.
I was fully expecting the :The best amp is the one you have". Which is honestly true! My amp is by no means a beginner (cali tweed) but every time i go ooh i want another amp, i think of all the tonal range my tweed child can cover and it helps me get back to basics. Totally like the spirit of this video, and i think its good to instill simplicity as a foundational virtue in guitarists so that we expand when we HAVE the foundation already built, rather than going option crazy first like a madman (i definitely did this). Great video, cheers to you both from Baltimore!
This could be the entire life changing amp for me. I'm struggling to find an amp which is not too loud for ear bleeding, not too quiet for giving the right headroom to my pedals. I love John Mayer kind of sound, but also David Gilmour's. I need an amp that can have such a long sustain and natural crispy attack at acceptable volumes, but it has to stay as clean as possible, without being thin. It's a quest I can't solve in decades. I've switched a lot of amps without finding the right sound, maybe this could be the classic: "ok you have the answer right in front of your eyes". That's an amp everyone has os had. A classic amp, but I've never tried it with my pedals. Thank you guys for this really detailed review.
The Deluxe Reverb has a really unusually broad sweet spot where pedals sound great - almost like no other amp, including big iron monsters. And this allows one to shape the pedal tones into many directions, which is great.
Yep, big fan of this whole video concept. The more I gigged, the more I had to learn that simple but dynamic and engaging will ALWAYS outperform more flexible but less natural to an audience and it really changed how I approach my playing and sound. Love this video. Side note: would love to see an amp gain challenge! One boost pedal max, no overdrives, max five pedals, all running in front of a gainy amp
Quick story with some possibly relevant insight. I sold all my small amps and bought a Tone King Imperial MKII. I was able to get a B-stock for a good price, mostly paid for with the money from the amp sales, and then I financed the difference. It seemed crazy to spend that much on a small amp (or any amp at all, for that matter) given that I would only need it for bedroom use and smaller gigs. But it was the best decision I ever made. I can get any tone I realistically need, from a black panel deluxe, to a tweed, to an early Marshall. It's a great great pedal platform and has the best spring reverb and tremolo I've ever heard. It inspires me to play everyday and has definitely made me a better player. The attenuator makes it's perfect for bedroom use in a two-family home with neighbors and allows me to dial it to the sweet spot. I can even play late at night or early in the morning with the attenuator maxed. My fender Deluxe and Princeton reissues were great amps, but realistically they were too loud for bedroom use. Even 5-10 watt tube Marshalls, Vox, and fenders were too loud, and those with the half power or quarter power switches never sounded quite right. To reach the sweet spot in volume, I would need a good attenuator either way, which would cost upwards of $400. These days, I'm starting to lean towards using this amp over my 70s JMP and Hi-tone at live gigs, especially if it's a small gig or the amps are miked. The sound guy prefers it, and I can keep my tone relatively consistent from the bedroom to the stage. It's ultimately a deluxe reverb on steroids, with much appreciated features and improvements to make it suitable in a wide variety of different environments!
Tone King is king - you pay more for it than for a Fender amp, but you get the tones of ALL Fender amps from it without modeling and the Ironman attenuator itself is worth being bought extra just to be able to play that Deluxe Reverb when you are not on a stage. Fender demands too much for what it delivers. By the way; the show is mostly very good, I learned a lot from these gentlemen but... no offence meant, but sometimes it seems - at least to me - like they are trying to advocate a bit too much for vintage type stuff. I mean there are really so few people who could tell you the difference between the sound of a Blues Cube Artist and a tube amp. And even if they can, does not mean the tube amp has to sound better.
It’s been fun watching you guys go through this journey of pushing the amps more and letting them do the overdriving. It’s been about 4 years of a purging of ODs because I get everything from my hands, volume knob and a cranked amp. Also a EP3 for that extra fun. If you ever get a chance to play a Komet, you will experience something very magical.
This is one of your best shows yet, chock full of great advice, sounds and clear explanations and examples. Say no to silent stages! Many thanks, guys.
