What's a good upgrade for the Blues Deluxe/Hot Rod Deluxe?

jonnygreentrees

Having played these for the last 10 years I'm fully sick of the touchy volume control on these amps and want to upgrade to something nicer.

What is a good step up without the awful volume control?

Needs to be a Fender or have a Fender sound.

30 watts plus

£1500 or less

Lots of clean headroom

ICBM

Dr. Watson Lion Tamer in the loop - £20.

Jensen C12N speaker - about £90.

£1390 on a guitar of your choice, pedals, beer and other vital musical accessories.

jonnygreentrees

I've tried multiple volume boxes in the loop and they mess with the sound in ways I don't like

bertie

ICBM said:

Dr. Watson Lion Tamer in the loop - £20.

Jensen C12N speaker - about £90.

£1390 on a guitar of your choice, pedals, beer and other vital musical accessories.

this and get shot of the stock GT valves if they're still in there    -    both  worked a treat on a deville I had

jonnygreentrees said:

I've tried multiple volume boxes in the loop and they mess with the sound in ways I don't like

sounds like you just want a new amp tho,  which is fine.........................

jonnygreentrees said:

Lots of clean headroom

Evil twin

PAL

If you like the sound of the amp replace it with the latest version where this the volume jump isuue on the volume pot has
  been addressed ! or Try a 5751 it has slightly less gain and may help it's worth a try !
  or speak to a good amp tech who I'm sur could help .

p90fool

jonnygreentrees said:

I've tried multiple volume boxes in the loop and they mess with the sound in ways I don't like

I have a pair of HRDs, a II and a IV and the Lion Tamer doesn't mess with the sound at all. 

BlackbirdCabs

I reckon you could find someone to build you a clone of your preferred blackface circuit for that amount. I had Vyse build me a Princeton Reverb circuit (which I then built my own cab for) for around £600 and I love it. There are plenty of options in terms of cabs (ahem ).

Someone who is worth checking out is Phil at Emprize amps - he has plenty of models based on lower wattage Fender amps but I know he builds to clients' specs as well. I had a play on his Stamford at the NW Guitar Show on Sunday, which is his take on the Brownface Deluxe and it sounded great, so he definitely knows what he's doing (full disclosure: he bought me a cup of tea, so my opinion may be biased!)

In terms of which blackface circuit fits the bill, I'd have a look at fenderguru.com for great info - I'm going to recommend a Super Reverb purely because I really want one myself!

gatheredinsong

After my long serving Hot Rod Deluxe I bought a Milkman Amp 100, a lovely Rift tweed covered cabinet from a forumite and an Alnico Cream to go in it. Perfect home solution, super easy set up for practices/gigs and sounds excellent at all volumes. Certainly haven't missed the HRD at all.

GavRichList

One of these. 

Beexter

I'm no tech but just throwing up an idea that I hope our resident amp/circuit experts could share their opinion on....
there was a thread on here recently related to the hair trigger volume control on the MXR Timmy. Someone posted a fix which I believe came from Paul Cochrane himself which simply involved soldering a single resistor into the circuit- would the same approach apply for a touchy volume control on these amps or am I way off with this?

roberty

It depends how you use the HRD really, they are quite versatile. Do you use one particular sound or do you switch channels?

Edit: just reread the OP. Twin is probably the one for clean headroom. They are very bloody heavy though

Edit edit: YES I CAN FUCKING HEAR YOU CLEM FANDANGO

andy1839

GavRichList said:

One of these. 

One of the best amps ever!

monquixote

H&K Puretone

One of the best sounding clean amps of all time and dirt cheap secondhand considering how much they were new.

That said the HRD is also one of the best amps of all time so not much will be a huge upgrade.

slacker

Twin for the win

ICBM

That particular Twin is the best-sounding amp Fender ever made in my opinion… with the possible exception of the Tone Master head (not related to the new combos) and its matching 4x12” - the only snag being that it had to be cranked to Saturn V launch volume to sound that good. But I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a better amp.

UnclePsychosis

Beexter said:

I'm no tech but just throwing up an idea that I hope our resident amp/circuit experts could share their opinion on....
there was a thread on here recently related to the hair trigger volume control on the MXR Timmy. Someone posted a fix which I believe came from Paul Cochrane himself which simply involved soldering a single resistor into the circuit- would the same approach apply for a touchy volume control on these amps or am I way off with this?

Thats basically what the "lion tamer" referred to above is. 

hywelg

andy1839 said:

GavRichList said:

One of these. 

One of the best amps ever!

I went to one of these from a HDRx II . Ended up splitting it into a head and cab. Monstrously heavy and I was a lot younger then. But having tried the Super Amp from the same Pro Tube range I bought one of those too. It's lighter, lower power (the Twin Amp is too loud and the low power setting doesn't sound as good) and the speakers have a different response which I like (they respond faster and squash a little more). 

So look out for the Super Amp. Alternately seek out the later Pro Reverb which  is also very nice. 

ICBM

Actually, if you’re only using the clean channel on the HRD - or especially the Blues Deluxe - and don’t need reverb, then a 59 Bassman or the Clapton Twin will be closer to the same sound than a BF-derived model.

TheMarlin

I’ve got a Vyse Jazz King head I might sell.  I have too many amps, and not enough talent. 

40w hand wired AB push pull single channel amp with glorious blackface tones. Best I ever heard. 

Has a master volume, so you can get it dirty at bedroom levels if you like, sound phenomenal clean and driven. 

Is 40w, and you can have up-to 35w as pure clean blackface if you like. 

Comes with original booklet, is fab condition, could even do a bundle deal on an Eminence Red Fang Alnico loaded 2x12 cab.   

Will wipe the floor with pretty much anything you put it up against. 

thomasw88

Get a hot rod delxue iv ie the latest edition.

no issues with sensitive controls, and the celestion A type speaker sounds great.

i changed, the speaker to a cannabis Rex but tbh the stock speaker is fine.

stratman3142

thomasw88 said:

Get a hot rod delxue iv ie the latest edition.

no issues with sensitive controls, and the celestion A type speaker sounds great.

Yes, same here. Mine's still got the stock A type speaker.