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1973 Fender Deluxe Reverb - Mods by Bill Carruth (Trey Anastasio) - $2,000 (Bushwick)
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Selling my absolutely killer sounding 1973 Fender Deluxe Reverb. This amp is ready to rock, and truly can be played without pedals for most applications with just a simple A/B switch to go between the standard blackface sound on the vibrato channel, and the mid forward higher gain tweed bassman/jtm-45 Marshall sound of the normal channel.
Both channels can be used with the luscious onboard spring reverb and tremolo, and feature an incredibly useful mid knob to help dial in your sound. To top it off, I installed a Celestion Gold speaker that’s a perfect match for this amp, giving it the sweet alnico response, midrange voicing to cut through the mix, high efficiency for gigging volume, and ability to handle higher gain applications like a champ!
I’ve owned it since 2007, and had renowned Vermont amp tech, Bill Carruth, perform both basic servicing and the incredibly useful mods that are fully reversible back when I got it. I’ve since maintained this amp, and had it last serviced by Blackie Pagano in Brooklyn.
Basic Servicing:
- Replaced all electrolytic capacitors (see pics of board and doghouse)
- Installed 3 prong grounded chord.
- Replaced any out of spec resistors and tone caps.
- Replaced roach for better tremolo response.
- Cleaned all pots, jacks, tube sockets, all solder joints solid, all components in spec etc.
Modifications:
- Fully “Blackfaced” the circuit.
- Revoiced the normal channel for a bassman/jtm-45 style tone stack (more mid forward, tighter bass, higher gain).
- Rewired for both channels to use Reverb and Tremolo
- Added mid knobs for both channels (stock blackface setting on vibrato channel is at “6”).
- Added fan to keep power tubes cool while pushing the amp.
I’ve included gut shots and pics of the transformer date codes which all date to 1973.
Here’s a video I made a couple years ago just playing into the modded normal channel cranked on like 8/10, and using the guitar volume to go from cleanish to Marshall-Esque, and then kick in a fuzz around halfway to go balls to the wall. It’s just an iPhone video positioned prob like 5 feet behind the amp so not the best fidelity but you can get a pretty solid sense of it.
https://youtu.be/BKYBAFouRuk?si=6Wl48SKYIcfc79P2
Tags; fender, amp, amplifier, tube, blackface, silverface, bf, sf, dr, drip edge, reverb, vibrato, tremolo, Marshall, tweed, bassman, jtm, jtm45, jtm-45, plexi, super, Princeton, champ, vibro, twin, showman, bandmaster, vibrolux, Harvard, pro, guitar, vintage,
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