Fender DeVille 410 Review

History:

Purchase: I purchased this amp at Steve's Guitar store on Queen street, Toronto, Canada. I was looking for an amp with good blues and rock tone, and one the worked well with my Yamaha SBG 200 ... of all the amps I tried, this (and its sister the 212) sounded the best to my ear. I paid $1140 Canadian for the amp, the 212 was about $50 cheaper.

Pros: In a word, tone. I directly compared it to similarly priced solid state Fenders and was convinced that yes, the tubes give you a much better sound. I also liked the genuine spring reverb. With the channel clean and the reverb up the surfing sound is fantastic. The overdrive is also a nice clean (though clearly driven) sound, and the "more drive" setting is good when you really want to get down and dirty. The tones are great for blues and psychedelic music. Oh, and its plenty loud. One last thing, it does allow two inputs, one of which is set a little lower than the other. When one guitarist is playing, they can then choose how dark they like the sound (input 2 being darker). When both are used simo then they are equated.



Cons: Hmmm, not too much. I would have prefered side handles for carrying (the unit weighs about 50 lbs ... the 212 is a little heavier still) ... it would have been nice to have a reverb switch on the stomp box ... hmmm, that's about it. Tone is what matters, right? And it has tone.

DeVille 410 Quality: Seems very rugged, though I really haven't put it through too much yet. The cover is a nice touch. The look matches the tone, retro classic fender. Controls are "top back" mounted which works well given its typical floor placement.

Fender Summary: Great sounding classic amp. It doesn't have all those modeling bells and whistles, but with the combination of two inputs, a clean, drive and more drive setting, a presence and reverb dial, and the typical other controls, you can get plenty of great tone out of this unit. It really rocks and it is fantastic for blues.

Rating of this product: 5

This Fender Guitar Amplifiers Review Submitted By: Steve Joordens

Date: 2002-12-12

Usefulness Rating: 4.44828 out of 5. 29 reader(s) voted.