Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4-10 Amp, "USA Made", Better Build, Parts= Better Sound,1 Mod,Easily Reversed

Hello,
Please read this and look at the pictures for a greater understanding of what you will be buying.I was a Fender dealer 25+years & had the best Rep-Bill Carson-[ Google His Name ] Opening right out of Hi School,I took a lot of chances,& they paid off, growing, to 4 stores,& Finally 1 store,larger than GC down the road. So I sold the tweed Devilles, the USA,The Mexican made, & the chinea made. Our opinion was that the USA was definitely the best sounding and build quality, and altho small,in the Mexico amps, we thought there was a small sonic difference in tone. The chinea versions, we could tell a marginal difference in tone quality and parts. And that is to be expected when you use lower priced labor & less expensive parts. But the entire series has the elements of the Fender sound & most people will not be able to tell the difference unless there is 2  Devilles side by side,& none will  sound as quite as good as an old school silver or black face amp. One reason is simply the older series has more tubes, which means that this series of amps from any country will not sound like the old ones. I had 9 Deluxe Reverbs at one time & each sounded a little differently. And Fender quality is still good in these. My experience says that no one produces a better built,more reliable amp than Peavey-period, But Fender is so close its not worth mentioning. Besides that,the PV amps do not have the classic Fender sound Signature which is undisputable. I was fortunate to have PV & Fender,Boogie,Carr,Traynor,Marshall & many others,and was the exclusive dealer for the largest city in our state.  Besides all the regular gear, we did a lot of vintage, & had a large music museum also.
   The amp has had heavy duty casters put on it, which makes it easy to move around. I recently bought a Joe Satch 2-12 combo & it came with casters that are so small I don't even try to use them. This amp comes with a non=Fender pedal that changes channels and includes the cable. If I find a Fender switch,it will be at no charge.But this one will change from clean to drive channels and back to clean etc. I have 20+ ft. switches stored. A large # of the people we sold these to, used only the clean channel with pedals , & some would clean the drive channel up and use 2 variations of clean tones, using a Distortion  or overdrive for their crunch and lead sound.

#1- Lets talk about the mod & how easy to reverse it,altho you may like it like it is better. The previous owner chose to buy a complete matched set of tubes from TubeMeister. However, he used 6v6 power tubes instead of 6l6 power tubes. Many people think that the silver & blackface Deluxe Reverb amps to be one of the best sounding amps in the old Fender lineup. I agree, or I wouldn't have owned 9.
So he ordered & installed the same power tubes as an old school Deluxe Reverb. Also found in Carr Slant 6s,& many boutique amps. All that he did was to re bias the amp,as the 6v6 power tubes are not quite as hot. There may be other mods out there, but I am only telling you about this one,-and I have had  ZERO issues over the past few months. This also means that the power transformer in this amp has extra power left over for dynamics.  Try it for more than a few hours-& if you are sure - then put the 6L6's back in & I would advise you to get a tech to change the bias unless you know how to do it. Previous owner was a Tech in another field.He understood the hi voltage of the amp & simply read the instructions off the internet and re-biased the amp for 6v6 tubes. But I can't advise you to do that. But I can advise you to listen to it as is. I think you will be very surprised.
  Using 6v6 power tubes means a good tone change and a bit more feel, but a little less horsepower.                                                                                               Some people cannot hear this small of an increment in power change & most can barely hear it & most of those will question if there is a volume change. The fact that it has 4-10" speakers means you have 40 inches of speaker cone movement , pushing air -where as a 2-12 Deville has only 24 inches of speaker cone paper pushing air. It is very probable that even with the 6v6 power tubes, it will be as loud or louder than a 2-12 Deville.
  I started running sound at 16  ,doing mini tours, either running sound, or on others playing, and was a paid sound engineer at a Church until 2ish years ago,-I
trained others, wrote a manual, & took another position. None of this is ego, or a brag, its simply what i did .I started publicly teaching at 14 & playing in bands& working at a music store. I seriously wanted to escape the hard farm labor & this provided my escape, but I still had to do the farm labor, but at least I was doing something else I looked forward too & I actually got paid. enough to get my 1966 Pontiac GTO, which dad had me gone over the entire car, & then we did a color change & put a beautiful Lacquer paint job on it.  I still have great ears. I have
taught classes for years & owned a PA large enough for Civic centers & football fields, so I could get into formulas,equations, explain increments people can hear, apparent loudness vs. school book loudness formulas on & on.                                                                                                                 We always felt sure the USA built Fender amps had a volume & tone edge over the imports-aka-better parts-& fidelity. By todays standards this is a loud amp!
