The Deluxe Reverb is the blackface spin-off that eclipsed the amp it grew from. When the Deluxe went blackface in 1963, Fender added an outboard-style spring reverb and a tube-driven vibrato to the 6V6 platform, producing a 22 W combo that became one of the most recorded amps ever made. This short family file covers the blackface reverb circuits (AA763 then the definitive AB763) and notes the later AB868 revision; it owns the corpus's amps/ab763 entry, while the plain non-reverb Deluxe and the moment of the split are documented in the deluxe family file.
| Designation | Years | Watts | Output stage | Key change | Circuit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA763 | 1963–1964 | 22 W | push-pull 2x6V6 | The first Deluxe Reverb: the blackface Deluxe platform with an added Vibrato channel carrying its own spring-reverb circuit and a tube tremolo, alongside the unchanged Normal channel. Fixed bias, a long-tailed-pair inverter, and the GZ34 rectifier are shared with the non-reverb blackface Deluxe; the reverb tank and its driver/recovery tubes are what set the model apart. Early blackface examples carry the AA763 designation before the AB763 revision. | history entry |
| AB763 | 1964–1967 | 22 W | push-pull 2x6V6 | The definitive blackface Deluxe Reverb and the reference circuit for the model. A GZ34 rectifier and fixed bias (with an adjustable trim) feed a 6V6GT pair rated at 22 W; the preamp runs Normal and Vibrato channels, each with volume, treble, and bass, plus reverb and speed/intensity controls. A 12AT7 drives the reverb tank and a second 12AT7 forms the long-tailed-pair phase inverter. This is the circuit documented in the corpus at amps/ab763, where the printed AB763 voltage chart is DC-verified. | AB763 circuit ↗ |
A circuit ↗ badge links a fully documented circuit — redrawn schematic, verified operating point, parts list. A history entry is placed and sourced here but its circuit isn't drawn yet; contributions are welcome.
This family is deliberately short: it documents only the blackface AA763/AB763 reverb circuits, with the AB868 revision noted on the AB763 entry rather than split out. The reverb line continued into the silverface era (out of scope here). The moment the Deluxe forked into reverb and non-reverb branches, and the plain blackface Deluxe, live in history/families/deluxe.yaml to avoid duplicating the shared amps/ab763 circuit_ref, which belongs to this file.
Every model above carries its own citations in the corpus data file. Browse the full source list for this line: history/families/deluxe-reverb.yaml.