Fender Blues Deluxe or Hot Rod Deluxe?

ICBM

Danny1969 said:

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 ?

Yes, but uprated from 3W to 5W a long time ago, which seems to be just enough. It's still not ideal - and the diodes usually brown the PCB around themselves eventually too - but it's not a very common failure mode any more. I do always check them if I have to have the board out but it's rare to find a problem.

Setting the amp correctly for 240V helps with this as well since it reduces the voltage drop across them.

The most common failures I've seen recently have been screen resistors, phase inverter plate resistors and that filter cap. Even then not that many.

DrJazzTap

I have a blues. I found it to be a warmer sounding amp than the hotrod. Never really rated the gain or od channels on the hot rod. I get my driven sounds from pedals anyway.

impmann

If you are buying a HRD, buy a Mk3.

Comes with a nicer (imho) speaker and the volume control has a lot more 'control' and isn't so digital.