NAD: with added contrition.

Gassage

I bought this only for the flight case. I paid nothing for it almost, and the case fits my Lazy J 40 hence buying it.

I'd kind of say if you took the price of a new flight case out of the price I paid for both, I got the amp totally free.

I will flip it shortly, and have agreed with someone on here, but in meantime I have to confess I'm utterly blown away by it.

Superb thing- the crunchy channel is lovely, takes pedals well, really great little amp.

Whe I B2B v the L40 then you realise there IS a massive difference indepth and detail, but as a gigging swiss army amp, I get why these are loved so much

ICBM

The thing that baffles me is why the Drive channel is hated so much...

Gassage

ICBM said:

The thing that baffles me is why the Drive channel is hated so much...

I actually REALLY like it!!

When it's on the yellow setting it's great.

ICBM

I agree. Even the Red is quite usable as long as you haven't set the drive too far up to begin with. I don't have any trouble getting three good sounds out of them like that.

The yellow channel with the drive (and bass) up all the way is a fantastic Neil Young sound at low volume too. Some time ago I A/B'd one against a 5E3 Deluxe with a master volume mod, and the Hotrod sounded better until the 5E3 was cranked to the point the MV wasn't really doing anything.

There is a reason why the Hotrod Deluxe is the best-selling valve amp of all time.

Gassage

The only thing I note- the TC delay sounds about ten times higher in the mix with the HRD than the LJ,

Why would that be? It's almost as if I had turned the repeat output up by 50%.

Richardj

I have found mine quite sensitive to the guitar you are using.  My PRS NF3 sounded awful through it (which wasn't a criticism of the guitars as it sounded great through other amps, just couldn't find the sweet spot for it.

My new MM Silhouette Special sounds amazing with it, as does any other Strat or Tele type to be honest.

ICBM

Gassage said:

The only thing I note- the TC delay sounds about ten times higher in the mix with the HRD than the LJ,

Why would that be? It's almost as if I had turned the repeat output up by 50%.

Into the front of the amp, or in the FX loop?

Bucket

ICBM said:

There is a reason why the Hotrod Deluxe is the best-selling valve amp of all time.

Seriously? More so than the Deluxe Reverb?

Anyway yes, the HRD has grown on me a lot, they have several at uni and I use them often in rehearsals. Nice clean channel which I generally just use with pedals, but the lead channel is certainly usable too.  A mate of mine swears by the lead sound.

I was surprised to note that said friend (using a HRD) totally drowned me out in rehearsal when I was going into a 60W Marshall TSL head with a 4x12 (an utterly horrible-sounding amp, and didn't cut through the mix at all, even with the mids cranked).

ICBM

Bucket said:

Seriously? More so than the Deluxe Reverb?

Yes, certainly according to Fender. I have no reason to doubt it, the HRD has been in continuous production for 23 years and been Fender's most popular valve amp for all that time. The Deluxe Reverb was made for only 18 years originally and was never the most popular model - there were more models to choose from, and the bigger ones (especially the Twin) were more popular. I doubt the reissue sells well enough to make up the difference even if you count it as the same amp.

Bucket said:

Anyway yes, the HRD has grown on me a lot, they have at said friend (using a HRD) totally drowned me out in rehearsal when I was going into a 60W Marshall TSL head with a 4x12 (an utterly horrible-sounding amp, and didn't cut through the mix at all, even with the mids cranked).

That's because the TSL60 is a contender for the worst valve amp Marshall have ever made, and there is a lot of competition for that...

It's the weakest and most gutless "60W" (even that's untrue, it's 50W) valve amp I've ever heard. As well as being extremely poorly made, worse than the other DSL/TSLs - which is saying something.

firepaulmusic

Went to see Los Pacominos play and the guitarist Jamie Moses (ex Queen and top session guy) was using one. He got a great sound with a couple of pedals.....

Bucket

10cc use them live too. Rick Fenn gets a glorious lead sound out of his (not sure if pedal or not). See the intro, and the outro at 6:30.

kennedydream1980

When I seen 10cc about 3-4 years ago Rick Fenn was using 2 HRD's and a TC Electronic Nova system. I'm sure he was using the amps clean and using the effects in stereo from the nova to the 2 amps. His dirty tone was also coming from the nova's overdrive. The tone he had both clean and dirty was glorious :-)

Bucket

Oh right, fair enough.

Saw them twice last year, they sound better now than they ever have done. One of the best live bands I've ever seen, the date they did at the Watford Colosseum was high up there among my all time favourite shows. And Rick's a seriously tasty player too.

IvisonGuitars

Any thoughts on the benefits of sticking a Celestion Gold in a HRD? Would it tame the high end/warm things up a bit?

Anyone done it?

Or a waste of time/money?

@ICBM?

ICBM

I've never tried it, but I would have thought the opposite. The stock HRD speaker is extremely middy - the Gold should be brighter if anything.

I don't like V30s in HRDs at all, and the Gold is somewhat like an 'alnico V30', although with more top-end and less aggressive mids.

The best speaker I've ever come across for an HRD is the old Eminence-made 'Fender Special Design' one from a The Twin or a Stage Lead… I first tried it for no other reason than it said Fender on the back but it sounded amazing and I've since used a couple more to replace blown HRD speakers. I think the Eminence Swamp Thing is probably the closest in the current range, or possibly the Legend 1218. The Cannabis Rex sounds good in them too.

Blueingreen

I recently saw Mark Lettieri of Snarky Puppy using one (basically as a pedal platform) and I thought it sounded terrific. I saw Andy Timmons recently using his Lonestar, deservedly one of the most celebrated guys for tone, and while I wouldn't claim Lettieri's tone was "better" (it's so subjective anyway) there wasn't the width of a cigarette paper in it for me.