Please advise - which amps do what a Fender Hotrod Deluxe does?

close2u

I am info gathering for my nephew whom wants a warm clean tone in a good gigging amp. He liked the Hotrod deluxe he played. Many thanks.

monquixote

If that's what he wants then get one of them!

Other Fender considerations would be:

DRRI which is smaller and lower power has a lovely trem and is a bit sweeter though a fair bit more expensive. 

The Supersonic series which have much better high gain sounds than the HRD

The Pro Reverb is a great amp and can be had for not much money if you get one of the 90's ones. Again bigger sweeter clean sounds, but heavier and bigger. 

Twin massive and heavy but sounds amazing

Other brands

Peavey Classic 50 - Cheap as chips and Nile uses one so nothing more needs to be said. 

Mesa Express - Much more expensive, but very versatile and great gain as well. 

Rivera - Relatively rare in this country, but Fender Cleans with Marshall gain. 

H&K Puretone - my current squeeze. Awesome build quality gorgeous clean sounds, but no reverb, loop or channel switching.

ICBM

close2u said:

I am info gathering for my nephew whom wants a warm clean tone in a good gigging amp. He liked the Hotrod deluxe he played. Many thanks.

Hotrod Deluxe.

You can't do much better than one if that's the sound you want - they're loud, reliable, common and not expensive.

close2u

Thanks @monquixote.
He is pushing his budget big style to go new on a HRD so nothing more costly.
Also nothing heavier, bigger.
Ps Sorry for shorthand - I am on a blooming iPad -pesky smart device that I am not familiar with

close2u

Thanks @ICBM There is a traynor ycv40 in classifieds ... How does that compare?

ICBM

close2u said:

He is pushing his budget big style to go new on a hrd so nothing more costly

Go second hand on one… £350 is about the going rate in good condition.

monquixote

Then I'd say deffo an HRD and if not that then a Classic 50 or maybe even a Rivera era Fender Concert (they are rare, but reasonably priced).

ICBM

monquixote said:

Then I'd say deffo an HRD and if not that then a Classic 50 or maybe even a Rivera era Fender Concert (they are rare, but reasonably priced).

More expensive than a HRD and quite a bit heavier though. Also take about twice as many valves which may be an issue if on a budget.

The Peavey Classic 30 is not a bad amp really… although not as well-made as the Fender or the Classic 50.

ThePrettyDamned

Used hot rod deluxe, or a classic 50 (those things are absolutely amazing sounding amps).

The hrdx is hard to beat though - just a great sounding amp.

close2u

£350 seems pretty good for an average used price. Are there variations between the different eras. ... MKI, MKII etc?

monquixote

The MKIII supposedly has a better drive sound and a less hair trigger volume control. 

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

close2u said:

I am info gathering for my nephew whom wants a warm clean tone in a good gigging amp. He liked the Hotrod deluxe he played. Many thanks.

Hotrod Deluxe.

You can't do much better than one if that's the sound you want - they're loud, reliable, common and not expensive.

Yeah. I don't much like the "OD" channels (I know), but they're hard to beat for cleans at the price they go for.

ICBM

Dave_Mc said:

I don't much like the "OD" channels (I know), but they're hard to beat for cleans at the price they go for.

I actually like the overdrive channels - as long as you're not trying to get Marshall, Mesa etc tones out of them they're fine… the key is to set the amp up for the drive channels (for More Drive if you're going to use it) and let the clean (and the Drive if you're using More Drive) take care of itself. The clean channel is much less fussy than the drive, but if you dial it in for the best possible clean sound by itself, it usually doesn't sound great on the drive channels.

Dave_Mc

It's a good while since I've tried them (and maybe the newer version is better) but I think I was dialling in the od channels and ignoring the clean channel. I got something vaguely passable with the drive control on 0 IIRC, but yeah. Not convinced... )

Danny1969

Clean channel is nice, but not amazing. Drive and more drive to me are a bit meh but then I'm a Marshall fan and as ICBM said they don't do a good Marshall type sound

What annoys me about them is the crap design, there's 2 x 470 Ohm 5 watt resistors used to drop the 47V rail to 16 volts or so to power the opamps that switch channels and the reverb. These always go dry jointed and cause all kinds of grieve. I've developed a mod that fix's this fault for good because I got fed up of fixing the same recurring fault. 

I've fitted mod kits on a some amps as well. This is normally a log pot in place of the linear to cure the hair trigger volume, some orange caps and some changes to plate resistors, plus the input jacks and a mod to the reverb. Only half that stuff is worth doing IMO 

Another annoying thing with these amps when your recording is how much noise they make  mechanically make from the valves vibrating in the chassis and such. You can get dampeners that help but every HRD I've ever recorded has had some noise .... that's the trouble when you hang the valves upside down 6 inches from the speaker I spose

impmann

One for the techs (@ICBM probably) - does fitting a same value log pot actually *solve* the "hair trigger" volume on an HRD? To my ears they are great amps, ruined by this...

EricTheWeary

monquixote said:

Peavey Classic 50 - Cheap as chips and Nile uses one so nothing more needs to be said. 

without digging around on t'internet for an hour I didn't think that was the case? At least, in the studio he has a pair of Peavey Classic combos but they are, IIRC, a much older design and not really the same thing as the current Classic 50 ( either the current far easten made ones or their immediate US made predecessors).Pretty sure he used a pair of Fenders (one of the HRD variants) on tour last year.

Having said that the Classic 50 is, I'm sure, still a good HRD alternative - just a quick look at the many Peavey vs Fender threads to be found on various fora seems to put the Classic 50 ahead of the HRD as a more versatile, better designed amp.You just have to live with the fugly Peavey logo.

close2u

Are you all talking about the 4x10" or the 2x12" Peavey?

EricTheWeary

I would have thought the 4x10 was a relative rarity?Just looking at them again the 50w 2x12 is a lot of amp and not exactly cheap now new, they have also managed to make the design even fuglier over time. I'm wondering if they would be overkill for small pub gigs (having a guess that's what your nephew does); although some folks on here seem to have no problems taking a small mountain of amplification down the Dog and Duck...

But they get pro use and are the most direct alternative to buying a Fender.

Forge

If you want cheaper and more portable you can try the Blues Jr III, great cleans, reverb and a good platform for OD pedals.

jpfamps

impmann said:

One for the techs (@ICBM probably) - does fitting a same value log pot actually *solve* the "hair trigger" volume on an HRD? To my ears they are great amps, ruined by this...

The volume pot is already log taper.