Product ReviewsFender '65 Deluxe Reverb - Black/Silver

Fabulous tube amp if you want that classic Fender sound with new, reliable upgraded wiring and components.

I bought this amp to get back into playing guitars (Fender Jaguar '66 Japan re-issue) after a 30 year hiatus ! I was looking for a tube amp that could generally emulate the sound I got from my original first amp, a '66 Black Panel Super Reverb. This is IT !! I wanted a smaller, lighter amp, and this fit the bill at 20 watts RMS (as opposed the the 40 of the Super, and 20 lbs lighter).
Rich classic spring reverb sound, great warmth and rich EQ'd tone from bottom to top, and the wonder "overdrive" from the 6V6 matched output tubes.
This thing is hand-wired, and the cabinet is solid pine (rather than plywood). It is much lighter than a Super Reverb as it only has a single Jensen 12" speaker. What I really like is the upgraded design where BOTH channels now can access the spring reverb unit-a very useful and novel idea ! Also, the Tolex covering on this thing is VERY, very thick-designed obviously for a working musician who wants extra scuff-proofing. Expensive ? At 2500 bucks + tax: yes. Worth it ? For me ? Absolutely ! Is it worth the extra 1500 bucks over the cheaper circuit-boarded tube version ? For me it is, for others perhaps not. In any event, I have no regrets about buying it, and I suspect it will retain its value over time if taken care of and not abused.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: www.thegemzone.com

'65 Deluxe Reverb "Brownie"

I had been missing my old brown face '63 Vibroverb reissue, and I've been wanting to check out the DRRI for quite a few years. So when I saw this amp I thought I could see what the Deluxe Reverb reissue was all about, AND get an amp that at least had the same look as my old Vibroverb.

I have to say that once I made a couple of small changes, this amp is fantastic. The first thing I changed was the speaker. Being a Fender Special Run (FSR) amp, it came with a Jensen P12Q, which is an alnico magnet speaker. In my opinion, totally the wrong speaker for this amp. I also have a Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue that I was running a Weber 12F150 (50 watt, light dope) in, so I simply did a speaker swap, putting the Jensen P12Q in the BDRI and the Weber 12F150 in the Deluxe Reverb. Now we're talkin'. In the Deluxe Reverb, the Jensen was WAY too bright, had little warmth and just produced an overall harsh, brittle sound. With the Weber, the Brownie now has the sound I was hoping for. The P12Q turned out to be a perfect match for the Blues Deluxe too. I think the circuit of the BDRI just works better with the Jensen, producing a warm, full sound, but with that characteristic alnico chime.

The next order of business was checking out the tubes in the Brownie. To my surprise, I saw that the amp came factory equipped with Groove Tube branded JJs made in Slovakia. Cool! The only thing I did here was replace V2 and V4 (Vibrato channel preamp positions) with my preferred Tung-Sol 12AX7 reissues. I left the Groove Tube 6V6S power tubes alone. Now, on to the bias. I had read in numerous Internet threads that the DRRIs typically come from the factory biased fairly low. I picked up a Bias Pro 1 from Eurotubes and checked both of the power tubes in the Brownie. One tube had a plate voltage of 427vdc and a bias of 25.2ma, and the second tube was running at 425vdc on the plates and 25.6ma in the bias. For a 6V6 tube rated at 14 watts dissipation, that is definitely not a cold bias! And that is straight from the factory. I've never touched the bias pot in my amp. Either because this amp is a FSR edition, or perhaps Fender is finally tuning their amps the way they should, it's nice to see a Fender amp equipped with quality tubes and properly biased.

As far as tone is concerned, this amp has it by the truck load. I play both single coil and humbucker equipped guitars, and while my Strats sound good through this amp, it's when I plug in my Les Paul that the magic really happens. I'm an at-home / hobbyist / occasional jam band player, so I need to rely on a pedal to get any kind of overdriven tone. Plugged into the Vibrato channel, volume on 2, treble and bass at about 5, and reverb on 3 and with my Les Paul going into my Nobels ODR-1 (90's original) with the drive at 12 o'clock, spectrum at 5 o'clock and level at about 10 o'clock, I get a KILLER classic rock / blues overdriven tone at a bedroom volume. It's a tone that literally inspires me to play. On a couple of occasions when I had the house to myself, I tried shutting off the ODR-1, and cranking the volume up on the amp. You need to get it up to about 4 before anything really starts to happen, and at that point it's a pure, sweet subtle break-up. With volume, treble and bass all on 5, this amp is PLENTY loud and the natural overdrive has to be heard to be believed. Not over-the-top crunch or anything, but just a sweet, singing grind and a nice even balance between lows, mids and highs. The ONLY reason I gave it four stars instead of five is it just doesn't have quite the same tone quality with single coils as it does with humbuckers, but I'm okay with that.

Nicely done Fender. With nothing more than a speaker and a couple of pre-amp tubes, I have a made-in-Heaven partner for my Les Paul.

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Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: proaudiostar

Original 65 was legendary...Reissue 65 has shortcuts.

