Fender HRD - wow!

[Marinblues]

I've tried it in the past and I always thought that it had a sweet sound. I always disgarded for some reason (bad gain channel, reliability...), maybe because I listen too much to equipment snobs...

I tried it again yesterday at my luthiers shop and - wow! What a sweet sounding amp. The cleans are simply magic.

I almost feel that, at lower volumes, it sounds better than it's bigger "brothers" (twin, vibrolux.....).

I am seriously gassed about it now, but I have 3 concerns:

1) I've noticed that the volume pot has a weird scale (it suddenly goes loud all at once) and I was wondering whether I could still use it at home.
2) I've seen that the stock speaker is Eminence and a lot of people moan about it (especially with the volume up). There is a "blonde" version with a Jensen which costs a bit more. Is it worth it?
3) Does the clean or gain channel produce a decent overdrive/distorted tone in combination with a pedal?

thanks

Marin

 

[gordon_39422]

Re: Fender HRD - wow!

Hey marin,

1st of all, I agree, those amps have great clean tones. As for the volume, that is a linear taper volume pot. Fender (and others) do that as kind of a gimmick. You won't crank it to 12 in a store, but gauging by what you hear at 3, you decide this amp has brass one! Of course it does, but not to the extent that you would imagine based on your assumptions. You can change that out easily, I will post a cool page dedicated to the HRDx.

http://studentweb.eku.edu/justin_holton/

The above link also has reference to reviews of all things HRDx. To include speakers. Some that posted on the page went from the original to various other high-dollar speakers, only to go back to the original. Others swear by their choice.

There is alos great reference to tubes that people have used so you can get more clean headroom, or earlier breakup.

And finally, the amp takes pedals well!! Like no other, in my opinion. Some pedals will benefit from some natural tube saturation, while other peform well directly in the clean channel.

You will have fun with it to say the least. ENJOY!!!

 

[Marinblues]

Re: Fender HRD - wow!

And finally, the amp takes pedals well!! Like no other, in my opinion. Some pedals will benefit from some natural tube saturation, while other peform well directly in the clean channel.

ENJOY!!!

thanks. can you mention any pedals which you have tried out with it and whether it sounds better on the clean or gain channel?

 

[Farkus]

Re: Fender HRD - wow!

This little amp is a freakin' workhorse.

I use one as the 'clean' channel of my rig. It has a SUPER clean tone. When I play my '74 strat w/ fat 50's through it...sounds SRV-esque to me. Plenty loud, too.

I haven't used a bunch of pedals in front of it, but I did try a Boss Distortion. It sounds far better than the onboard distortion, IMO. So much more responsive to touch and dynamics. I've used delays and chorus through the effects loop (Boss), and have had good experiences with them.

I haven't modded the amp at all, so I can't speak to that. Lots of folks do switch the speaker out, and it depends on what you want from it as to what your choice would be. In terms of the Eminence speaker, Fender has used them for years. It's my understanding that some people prefer their speakers to the new 'Made in China' Celestions. I think it's true that their new American and British speakers are probably nicer than the stock Eminence, but all around, they make a pretty good speaker IMHO.

Mark

 

[Stevo]

Re: Fender HRD - wow!

Marin - I had a hot rod deluxe for a while. I played several gigs with it. The clean sound is great. I replaced the speaker and that was a big improvement - more of an improvement than replacing tubes. The JBL d120f and the Jensen c12n work well with that amp.
I actually used the drive/more drive settings also. They are not terrible, but not great either. I did not have any luck with pedals on the drive channel. At that time, I had a Digitech RP7 effects/distortion unit, and it sounded pretty good, especially at lower volumes.

My biggest problem with the HRD is that it sounded "small" in a band situation, and I wanted an amp that had good natural distortion. It was plenty loud, but the other guitar player in my band had a bf bassman with a boogie 212. My sound was thin compared to that. Also, my drummer was an ape man and my bass player was very loud. I cut through on the solos pretty well, but my rhythm always sounded thin.
I realize that my issues don't apply to all though.

I think that volume jump is a marketing ploy by Fender. They want you to know that this little amp can blow your head off! I have heard of HRD users that replaced the pot ( I think it's linear ) with an audio taper pot.

 

[Marinblues]

Re: Fender HRD - wow!

Thanks Farkus and Stevo.