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Fender Hot Rod Deluxe
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Fender Hot Rod Deluxe
heads on fire heads on fire

« If it didn't explode, it would be my favorite amp. »

Publié le 08/09/11 à 06:00
contenu en anglais (contenu en anglais)
Tube amp - 3 12AX7s, 2 6L6s

40 watts

1-12" special design Eminence® 8 ohm, 50W speaker

3 channels - clean, drive, and more drive

Master volume and gain controls in drive channel

Bright switch

Spring reverb

External speaker output

Effects loop

2-button footswitch for channel selection/drive to more drive selection

UTILIZATION

This seemed to be a great gigging amp - small and compact, didn't weigh too much, and looked great. The sounds were killer, and very easy to dial in. I could get great country, blues, jazz, and old time rock sounds out of it with no problem. Metal would be a bit harder to achieve - it took me getting out my dirt boxes to find a usable metal tone. But the drive and more drive channels were still great for inspiring solo flights!

SOUNDS

This amp sounds incredible. It has great, glassy, shimmery cleans with plenty of chime. And the dirty channels are pretty smooth - a bit hairy, but can be tamed by swapping preamp tubes for other manufacturer's products. The reverb is as good as you'd find on any amp, and the EQ section is sensitive, yet highly usable.

I played these amps with all kinds of guitars - Strats, Teles, Les Pauls, 335s, shredder guitars, and they all sounded great, but like themselves - the amp is transparent. And it takes pedals very well also. The sound of this amp is nothing to sneeze at.

OVERALL OPINION

The Fender Hot Rod Deluxe is a marvelous idea in theory, but in practice, the amp is bound to make you rip your hair out of your head. In using PCB construction methods, Fender is able to have a well-designed circuit be manufactured and sold for a very low price.

The problem is in the design - the tube sockets are mounted directly ON the PC board. What happens with tubes when you turn a tube amp on? They heat up. And heat is the enemy of solder traces, resistors, and capacitors - the heat from the tubes caused short circuits in my two HRD amps a total of four times, with the last two ending in literal smoke.

If you want a great sounding amp that you're ok with throwing away in a few short years, by all means, get this amp. It is the opposite of durable due to its fatal design flaw.