I give an Excellent 5 star rating to the original Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb. We had one in the family in the late 70s when I was a kid, I played it through high school and college. I took it for granted. It was ...what do the kids now-a-days say a lot ..EPIC!!! Super Fender Clean sound at loud volumes when plugged straight in, classic tones. But if you dare go past 5, you enter the warm compression zone, with a touch of breakup. If you actually max the volume and treble/bass out, you will get raw full spectrum crunch at deafening levels, that sounds nothing like an effects pedal. Probably only playable like that at a pretty big club or a ranch, lmao. But there's no problem with using pedals with this amp, if you need distortion/compression at lower levels. Sounds great with any pedals. But you know you have raw fire breathing power if you need it. Sadly, all these wonderful things of which I speak are about the original 1965 Deluxe Reverb. If we switch the conversation over to the Re-Issue, I think the sound is very good, but not as good as the original. But the larger point that concerns me with the re-issue is how it's made. The originals were hand wired. The re-issues use PCB circuit board, and what looks like to me from comparing side by side, cheaper caps, resistors, wiring and soldering. Plus the control knobs are hard connected to the PCB. I just don't think the re-issues have any chance of lasting as long as the originals. And they just don't sound quite as good. The sound quality is not so much of a huge difference, probably most people could not pick the original from the re-issue in a blind A/B listening test, but I can. My original 65 was mistakenly sold in a garage sale about 12 years ago, and finding a good replacement was near impossible. The solution was to buy a used 65 re-issue, and send it off for a professional hand-wiring job. You then have the best of both worlds. A new chassis, enclosure, speaker,and various hard parts, but you'll get the quality of a hand-wired amplifier.Read full review...

The ledgendary Amp for Jazz, Classic Rock and Country and Western

This 65 reissue amp unmodified is a nice replica of the legendary amp. Compared side by side with the original 65 its close, enough to be a winner with good tones at moderate volume. I'm somewhat of a tone hound, so, after scouring the web, I discovered a few simple mods I could make to richen up the clear sparlely tones Leo Fender intended for Jazz players like me. I replaced the aggressive 12AX7 preamp Groove Tubes with a more rich clear Mullard low microphonic 12AY7s. They made a nice tone difference with more clean head room. I replaced the Jensen/Eminance stock speaker with a Celestion G12H cream back 65watt which enhanced the rich clarity. I will replace some caps and resistors too. I will definitely have fun, and have the Deluxe Reverb amp of my dreams.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: unpico

The Eye of the Beholder

Buyers who are looking at a Deluxe Reverb amp are looking for several things. Maybe you are looking for a museum piece, a mid 60's blackface Fender amp in perfect condition, never used. Expect to pay $3000 to $5000. Not many of us have that kind of scratch, and we want to use our amp on the road. Maybe you are looking for an original blackface, a bit dinged up with the caps and cord replaced, with that old smoky original grill cloth, but updated to be safe to use. Expect to pay $2000 to $2500. Maybe you want that same sound in a hand wired boutique amp with no original parts, so you are looking at a new reissue that has been re-wired to old specs. Expect to pay $1400 to $1700. Maybe you want an all new amp from Fender but you don't care if the inside is a printed circuit board, and it is a bit flimsy and no one thinks you are "cool." A new reissue is about $1000, a used reissue is a couple hun less than that.

Why would a guitar player want this amp? I've been playing guitar since the early 60's and like most performers I've gone through stages. I had Fender amps with fuzztones at first. The bigger the better. I didn't understand what I wanted, but the louder the better. PA systems were terrible, and they wouldn't help the guitarist and you couldn't hear the vocals anyway. In the 70's and 80's I used Marshalls because I was still loud and wanted huge impressive amps, but I let the amp do the work of sustaining the notes and got rid of the stompboxes. Better tone, less buzz and fuzz. PA's improved because now you had monitors and a sound guy and could hear the vocals. You still didn't trust him though, and if you needed to solo you still turned up and did it yourself.

Fast forward to now. Maybe like me you are a geezer and you still like to rock but your back hurts. You have three full Marshall stacks in your attic but your old roadies are in rehab, you don't want to haul the damn things yourself, and you only play small clubs. When you are young everybody wants to hear you, but you can't afford good equipment. When you are a geezer you can afford the good stuff, but nobody wants to shake their booty to an AARP band.

Usually by now you want great tone from a small amp you can carry. The sound systems are so good that if you can get the amp to sing, you can let the PA system do the work for you (they don't even call them PA any more-I'm dating myself.) Bigger is NOT better. If you want the amp to growl and distort a bit, a twin reverb or a 100W Marshal is NOT want you want, because the bigger transformer is too heavy and you have to crank it before something happens. Don't even go with that amp modeling crap. It sounds good in the store, but on stage, no. Players have loved the Deluxe Reverb for decades because it is small and light enough to carry. The 22W is loud but still breaks up into distortion nicely. A 12 inch speaker still moves enough air that you get solid bass tones, unlike other small amps. It will get you a Stones-like rhythm sound. If you want an AC/DC or UFO screaming lead sound you don't need a huge Marshall-get a tube based preamp pedal like a Tone Bone and you can scream all night, but you can control it. Like many of us geezers, you may have branched out into other forms of music too, and a Deluxe will let you shine while playing country or blues.

