Trade my Deluxe Reverb for a Rect-o-verb?

[Hollis]

A local music store has a used Rectoverb 1x12 combo for $749. I was thinking of trading my Deluxe Reverb Reissue for it. Is this price reasonable? How are the cleans? I've heard great things about this amp, and Deluxe Reverbs are everywhere so I can always buy another one down the road if I miss it. I wish I had the money to pay cash for it, but I don't. What do you guys think?

 

[boss4]

Never owned a Deluxe Reverb but if cleans is what you're after you may want to keep it. The rectoverb is a versatil amp but is an high-gain amp after all. In other hand if you want to cover other music styles/tones also, IMO the Rectoverb is an excelent choice.

 

[SonVolt]

I own a Deluxe Reverb, a Mark V and a Triple. The cleans on the Deluxe are hard to replicate, especially the lush reverb. The Mark is close but the reverb falls short. The recto will be more versatile though, you just won't get the classic fender clean. I would first try out one of the new Bogner pedals, especially the Red one through your Deluxe first. They are a monumental leap in pedal distortion, they actually feel like a real amp and will give your Deluxe a 5150/Recto channel.

 

[Blaklynx]

Read this:
http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=58551&start=0

and click on the link (to jemsite) in my reply to read a review I did.

Don't expect cleans to be like your Fender. If cleans are much more important to you, then I think you'd be better off keeping the Fender.

If the Fender doesn't have the drive you want and you like the recto drive, try Wampler's Triple Wreck pedal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBjfEkC2-qo
This guy does great reviews (as well as good recordings) of pedals. One of the best reviewers IMO.

Since it's at your local store, why not give the amp a try?

 

[cyber104]

OK - I have to respectfully disagree with the other guys.

I had a Fender Super Reverb as well as a Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue.

I also have a Series 2 Rectoverb head.

I can tell you that if you put a Tung Sol in V1 of the Rectoverb and run a Holy Grail Nano in the effects loop you can easily rival the cleans produced by the Fenders. When I first bought the Rectoverb I too thought the clean channel was rather "ho Hum" - but boy was I wrong! Switch to 6L6 power tubes and put that Tung Sol in V1 and it totally transforms the clean channel of that amp into Fender chimey. Now run the Hold Grail Nano in the effects loop and you can easily produce the sound of a Fender.

I spent years trying to make my Fender Super Reverb sound like a Rectifier. I tried every pedal on the market. The closest I ever got was the Wampler Triple Wreck. I even went so far as to put a Mercury Magnetics transformer into it so that I could run at either 2 ohms (internal speakers for Super Reverb) or 8 ohms for running a 2x12 Rectifier cabinet. The sound was close but not quite there

Now take a Rectoverb and set it up like I've described above and you can have the best of both worlds - Fender cleans and Rectifier distortion - it's a beautiful combination. I also added a Loop Master channel switcher so that I could have a 'dirty' clean channel.

The Rectoverb is clearly a more versatile amp than either Fender - I love it. I still have the Deluxe Reverb RI but NEVER use it.

I'd trade in a minute!

 

[Hollis]

That was a great review Blaklynx! Thanks for the responses from everyone! The local store has dropped the price to $749. (They post on Craigslist) I'm gonna go down there today and try it out. I have a friend who plays a ROV. I brought my rig to his house and we jammed a bit with his looper pedal and compared amps. He plays a LP through a GCX system with a tube screamer and one of those huge Muffin pedals with tubes. I forget its name. He also uses some time based fx. It's all in a rack with a big *** tuner and compressor, etc. But, get this: he uses them all in front of the amp and only uses the clean channel. I know everyone has a right to do things how they like it, but to me this is crazy with this amp! The proof was that my simple rig sounded so much better, he was astounded. I play a HSS strat most of the time. For overdrive pedals I run a TS-9, a Fulltone Fulldrive Mosfet, and a Fulltone GT-500. I use a Line 6 DL-4 delay and an old Series10 phaser. I run this into a Deluxe Reverb Reissue. The difference in our tone was huge. My simple rig just blew away his monstrosity! However, in defence of his ROV, he takes poor care of his equipment. The reverb tube was so bad it distorted the entire amp, rendering the Reverb useless. He doesn't use channel 2 at all. The amp I've been interested in at the store has just been recently retubed and it's supposedly in great condition other than a small tear in the front grill, just under the logo. I had totally decided to keep my amp, but after reading posts and reviews from you guys, I'm gonna down to that music store and play the crap out of that ROV and see what happens! Also, there are so many Deluxe Reverbs out there. My local Guitar Center has 2 used ones right now.
Thanks again guys!

 

[boss4]

Sometimes less is more. Try the ROV the simplest way. Guitar into the amp. If you want to shape a little more the tone put your tube screamer in the front. That´s it! To look for the real essence of the amp just go plane simple.