Awesome video thanks guys. I use a DRRI for my gigging amp. I totally concur on the point where they come alive. I use the maxim: “between four and five it comes alive”. What I do have as part of my standard setup though is running through a Tone King Iron Man II mini attenuator. Those wonder boxes have so many graduations that I only use two clicks from the right (so about 10db ish of attenuation). Then even my cleans have sizzle and warmth. There’s no tone suck, so if a sound guy tells me i’m too loud I just go one more click to the left on the Ironman, yet the amp volume remains just under five. The deluxe reverb is simply a desert island amp. Keep up the great work lads. You have fans down here in New Zealand, rock on.
I've searched a TON about amps recently. Like a lot. It will be my first amp purchase in about 20 years. Just getting back into guitar again. Out of all things, one thing is constant. Everyone praises this amp and boy it's for good reason. It has the clean, the breakup etc it's really really good. Might have to gift myself one
Glad to see/hear you embrace a decent volume. Yes, we all (should) care about ear health. But IMO, live music at low volumes (IMO, sub 95 dB) is simply background music. If we ever want live music -- of any style/genre -- to regain cultural significance, we need to get back to volumes that people can feel. It's the only real answer to "but I can stream professional footage from the comfort of my home, why would I ever see a gig in real life?"
I bought a 1964 Deluxe Reverb for USD $500 in the early 1990s. I wasn't looking - I just happened to find one for sale in my local shop. I played *so* many gigs, of all kinds, with that amp! Eventually it blew out on a gig, and it was never quite the same after I got it repaired, so I sold it. (I didn't know a great repair person at the time. 🥺 Now I do.) These days I prefer early-’60s brown Deluxes, but you really can do *anything* with a good black-panel Deluxe Reverb.
I’m delighted to see this is the 2nd post I’ve seen about the Deluxe Reverb being the best overall amp! I got an early reissue of the’65 in 1998 for $500…It’s wonderful- I changed the speaker to a vintage Celestion and had the bright cap disabled on the reverb channel 🎶 Yep, 4-41/2 is sweet!…great video, guys! 👍
I know this is an unpopular opinion... but my blonde deluxe tone master is crazy impressive just like its tube counterparts. Dial in the sound then just adjust attenuation based on how loud you want to play. It's ridiculous, takes keeping it simple to the next level. Great episode !
Totally agree (my main amp is a Tonemaster Deluxe black that I converted to blonde), except I still don’t love the overdriven sound from the Tonemaster. It doesn’t sound smooth and creamy like what I hear in this video. It takes OD pedals great though.
Totally agree. I need a huge, sweet, sumptuous, room filling CLEAN headroom with added O/D + Distortion pedal. Enter the epic Magnatone Stereo Twilighter with vib/trem/reverb (a clean Deluxe Reverb in stereo at virtually any volume) - used for all my gigs since 2012
Do you think the whole "comes alive with volume at 4.0 - 4.5" phenomenon is related to the fact that that is about where the DR's fixed bright cap drops out? Hoping y'all would have addressed/discussed the bright cap (to clip, or not to clip) on some level. Still, another great video, regardless.
It could be... But the effect is like a bunch of extra gain and balls. I mean it could be. Interesting! Never ever felt the need to clip it. Maybe for low volume use where it does sound a bit thin. But then we have to ask.... why have a loud tube amp for low volume? Especially a non-master volume amp....
If the deluxe is too loud for your situation, then go with the princeton! Slightly smaller and a bit quieter, but will have the same effect! Beautiful video guys! Loved every minute of it!
I used to carry my only amp, a Marshall super lead 100 Plexi, and wuad into reception lounge gigs, and get comments like " We don't want any of that loud metal music in here!", before I had even plugged in. I tried to reassure them that my amp was fitted with a volume knob which, if turned to the left, magically softened the output level, but they wouldn't hear of it. It seems the very appearance and historical association of the amp was "psycho-acoustically " loud, even if it wasn't plugged in, and even if I set it so low that the vocalist needed no microphone to sing through, people would still claim it was " too loud". The full thrroated tone gives the impression of loudness because it isn't scooped like many Fender amps, and people's eyes had more of a bearing on their perceptions than did their ears. People used to say, " Can't you just play with the amps turned off?" ( which shows how stupid the average punter actually is) but volume perception being in the eye of the beholder, I could do nothing much about it. I used to find that audiences would " atter hiw quiet it ac 0:05 hear" the amp as being louder if it was set on an overdriven sound, no matter how quiet I set it, also it was "heard" as qubieter if I rolle
Guitar players used to be rebels, guitar used to be dangerous. Get an amp, play it loud and mean. I found the lack of danger in nowadays guitar players disturbing.