     O.K.- I made some labels with an arrow on them. At the end of each arrow is some type of cosmetic defect. The pictures might not show them well, so I did the labels for accuracy. There are no large issues-most are 1/2 inch or less. The bulk of them can be glued down. If you wish the amp to have non visible defects at 18" or closer, most will glue down.Simply -a little glue on the amp & tolex,and mash it down ,then use masking tape or some other strong tape & lay one end down & pull the tape tightly & stick down the end you are pulling. I have used that method over 30 years.
  At some of the corners , You may see a 1/16 of an inch piece of the amp's cabinet visible. Some cannot be changed. The tolex used by Fender looks a bit like the original, but it lacks the backing on the tolex the amps used to have. So over time, this formula covering will shrink a little. The original was about as tough as denim. What they started using on the Hot Rod series-the Tolex /covering, that Fender used is thin with no backing, and easier to tear than electrical tape. In contrast to a Bassman 50 head, that I decided to take the tolex off at age 22-& sand, & seal, & paint with clear lacquer-Well I had to use a "auto body work grinder" to totally get the old ,tough tolex off.---!                                               There is one spot on the control plate / by the middle tone knob / where the numeral 3 has a small rust spot. There is a pointer there, but don't know how well it will show up on your screen. Remember this is one of the older Deville's, being made in USA & my guess would be 1998-1999, and could go a little +/- of those dates. The chrome back plate has a lot of the lettering rubbed off , but the serial # is intact, and the tube chart clearly says"made in U.S.A.".
  Look at how much any USA made Fender amp costs today-By buying USA made it will always have higher intrinsic value and in time will re-sell for more dollars. Thats the kind of investment you should want.  A no lose situation.  And these will keep going up. This amp was only about $599+ when it came out. I can remember when I sold brand new Fender "American Standard Strats" for $499.00.
   I do not care for the newer black painted control panel. People will be expecting it to have the durability of an old black face. All these companies that took products to chinea, could have easily dropped their prices 30% but instead they keep going up. Would you call that corporate greed? Not long ago I allowed myself to buy one of the big 3 name brand tube amps ,made in chinea- I stuck my hand in the back to remove a tube and it came out with black smut on it from the paint. Looks like they blended in coal or some other material in the paint to make it go further. The reverb tank died. chinea had  bought the USA reverb tank co........I played the amp 3 or 4 times, having had 4-6 of them made in USA ,  and well it looked like the USA amps but the sound was so off I quickly sold it below dealer cost. 
   The saddest part of all this to me is: prices keep going up & people with ears that are 40 years old or more can hear the tone is plain wrong-near toneless , but a young player will grow up hearing what he thinks is the benchmark of a particular sound and it will be off 20 to 40% from the real deal. I have to say this -This amp is also offered locally for sale.
   The newer black control panels--almost any kind of metal can be used-but you can't do that with chrome,it has to be better, cost more toplate with chrome  & true chrome plating will not stay on just anything, but black paint usually will. So did Fender lower their price by using black paint instead of the more expensive process of chrome? No they increased the price. I am an older guy & I hate to see such molestation of great American names and products. Hartley Peavey used to drop by, & Bill Carson was part of the original Fender family & my rep. I was always treated as family-He had Leo build him a guitar like he wanted, It was known as Bills' guitar.  Orders started coming in for Bills' guitar-Hence it had to have a name-& the "Stratocaster " was born. I have a Strat Bill built himself & its still new & was never sold to a store, straight from Bill to me.  & its not exactly stock---Buy USA if you can when it comes to amps, that or English or German. But USA gear holds its value better than any. So, seriously consider buying this amp,  its a darn fair price & will hold its value & increase & you don't have to pay for the like new tubes or the mod or the casters.Take  care of it & you will be able to re-sale it for what you paid or more, but the longr you own it, the value will get greater, because its only true peers are the USA made amps, & most folks who have one are trying to hold onto it. I traded a nice vintage amp for it,each being worth about the same dollars.
     Right now local pickup is all I can offer until I check thru 100+ boxes in storage. Thanks.