I`ve read so many good reviews about this thing and the only conclusion I can come up with is that there are a lot of beginners out there buying the amp. Absolutely zero clean channel above 3 and NO it's not "too" loud. Musicians who are gigging will not be able to use this amp if there is a drummer. Mic it you say,...WHY? It sounds horrible. Zero head room. Terrible overdrive channel, weak clean channel, terrible design and use of hardware. The cheapest preamp tubes on the market, a copycat speaker or at least it wishes. Paper thin speaker cone. A set of level 10 GT 6L6`s which would stop a train from distorting but not this mud wagon. This is the worst guitar amp I have ever owned and I've owned a lot of them. Simply wanted an amp for the smaller gigs and what a mistake I made. Small as in, bedroom small maybe as long as there's no drummer. I`ve been a loyal customer for 20 years and always stood up for the name but after this piece of junk, I must admit, I am searching for something better. Sure, you`ve got the Twin but why make an amp at all if this is what you come up with. The volume pot isn't even an audio taper pot. The pre amp tubes are the cheapest on the market, the speaker sucks period, the output tubes are useless no matter what you use because of the terrible design and lack of clean headroom and useless eq pots.
I just want to warn serious musicians out there that unless you plan on buying a 300 dollar speaker, new preamp tubes and power tubes, a mod kit and plan to pay a tech to install the kit, which immediately voids the warranty by the way, then STAY AWAY from this joke of an amp. It is absolutely useless for anything more than living room jamming, WITHOUT other players, because you don`t want to be embarrassed and without any noise. Terrible product, the worst yet.

woodstockstrat owns this item

I bought this for a clean platform. I had a Eminence Legend GB 128 so I put it in and bam! drive channel was completely usable now,more head room by some. It took the high end and smoothed it out and gave a tighter bass sound. Im using the Bogner pedals in the clean channel and it sounds very good. Speaker cable change also smoothed the amp out and some diff. preamp tubes.

I have had my new Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue for about a month. I love the clean sound that comes from the jewel. I have a Fender G-Dec 30 and a few other Fender Amps but this one lures me every day. I play American Stratocasters and Telecasters and this amp keeps me very happy. I have played professionally and also teach guitar. My advice is if you like a great clean sound with options for reverb and drive you have to test drive the Blues Deluxe. It is perfect for studio work or up to a mid-size room for a gig, This amp is exactly what I have been looking for.

nomanrocks owns this item

Simply the best amp with a great clean channel. For me is the best in this categorie!

TOLChef owns this item

my favorite amp ever!!! this amp is perfect for any club scenario.. everything just works, and works for years.. without a lot of fuss and the sounds are incredible. for straight ahead playing without a lot of pedals all you need is a signal boost peddle, and channel number 1 and you can work your tone from the volume knob. I gig weekly and this is the set-up i use most of the time. and I am doing original material, plus covers from the stones, jeff beck, clapton kiss, train, etc... this amp is really that good and versatile!! of course you will need a couple of teles, and strats to go with it...

micawber999 owns this item

The amp sounds great. I just bought it so I haven't had much tme with it however I know people that own quite a few of them actually. So I have played thru them before and I own a matching pair of 410 Blues devilles that I played with for almost 20 yrs now, which I just love. This blues deluxe is for the slightly smaller venue where the 410 deville is too much and using 2 devilles is out of the question. The deluxe has great tone for everything that I do at least. All the bite for country, great warmth for Blues and rock and pop as well. It sounds warm and fat on those big jazz chords. I mainly play Clapton Strats so I bought this amp with confidence knowing my past experience with the deville's tone the deluxe will be a great little baby brother and depending on the gigs will work incredibly well matched with my old 1966 Fender Princton reverb. My 74 gibson les Paul Custom and My 63 Gibson L-5 C.E.S. sound really good thru the amp.The L-5 just sings in this amp as my E.S-335 and E.S.-339 do they sing and scream. The drive channel works great as a change in tone as long as dial it in using the master volume to match up with the clean channel. Add your effect upfront before the amp and walla you are there. Plugging power amp in directly seems to sound great as well for that flat tone without having to tweak anything except reverb levels. A wee bit disappointed to see made in Mexico on the back based on the prices, but I guess that is how it goes nowadays. The tweed looks just as good as back in the 50's but one must be extra careful with it for a soils easy can tear too. Anyway I give it a thumbs up great amp review. May just buy another one as well.

mike goldberg owns this item

The Blues Deluxe is an excellently designed amp for club gigs. The features are quite nice, I especially like the effects loop. The sound in channel 1 is classic Fender all the way, I really enjoy playing that channel. It's bright switch is a nice feature, it allows you to tone down the highs some. The Drive channel I find to be somewhat noisy and the tone is no where near as smooth as the normal channel, it seems to have a very crackly harsh overdrive sound that is not appealing to me. I prefer a TS or OD pedal via the effects loop. The tweed covering is stylish and eye catching, the weight is good considering the size of the amp. The foot-switch has some latency when channel switching, but that is a non-issue for me because I only use the normal channel. I recommend the amp for the player that needs that extra kick of 40 watts to get over the drummer when you play leads in a small club without having to mic it through the PA. My Blues Deluxe RI has been a very dependable amp and not seen the shop at all in 4 years of use.

groovenev owns this item

This amp has a great clean channel. It stays clean all the way up to 6-7 then starts adding a subtle overdrive . It is very responsive to the attack of the strings. The amp is very loud it hardly ever gets turned up past 3-4 in practice.The overdrive channel is not a my favorite sound at low volume, but if you dime the master volume and drive it sounds good. I must say, I never use the overdrive channel. I prefer using the clean channel as a white canvas and use pedals to shape the sound I am looking for. I do not know if it is just my amp, but there is a very very slight delay when clicking the foot switch from the drive channel to the clean. I am personally not a fan of the sound of the Eminence speaker, so I use an 8 ohm extention cab with 2 anniversary V-30's. I will eventually change the stock Eminence speaker with an AlNiCo Jensen I have laying around here. Like another reviewer said to roll back a bit on the tone knob on the guitar does make a difference, but I had my tone stack caps values changed and now I do not do that. Over all, out of the 8 amps I have in the studio the blues deluxe is the one I go to every time first. The tweed cabinet does exuberate that retro vibe. The Blues Deluxe reissue is one amp you can just plug a guitar into a overdrive pedal, then pedal into the amp and just play all night long.

electricbunnyman owns this item

Purchased this as an upgrade to my small SS practice amp. Will be using it for gigs, recording, and practice. Absolutely LOVE the crisp clean channel. It seems to take quite a bit of volume (or hotter pickups than I have) to get a good crunch on the drive channel, but with my MXR OD pedal, it sounded perfect! I was looking for an amp that would be flexible enough to handle electric and acoustic. With a simple EQ box between the acoustic and the amp, I can easily dial in a great sound on both my acoustics (one with a Fishman Rare Earth soundhole p'up, and one with a Fishman Matrix undersaddle). This thing has incredible and flexible tone, and LOTS of volume! Yeah... I'm in love....

rayntree owns this item

I just purchased this amp a few weeks ago, so I am still experimenting with how to get the best sounds out of it. My initial impression is that the clean tones you can get out of this amp are phenomenal. Great for blues, jazz, or just everyday practicing to get better on this always challenging instrument. The drive channel is not much different from the clean, as far as I could tell, so if you want an amp that produces a nice growl with overdrive or distortion(without resorting to pedals), I would probably look elsewhere. If you are into blues or jazz though, the sounds that come from this thing are exactly what I was looking for. It makes you want to just keep playing and playing. My other amp is a Marshall solid state, so this is my first real tube amp. All the online tips suggest dialing back on the guitar's tone knobs to get the best from this amp and I would definitely agree with that. I also dial the volume back on my guitars so as not to wake the neighbors, as the 40 watts definitely give it enough power for any residential setting. I play a Fender Tele and a Gibson Les Paul Standard, and surprisingly, I actually prefer the sound of the Gibson through this amp over the Fender. The humbuckers keep the amp dead silent. As for appearance, I love the tweed. A friend of mine saw it and said it reminded her of something from her grandma's house, which wasn't the reaction I was anticipating. However, when I opened it up I thought it was gorgeous, so I guess that is the important thing. The only issue with the exterior for me is that the knobs are mounted on a silver plate with white lettering, which makes it hard to read at a glance. Black lettering on the silver plate would be a definite improvement, especially for use in low light areas. All in all, this is a great sounding tube amp that is solidly built and looks like it will last me a good long while. The capabilities of the amp are way beyond my playing abilities at this point, so I look forward to getting much better to do this amp justice.

craiggustafson owns this item

Great to mike up when on stage , easy sound controls with great range of dynamics
Overal a reall cool amp class