And i don't mean swapping out the valves and speaker - already done that! I love my HRD and am just trying to get as much out of it as possible.
Currently use it as a pedal platform, so channel 1 is king here.
So has anyone had the mods to the board done? Like the Fromel Electronics kit and so on. Does it make a difference? And is it worth it?
As an aside, i'd like to invest in one of those thingies that lets me dime the pre-amp but keep the volume low. Any suggestions? I was planning on getting a Bassbreaker 18/30 to replace my HRD for this reason but no spring reverb is a deal breaker i'm afraid!
Anyway - enough rambling. Talk to me about HRD mods!
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If you do go for the mods then use a good tech of your not very experienced with desoldering as the PCB on an HRD isn't great and you can easily destroy the tracks.
I sold it to by a point to point handwired Tone King Imperial. The imperial has a sweeter tone, was lovely, but the omega hot rod had incredible dynamics. I ended up selling the Tone King, and have been looking for another Omega Moddec hot rod deluxe since.
The previous owner sent the amp chasis to Jim at Omega amp mods in the USA. He replaced the vast majority of components. The clean channel was a lush blackface with great breakup tones, and excellent pick dynamics. The drive channel was Marshall Plexi, and the 'more drive' was Dumble voiced. It truly was a great piece of kit.
I HIGHLY recommend Omega amp mods for the Fender Hot Rod series. I believe he does kits now, so your local amp tech can do the work for you.
Marlin
@Danny1969 The Reverb mod sounds interesting, apparently just clipping a cable? I like the Reverb on the amp but anything above 2 is overkill!
@TheMarlin Can't seem to find Omega Mods online; website looks defunct.
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Try emailing him. jim@omegamps.com
He'd very friendly. Top bloke!
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I think it's worth every penny. I also recommend a Cannabis Rex speaker for this amp. Makes a big difference.
Marlin
I've modded a lot of HRD's and Devilles. The fromel mods are a waste of money - you can do those much cheaper than buying stuff from Fromel. I think my current highly modded deville is the best i've ever heard and i wouldn't be parted from it. However there's no doubt that in terms of importance- Speaker change is the biggest upgrade , then tubes, then fiddling with component values and maybe upgrading some of the components ( caps maybe). It's a kind of holistic thing - it's not about doing one or two things without the others. If you work through these amps as i've just described you can end up (incrementally) with something very very good. However you have to know what you want and there's no point in messing about with cap or resistor values unless you can pinpoint things the you don't like about your amp.
i've already farted about with the valves and speaker - replaced the Eminence with a Celestion G12 i found in a Carlsbro amp that was in a skip at work (!) - its 15 ohms though, will that cause me issues down the line?
Valveswise - JJ5751 in V1, EHX 12AY7 in V2, NOS Philips 12AT7 in V3. JJ 6L6s for power.
The only reason i'm looking at mods is because the amps fucked at the mo so it's going to be on the bench anyway. Its currently crunching constantly and all the low end has gone
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The cleans on the Omega HRD were tuned to my tastes. Never squeaky clean, always a hint of dirt (the way I like it). You had to push the amp hard to get it to break up though. Loved pedals.
I HUGHLY regret selling the amp, was out of work, so didn't have much choice. Have contacted the buyer a few times to see if he wants to sell it back, no dice. Don't blame him
i may just pick up a cheap HRD that needs work, and get it modded by Jim.
Marlin
Anyway, I like my cleans clean! Headroom is king
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I'm kinda struggling to understand what you want to change - the HRD stays pretty flippin clean until it starts getting pretty flippin loud. If you need more volume and clean then perhaps consider a Hot Rod Deville (60w, so greater headroom) or something like a HiWatt, Sound City (real one, not the recent Far Eastern things) etc Or even something like an HH IC100 or Roland JC120.
I tried a lower gain preamp valve in my HRD to try to increase headroom - and because I believed some bullshit on a modding forum. TBH, the amp sounded dreadful and I took it straight back out... so I've since been wary of mods to 'improve' amps. I'm sure some of them work but its hard to test them out before you commit...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I like the discussion and the discovery and the research as much as I like the playing of the gear, it's all part of it. And it's worth talking to you guys about things; now I know that the Fromel Electronics kit - which is cheap enough to warrant an impulse buy - isn't worth it.
The only reason I'm interested in the mods is because the amp is currently showing faults and it's going on the bench anyway - my research intent was initially to improve the reliability rather than the tone. I'll check out those other amps you mentioned - although 2x12 amps like the Deville are probably a bit heavy/big really. I'd be interested to try a Tweed Deluxe as I've never looked at the warmer side of Fender amps before.
@ICBM I'm totally with you there actually - I demo'd some pedals through a George Benson HRD and I was more interested in the amp than the pedals I'd actually gone to try! Sounded incredible. Once I get mine fixed up maybe I'll try and swap her out for a Benson edition.
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Mine is the Mk3 - Celestion driver, better taper on the volume control etc and I genuinely love that amp. I too use it as a pedal platform - I hate the drive channel!
Good luck in your quest.
Reliability wise I think the amps are pretty good, the volt dropping resistors can desolder themselves on earlier models ... other than that they are pretty good .... I don't know why they designed it like this, I can only assume there wasn't a transformer available with a lower centre tapped supply for the op amps ?
Yeah the drive channel is a funny beast. It's amazing how the valves can make such a huge difference. I tried the 5751 in v2 and it still sounded pants; but I bought the 12AY7 for V1 and that was quite thin - putting it in V2 with a 5751 in V1 has really opened the drive channel up for decent sounds.
I also found that swapping out the stock Eminence in mine made a huge difference (Mine is a Mk II CC: @impmann). That speaker is a horrendous and shrill piece of cardboard if ever there was one!
On that note, and me not knowing about electronics - the speaker I have in it now is an old Celestion G12, but I noticed that it's 15ohms. Given that the amp only has 4 or 8 ohm outputs - is this bad? Am I slowly killing the power amp section?
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I revalved my Blues Deluxe recently (not a million miles away from being a HRD) and I used a JJ 12AY7 in V1, a NOS ECC83 in V2, and a RFT 12AT7 in V3 with JJ 6L6GC's. I'm liking the amp a lot more. The amp is still really loud and produces way too much bass though!