Beefing up a low gain Fender... for Myles...or anyone else with an opinion

[PrimeMover]

I've got a Fender Blues Deluxe (not the hot rod deluxe) 40 watts. The gain channel is real weak in the "crunch" department. Know of any tubes I could use to boost the gain tubes for this preamp? I'd rather not mod the thing.

[Sylver]

Originally posted by PrimeMover:

I've got a Fender Blues Deluxe (not the hot rod deluxe) 40 watts. The gain channel is real weak in the "crunch" department. Know of any tubes I could use to boost the gain tubes for this preamp? I'd rather not mod the thing.

Have you tried a booster? If you pump up the signal from the guitar it should saturate pretty well.

[PrimeMover]

I have a bit and I've gotten some decent results, but the inquisitive side of me want's to know whether a substantial crunch can be obtained from the amp without the aid of extra stuff in the signal path. Mind you, I'm not looking for skull crushing metal distortion, just a good meaty crunch...without the aid of a pedal.

[Sylver]

Well, I have the HR Dlx, and I usually use the clean channel cranked to get crunch. I put EH12ax7's and they are pretty high gain tubes. You might want to give them a try. Best crunch is when the power tubes are cooking though.