Attention: Vintage Fender Amplifier Experts!!!

Hello folks. I'm looking into doing a restoration of my dad's Silverface Fender Deluxe Reverb, however, as he bought it used in a private sale sometime back in 1982, we're not sure of the year of it, or, more importantly, the circuit that's in it. The only thing we know for sure is that nothing has been changed on/in it since he's owned it. I've been looking around at some resources for this, however, there are some conflictions, which lead me to believe that this amp may be "Frankensteined" :shock:. Recently, I took it apart and took down some numbers, and some pictures. Please help me in determining what year amp this is, and more importantly, what circuit number it is. Thanks!

-As mentioned before, the front control panel is Silverface. At the right hand side, in light blue lettering, in bold capital letters, it says "DELUXE REVERB", NOT "DELUXE REVERB AMP".

-The Volume control for the Vibrato channel is a "Pull For VOLUME Boost" pot, which, in conjunction with a tip-to-ground, latching switch that can be plugged into the rear panel, is used for a volume boost.

-The "Fender" script logo is located on the upper left-hand corner of the grille cloth, and it is the design WITH the tailed "r".

-The grille cloth is mostly silver, with a faint blue stripe (the same shade of blue that the "DELUXE REVERB" is written on the front panel) running vertically in between each of the bright silver stripes.

-There is NO aluminum/chrome trim surrounding the grillecloth.

-On the rear panel of the chassis, near to the speaker output jacks, there is a "Line/Recording" jack.

-There are five very large silver capacitors on the bottom of the chassis, concealed by a metal cover, held to the chassis with four small sheet metal screws. On each of the capacitors, the following is written:

+MALLORY+
MADE IN USA
16MFD 450 VDC
021030 85C
235-7938C

-There is a small, silver, encased transformer mounted on the bottom of the chassis in between the preamp tubes (three tubes located to either side), with the following die-stamped into it:

022921
E1A606--922

-There is another small, silver, encased transformer mounted on the bottom of the chassis near to the power amp tubes with the following numbers die-stamped into it:

022707
E1A606--928

-There is a medium sized silver, encased transformer located beside one preamp tube and one power amp tube, with the following numbers die-stamped into it:

022640
E1A606-930

-There is a large, black, laminated transformer close to the rectifier tube and one power tube with the following die-stamped into it:

L023130
E1A606-912
CSA 827

-The back panel of the chassis, on the same side as the "NORMAL" inputs has the following number die-stamped into it:

A995121

-Under the aforementioned die-stamped number in the chassis, in black ink, stamped on are the numbers:

0860

-On the underside of the chassis, close to the largest black transformer, toward the front panel side, stamped in a pale blue-ish gray ink is the following:

REPLACE THERMAL
CIRCUIT BREAKER
WITH SAME TYPE
010873 - ORANGE

-On the side panel of the chassis, closest to the "NORMAL" inputs, stamped in purple ink, starting from the front panel, toward the back panel, is the following: (the | | marks denote the embossments in the chassis where the mounting screws run through)

REV-A | | DE LUXE R.DOM | | M
4020   | |                         | |

-On the side panel of the chassis, closest to the jeweled pilot light, written by hand in black marker, close to the front panel is the following:

T 9

-The speaker, which we suspect may have been replaced, as there are extra holes in the speaker mounting board that are not used/do not line up with the speaker mounting ring. On the silver magnet cap, there is a round sticker with a large hole in the center of it (think of a 45 RPM record) with a light blue background (same shade of light blue as used in the front panel "DELUXE REVERB" label, with the following written in silver:

Fender (on top of sticker's center hole, in tradtional Fender script)

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS (below center hole)
SPECIAL DESIGN SPEAKER (this is smaller light blue lettering within a silver "banner")

-The speaker mounting ring has the following stamped in white ink, close to the speaker terminals

8 OHMS 137 7949 081810

-Finally, the tube label, which is glued to the inside of the speaker cabinet on the left wall (as viewed from the rear), in the lower left corner of the label is the following:

010391F



I have numerous photos if they would help at all. Thanks everyone for any help that can be provided!!!

I believe that would be a late '79.

The speaker is a CTS (137) from the 49th week of 1979 (7949). The other dates are more towards mid '79.

+1. The amp is late 1979 or possibly early 1980. The speaker is original - or at least is consistent date-wise - but could have been out and back in at some point.

Either the tailed-r logo or the whole grille are not original.

Alright, so, electronically speaking, it is without a doubt a late 1979/early 1980 model then?

Yes, the pull-boost switch alone proves it's very late - that came in in mid '77.

The date codes on the caps and transformers are all consistent with mid-late '79 - if you open up the chassis there are more on the pots and other caps. Obviously the latest one on a definitely original component is the earliest the amp could possibly be, and most likely a week or two after that at minimum. If the speaker is original as well, that shifts it to the last week or two of '79 and more likely early 1980. Fender did stockpile parts anyway, and their amp production was slowing down by then which explains the fairly large differences in some of the dates.

Isn't this board great!

Thanks folks! I really appreciate the feedback. And, yes, this board is great!!!