The Holy Grail of vintage guitar amplifiers: 1956 Fender Deluxe

I used to have a couple of tweed fenders and one was the Deluxe.  It was a '59.  The speaker had been changed a couple of times.  The capacitors were recent and who knows where the output transformer came from.  The tweed was ripped and covered in candle wax from a couple of different recording sessions.  And it sounded, in a word, like a small piece of rock heaven.

The amplifier pictured is clearly not my old tweed Deluxe.  This one led a completely different life than the one from the recording studio.  This one was bought used in 1964 by guy who just liked guitars.  He wasn't a great player but neither were most of the people who bought these amps new.  They were not holy grails then.  They were small, cheap amps that distorted when cranked up.  People in the 50s didn't really think that was "good."  High quality amplifiers weren't supposed to sound distorted at any volume.

So it was bought used by the second owner and played very little for most of its life.  He said he had a couple of guitars he would play through it -like his Gibson Les Paul Jr. - but mostly he played a Gretsch Chet Atkins.  Eventually, he sold those guitars but had little motivation to sell the amp because nobody cared.  As a result this amplifier sat in his closet with the cover on for years.

A friend mentioned to him recently that it was a fine amplifier and there were people out there that would pay good money for it.

Would I like to buy a near mint condition tweed deluxe?  Why yes, yes I would.  It didn't matter to me that it was 5 hours away.

When I got there I didn't even plug the thing in.  He had pawned it a few weeks before so I had to pay the pawn price and give the rest in cash.  I was happy to do so.  

The Fender Deluxe (model 5e3) was introduced in 1955 lasted until 1960.  According to the Fender Amp Field Guide this one has about 15 watts of all tube output through a 12" speaker, usually a Jensen.  A pair of 6v6gt vacuum tubes make up the power section with two 12ax7s in the preamp.  The original tubes were probably RCA but these are General Electric.  The amplifier and speaker are housed in a fingerjointed pine cabinet covered in diagonal tweed.

 Living in an apartment has its disadvantages.  One of them is not being able to crank up an amp to get that sweet, sweet tube saturation.  I took it to my buddy (who helped me find it- thanks man!) at the local music shop and we put it through its paces.  With a brand new Gibson R8 Les Paul it started distorting with the chicken head knob pointing at 3.  3!  From there to about 9 it had that beautiful overdrive these tweed fenders are known for.  9 to 12 got a little piercing with the harmonic overtones and that just wasn't what I was going for.

Then he brought out a 1960 Gibson ES-330 and let me have a go with it.  That was the combo I was looking for.  I had the 330's volume and tone pots dimed on the neck pickup with the Deluxe on about 3 and a half.  The tone.  I was just doing a little blues noodling around the 7th fret and it was everything I had hoped for.  The P-90 was thick and nuanced.  The Deluxe's pair of GE 6v6s were lightly distorting and absolutely growled when I dug in deep.  It was very responsive. The lightest touch produced sparkly cleans that darkened substantially with a little right hand heat.  I was sold.

After the tone expedition we decided do do a little research into the originality of this amp.  The capacitors, transformers, potentiometers and switches all seemed original and in good shape.  The GE tubes were probably replacements but I am still not convinced on the speaker.  It should be a Jensen but there were some exceptions.  Oxford and Rola seem to come to mind.  In all likelihood the original Jensen was changed by the first owner.  The second owner said he did not change the speaker and I believe him.  The music he was playing did not require loud or distorted tone so it is unlikely he pushed the speaker to its breaking point.  If you have any more information or theories then please feel free to comment!

Fender amps are easily dated by their tube charts.  They usually have a stamp with two letters for a year and a month.  This one bears the letters FJ meaning 1956 and October.

They also usually have a little piece of masking tape bearing the initials of the person who wired the amplifier.  This one is a bit obscured by time but the name on the tape is Lily.  The other popular names that show up are: Lupe (most popular), Lily, Eileen, Margaret, Rachel, Maybell, Lydia and Julia.

Hope you enjoyed a look at this amp.  Maybe I can get a real guitar player to help me out with a video of it.


My buddy Chris at Bailey Brothers Music in Birmingham was kind enough to shred on this amp after I got it all cleaned up.  He also let me take a few videos of it.  Check them out:

Thanks Chris!  Nice playing!

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Field Trip: 1957 Fender Vibrolux

A friend of mine called me the other day and said that he had just traded his old drum set for this 1957 Fender Vibrolux:

Needless to say, I was very excited.  Back in school I bought a small collection of vintage Fenders including a 1960 Champ, 1959 Princeton, 1960 Deluxe and a 1964 Vibro Champ.  Pete would come over and we would blues out with me on his Strat (and the Deluxe!) and him on the harmonica with the Champ.  TONE gentlemen, tone.

