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Comments
If you really want to change budget would be a key consideration.
Things like the Carr rambler will set you back £2k+
I played through the same Fender amp for over 10 years. The only thing I ever found to truly wipe the floor with my old twin was a Hiwatt.
The HRD is a good amp and its reasonable weight wise for lugging around. I wouldn't change it for the sake of changing it.
"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 used to be a diehard Fender only kind of guy but you miss so much more following that avenue.
You also start to realised how scooped a Fenders sound is.
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To be fair, the GTs aren't as bad as the Sovteks they used to use...
Well, my experience is that it makes a fairly large and not at all subtle difference.
To me, breaking up when the channel volume is only on about 4 (out of 12) is too much gain. It's meant to be a *clean* channel. It should be possible to overdrive it if you want, but why so soon? It makes half the range of the control useless, and contributes to the 'too touchy' volume problem.
I like the drive channel - it sounds like an overdriven Fender amp, which is what it's meant to do. In fact, leaving the 12AX7 in V2 is one of the things I do because this is what sounds right!
The Celestion speaker (G12P-80, AKA Seventy/80) is one of the things that's most wrong with the III in my opinion. Overall the amp is too flat and lifeless until it's cranked up *further* than you had to with the II to get it sounding good, which negates the better taper of the pots... and I think the speaker has quite a lot to do with that. (For what it's worth I hate V30s in them too, which Fender put in some of the Special Editions.)
I tend to prefer a little warmer than the glassy SF clean sound as well - I like SF Twins, but I run them with the bright switch off and the treble on about 6 usually, with the mid and bass on 5.
From everything he's posted so far, it sound like he's after the classic Fender clean tone... which is exactly what I've suggested will achieve.
You obviously like the stock sound of the HRD III... and that's fine. But don't deride making some fairly simple and not actually very expensive changes which will take it in the direction of the BF/SF Fender sound just because that's not what you like. It's still far less expensive than buying a new amp, quite possibly even if you sold the HRD. The changes are all easily reversible if you don't like them, and valves and a speaker can always be used in something else, or sold.
"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
;-)
"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 have a 65 Princeton, headroom is reasonable, but only after a transformer, speaker and valve upgrade.
And whilst I agree about the 10” speaker being great for the Princeton, it is quite directional and the smaller cab limits the sound dispersion on stage, so that big lush ‘3D’ sound that is present in some scenarios can dissapear in more demanding situations.
Personally, I’d be looking at 6L6 if possible and decent wattage, so Super Reverb is a good call.
Or as a genuine upgrade to the Hot Rod I would imagine the MJW Electra Reverb would be ace.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/126687/mjw-amps-update-thread#latest
I then tried the same technique on a few other amps and the results were less uniformly pleasing - and, in fact, bloody awful through my favourite amp - so perhaps it's something to do with the HRD's circuit board...? I don't know, I'm not particularly technically minded, I just know what (I think) sounds good.
If the former, don't do that. There is a possibility of damaging the amp - it can cause feedback (which you won't hear, it's outside the audio range) via the amp's internal circuitry and blow the IC that drives the loop. Although it's something of a theoretical problem with most amps with a loop and doesn't always do any harm, I've come across it as an actual cause of damage at least three times on Hotrods, and several times with other amps too.
*Into* the loop is safe - that way you're bypassing the amp's own preamp.
'Awful' sound can be a warning of feedback too - if it's oddly quiet, over-compressed or 'squashed' sounding, strangely 'honky', very muddy or some other odd tone, the amp may be feeding back outside the audio range and preventing the real signal being amplified properly.
"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