New Fender ‘57 Deluxe amp for Fender ToneMaster Pro

[Navdeep_Singh]

Hi,
Fender just issued a new Firmware update which apparently includes a few new amps, most of them British rock amps, but also this “Fender ‘57 Deluxe”. Anybody use the actual physical amp? How does it work for our purposes (jazz clean)? I know all about the Princeton, ‘65 Deluxe, Twin, etc. What’s the 57 Deluxe best used for? Anything like the ‘65 Deluxe Reverb? Thanks

[andrew]

That would be the famous 5E3 Tweed deluxe. Legend has it that that was the house amp at Rudy Van Gelder's studio. They're most well known for the crunchy overdrive when cranked way up, but the clean sounds that are there are excellent for 'classic' 50s jazz tones. But with a Tonemaster Pro, headroom really won't be an issue for you, which is really the only knock against them being more popular in the jazz world.

[Sam Sherry]

I've never played a 1950s 5E3 Deluxe. I've built a couple on that circuit (with switchable tweaks) and a couple on the Dumble-ized Tweedle Dee variant.

The un-modified 5E3 is known for flubby bass and a narrow range of loud-enough-but-still-clean on the volume knob.
The ones I built used the Robinette switchable negative feedback mod. It works for me on both counts. It's a great grab-and-go for a duo gig or quartet rehearsal.
This one was built as a beater -- note the artful use of black duct tape around the edge:




The Tweedle Dee circuit cranks up the plate voltage to the bleeding edge of red-plating the 6V6s -- I run it with a plug-in solid-state rectifier and 6L6s, and they're running at 70% bias. It doesn't use global negative feedback (like the Robinette mod) but it does include a localized NFB right before the phase inverter. It is fooking loud and can more than handle a jazz club-date.

I come down to this: The 5E3 can a tremendous recording amp for jazz guitarists. But playing in public there's a limit to what you can achieve in many rooms / bands / rigs with just a treble knob. If you're lucky to work with the right people, guitar and space, darn good for you. But unless I know that in advance I want an amp with a more flexible tone-stack. For this weekend's quartet gig I plan to bring my 1981 Fender 30 2x10 (riding on wheels if you please).

I hope that this is more than no help.

[olejason]

I have the current gen Fender '57 Deluxe. I find it has enough clean headroom with a Tele and really doesn't break up until it's way louder than I'd need it to be on a jazz gig. As others have said, the range of the volume knob is pretty narrow before you start getting overdrive. The three knobs are interactive as well, basically the higher the tone knob is turned up the quicker you'll get overdrive but that can be somewhat mitigated by turning up the volume of the unused channel.

It's a classic amp for a reason and I love using it on jazz gigs but my tone preferences lean more towards 30's-50's styles and I like a little grit if volume allows. I'd guess we'll see Fender release a physical Tone Master Deluxe soon, people have been asking for it for awhile.