Chris Morris : Lethbridge Web Design & Development

The Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue is a small amp that delivers a big beautiful sound. It’s warm tones, impeccable response and lush reverb have made this the choice of many rock, country & blues artists and one of the worlds most recorded amplifiers. I purchased a brand new 2010 model and sat down to get to know it a little better….

Features: This 22 watt (8ohms) 2 channel (normal & vibrato) amplifier features a pair of 6V6 Groove Tube output tubes, one 5AR4 rectifier tube, four 12AX7 preamp tubes, two 12AT7 tubes, one 12” 8-ohm Jensen® C-12K speaker, tube-driven Fender reverb, tube vibrato, and a two-button footswitch for reverb and vibrato on-off.

Sound: This is the tone that legends are made of. I’ve played my Fender Telecaster, Ibanez S470 (with a Dimarzio Tone Zone in the bridge position), and Epiphone Les Paul (with original Gibson P90′s) through this amp. Each guitar added it’s own color to the clean, warm, exquisite tones that the Fender Deluxe Reverb delivers.

Don’t let the 22 watts and 40lb weight deceive you, this amp is loud and clear. Comfortable playing volume in the basement of my house is around 3, anything above that and my wife might have something to say about it. Once you start cranking this amp past 6 the sound begins to naturally break up giving you that warm, bluesy overdrive.

For pedal enthusiasts the Fender Deluxe Reverb is a fantastic canvas to build upon. Although hotly debated, this amp takes pedal input very well. The clear, balanced tone provides a perfect clean channel to let your effects units shine. My only concern is the added brightness to the vibrato channel could force some adjustments to your pedal settings.

For me, it’s the chiming mid tones dripping in tube driven reverb that make this amp perfect. It’s classy with a bit of a bite. In the future I plan on modifying the Fender Deluxe Reverb with a tone switch for the vibrato channel and possibly upgrade the speaker to a Weber.