Fender · Combo

Fender Deluxe Reverb

TGP Staff Pick

The TGP take

The most recorded clean amp on earth and a pedal platform that flatters almost everything you put in front of it. Breaks up early enough to be musical, loud enough to be a problem.

Buy this once and stop worrying about clean tone for the rest of your life.

Best for

BluesStudioPedal platform

Tone character

CleanChimeyWarm

Players associated with it

Often used alongside

Overdrive

Ibanez Tube Screamer

Not really a distortion — a midrange lens. Set the drive low, the level high, and it turns a decent amp into a focused one. Half the blues and metal tones you love have one in front of the amp.

Mid-forwardCompressedFocused
The standard

Fender Stratocaster

The most adaptable electric guitar ever designed. Three single coils, a five-way switch and a vibrato that rewards a light touch — it covers Hendrix, Gilmour, SRV and Mayer without ever pretending to be more than a plank, a neck and some wire.

GlassyArticulateVintage
Modern

PRS Custom 24

The diplomatic answer to Fender-vs-Gibson. Twenty-four frets, a 25-inch scale that splits the difference, and coil taps that get genuinely usable single-coil-ish sounds instead of thin apologies.

BalancedPolishedModern

More from the Amp Room

Vintage voiced

Marshall Super Lead Plexi

The template for British rock. Little gain on paper, enormous attitude in practice — the crunch happens because the power section is being asked to do something it barely wants to do.

RawMid-forwardVintage
Combo

Vox AC30

Chime, jangle and that top-end sparkle that no Fender or Marshall quite does. Push it and it compresses into a snarl that's carried British rock from the 60s to now.

ChimeyCompressedBright