Green Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

[theswingincreeper]

Up to now, I haven't been too keen about the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. It seemed to be lacking something in my opinion sound-wise. Then on my last visit to Cologne's Music Store, I noticed one that looked different - real nice dark green tolex and cream colored knobs. The salesman told me it was a limited edition, the main difference is that it has a Celestion Vintage 30 instead of the ordinary Fender speaker. I checked it out, comparing it to the ordinary black one which was standing right next to it, using an AVRI Jazzmaster, then a Custom Shop Relic Strat and finally a Rory Gallagher Strat. What a sound. The difference was unbelievable, the green one sounded a lot sharper and more aggressive,  the black one was really  plain in comparison, especially on the drive channel. I liked it so much that I took it home with me, even though it strained my budget a bit. So far I played it on band rehearsals twice, the punch it delivers is awesome. Can also be loud as hell, I had no need to turn up the master past 2 yet. I'm really looking forward to the next gig. Up to now, I played a vintage Bandmaster with 2 x12" cabinet which is beautiful, but often just too much low end for my needs (and I always had to use stomp boxes for distortion). This baby may have solved my amp problem.

Regards, Joe

[sookwinder]

The HRDlx  (normal black with stock standard speaker) is the main amp I record with  ... a whole pallet  of sounds available, would not change the speaker if you paid me ...

now if you had a solution for the crappy plastic input jacks (that doesn't involve taking apart the amp to replace), then I am all ears ...

[JazzBlaster]

those do sound great! I didn't know the speaker was different, I wonder if the white twins are different as well?...

[aen]

A friend of mine "blew his load" so to speak on one of those while saving up for a Deville.  I told him it was going to break up before he was competing with the TWO HALF STACKS in his band, but did he listen? noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"I htink I might sell the hot rod"

[theswingincreeper]

Well I do not have to compete with two half stacks, if I had to, I'd  probably get something else. The places where I play, they tell me to turn the volume down all the time...
The amp doesn't have plastic input jacks either. It is perfectly alright if you like the sound of the black one, I was just speaking about my own preferences. It just seems to me it is a good choice for what I am doing.

Regards, Joe

[Superfuzz]

I have the black one..not bad , since I put a volume box in the FX loop I can run it with clean volume at 6 at without find the police ringin' at the door..if you  use it without the volume box you can't pass the 2 on the control because it's very very loud for being a 40W..it's surely much louder than my brother's marshal jcm900 50W combo...
However I've always thought to upgrade it with a decent speaker..the stock one seems to stiff to pull out nice tones without being at enourmous volumes so it has that flat treebly sound , very very harsh someway...

If you use stompboxes for distortion, please add the volume box!!!, I repeat!, not just to be less louder ,but to get a very nice clean sound that breaks very very nicely with even a TS9!!

[zhivago]

I've only used a standard black one...40 watts, and I'm afraid I didn't like it...it sounded very boxy and lifeless...

I tried all sorts of pedals with it, and different guitars ('64 Jazzmaster, Gibson Les Paul Jr, Tokai LesPaul with Seymour Duncans) and it just wasn't sounding good....maybe it was the tubes in it, or the speaker, or both...I dunno, to be honest..we pushed it to about 6 and it just never sounded exciting or inviting to play

a friend has a RI Fender tweed Deluxe, and the clean channel is light years better..I've gigged this amp too and it sounded great...which I found odd, as the Hot Rod is based on the tweed RI amp....and essentially adds two more drive channels.

[Superfuzz]

I've only used a standard black one...40 watts, and I'm afraid I didn't like it...it sounded very boxy and lifeless...

I tried all sorts of pedals with it, and different guitars ('64 Jazzmaster, Gibson Les Paul Jr, Tokai LesPaul with Seymour Duncans) and it just wasn't sounding good....maybe it was the tubes in it, or the speaker, or both...I dunno, to be honest..we pushed it to about 6 and it just never sounded exciting or inviting to play

a friend has a RI Fender tweed Deluxe, and the clean channel is light years better..I've gigged this amp too and it sounded great...which I found odd, as the Hot Rod is based on the tweed RI amp....and essentially adds two more drive channels.

Of sure..the HR deluxe isn't  the holy grail of the amp even with a volume box or a new speaker..it's ,essentially, an amp born to win on  the price/quality rate..for a student like me is the best I could afford..I obviously prefer the Twin reverb that I use in the rearshall every saturday..

[sookwinder]

The amp doesn't have plastic input jacks either

well unless they have retool for a new part I think it will have plastic imput.... 

what I meam by plastic input is that the actual thread on gthe input jack that the locking nut screws on to secure it in place  (you have the washer and then the screw , both of which you see when looking at the jack) is a plastic moulded screw thread.

[aen]

Although it didn't have the watts I require, it was always my go-to amp in the music store.  I really dug the sound of it, and i htink if I were doing solo shows, or "less racaus" type performances it'd be a great choice.

[chrisjedijane]

I love my tweed blues deluxe - I actually find that sometimes it's TOO loud. Most of the venues in belfast are kinda small, and my band/the soundman is always complaining that it's too loud. I find that when any time we've played bigger venues that there hasn't really been enough clean headroom, but it's still a great sound.