great clean amp that sounds awesome pushed with OD pedals

[AmpShop]

Bear in mind that wattage ratings and tube compliment/layout often don't have as much bearing on an amp's overall sound as does circuit design, gain structure and voicing etc.

Amps like the Twin Reverb and Deluxe Reverb have a more mid-scooped voicing, which helps to keep them cleaner - amps with more mids (such as the Vibrolux Reverb in this case) tend to overdrive more easily; likewise if the VR/CVR has no negative feedback.

[Hot_Grits]

the Vibrolux Custom is a COMPLETELY different beast to the Deluxe Reverb (and quite an acquired taste). It is NOT a clean amp - it drives up really quickly with quite a mid-range-y voice.

This seems really odd to me, given that the Vibrolux is 40 watts and the Deluxe Reverb is only 22, and they basically have the same valve layout apart from the Deluxe Reverb having a tube rectifier. I'm not saying you guys are wrong of course, I would just have guessed that the Vibrolux would have more clean headroom based on that.

I only played the Vibrolux at very low "we don't want to sell amps" shop levels, and it sounded lovely, but I need clean headroom so this proably isn't for me.

The other concern with the Deluxe Reverb is reliability. One time I wanted to try one at the Rock Shop and couldn't because their one kept blowing the fuse everytime it was switched on. I tried another one at Music Warehouse in the Hutt and it sounded sweet, but I couldn't get the vibrato to work (do you need to plug the footswitch in for this to work?). Is the 65DR known to have reliability issues?

Can't tell you much about DRri reliability.

Note that the the DRri is not a high headroom amp either. The CVR and DRri go to overdrive at relatively similar levels. In the DRri's case, it's because you're pushing 2 6V6s, which will overdrive at lowish volumes. In the CVR, the lack of the negative feedback loop allows the amp to overdrive early, despite it have a burlier 2x6l6 power stage. With my CVR's negative feedback loop mod switched in I'd say the clean headroom was comparable to any 40w, solid state rectified fender amp.

[mr_sooty]

In the DRri's case, it's because you're pushing 2 6V6s, which will overdrive at lowish volumes. In the CVR, the lack of the negative feedback loop allows the amp to overdrive early, despite it have a burlier 2x6l6 power stage. With my CVR's negative feedback loop mod switched in I'd say the clean headroom was comparable to any 40w, solid state rectified fender amp.

Could you switch some tubes in the 65DR for more headroom? I have no idea what a negative feedback loop is, wouldn't know how to put one in a CVR.

[hamo]

I have no idea what a negative feedback loop is

It's what they're making with that Hadron particle converter thingee up in France.

[AmpShop]

In the DRri's case, it's because you're pushing 2 6V6s, which will overdrive at lowish volumes. In the CVR, the lack of the negative feedback loop allows the amp to overdrive early, despite it have a burlier 2x6l6 power stage. With my CVR's negative feedback loop mod switched in I'd say the clean headroom was comparable to any 40w, solid state rectified fender amp.

Could you switch some tubes in the 65DR for more headroom? I have no idea what a negative feedback loop is, wouldn't know how to put one in a CVR.

Yes, you can put 6L6's into a '65DRRI - you'd need it done by a qualified tech as there'd be a re-bias involved, and an overall check to make sure the amp was handling the 6L6's extra current-draw requirements.

Combine that with a plug-in solid-state rectifier ala WeberVST and you'd definitely gain headroom ...

... the trade-off being, you may miss some of what gave the amp it's sonic appeal in the first place i.e. 6V6's and tube rectifier

As for a negative feedback loop in a VR/CVR, again, any qualified tech should be able to do it.

[handsoffmatt]

The DRRI has always seemed to me to be a *perfect* amp for club gigs. It has just enough headroom to stay pretty clean, even with a heavy handed drummer. They're a pretty loud little 22 watts. But then if you push it just a little harder it'll break up beautifully.

So for most gigs, a DRRI delivers most of the headroom you need.....unless you're doing theatre/outside gigs.

Reliability is prety similar to everything else out there right now. Mostly OK, but then there'll be the odd weird amp that just end up giving you gyp time afer time....*sigh*

[AmpShop]

Absolutely, unless there's a design flaw/weakness, or a batch of bad components (e.g. transformers), in general terms most amps are as reliable as each other - as Matt says, sometimes a lemon rolls off the line (like cars, consumer electronics etc) even with mass-production style amps where you'd hope for consistency, and for whatever reason they'll start giving you repeated bouts of grief. It happens (to a lesser extent, IMHO ) with hand-wired amps too, but at least your tech's labour time is generally a lot lower with hand-wired amps.