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Fender Hot Rod Deluxe
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All user reviews of 1/5 for the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

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4.4/5
(87 reviews)
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  • MGR/AnonymousMGR/Anonymous

    Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

    Fender Hot Rod DeluxePublished on 09/06/02 at 15:00
    580.00 hames music

    The unit sound good when I first got it,,
    Then it got to where it was noisy all the time,,,,,I took it for repair after only having it three months.. Now it has the same problem again and needs repair..
    But I think I'm gonna just take a loss and buy a new amp ,,,, but not a fender...

    Noisy noisy noisy...Not dependable been broken twice with loose or broken capacitors

    built solid but the electronics suck....
    I will never buy another fender amp....

    This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
  • heads on fireheads on fire

    If it didn't explode, it would be my favorite amp.

    Fender Hot Rod DeluxePublished on 09/07/11 at 21:00
    Tube amp - 3 12AX7s, 2 6L6s

    40 watts

    1-12" special design Eminence® 8 ohm, 50W speaker

    3 channels - clean, drive, and more drive

    Master volume and gain controls in drive channel

    Bright switch

    Spring reverb

    External speaker output

    Effects loop

    2-button footswitch for channel selection/drive to more drive selection

    UTILIZATION

    This seemed to be a great gigging amp - small and compact, didn't weigh too much, and looked great. The sounds were killer, and very easy to dial in. I could get great country, blues, jazz, and old time rock sounds out of it with no problem. Metal would be a bit harder to achieve - it took me getting out my dirt boxes to find a usable…
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    Tube amp - 3 12AX7s, 2 6L6s

    40 watts

    1-12" special design Eminence® 8 ohm, 50W speaker

    3 channels - clean, drive, and more drive

    Master volume and gain controls in drive channel

    Bright switch

    Spring reverb

    External speaker output

    Effects loop

    2-button footswitch for channel selection/drive to more drive selection

    UTILIZATION

    This seemed to be a great gigging amp - small and compact, didn't weigh too much, and looked great. The sounds were killer, and very easy to dial in. I could get great country, blues, jazz, and old time rock sounds out of it with no problem. Metal would be a bit harder to achieve - it took me getting out my dirt boxes to find a usable metal tone. But the drive and more drive channels were still great for inspiring solo flights!

    SOUNDS

    This amp sounds incredible. It has great, glassy, shimmery cleans with plenty of chime. And the dirty channels are pretty smooth - a bit hairy, but can be tamed by swapping preamp tubes for other manufacturer's products. The reverb is as good as you'd find on any amp, and the EQ section is sensitive, yet highly usable.

    I played these amps with all kinds of guitars - Strats, Teles, Les Pauls, 335s, shredder guitars, and they all sounded great, but like themselves - the amp is transparent. And it takes pedals very well also. The sound of this amp is nothing to sneeze at.

    OVERALL OPINION

    The Fender Hot Rod Deluxe is a marvelous idea in theory, but in practice, the amp is bound to make you rip your hair out of your head. In using PCB construction methods, Fender is able to have a well-designed circuit be manufactured and sold for a very low price.

    The problem is in the design - the tube sockets are mounted directly ON the PC board. What happens with tubes when you turn a tube amp on? They heat up. And heat is the enemy of solder traces, resistors, and capacitors - the heat from the tubes caused short circuits in my two HRD amps a total of four times, with the last two ending in literal smoke.

    If you want a great sounding amp that you're ok with throwing away in a few short years, by all means, get this amp. It is the opposite of durable due to its fatal design flaw.
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