That is why a guitar player would want a Deluxe Reverb, and why they are worth more than some of the bigger amps like a Twin or a Dual Showman.

Ed D
Mission Viejo, CARead full review...

Most excellent

I am so very happy with my Deluxe Reverb. It's got everything I wanted out of a combo amp: size, portability, features and plenty of power for my needs (small gigging, practice). Love the spring reverb and classic Fender tremolo. I'd recommend it to any up-and-coming guitar hero aspirants...Read full review...

Spank, spunk & funk + reverb to die for

Bought mine used on eBay for $650. Love it. Louder than 22 watts should be. Breaks up nicely with volume past 4 or 5. Reverb is LUSH and HUGE; even better than my '65 Super Reverb re-issue. Not too big, not too heavy. Speaker is pretty good, buy may upgrade to a Weber sometime. The Weber 12F-150 are incredible speakers. I do miss the "mid" tone control, which my Super Reverb has and this one does not. These are a bit 'darker' sounding than a Super Reverb; must be the 6V6 tubes, where the Super uses 6L6 tubes.
Overall, I'm very pleased with this amp. Sounds perfect, of course, with a Strat plugged in.Read full review...

Put it in an aftermarket solid pine cabinet and it will sound great.

Like most "experienced" guitar players (otherwise referred to as Geezers), I've had a variety of amps. Fenders, Boogies, Marshall, Victoria, Peavey, etc., big and small. I'm a huge Fender Tweed fan, and have had several Blackface (BF) and Silverface (SF) era amps. Of them all, three stand out; Deluxe Reverb, Tweed Deluxe (narrow panel), and Super Reverb.

The early SF Super Reverb I had was a killer to lug around, though it had superb tone, with either Fenders or Gibsons. The two Deluxe versions I still have ('56 and '64) and will never part with either. Like many of the other reviews, these amps sound amazing and run the range from warm clean to Ahhhhhh! There just isn't a bad sound in them. My goldtop through the Tweed Deluxe is a killer combination. Strats or the Tele through either amp clearly demonstrate that Fenders love Fenders, clean or dirty.

I'm no electrical engineer, so I can't speak to the printed circuit board vs hand wired stuff, but I can hear a difference in these little amps between the originals and the reissues. I would attribute it to the solid (and aged) pine cabinets of the originals (BF) versus the current boxes. There is just more resonance in those solid pine cabinets that make these little amps sound a lot bigger and richer. This difference is not one of those deals where the guitar player is left trying in vain to hear the differnce between NOS tubes and current version tubes, at a huge cost differnce. The tone/volume differences are real and very apparent. The best analogy is the differnce a little reverb makes versus a dry signal. It is very apparent.

Check the build specs of any of the top boutique combo amp builders and you'll likely find solid pine finger jointed cabinetry. It is there for a reason, and it isn't just nostalgia. Tweed is nostalgia, solid pine is tone and resonance. Even playing SFDR amps that have had the blackface mods done so they are pretty much identical circuitry sound different in the later plywood boxes CBS-Fender was using over the original BF solid pine version.

I don't notice much difference between the SFDR and the Re-Issue DR, which have similar cabinet wood, so I'd agree with the other reviews that say most folks couldn't tell a difference in a blind test. Those solid pine boxes of the old tweeds and BF era amps with the finger jointed corners just give out more something you can hear and feel. If a guitar player were to side-by-side those two versions, I'm pretty certain the difference between the two would be easy to clearly identify. I did it one day at my amp tech's place and the difference was obvious comparing a BF'd SFDR to my BFDR. We didn't swap chassis to confirm the cabinet was the difference, but I am convinced since all else was pretty identical.

After market solid pine cabinets are available for these amps at very reasonable prices all covered with tolex and ready to roar. They would be a very smart tone investment that will only improve with age. Best of all, they are probably cheaper than a set of "primo-holy grail" NOS tubes for the amp and will actually make a huge tonal difference you really can hear with your very own ears. A differece you don't have to squint your eyes just-so to hear. It will also end up (all in) costing '000's less than a real '65 and will yield up most of the tone of the original.Read full review...

Fender solid state amp that sounds like tubes

Vintage mid 1990's models are made in California. Excellent build quality. Original Jensen speaker sounds great. Tough as a sherman tank. No matter where you spin the dials the amp always sounds marvelous. Very powerful, LOUD! You can often score one for almost no money. I'd rather play a live gig with this amp than many over priced over hyped boutique amps.Read full review...

A good value that gives that "Fender Sound".

A very reasonable facsimile of the Pre-CBS era Fender Deluxe Reverb amp. If you just have to have the "real thing", you'll spend 3-4 times as much. But, if you're on a budget, this is a great-sounding combo amp, good for rehearsal or gigging. But, it's really the sound that makes it a great little amp. I think the tube rectifier is really what sets it apart, sound-wise. And, it's under 50 lbs., which is a plus for a tube amp.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: lighthouse_sound