Hot Rod Deluxe IV lack of clean headroom...

Bowks

I've dropped my HRD3 off to Jon Dickinson to get him to squeeze more headroom out of it as there's naff all at the moment.

ICBM

Bowks said:

I've dropped my HRD3 off to Jon Dickinson to get him to squeeze more headroom out of it as there's naff all at the moment.

Lower-gain preamp valves - and higher-grade power valves possibly, as Grocer_Jack said - will give all the headroom there is to be had without any need to modify the amp. Assuming there isn't actually anything wrong with it, anyway.

Bowks

ICBM said:

Bowks said:

I've dropped my HRD3 off to Jon Dickinson to get him to squeeze more headroom out of it as there's naff all at the moment.

Lower-gain preamp valves - and higher-grade power valves possibly, as Grocer_Jack said - will give all the headroom there is to be had without any need to modify the amp. Assuming there isn't actually anything wrong with it, anyway.

It's been acting up so nothing a service can't fix. We have talked about changing valves too, if necessary.

Grocer_Jack

Bowks said:

ICBM said:

Bowks said:

I've dropped my HRD3 off to Jon Dickinson to get him to squeeze more headroom out of it as there's naff all at the moment.

Lower-gain preamp valves - and higher-grade power valves possibly, as Grocer_Jack said - will give all the headroom there is to be had without any need to modify the amp. Assuming there isn't actually anything wrong with it, anyway.

It's been acting up so nothing a service can't fix. We have talked about changing valves too, if necessary.

Let us know how you get on and what you decided to change/fix.
BTW The new Guitarist mag reviewed the IV and said that there was tons of headroom. They didn't say anything about what had been done, if anything, to fix some of the common HRD problems. 

MattFGBI

Grocer_Jack said:

Bowks said:

ICBM said:

Bowks said:

I've dropped my HRD3 off to Jon Dickinson to get him to squeeze more headroom out of it as there's naff all at the moment.

Lower-gain preamp valves - and higher-grade power valves possibly, as Grocer_Jack said - will give all the headroom there is to be had without any need to modify the amp. Assuming there isn't actually anything wrong with it, anyway.

It's been acting up so nothing a service can't fix. We have talked about changing valves too, if necessary.

Let us know how you get on and what you decided to change/fix.
BTW The new Guitarist mag reviewed the IV and said that there was tons of headroom. They didn't say anything about what had been done, if anything, to fix some of the common HRD problems. 

Regarding the Hot Rod Deluxe, it now has a pine cabinet, improved reverb circuit and better overdrive.  We've also got some new tooling for the control panel so the lettering is clearer. 

Grocer_Jack

MattFGBI said:

Grocer_Jack said:

Bowks said:

ICBM said:

Bowks said:

I've dropped my HRD3 off to Jon Dickinson to get him to squeeze more headroom out of it as there's naff all at the moment.

Lower-gain preamp valves - and higher-grade power valves possibly, as Grocer_Jack said - will give all the headroom there is to be had without any need to modify the amp. Assuming there isn't actually anything wrong with it, anyway.

It's been acting up so nothing a service can't fix. We have talked about changing valves too, if necessary.

Let us know how you get on and what you decided to change/fix.
BTW The new Guitarist mag reviewed the IV and said that there was tons of headroom. They didn't say anything about what had been done, if anything, to fix some of the common HRD problems. 

Regarding the Hot Rod Deluxe, it now has a pine cabinet, improved reverb circuit and better overdrive.  We've also got some new tooling for the control panel so the lettering is clearer. 

I was thinking about problems like the volume pot sweep and burning resistors. Maybe they were fixed on the Mk III?

ICBM

Grocer_Jack said:

MattFGBI said:

Regarding the Hot Rod Deluxe, it now has a pine cabinet, improved reverb circuit and better overdrive.  We've also got some new tooling for the control panel so the lettering is clearer. 