@@Les537 "We used to carry on and drink and do the rock and roll" But not only rock,, Funk Players, Jazz Players, Folk Players, From Robert Johnson to Page, from James Taylor to Django, from Hiran Bullock to Eddie Hazel and Joe Walsh, Guitar players were a different breed back in the day. Now they drink non alcohoolic beer, eat gluten free bread and play from a kemper with in ears.
True man. I hate to see ergonomic headless guitars. Like, yeah, a strat is ergonomic, but it's a beautiful object. I want to see more young people playing Rhoads Jackson Vs, Telecasters, doublenecks. I want some excitement, some great songwriting and some improvisation. Not some well-rehearsed metronome bullshit. Give us some drama! Give us some blood!
I was 19 when I picked up a beautiful mint 1965 deluxe reverb. It cost me $200 and I was really unhappy because I didn’t have the money at the time to buy one of those fancy solid-state amps that Peavey made. Fast forward some 40 years later and I’ve used that amp on hundreds upon hundreds of gigs and it’s been a stalwart of my rig. Great video guys and wishing you good tidings from the other side of the pond !
That section starting at 2:50 should be learned by everyone who picks up a guitar and tube amp. I learned this far too late in life when I finally built my own little Class A Princeton-ish amp head. Turn the amp up and use the guitar controls. Once you understand what does what, THEN go out and get stuff to get what that won't give you.
How did these sound guys-and let’s be honest, most of them are frustrated musicians-become the arbiters of what I need as a performer? The way it sounds to ME is the most important thing, period.
@@cedarbay3994 Well, the most important thing is what it sounds like to the audience - they couldn't care less how it sounds to you so long as the overall mix sounds good. Really need to stop the sound engineer bashing in general; I'm by no means a professional but have done quite a bit in my time and some guitarists go right off on one about needing to be loud and their tone is utterly appalling and just ruins the mix. A lot of guitarists REALLY need to let go of their ego on this and trust the sound engineer (and yes there are bad ones, but the vast majority are very good and want the MIX to sound excellent).
Great video guys! I recently saw a video on Shane Theriot’s channel about when Billy Gibbons came on Live from Daryl’s house. He said BFG showed up with just a couple of guitars, a Magnatone amp and one pedal, a Boss EQ pedal. He had a 400 slider all the way up and all the other frequencies flat. The sound was amazing and definitely BFG.
Great show guys, I couldn’t agree more about needing an amp on stage. I saw a band last month who had drums, bass, keys, sax, vocals and electric guitar. It was so bloody loud that my ears were sore for days. However the guitarist was using some kind of fancy HELIX Line 6 processor unit with no amp. I could tell he was a phenomenal player from all his chord shapes and licks, however I could barely hear a note from him all night as he was totally drowned out by the drums, sax and keyboard. Maybe it was partly to do with the mix from the sound engineer, but I left just wishing he’d had a nice Fender Deluxe sitting behind him!
Maybe a show idea here for y’all, is there bits of gear you think sound amazing when other people use them but when you try it you just can’t get along with it? The deluxe reverb reissue is one of those for me. Played a bunch, owned a few, always sounds/feels horrible to me. Walk into a bar hear a great guitar tone, hey look, deluxe reissue 🤦🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
My jcm900 is kinda like that for me. I use it clean with pedals because I can't get along with its channel B, it just doesn't roll off like I would like neither does it sound like I would want a marshall to sound like. Great amp for riffing though
Often it’s the tubes and wall voltage. Swap out the 12ax7s for xy7s, then make sure you have under 220 wall volts because over that spec the amp gets punchy and thin. But those two rules and you won’t find a modeler that will make you feel so comfortable being loud.
The biggest problem with this amp is that it can't be used at home with backing tracks - it doesn't have an aux-in. And, accordingly, it's impossible to use all the best sounds it can produce without connecting some additional equipment, ultimately using a studio monitor. And a guitar speaker sounds much better than a studio monitor, but for some reason manufacturers don't take into account this simple option, which would be a great gift for millions of guitarists playing at home.
Music would not sound good through that box and speaker combo. It’s kinda voiced for guitar only. You don’t buy this amp for multi functionality, you buy it to make your guitar sound great.
@@quintonmcdannald2327 I have a Laney L5 studio which is equipped with an aux-in input. Backing tracks sound very good for practice. Usually we don’t need perfect hi-fi quality in such cases.
@@1loStu we all have and have had multiple types of amps and they all have their own purpose. I often put backing tracks on my TV and play my Deluxe on top of it, however the helix into my small PA with backing tracks running from my phone also works well. But the difference in experience between a real deluxe and the digital modeler is hard to describe, kinda like the difference between a girl E Harmony matches for you and the girl you actually have chemistry with yet makes no sense in paper. Part of the reason I play music is to chase that chemistry and capture that feeling.
Ive always wanted this amp as i completely agree with their mission to educate players who chase an endless search for killer tone via 100s of pedals and buying and trying other amps. Ive been doing this with a fender blues jr for the past 25 yrs using the amp and guitar volume knobs for added variety with a few modulation pedals. This pushes me into the Deluxe world as my single amp.
I use my 71 with my pedal case in front of it. I open the case, put it on its side, like a V, and use it to block the sound shooting out to the audience. I also have it mixed and put it just through my monitor, which can make it louder than a twin if I want. I also use my 66 PR like this, even in big concerts, and I have converted many a guitar player to my method. And yes, these two are the best amps in the world.
I've learned so much from watching your vids. Years ago I built my pedalboard around your advice...Wah pedal feeding into gain stacking through an EP boost, to tremolo and delay. Superb...learned a few licks from you too. You guys rock. Cheers!
I’ve bought various guitar pedals and amps that haven’t lived up to the expectation or have sounded seemingly different to in YT videos. When I finally made the jump to a deluxe reverb, it was exactly what I’d hoped and the talk about it is well justified. Great amp.
This video is pretty perfect. Analog makes all the difference. Digital has a place… but a silent stage, is fixing something that isn’t broke. Unless I’m a very specific situation.
Just caught up with this wonderful video after getting home from playing a wonderful Sunday afternoon reggae gig. Guitarist playing through a Vox AC10, me playing bass into a 300w stack, real drums, percussionist, two singers, sax and melodica. The stage was far from quiet, as it should be and thankfully nobody said a single word about volume - much fun ensued 😊
I was just visiting Nashville and went to a number of clubs with a full drum kit, but everyone else was modeling or going direct. It didn't sound bad, but it just felt lacking. I saw one 3-man band at a very small club, guitarist had a tiny Fender Champ. It sounded massive and was the best thing I heard all week.
This video led me in the direction of purchasing a vox ac15. I’m no longer spending hours tone chasing on my boss katana and suffering from option paralysis. I’m hearing sounds from my guitars I haven’t heard before, clarity and definition. I’m focusing more on playing and sticking with stock sounds and everything sounds fantastic. I’ll keep the katana if I get into a situation where the vox isn’t cutting volume wise. Top video gentlemen! And sincere thanks!
I could not agree more that the Black Panel Deluxe Reverb is the 'best' amp in the world. So much so that I bought a '64 Custom Hand Wired, in the hope that it will be able to outlive me. Also C12Q is nice, I know there is a plethora of thought on the best speaker for this amp, but it's pretty great to my ears. I run a Nobels (mini) into mine, lovely push into 'tweed' territory with this amp, which was very much his intention, as covered in previous episodes. Found it was on all controls at noon, from whenever I last used it. 2'o'clock, does, annoyingly, seem to be the sweet spot 😉 Special Cranker also fantastic way to push it, which was already at 2pm except for Level, due to my local circumstances - amp is about 70cm behind me as I'm typing this, attenuated, of course, but still 95 dB in my tiny studio if I hit it hard, briefly! The search is still on for a JTM/JMP-esque head to go into 2xV30 cab to pair my DR in stereo with; Origin 20H not doing it justice. Any recommendations gratefully accepted, although I suspect I'll end up with a Studio Vintage 20. I can see me coming back to this one a few times, excellent work as always, thanks D&M! 😊
Hey Mick and Dan. For me this is one of the most useful shows that you’ve done. It validates the idea of start with a simple setup, learn how it works and slowly build from there. Thanks ❗️
You guys totally had me thinking this would be a gear show. And then it was all about this beautiful uplifting philosophy with a "that's us" feeling for guitar players. Well laid out with tick-boxes for my autistic/ADD brain (a genuine thank you for that). I think so many of us can correlate and substitute with our own single channel amp and pedals. Point making, I could totally relate it to my Soldano atomic 16 going from clean(ish) to mean and my rangemaster boost for solo and RC booster for underdriven cleans + some wobblies and delays. Oh yeah, you've forgotten to put a compressor on the board, but I forgive you ;) And my next thought was... It's not about the gear but I want to play it now... Mission accomplished guys!
Probably one of your most important films to date. Reassuring that you can get great tone without having to 'chase' the elusive perfect pedal or pedal combo.
While this is not how I set up my rig, I'm always impressed with demonstrations of how something like a cranked Deluxe Reverb, or a Fuzz Face in front of an amp can offer so many shades of gain if you just manipulate your volume and/or tone knob. I have an idea for an interesting video based on this, that folks might like. You could do a shoot-out of overdrive pedals that can do the same thing. As in, one overdrive, kinda cranked, in front of a "pedal platform clean amp" that can go from clean to lead by just using your volume knob on the guitar. In my experience, something like Boss BD-2 or Hudson Broadcast can pull it off pretty well. It would be cool to check which drive pedals can, and which drives pedals can't really do that.
I have a very similar set up with my Dr. Z Cure. I set the amp up just to the edge of break up. Then my gain staging is EP booster > Nordland ODR-C > Vemuram Jan Ray (gain set low) for a mid kick solo boost. Great episode fellas!!
My current primary amp is a Deluxe combo platform that's been customized into a '64 Blonde Bassman on the "short" channel and a Plexi on the "long" channel, reverb/tremolo deleted. Plexi sockets are "Kossov" & "BFG". Add pan-pedal to go between "short" & "long" and have at it. Pure joy!
Great perspective on all this volume phobia. As the gig progresses, it's the drummer who gets louder. Playing live is as close as you get to glory, there is no better feeling when your sound is beaming. Keep it going people.
I have a 2008 Deluxe Reverb RI running 6L6 power tubes and professionally modded to run 2X10 alnico speakers. Sounds really great despite needing to go in for some maintenance servicing to deal with some crackling pots, clicking tremolo and a noisy reverb when turned up to it's limit. Very happy with it and it's pristine cleans.
I've had this amp for years, and I agree with almost everrything said. The sweet spot is indeed at or above six in the volume. However, in most clubs I've played (up to 300 people capacity) I was given a LOT of grief from the sound tech and my bandmates if i dared push it beyond three or four. Only in the largest venues and in a couple of open festivals I've been able to push it above five. Also, 21+ kg is on the fence as "portable"... That's why I sold it. Since then I spent some years with a blues Junior tweed, never managing to get a good (for me) sound out of it. Then I got a Princeton Reverb '65. That was it. 15 kg, 15 Watts, super sweet sounding, breaks up nicely, and most but the snallest clubs I play at mics the amps, so 15 Watts is more than enough (usually I'm up on the limit of the sound tech's ability to integrate the amp in the mix) playing at five or six. There is no need for huge stacks, or even 40-50 Watts in a valve amp is crazy loud for most clubs. Unworkable.
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