MGR/Anonymous « Fender Hot Rod DeVille »
Published on 06/25/01 at 15:00Purchased at guitar center for $699. Guitar center has a 30 day return policy, which was nice since I returned it at the end of the 30 day period. I wanted an amplifier with that classic clean, fender tone for rock and blues.
Looks great. Simple and straight forward controls. Lots of power for higher volume levels. Sounds like a Fender should when you play it with a single coil guitar. The drive channel sounds really good for blues. The more drive setting is also good for a raspy blues rock feel.
No reverb switch. Even though it has two channels, it only has one set of EQ settings. The volume level is very sensitive, from 3 to 5 the volume level exponenentially increases. From 5-10 moderate increases in volume level. Who put the logarithmic pot in, and why??? With a single coil pickup guitar it sounds good, but high output humbuckers make it distort on the clean channel for any volume above 3. This was a great dissappointment. When I was in the store, I played the amp through a tele, and a strat all the way up to 10 on the clean channel and everything was good. When I got it home, same thing with my strat. However, my les paul totally overwhelmed the input stage so that the 6L6s were coloring the sound with a mild distortion at any volume level above 3 on the clean channel.
Contructed very well. Solid and decent looking.
Overall, if you play at lower volume levels and want a clean and bluesy sounds it is a great amp. However, I would not recommend it to anyone who uses a high output humbucker that is looking for clean jazzy tones. The amplifier saturates at any moderate to higher volume levels that causes a slight distortion quality. Many people may like this feature, it just did not suit my tastes.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
Looks great. Simple and straight forward controls. Lots of power for higher volume levels. Sounds like a Fender should when you play it with a single coil guitar. The drive channel sounds really good for blues. The more drive setting is also good for a raspy blues rock feel.
No reverb switch. Even though it has two channels, it only has one set of EQ settings. The volume level is very sensitive, from 3 to 5 the volume level exponenentially increases. From 5-10 moderate increases in volume level. Who put the logarithmic pot in, and why??? With a single coil pickup guitar it sounds good, but high output humbuckers make it distort on the clean channel for any volume above 3. This was a great dissappointment. When I was in the store, I played the amp through a tele, and a strat all the way up to 10 on the clean channel and everything was good. When I got it home, same thing with my strat. However, my les paul totally overwhelmed the input stage so that the 6L6s were coloring the sound with a mild distortion at any volume level above 3 on the clean channel.
Contructed very well. Solid and decent looking.
Overall, if you play at lower volume levels and want a clean and bluesy sounds it is a great amp. However, I would not recommend it to anyone who uses a high output humbucker that is looking for clean jazzy tones. The amplifier saturates at any moderate to higher volume levels that causes a slight distortion quality. Many people may like this feature, it just did not suit my tastes.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com