Review: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

[Shibby]

I've bought Fender Hot Rod deluxe yesterday and I'm simply amazed, thanks to great fender MIM strat that is better IMHO than MIA strat I and my friends have played.
Long Story short it's just marvelous , full valve amp + good strat + SD Antiquity surfers = huge beamy smile on my face
Absolutely crystal clear ,sparkly and snappy clean and full warm (but still fenderish snappy overdrive.)
Plus Boss Blues Driver which showed it's true powere through this amp , on my other amps it was just another overdrive with different flavor , but on this is just blowing with warmth and dripping with stout overdriven sounds. Perfect for my tastes but sometimes it gets a little icepicky(bu that can be fixed eaisly by turning treble down:laugh2: ).
Friend of mine who is working in music store got close to santana like tones(yeah.. i know PRS(different woods , scale etc and a Dumble Amp i suppose) and he was floored bythe sound and response of Surfers, thanks Mr.Seymour Duncan :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Review: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

Sounds like a rockin amp.
:smoker:

 

[aleclee]

Re: Review: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

A lot of folks don't like the drive channel on the HRDx but it works well enough for me.

 

[Farkus]

Re: Review: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

A lot of folks don't like the drive channel on the HRDx but it works well enough for me.

I don't like the drive channel at all, but the clean channel takes OD so well I don't care. The effects loop is a big plus for this unit as I use some delay, chorus and flanger at times and I like to be able to hit the preamp with my Boss OD and use the time effects in the loop.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Review: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

A lot of folks don't like the drive channel on the HRDx but it works well enough for me.

It's all about tube tweaking with the HRD. It's not bad outta the box, But there is MUCH! room for improvement. 1st step) Get them nasty Sovtek 5881's outta there and put in a good set of 6L6's. 2nd step) Bias em' a Lil' HOT! If you have the owner's manual,a multi meter and some common sense? This amp is a piece of cake to bias. REVIEW SAFETY STEPS B4Next the preamp tubes. For me the magic trio is as follows. A quality NOS 12AX7 in V1,a 12AT7 in V2 and a NOS 5751 in V3. Tweak and find your magic combo.
Next, Some folks are finicky about the speaker? I have no immediate issue's w/t the speaker. But I have options.That's another Lil' wonder w/t the HRD is you can run another 8 ohm load w/t the stock speaker. You can sit it on top of any 8 ohm 4x12 cab and fire away.:firing: I have 1x12 V30 loaded cab if I need a more rock'in snarl from it. Or if I really need to move some air I bring my 2x12 cab with me.:smokin: Put a SFX-03 in front of a HRD,And you can get boutique tone from a price point amp IMO.

 

[gordon_39422]

Re: Review: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

Another HRDx advocate here.... I throw it around alot, but it helped me understand tube amps, and more specifically the HRDx....

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

That is the Unofficial Hot Rod Deluxe web page...

Enjoy!
Allen

 

[Farkus]

Re: Review: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

It's all about tube tweaking with the HRD. It's not bad outta the box, But there is MUCH! room for improvement.

Couldn't agree with you more. I replaced the power amp tubes and got a much warmer tone out of the amp (which I like). I've been fooling with the preamp tubes also but I'm still looking for the perfect combo.

The two things that would've made this amp killer(IMHO):
1. Tube rectifer-more significant if you play at higher volumes
2. Tube reverb

Of course this would've driven the price up somewhat, but it does have features that the DRRI doesn't have (efx loop and drive channels) so it could compete at least. And they have moved production of the amp to Mexico so that should help some. I personally dig the stock speaker but I would like to try some others just for fun sometime.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Review: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

i love the spring reverb on that amp. There's SOOO much difference between 1 & 12, 12 is like a spacey reverb plus tape echo thing

I've been curious as to how an emi wizard would sound in that amp with some JJ 6v6's, mullard in v1, EH 12at7 in v2, and a 5751 in v3

maybe some of those GT coke bottle power tubes, i dunno

i bet it'd be a sweet little blues amp though