Re: Fender 40W Blues Deluxe Amp Opinion

[Markburness@xxxxxxx]

Hi Larry,

This can be a good harp amp and plenty loud. With all the bells and whistles 
turned down/off it is basically a bassman style circuit with an extra stage 
of gain. The 12" speaker breaks up pretty good. These amps are great value 
for money, pity they're not as light as you might imagine.

The one I looked at had very poor fidelity due to greatly mismatched 5881's 
(17 & 28mA). I put in a matched set, dropped the bias current to 15mA, 
dropped preamp voltage and increased to input load resistor to 5.6Meg and the 
result is a very useable harp amp. Next time I get hold of it I intend to 
bump up the cathode bypass cap value on V1 and add a  bypass cap to V2 
(100uf?).
All these things could be done by a tech very cheaply.

A 12AY is an option for V1 but I wouldn't sub out either of the 2 preamp 
tubes nearer the power tubes. I liked it best with a ceramic Astatic, a very 
high gain mic may be too harsh without further mods.

Regards, Mark.