I was thinking about problems like the volume pot sweep and burning resistors. Maybe they were fixed on the Mk III?

The burning resistors were fixed long ago, as well as the nasty brittle jacks (not for the FX loop, they had to stay with the more complex switched type). The MkIII did fix the volume pot sweep in some ways, but I thought it actually made things worse - the amp didn't start to sound good until it was up louder, and never quite as good at any volume.

The pine cabinet sounds like an upgrade, but has the control panel gone back to the nice chrome one and not the horrible cheap-looking black?

MattFGBI

ICBM said:

Grocer_Jack said:

MattFGBI said:

Regarding the Hot Rod Deluxe, it now has a pine cabinet, improved reverb circuit and better overdrive.  We've also got some new tooling for the control panel so the lettering is clearer. 

I was thinking about problems like the volume pot sweep and burning resistors. Maybe they were fixed on the Mk III?

The burning resistors were fixed long ago, as well as the nasty brittle jacks (not for the FX loop, they had to stay with the more complex switched type). The MkIII did fix the volume pot sweep in some ways, but I thought it actually made things worse - the amp didn't start to sound good until it was up louder, and never quite as good at any volume.

The pine cabinet sounds like an upgrade, but has the control panel gone back to the nice chrome one and not the horrible cheap-looking black?

The volume sweep was improved on the III but with any valve amp, it sounds better loud! 

The control panel is still black but it looks better in my opinion thanks to the clearer lettering and the ivory knobs. 

It's also got a tinted grill cloth, like the one on the handwired '64 Custom Deluxe. 

Bowks

Grocer_Jack said:

Bowks said:

ICBM said:

Bowks said:

I've dropped my HRD3 off to Jon Dickinson to get him to squeeze more headroom out of it as there's naff all at the moment.

Lower-gain preamp valves - and higher-grade power valves possibly, as Grocer_Jack said - will give all the headroom there is to be had without any need to modify the amp. Assuming there isn't actually anything wrong with it, anyway.

It's been acting up so nothing a service can't fix. We have talked about changing valves too, if necessary.

Let us know how you get on and what you decided to change/fix.
BTW The new Guitarist mag reviewed the IV and said that there was tons of headroom. They didn't say anything about what had been done, if anything, to fix some of the common HRD problems. 

Got the amp back today and it is sounding great.

One of the power amp valves had shorted and blown a resistor, however the heater was still operational, so to the untrained eye, all valves glowed = working amp.

The amp has been serviced, the resistor replaced and a set of Tung Sol 6L6s installed, along with an ECC81 in V1, so the amp is loud and clean, as I had always hoped it would be.

Grocer_Jack

Excellent news!

ICBM

Bowks said:

One of the power amp valves had shorted and blown a resistor, however the heater was still operational, so to the untrained eye, all valves glowed = working amp.

Aha... that would definitely give you low headroom! A quarter of the output power and asymmetric distortion... at least you'll know what that sounds like if it blows another one, it's quite distinctive.

Bowks

Thanks all. It was sounding awful, but got to crank it last night and it's sounding so much better. The drive channel still isn't the greatest, but I have a selection drive pedals to remedy that......as well as a Marshall incoming eek!

crunchman

It's probably worth a speaker swap to a Weber 12F150 or the WGS equivalent of a C12N.

stratman3142

I recently got an HRD IV. I've only tried it at a couple of rehearsals and I can see no evidence of a lack of clean headroom. It certainly seems as loud and clean as an HRD III that I used to have.

With the stock speaker (a Celestion A Type) I'd say it sounds even better than my old HRD III on the clean channel (and I tried a V30 and V-type speaker in my old HRD III). The OD channel still isn't to my taste.

It's a great clean channel and works well with my Helix LT in stompbox (i.e. no ampsim) mode.

srato

Hi,

What are the main pros and cons of the HRD IV vs the Supersonic 22?  What about the clean/OD channels on both?  Thank you!