Fender Blues Deluxe or Hot Rod Deluxe?

SimpleSimon

Anyone got both or choose one over the other? Im wondering what the major tonal differences are....

dano

Been a few years since I played them..

Blues deluxe is lower gain and (from memory) two tubes in the gain stage of the preamp whereas the hotrod has three. Power sections are the same I think.

I personally preferred the blues deluxe, and if you need more gain chuck a pedal into the preamp.

ICBM

The Hotrod is more versatile - it has a cleaner clean channel and more gain on the drive channel even without the More Drive engaged, and then much more with it on. It's slightly deeper-sounding overall, whereas the Blues is more middy. I prefer the Hotrod, but you'll probably find a fairly even split of opinion.

phase3

I'm with ICBM, the Hotrod is much more versatile and much easier to modify even with small changes. Stick a 5751 in V1 and you get even better clean headroom and it brings the gain down slightly on drive & more drive...sounds much better. Tube line up is the same but the implementation is different....hence the differences (over simplified explanation).  The blues D is, as name suggests slightly muddier and will break up earlier on the clean. Never really like the drive channel on blues... you'd almost certainly need a pedal. That said, both amps take pedals really well and that's how must folk get the driven sounds from them anyway.  Just depends how you like your cleans.

My vote... HRD with careful tube selection and a better speaker. (12H30anniversary works well)

MattFGBI

The key is in the name - as mentioned above the Hot Rod has more headroom on the clean channel. The Blues is voiced for blues and has an earlier breakup. 

Depends on what you want it for. 

samzadgan

i went through exactly this conundrum about 6 months ago. 

i ended up going with the blues deluxe...

1. the mids...i like the clean of the HR, but the Blues clean at volumes lower than break-up was nicer to my ear. Its definitely fender style, but like ICBM said the mids are more pronounced the HR

2. Character...maybe its the mids, or the speaker, but i thought the tone had a personality...I sound like a twat saying that...but when you hear the two you can hear it. This is why a lot of people say the HR is more versatile...because the Blues one definitely is built for a sound in mind.

3. The looks...I had to admit i was drawn to the tweed look immediately. 

Would I have bought the HR on a different day...maybe...the difference is not huge and HR is great sounding too. I liked the Blues for its distinct tonal difference (mids and character) and looks.

I don't plan to gig it or use it for anything but low volume (volume knob at about 2) noodling in the house.

Also i should say, i hated the high gain on both of the amps, the low gain on the blues i liked very much however.

SimpleSimon

So a HRD in Tweed livery and a speaker upgrade sounds perfect?

erky32

@RichardJ has just bought a beaut and it looks like its going to be a long time before he passes it on to me now after all these praising comments

not_the_dj

SimpleSimon said:

So a HRD in Tweed livery and a speaker upgrade sounds perfect?

If you can find one there's an FSR version in lacquered tweed with a Jensen speaker...I got one earlier this year.

http://s5.postimg.org/k0jds1nfb/IMG_0389.jpg

SimpleSimon

not_the_dj said:

SimpleSimon said:

So a HRD in Tweed livery and a speaker upgrade sounds perfect?

If you can find one there's an FSR version in lacquered tweed with a Jensen speaker...I got one earlier this year.

http://s5.postimg.org/k0jds1nfb/IMG_0389.jpg

Thanks - yes i know, was hinting at that! How do you find yours?

not_the_dj

SimpleSimon said:

Thanks - yes i know, was hinting at that! How do you find yours?

How did a find it as in physically, or sound wise?

I got mine from Coda, but search online and you'll see Andertons, GAK etc list them still.

Sound wise I generally use mine on the clean channel with gain from pedals. I play in a covers band so Fenderish cleans from the amp it self, then a Marshally tone with a Catalinbread DLS pedal gets me close enough for a pub band.

I'll be totally honest if it wasn't tweed I wouldn't like it as much! 

SimpleSimon

yeah meant how do you find it functionally? Thanks for sharing your thoughts - and your honesty!

 

ICBM

I much prefer the tweed look too, to the point I wouldn't buy a black Hotrod. Luckily they do them in tweed as well, with a better speaker - not common but not impossibly rare.

I also must be one of the very few people who doesn't like the HRD III as much as the II. I'm not sure quite why, it just sounded somehow blander and not as punchy.

Richardj

Thanks for the mention @erky32, I have indeed just picked up a slightly used HRDX. I had a Blues Deluxe a few years back and it was lovely in almost every way, which is of course why I traded it for something less good, as you do!

