Fender 2232400000 Hot Rod DeVille ML 212 Guitar Combo Amplifier

I've had the Deville ML212 for a few months now but have held off on offering a review until I've gigged with it a few times and in different settings. I primarily play modern jazz and blues (Bill Frisell, Scott Henderson, John Scofield, and of course Mike Landau) but the bulk of my recent gigs have been with a classic rock cover band ('60s - '80s). A great clean base as a platform for OD and distortion pedals is fundamental for my needs. With that said, the ML212 is truly a gem of an amp! The clean tone is big and beautiful -- very muscular, with a round and bouncy low end that doesn't flub out with the volume up, fat mids, and sweet highs. I love big bass in an amp, and the ML delivers. Overall, the amp tends more to the bright side, but the wide range of the amp's tone controls coupled with sensible use of a guitar's volume and tone controls yield a large tonal palette that would cover most gigging players' needs.I'm emphasizing here the gig-worthiness of this amp because a lot of people say the standard version of the Hot Rod Deville's clean tone is too bright, which might be the case for home use (I never owned a standard before so I can't comment). But on stage, you need something brighter that can cut through the mix, and the ML excels at exactly that, but with ample low end thump and mids to retain a bold overall body. The other thing is too many guitarists simply dime their volume and tone controls 100% of the time, which will give you an overly-bright and fatiguing sound with just about any American-voiced amp. Players who know how to effectively use their guitar's tone and volume controls (like Landau) know there's a world of tones to be discovered at every notch on the dial, and the ML responds and interacts beautifully and intuitively. Kick in a good gain pedal and you can easily traverse a vast expanse of excellent clean to crunch tones with the guitar's volume control; the ML cleans up extremely well.Like most players, I never liked the dirt channels on the standard Hot Rod Deville. Fender's decision (with Landau's input) to scrap those channels and instead have a second volume control with a clean boost on the ML version is smart and very practical. I use the 1st volume control for my base rhythm tones, where I don't need to be out front in the band mix. I use the 2nd volume for those rhythm or melodic parts that do need to stand out more, and the clean boost to goose everything when needed. Blues players will especially dig this feature and could easily ditch any OD pedals if they don't need medium to heavy gain.I mostly use single-coil equipped guitars (Strats, Teles, and custom makes) and, as you'd expect from something designed with Mike Landau's input, they sound fabulous through this amp. I've also used humbucker equipped semi-hollows and LP type guitars and they sound pretty good through the ML, but I really favor single-coils and P90s over humbuckers in general, so my opinion may not be helpful for humbucker fans.The ML is a fantastic pedal platform. I've run all sorts of OD and distortion pedals through it, and they all sound superb. Effects like tremolo, delay, and reverb sound great through the loop, with no apparent tonal degradation. The amp's reverb is excellent, with a more useable range than many of the classic Fender amps. I actually set the ML's reverb to 2 while using the hall reverb setting on the Digitech Polara Reverb pedal in the loop with the level dialed back, and get a lush ambience that's simultaneously not too in-your-face.The Celestion V-Type speakers are a perfect match for this amp, and sound excellent clean and dirty. They sounded good out of the box and have gotten much better as I've broken them in (I also have the recent Fender '68 Custom Deluxe that has a single Celestion V-Type and it sounds wonderful in that amp as well). I tend to be compulsive about upgrading speakers, tubes, and wiring on stock amps I buy, but I haven't felt compelled at all to do so with the ML. The V-Type speakers are perfect, and while I have little doubt upgrading the tubes to something like Tung-Sols or NOS would improve things, the stock ML has thus far sounded so lovely that I won't bother with a tube upgrade until a tube change is actually needed. As long as the amp is biased correctly (and Fender often does bias their amps too cold), you're off and running.The ML sounds pretty decent at low volumes and I do use it daily as my practice amp, but I live in a house and can probably get away with more than someone living in an apartment/condo/shared wall setting. Most of the gigs I've done with the ML have been outdoors with a four or five-piece band and I've never lacked for volume -- the ML is a loud amp with plenty of clean headroom. I've played a couple of indoor gigs with the ML (one medium-size and one small-size venue) where I had to dial down the volume, but the amp still sounded killer both clean and dirty.Fender did everything right with this amp and the price is quite a good deal. The tones the ML212 offer easily go toe-to-toe with any boutique amp, and I've had and still have my share of them (Suhr OD100, Bogner Shiva, Port City Pearl, Heritage Victory and Colonial to name some). The ML has become my go-to gig amp for rock and jazz gigs and doesn't at all sound or feel like a qualitative step down from the boutiques. I wish it came in a head version (my preferred form), but the ML combo is excellently constructed and again the V-Type speakers are a well thought out match. At 54 pounds, however, I wouldn't call it a grab-and-go amp (I have back issues and it can be a pain if you're dropping it into or removing it from the trunk of a sedan), but it's not a wholly unwieldy beast like the Twin. I couldn't recommend this amp more highly for rock, blues, funk, jazz, and country.