I have played alot of amps but these little fender hotrods keep surprising me

I find it amazing that so many pro players I see are using these on tour.

 

heck, look at the number of peeps playing in local bars w/ these things.
we get a sense of distorted reality here 'cuz there's so many peeps into high-end boo-teek amps and we sometimes forget that the vast majority of pickers actually use pretty cheap, serviceable gear.

 

Kenny Loggins has been using two on the recent Loggins and Messina tour.

 

I really like these amps alot too. Always had a positive experience when I played through one.

I wonder how they sound with a Les Paul? I'm fixing to sell my Lentz S and start playing my 04 58 Historic exclusively and I don't have a whole lot of experience playing Pauls into alot of amps. I think I want to switch to a LP/JTM45/PLEXI type of rig for a while.

Scott

 

It seems that good tone is just a choice of an ear-pleasing eq curve into a complementary speaker. The rest of an amps components and design are very similar brand to brand. Signal in> eq to taste >signal to speaker.
Good tone is wherever you find it. It's the mojo that is so elusive.....and expensive around here.

 

I got a chance to see a guy play through the 4x10 version and he used a Boss Blues Driver through just the Clean Channel and his Tone was absolutely awsome.

Now I've played through the drive Channel on these and IMHO they suck but the Clean Channel is absolutley amasing with a pedal.

Setting here watching the Movie Skeleton Key. Uuuuuhhhh.

 

:BEER

I see you are fairly new here, and Im glad to have someone else on my side for a change. I have been singing the praise of the HR amps for years on here, only to be told Im deaf, dumb, blind etc etc etc. I have A/Bd my 4/10 deVille with almost every boutique raved about here, and it simply sounds better. MUCH better.The ONLY amps I have found to really sound better are the Brunos. I also like the HRs as much as my vintage Fenders, and sold my 66 Super reverb, while keeping the HR. I still have a 66Pro reverb and a killer sounding (to me) vintage Vibrolux reverb, but the HR sounds every bit as good as both. I just keep them around for points of reference, and for the vintage vibe. Dragging my DeVille around to A/b with other amps have saved me TONS of money. It had far better cleans than 3 Dumbles, and a Trainwreck express. :AOK

 

Watched most of it the other night..... until I fell asleep .

 

Hey Tag,

I too am a believer in the HR clean channel. I love it. Not too long ago an acquaintace brought a HR Dev 2x12 to our house gig. Its clean channel absolutely blew the doors off my Rivera Fandango. Heck it was probably louder ta boot.

I recently spoke to Ken Price at Omega Amps (a fine gentleman by the way) about the mod he does to the crunch channel. He suggested buying a used made in USA HR at a reasonable price and then shipping him the guts for modification.

It’s tempting, but I do like having eq controls over both channels. But …

 

The HR Deluxe was my first non-practice amp. I absolutely love the clean channel, but as many people have pointed out, the distortion is barely usable. I still have the stock speaker in mine, though i have hooked it up to speaker cabinets and the distortion is more usable. all in all, i'd tell anyone to get one, replace the speaker, and depending on the style of music, use some sort of overdrive pedal to get the distortion they need.

 

No ****! my rhythm player has one and has been having better clean tones than all of my boutique stuff! I have wanted to check out Omega amps mods of the hot rod devilles and the deluxes. He upgrades the trannys,speakers and revoices the gain section with kt 66's, kinda a harmonically rich marshall/dumble hybrid.

 

We brought 6 of the "new" Emerald Green/Vintage 30 HRDX's into the shop when they were first introduced. We sold them all in a week and had to order more. Although the overdrive/more drive is better (IMHO) with the Vintage 30 than it is with the stock speaker, it still leaves a bit to be desired. The clean channel however, is every bit as good (if not better) than many of the high end amps I've played or owned. I had the distinct PLEASURE of playing one of the Larry Carlton Signature ES-335's through the clean channel the other day, and that particular combination was simply spectacular. LOT's of his "cleaner" stuff from Sapphire Blue was EASILY attainable with that combination.
On a side note, if you are into the Larry Carlton ES-335 tone, the Gibson Larry Carlton Signature ES-335 OOZES that tonality in spades. I own a pretty decent 535 Classic from Heritage, (Seth Lovers) and we currently have two really nice versions of Gibson Dot reissues in the store. Either my Heritage or the Gibsons will cop the blues/rock ES-335 tonality in spades, (I prefer my Heritage) but NOTHING I've played through (including my Heritage) cops the Larry Carlton tone like his signature model. (WOW!)

Now back to our regular programming.

Chuck

 

I am with Tag on this one. I own a HR Deville 2/12 and have been told here many times what a moron I am. Fine, the clean channel I have yet to hear beat. And even on the drive chanell, I dont know if I got lucky or it's the 12's instead of the more common 4/10's, or if I just got pedals that work well with this thing, but I even love the drive stuff on that thing. I did try a few of em before I picked mine out, so could be I just had good ears that day. But anyway, great amps, great price, what's not to love.

I will say this though, had a friend of mine try it and he sounded awful on the drive stuff, maybe it just comes down to different folks pick attack as to if it sounds good or not.

 

They're just flat out great sounding amps. If you dig Fender cleans, you're gonna dig this amp. I normally dread playing other folks' gear at jam session but I did wind up playing through one under those circumstances and it worked out great. I had a couple of my pedals with me it was a real pleasure.

 

I had a HR Deluxe for a while, and agree the clean sound is very good. But, and just my opinion, it's not _that_ hard to get a really good clean sound. Lots of relatively inexpensive amps can do it. The HR does a great Fender clean. Getting a great semi-dirty or distorted tone, just from the amp, that's something else again. The HR I had wouldn't do that. The verb was just so so as well. If you want a great Fender clean, and are OK using pedals for dirt, it's hard to beat.

 

Has anyone A/B'd the Hot Rods with the Blues Deluxe/Deville? I was trying out a bunch of Strats though a Blues Deluxe and the clean channel was blowing me away. Even the drive channel was not bad - probably quite a bit less gainy than the Hot Rods, I'd imagine.

 

Question: Are the cabs on the HR DeVille made of a particle type board? If so, who makes a lighter cab?

If you could have a lighter cab and a couple of those Century Neo's it might not be so bad weight wise. (Would definitely have the Omega Amp mod done.)

 

If its so easy, then tell that to the boutique builders whos amps get blown away by the HR Deville.


When I first went to Ultrasound and dragged my DeVille (and bassman) in there, I was EXTREMELY disappointed. Here was my $599 POS Fender deville laying waste to all these boutiques costing 2,000-20,000!!! Thats when I realized, Fender STILL knows how to make amps. The little guys are still trying to figure out how they do it.

 

I have. I like the Cleans on the HR Deluxe more, and the gain on the Blues.