From my memories of it the two are a touch different. Interestingly the Blues DX clean channel seemed cleaner, or clearer, than the HRDX and the drive channel was almost unusable as it had to be massively loud to get any decent drive.  The HRDX feels somehow 'dirtier', grittier, wanting to be pushed that little bit more. It responds very nicely to playing dynamics and the guitar's volume control.

If you like Fender tone it is really easy to get on with and you can get great clean and crunch tones straight away without any real fiddling about.

I might try a different less harsh speaker at some point and the reverb isn't working quite as it should, but I'll still probably hang onto this one for a bit longer, sorry Eric .

capo4th

The drive channel on the blues deluxe is well known as being rubbish. It's a great clean amp and takes pedals a treat for your required drive flavour. Mine is getting serviced and revalved should have it back early new year.

ICBM

capo4th said:

The drive channel on the blues deluxe is well known as being rubbish.

The Drive channel on the Hotrod is known for being rubbish too, but it absolutely isn't. OK it will never sound like a Marshall or a Mesa, but that isn't the point - it sounds like an overdriven Fender.

The only fault of the Drive channel on the Blues is that it doesn't have quite enough gain - but it takes boost and overdrive pedals really well. I recently A/B'd a Blues Deluxe against a 5E3 Deluxe clone with a post-phase-inverter MV, and they were *very* close (including for gain). OK that's not quite the same as the full power-stage overdrive from the 5E3, but it means that the amp is definitely in the same ballpark. If you crank up the BD you would probably get there, with the right speaker.

The Drive channel on the Hotrod is even better - I got the best low-volume Neil Young sound I've yet found out of one, on the Drive channel with the drive and bass maxed (not something you would normally do probably!).

capo4th

Yes it's just not my cup of tea along with a lot of other people on the interweb. 

Plug in your favourite drive pedal and its a different animal altogether. I have the FSR smokey tweed with Jensen speaker and its a great amp but the drive channel is not for me.

Cleanish with a strat and it don't get much better IMO 

capo4th

It should also be noted that it's a 40W amp designed to be on stage. Anything past 3 is super loud my volume sweep is being looked at and modified at the moment. Clean with drive pedals is perfect.

Danny1969

There's an issue with the pot used for the volume, it's a linear taper I think rather than a log. I remember modding a couple of these amps with "a mod kit" the guys brought in ..... which was basically some orange drop caps, bigger power caps and some other bits .... one of them being another pot to replace the trigger happy original one which seemed to go from nothing to full clean power within 10% of it's swing

Nice amps for a clean stratty sound but the build quality isn't great. 

ICBM

capo4th said:

It should also be noted that it's a 40W amp designed to be on stage. Anything past 3 is super loud my volume sweep is being looked at and modified at the moment. Clean with drive pedals is perfect.

You can easily fix it with a 'volume box' (passive volume control in a box) in the FX loop.

Danny1969 said:

There's an issue with the pot used for the volume, it's a linear taper I think rather than a log.

I've never found it that much of a problem to be honest, even at low volume - you just need to turn the knob very carefully. It is an odd choice of part, though.

Danny1969 said:

the build quality isn't great. 

The newer ones are pretty good. There were a few issues with the early ones, but they're largely sorted now. One of the only regular faults I find now is the last filter cap failing - I don't know why because it's under the least voltage stress, but it always seems to be this one! The symptom is motorboating on the Drive channel, so if it does that, change that cap.

Considering what they cost and the huge numbers out there - it's the most numerous valve amp ever made - they really don't fail that often. It is worth setting the voltage correctly for 240V in the UK though, that helps.

Danny1969

ICBM said:

capo4th said:

It should also be noted that it's a 40W amp designed to be on stage. Anything past 3 is super loud my volume sweep is being looked at and modified at the moment. Clean with drive pedals is perfect.

You can easily fix it with a 'volume box' (passive volume control in a box) in the FX loop.

Danny1969 said:

There's an issue with the pot used for the volume, it's a linear taper I think rather than a log.

I've never found it that much of a problem to be honest, even at low volume - you just need to turn the knob very carefully. It is an odd choice of part, though.

Danny1969 said:

the build quality isn't great. 

The newer ones are pretty good. There were a few issues with the early ones, but they're largely sorted now. One of the only regular faults I find now is the last filter cap failing - I don't know why because it's under the least voltage stress, but it always seems to be this one! The symptom is motorboating on the Drive channel, so if it does that, change that cap.

Considering what they cost and the huge numbers out there - it's the most numerous valve amp ever made - they really don't fail that often. It is worth setting the voltage correctly for 240V in the UK though, that helps.

Do the new ones still use the 2 big 470R resistors to power the opamps, those things used to cause all kinds of problems when they melted their own joints on the PCB ?