Until one time I was holding the strat and he had the harp mic in his hand and he tried to show me where on the fretboard I should play.  As he touched the strings and froze I instantly remembered how both of these awesome old tweed amps had the original 2 prong power chord.  "Dude, are you alright?' I said not sure if he was confused or shocked (literally). One second later he jumped back out of his frozen state and reminded himself never to do that again.  Please change the 2 prongs to 3.  Vintage isn't cool if you are dead.

But I did remember how wonderful that deluxe sounded after the tubes warmed up.  Here is a shot of my old tweed Deluxe (gone now along with the others):

That is candle wax from an old recording gig it played

Full shot of Pete's Vibrolux:

 Tweed doesn't always wear very well after this long.  I actually really dig the distressed look of an old amp.  The speaker has been replaced but it still sounded so sweet with my '64 Fender Duo-sonic.  We played a little jam of Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary" with him playing lead on the DS and me playing rhythm on his 1951 Gibson J-50.  Loads of tone.

The Vibrolux's were rated at 10 watts and had a 12" Jensen speaker.  They had 3 instrument inputs and a Depth, Speed, Tone and Volume knob.  They have a variable bias tremolo that really sounds sweet.  This particular unit had a GE 5y3 rectifier tube, a Sylvania 6v6 and an Emerson 6v6 power tubes and unknown 12Ax7 preamp tubes.

Luckily, the original 2 prong chord had been traded for a 3 prong recently.  You can see from this picture that the tweed Fender cabinets were finger jointed pine boxes.  This is a really cool way to join two pieces of wood and allowed for great transfer of tonal energy throughout the entire box.  Plus, it looks awesome.  Fortunately this one shows off it's finger joints!

Here is a video of Chris playing through a brand new Echoplex to the Vibrolux and a new Victoria (tweed bassman).

1964 Fender Duo-Sonic

Welcome to the True Vintage Guitar Blog.  My goal with this blog is to create content about the interesting guitars, instruments and other things that I find.  I am not a dealer or really even a collector, just a guy that likes old stuff.


My first post is dedicated to a 1964 Fender Duo-Sonic.  I was drawn to this instrument because of the funky styling, interesting transition features and eventually the unique tone that all the pickup combinations can produce.  But first, a few pictures.

I know what you are thinking, "Hey, that is a Duo-Sonic II!"  You would be correct, sort of.  This instrument would be considered just barely in the transitional period between the two models and also barely in the transition to the Fender take over by CBS in 1965.  It has all the features of the Duo-Sonic II such as the 24" scale length, thick tortoise shell guard and the metal plate under the jack and knobs.  The only thing making it a Duo-Sonic is the name on the headstock:

Either way, it is a heck of a little blues guitar but versatile as well.  It has two single coil pickups with two, 3 way slide selectors.  The middle position on both is "off" for that individual pickup.  If both switches are up or down you get both pickups on and in "phase".  If the two switches are opposites (up down or down up) you get a funky, plucky out-of-phase tone that I believe is hum canceling as well.  I won't lie, the out-of-phase setting is not always useful.  It is thin, plucky and very "nuanced."  Every once in a while the stars will align and  that weird out of phase tone is exactly what I need or was looking for.  You will have to decide for yourself whether it is useful to you or not.  Let me know what you think, I welcome your feedback!

Here are some features that are indicative of the transition (buy out) of Fender to CBS.  First, the less desirable veneer fingerboard:

Not as easy to see as I thought but this is the later style Rosewood fingerboard that was apparently easier and cheaper than the "slab" fingerboard.  Basically it is a thin rosewood veneer instead of a big fat hunk of Rosewood sitting on top of the Maple neck.  I think the difference in tone is subjective and you probably have your own opinion about it.  It is just cosmetic to me.

And here are the earlier style "clay dots":

Again, purely cosmetic but I really like the way they look.  

A couple of more pictures:

The Nitrocellulose has worn almost completely off the neck.

I really dig this styling. Absolutely iconic Fender but still unique.

And here is a couple of pictures of the neck pocket and guts (please excuse the poor phone camera quality):

August 1964

Check out that original color!

Hope you enjoyed a look at this old Fender.

Disclaimer:  I am not the definitive source for this information.  I have gathered it from a couple of years of being in to this stuff.  It may not all be correct and if it isn't, I would appreciate you letting me know.  Keep it positive though, please.  Also, my experience tends to lend itself more towards the vintage Gibson acoustic side, so I am pretty much a newb at this Fender stuff.

In addition, here is a funny little video of me the other day at Homewood Music playing the Didgeridoo with Bob Tedrow.  Turns out his Didg was tuned to B and so was this little diddy: