Help! Before I GAS Again!

That's the cab that I'm using as an extension for my XD combo. The nice thing about that cab is that it's the same width as the amp (+- 1/4") and they stack like they were made for each other. The grille cloth an logo are my doing. I've got a Mesa/Celestion C90 in mine.

Yeah -- funny, the only reason I got mine is because Hello Music had a deal for $97 or $105 where I got the cab (with a meh speaker) and a Defender 5(H) head. I had been looking for an empty 112 cab, but I figured that this was like getting an empty cab for about the same price with a free tube head!!!
 
Fwiw, I mostly play strats (and teles) and lusted after a drri for years. When I finally got one, I loved it for about a month. It was horrible with a tube screamer, or any dirt box. It didn't stay clean when run loud (it's not supposed to), and I really couldn't get it loud enough at the places I play to get the tone I wanted.

I now have a mesa express 5:25 w/12" speaker combo. This amp has 2 channels, each with a significantly different tone/voice available. The clean, IMO, is the best, most shimmery fender tone you could ask for. And, unlike most fender amps I've played, the tone controls have a WIDE range of usable control. The drive channel is pure mesa goodness; I don't bring dirt pedals to gigs now; the express is the first two channel amp I've owned that sounds amazing on both channels.

I highly recommend checking out the express series from mesa.

Oh, and enjoy your strat!
 
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Fwiw, I mostly play strats (and teles) and lusted after a drri for years. When I finally got one, I loved it for about a month. It was horrible with a tube screamer, or any dirt box. It didn't stay clean when run loud (it's not supposed to), and I really couldn't get it loud enough at the places I play to get the tone I wanted.

I now have a mesa express 5:25 w/12" speaker comber. This amp has 2 channels, each with a significantly different tone/voice available. The clean, IMO, is the best, most shimmery fender tone you could ask for. And, unlike most fender amps I've played, the tone controls have a WIDE range of usable control. The drive channel is pure mesa goodness; I don't bring dirt pedals to gigs now; the express is the first two channel amp I've owned that sounds amazing on both channels.

I highly recommend checking out the express series from mesa.

Oh, and enjoy your strat!

My problem with the DRRI isn't the loudness, it's the brightness, which is likely what you found with yours. Since there's no bright switch, the cap remains in the circuit until you turn it up stupid loud, and by then you've lost your clean. So it's not very good with pedals. Cut the bright cap out and your dirt pedals become usable again.

Because of my rehearsal situation, I ended up with an Allen Encore, which is tweaked Vibrolux. But the Mesa Express series are great. Now I'd probably get a Dr Z Maz Jr.
 
The thing about the Deluxe is that it's first line claim to fame is that it has been one of the premier amps used on popular recordings for almost 50 years. Hence it has a signature sound that is immediately recognized and loved by many. As a mic'd gig amp it's also superb. However, as a "stand alone" amp for medium to larger venues without PA it falls short due to lack of head room at higher volume levels. But then it was never designed to do that.
 
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Thanks BEACHBUM, I really appreciate any input that anyone has. I'm still wrestling with this. The new Strat gets here tomorrow, so I'll get an opportunity to fire up my amps to see if I can get anywhere close to the sound I heard through the Deluxe Reverb, and I'll probably head for GC on Friday to try it out with a few different amps there. Then I'll be heading to my daughter's home for my granddaughter's birthday, and I'll be there for a week. It will give me plenty of time to think about everything - a cooling off period, if you will. I will say that the kinds of things that I need an amp to do (playing in church mainly) doesn't really require massive volume. If I ever did need more volume, micing the amp would be the way I would go (or use my Peavey Classic 50, and let 'er rip).

My honest consideration, right now, is to sell off several amps to get down to just the Peavey Classic 50, and the Deluxe Reverb, assuming that the Deluxe Reverb becomes my choice.
 
Peavey classic 50 is a great amp. I've got a classic 2x12 at the place my band practices. 4xel84 - good stuff! Used to have the half-stack model w/4x10 cab.... wish I still had it. Killer strat tones.
 
So, with limited time, I went to my local music store to play their '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb. I just wanted to hear it, since it was close to the '65. It turned out that they had a '65 in the back room that hadn't been put on the floor year. I must have spent the better part of an hour just going back and forth between the 2 amps. At first, I started liking the '68 a bit more - a bit more treble in it's voice - but then I started turning them up a bit more, and the '68 broke up a little faster. That's when the tide turned back to the '65. I wanted that extra clean headroom.

I will say that when I got my Frontman 212R, I really liked it's clean tone, and it seemed like every one of my guitars sounded great through it. Last night I took the new Deluxe Player's Strat and played it through each of my amps (even one that would make all you guys laugh), and I found that I liked the tone of each amp just a little better than I had ever heard them before - must be the Vintage Noiseless pups. The Deluxe Reverb reissue is definitely the direction that I am heading, and now I just have to decide what gets sold to pay for it.
 
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