I don’t have a deluxe, but I have the 68 custom Princeton and it’s awesome, there are no quality issues at all. It’s my only amp now if that tells you anything...

Good luck! I doubt you’ll be let down by it, the first channel on the 68’s is awesome, really good natural drive and fat tone when you get them up over 5. I like my Princeton most around 6.

Big congrats. DR's are fantastic amps for just about anything. There are probably more DR's and PR's on famous recordings than any other amp.

The_Beach_Berserkers wrote:

Well well. I got lucky and ended up with this baby for a fair price. I think I'll be happy for a while. It sounds wonderful!

I’ve owned both a DRRI and a ‘68 CDR. I’d say that either is a good choice for Surf. The CDR has a bit more midrange, but either is just fine.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

The_Beach_Berserkers wrote:

I never got to try the CDR, but this thing sounds great! And it is more than loud enough for my taste...
I came from an Ampeg Super Jet 50 Watt. That thing was shattering my neighbour's walls. And it broke down continously.

The DRRI is a great sounding amp. When I saw Los Straitjeckets, they appeared to be using DRRIs (placed on chairs), with no external effects, and the sound was just fine.

Having owned both, I wouldn't favor one over the other, except to say that if I were to have only one of the two, I'd go for the DRRI. The CDR has a higher value Negative Feedback resistor, which lowers headroom, a bit. Because I favor a clean sound, I had another resistor of the same value placed in parallel with that NFB resistor, which restored the clean headroom. Played on the Custom channel, the sound is a bit more rich in the midrange, something like a Blackface Super Reverb.

The other channel, labeled as the Vintage channel, strikes me as somewhat listless, because there is no C-10 capacitor, the so-called "Bright Cap". Some people don't like the Bright Cap, but I'm not one of those people.

Eventually, I traded off my DRRI for a Winfield Elizabeth, which is quite similar to the Blackface circuit. Mine has 6L6s, which puts it in the Pro Reverb category, as far as power is concerned, and it has a Bright Switch, which allows the C-10 Bright Cap to be switched in or out of the circuit, at will. Because it is a single channel amp, it is lighter than even a DRRI, so it meets my needs completely.

I still have my '68 CDR, and plan on keeping it. It's a great amp and probably is closer to a Brownface sound when played on the Custom channel.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

The_Beach_Berserkers wrote:

The Winfield sounds interesting. Mine has the bright cap mod, so I cannot judge the difference.

The bright cap is a somewhat controversial item. Some love it, some hate it. On the Vintage channel of the CDR, I think it would be good to have.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

I have a DRRI for home practice - I'm lucky enough to use (someone else's) real '62 piggyback Fenders and reissue outboard reverb tanks for rehearsals and gigs.

I hadn't owned a Fender in quite some time especially after inexplicably purchasing a small-knob (The) Twin which a) sounded horrible and b) was as heavy as an anvil. Cost a fortune to ship in and out as well.

A bandmate's bandmate had the CDR and in a live setting it sounded fantastic (the player was using a Tele and it was non-surf music) - this sparked my enthusiasm. But, as usual, opinions varied on the internet.

A live test in a music store wasn't very invigorating. And the hiss that some reported was detectable. Ironically, I did end up buying a lovely Nash Tele style guitar that I demo'd the amp with.

A gently used '65 DRRI came available so I bought it. Unsurprisingly, it was far too loud for home use and the volume pot was an all-or-nothing affair. I decided to give it another chance with a passive attenuator, first a Swart Night Light (excellent) then a Carl's Custom Speaker Soak. The Speaker Soak had one simple control but that's all I really needed/wanted - the Night Light had a dial with just three levels to click to and I couldn't always get the best combination of gain and SPL.

Suddenly the Deluxe was eminently usable across all genres. Obviously surf is typically very clean but a little edge never hurts for a bit of compression and sustain of notes (I've taken to using a Strymon Compadre compressor most of the time for everything now anyway).

I won't bore you with the number of amps I've gone through - not looking for a particular sound just looking for a reliable one. For now I'm satisfied, ironically, with a PCB-based reissue. Every time I would see black-tolex Fenders onstage at gigs or in concert footage I would say 'I can't get that type of tone from a Fender' but obviously driving them hard(er) or using an attenuator for the same result does, in fact, get that tone.

Agent71857 wrote:

Soooo... deluxe reverb or deluxe reverb or... Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb!
I have one and love it! It’s light. It’s loud. It has a built In attenuator.
I downloaded the firmware update which clips the virtual bright cap and gives a better range on the reverb control at lower levels.
There is a blonde version now that has a neo cream back speaker.
I don’t use an outboard tank, but I can’t imagine that using one with this amp wouldn’t put you in trad surf nirvana!

Against all the odds and despite many failed products in the digital amp realm (including Fender's own products) the ToneMasters seem to be popular, convincing and have passed many tests among the cork-sniffers.

I didn't know about the blonde version so thanks.

wait a minute...

You're saying places with cool sound guys who do their job exist?
Never!

I would have stopped playing and gone straight to the casino, put all my money on black! That was your lucky day!