Some Blues gear around here - Little Amp talk too

In light of today's prior and ongoing amp discussion, namely that the Blues Deluxe can be too loud, which it is ... I put together a little collage of pics again, because I must have nuthin' better to do? Whatever, I really want to recommend that you can power soak these amps and fully agree that any player could go for an Attenuator by tedweber, yes that would probably be the best, to make these Fender tube-types scream, or sound as if they are saturated at lower garage and practising volumes. I don't do it myself, because I already have smaller solid state amps, namely the Danelectro Nifty Fifty and a Roland Cube with FX which seem to do that, with next-to-no-volume. And I'm just a serious hobbyist, not a pro, with any skill or dough. :shock: Uhh... my explanation could probably stop right there, if that's all we needed to know. :lol:
But I'm very serious about tone and hope that sharing some details is what this forum is about? So, to begin with in this mini-gallery, I modded a fairly old, unused MIM Strat which looked like Blackie, I guess when Blackie was new, whoo hoo, and turned it Black & Blue. Name's "Bruiser". I designed the 2 outside pickups, had them made in New York, coincidentally near the source of the centre stack, which is a DiMarzio Virtual Vintage, probably HS2. It has volume and master tone, and a toggle to give 10 different sounds altogether. Enuf of that - I love the Blues Junior 15 watt amp with a 12" speaker, it can be cranked and screams like a banshee, and never dies. It is not modded. I don't want to break a single solder inside, it is a fairly early model too. If you wanted to mod one and get better tone at lower volumes, Dan Torres at Torres Engineering makes the kit/conversion.

Next MIA '62 VRI Strat started out the same as an identical Strat used by SRV, but I modded it again, exactly like the "Bruiser". It has 2 of my pickups with a Virtual Vintage HS2 inbetween, a toggle for 10 tones, black Sperzel tuners and black colored strings to match. The Hot Rod Deluxe amp as you know comes equipped with matching Groove Tubes and is very loud. I sold it because it was just too loud and didn't deliver the tone of some other amps, although we have a collection of early Ibanez/Maxxon pedals from the 70's to 1983 which are sort of timeless, indestructible and cool. The TS-9 is not modded by the way to TS-808 specs. I have the kit or Keeley mod, but it's an '83 and I won't tear it apart. I have another TS-5 and a TS-7 and can't play well enough to sound anyhting like Stevie, except I like the TS-5 a lot. :D The black box with blue on it BTW is a little cheat, an older Marshall Blues Breaker.

Mustn't bore you, better speed up. The Lake Placid Blue MIM Strat is one that I've owned twice and it's home for good now. A 1996, with the 50th Anniversary of FMIC status. I just pulled the original pickguard off and placed it in a Ziploc. Built a new one with first-generation, accidentally & randomly overwound Custom Shop 57/62's in it, from way before they hired the EMG man as consultant and reverse-engineered the real '63 pickup. They are old, lacquered and sealed, sounding good; a recreation IMO of pups from SRV's "Number One."

There's the pink Strat that I built for my daughter again, except she is still only 11 and hasn't touched it yet. The name is Misty as I've said, for Burgundy Mist, the color. It's loaded to do Hendrix, which at least my son can play. :roll: It has the Virtual Vintage between two of Abigail Ybarra's, Custom Shop or handmade & signed 1969 re-issue pickups. They weren't strong enough so I put in a Fat-O-Caster rotary switch from Deaf-Eddie. Of course this little pinky has all the genuine parts including the now-extinct and stamped-by-Fender replacement neck, plus a serious big block under the bridge.

Yikes, this post is too long. There's too much inside the 26-sound 1965 relic look-alike that I built from the ground up, with the "time warp" finish and worn neck lacquer done by Bill Nash, of Nash (Guitars, of course - sometimes known as Nashguitars?) Okay, but I am quite fond of my one chosen MIA Fender neck pup, the Virtual Vintage centre stack, almost-as-always, and a Levinson bridge pickup, packing an unusual sizzle from Switzerland. Gotta talk about the amp. 1997 - 99 Blues Deluxe, made in La Brea, CA. It too got me going here from another member's post. Too loud to extract all of the tone potential when cranked. So.... get the Weber attenuator? :wink: I like loud though, doesn't bother me or blow up.

Lastly, the gold Burstbucker pros on the Les Paul-type Supreme, drive the tubes in the Blues Deluxe insane. The guitar is not credited to Gibson, and I like Gibson very much as decent folks and a good Company, but the axe was hand-crafted by the same guy who made Slash's '59 replica. He gets to keep his and play it everywhere, while his Holy Grail real thing sits in a vault. However, I felt that Gibson was looking for, or at least not happy about my too-close-for comfort knock off, so I sold it to a private collector, who does not have it slashed, just stashed. :mrgreen: