It is currently Mon Mar 16, 2020 8:30 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 30 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2
Go to page Previous  1, 2
Author Message
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 6:18 am
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2013 2:11 pm
Posts: 819
Location: Iowa, USA
410DeVille wrote:
UPS says it will be here today. Hopefully I'll post some info tomorrow.
Just be happy it didn't come via USPS.
The United States Postal Service is a cotton picking joke. I cringe every time I order something, and the gear site email's me a tracking number that belongs to the USPS.
There's times, I swear, that I feel like I could have WALKED there and back to get my package while I'm waiting on USPS.

Sorry....rant over.....carry on. :wink:


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 9:14 am
Online
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2014 3:25 pm
Posts: 1022
Thanks for the replies. My complaint about overdrive color has also been answered by Fender. I got an email describing the new line of effects pedals by Fender.
Two od pedals, a compressor, a delay, and a volume stabilizer. Now that should add some color...


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 9:59 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Fri Oct 06, 2017 6:46 pm
Posts: 1209
Location: ʞɹo⅄ ʍǝN
That was the answer? Buy our new effects pedals? :roll:
If nothing else, I consider a good compressor pedal to be required gear with pretty much any SS or tube amp.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 2:55 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 8:12 am
Posts: 28
UPS brought my amp last night. I wasn't able to check it out until today.

A bit of background information first. I have a HRD III I bought new. When I took it out of the box and plugged it in it sounded horrible. The drive channel was even worse. It was unusable. It was the worst sounding tube amp I had ever owned (I bought my first Fender amp in 1968 and have owned dozens since).

After playing it for less than an hour I shut it off and pulled out my #2 phillips screwdriver. I took out the Celestion Seventy 80 and through it in the trash. I replaced it with a WGS ET65. Inside the cab I noticed that although Fender advertises this model as 7-ply 3/4" birch/maple plywood cab construction, the only plywood was the baffle board and the shell was MDF. No wonder it's heavy. I also changed the V1 preamp tube to a 5751 and V2 to a 12DW7. Huge improvement. Drive channel now usable.

Back to the HR Deluxe IV. When I took it out of the box the first thing I noticed was that it was lighter than the HRD III. Looking inside the back of the amp I saw wood grain on five sides of the cabinet. The shell is pine. The baffle board might be birch, the grain is different. I can't tell if it's plywood without removing the speaker and I'm not going to do that.

Next thing I looked at was the vacuum tubes.
V1 is Slovakian
V2 is Russian
V3, 4, & 5 are Chinese.
Factory bias setting for the power tubes was 69mV.

I plugged in my Gibson SG and ended up playing this amp for several hours. It's a huge improvement over the HRD III. Drive channel is usable. Reverb sounds great. And the Celestion A-Type is not a throw-away. IMO it's worth the $70 increase in price.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 7:25 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2013 8:44 pm
Posts: 43
410DeVille wrote:
...
Back to the HR Deluxe IV. When I took it out of the box the first thing I noticed was that it was lighter than the HRD III. Looking inside the back of the amp I saw wood grain on five sides of the cabinet. The shell is pine. The baffle board might be birch, the grain is different. I can't tell if it's plywood without removing the speaker and I'm not going to do that.

Next thing I looked at was the vacuum tubes.
V1 is Slovakian
V2 is Russian
V3, 4, & 5 are Chinese.
Factory bias setting for the power tubes was 69mV.

I plugged in my Gibson SG and ended up playing this amp for several hours. It's a huge improvement over the HRD III. Drive channel is usable. Reverb sounds great. And the Celestion A-Type is not a throw-away. IMO it's worth the $70 increase in price.


Thanks for the update. Good to hear.

But maybe they made no changes to the circuit board... just a couple of better quality tubes and speaker?? Most people can/have done this themselves to their old models.

_________________
.
Fender Supersonic 22 - Hot Rod Deluxe + 1x12 cab - Hot Rod Junior - Strat Plus 1990, American Std. Tele - American Std. Strat - Deluxe Roadhouse Strat - Classic Player 50s Strat - Jimmy Vaughan Strat -Fender acoustic


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 7:03 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:51 pm
Posts: 25350
Location: Witness Protection Program
410DeVille wrote:
UPS brought my amp last night. I wasn't able to check it out until today.

A bit of background information first. I have a HRD III I bought new. When I took it out of the box and plugged it in it sounded horrible. The drive channel was even worse. It was unusable. It was the worst sounding tube amp I had ever owned (I bought my first Fender amp in 1968 and have owned dozens since).

After playing it for less than an hour I shut it off and pulled out my #2 phillips screwdriver. I took out the Celestion Seventy 80 and through it in the trash. I replaced it with a WGS ET65. Inside the cab I noticed that although Fender advertises this model as 7-ply 3/4" birch/maple plywood cab construction, the only plywood was the baffle board and the shell was MDF. No wonder it's heavy. I also changed the V1 preamp tube to a 5751 and V2 to a 12DW7. Huge improvement. Drive channel now usable.

Back to the HR Deluxe IV. When I took it out of the box the first thing I noticed was that it was lighter than the HRD III. Looking inside the back of the amp I saw wood grain on five sides of the cabinet. The shell is pine. The baffle board might be birch, the grain is different. I can't tell if it's plywood without removing the speaker and I'm not going to do that.

Next thing I looked at was the vacuum tubes.
V1 is Slovakian
V2 is Russian
V3, 4, & 5 are Chinese.
Factory bias setting for the power tubes was 69mV.

I plugged in my Gibson SG and ended up playing this amp for several hours. It's a huge improvement over the HRD III. Drive channel is usable. Reverb sounds great. And the Celestion A-Type is not a throw-away. IMO it's worth the $70 increase in price.


Interesting!

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 6:19 am
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2013 2:11 pm
Posts: 819
Location: Iowa, USA
410DeVille wrote:
I took out the Celestion Seventy 80 and through it in the trash.......................And the Celestion A-Type is not a throw-away. IMO it's worth the $70 increase in price.
Let me see if I got this straight: You wasted a speaker that you could have gotten $65 for easily, and it didn't bother you to pay $70 more for a speaker that retails for $35 more than the 70/80?
Now THAT is interesting.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 12:12 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Fri Oct 06, 2017 6:46 pm
Posts: 1209
Location: ʞɹo⅄ ʍǝN
You can solve pretty much any problem if you throw enough money at it.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 12:44 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 4:50 pm
Posts: 1339
Location: Denver, CO, USA
I assumed "threw the 70/80 in the trash" was hyperbole.

It was a brand spanking new amp -- if something smokes it's likely he can exchange it for a replacement instead of having to resort to a warranty repair.

Most people would keep the stock speaker in a box in a closet for a few months at least, just in case something goes wrong. And then maybe sell the stock speaker after the retailer's return/exchange period has expired.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 3:43 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:07 pm
Posts: 604
strayedstrater wrote:
Most people would keep the stock speaker in a box in a closet for a few months at least, just in case something goes wrong. And then maybe sell the stock speaker after the retailer's return/exchange period has expired.


Exactly what I did with the one than came with my HRD II It was a Fender "special design" I took it out and put in an EVM12L that I have had for many years, what an improvement. I sold the OEM speaker for 30 bucks to some guy on Craigslist. After I lugged the HRD around a bit I thought the EVM12 L was adding too much weight so I put in an Eminence Tonespotter which I later swapped out for an Eminence Cannabis Rex, and sent the Tonespotter to my oldest kiddo who also plays. The Cannabis Rex is one great speaker for my taste in tone. That is what stays in the HRD for as long as I own it or I blow the speaker (and if I do blow the speaker another Cannabis Rex will go in it).

_________________
dbm
If it sounds good it is good.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default ... tent=music


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:51 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Sat Mar 18, 2017 7:05 am
Posts: 7
So those who have had a chance to play this new version (IV) could you let us know have they fixed the volume control on the clean channel - the problem of it going from zero to "way too loud for home" within a millimetre?

I tamed that on my HRDII by putting a volume control in the FX loop. Be nice to know they have addressed that as well as the other improvements, which all sound really positive.

Thanks


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 3:46 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:07 pm
Posts: 604
DieterHachenberg wrote:
So those who have had a chance to play this new version (IV) could you let us know have they fixed the volume control on the clean channel - the problem of it going from zero to "way too loud for home" within a millimetre? I tamed that on my HRDII by putting a volume control in the FX loop. Be nice to know they have addressed that as well as the other improvements, which all sound really positive.


I did the same thing, the volume control in the efx loop has a distinct extra it helps mitigate the ice-pick attack when you turn it down a bit. That addition made the amp go from good to great sounding on the clean channel.

_________________
dbm
If it sounds good it is good.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default ... tent=music


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 10:49 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2013 8:44 pm
Posts: 43
desertbluesman wrote:
DieterHachenberg wrote:
So those who have had a chance to play this new version (IV) could you let us know have they fixed the volume control on the clean channel - the problem of it going from zero to "way too loud for home" within a millimetre? I tamed that on my HRDII by putting a volume control in the FX loop. Be nice to know they have addressed that as well as the other improvements, which all sound really positive.


Volume control on the clean channel? I thought it was the master volume on the drive channel that had that problem and that it was changed to an A taper pot on version III as a remedy. Well on my HRD II it was the master vol.

I did my own mods including the master vol fix.

_________________
.
Fender Supersonic 22 - Hot Rod Deluxe + 1x12 cab - Hot Rod Junior - Strat Plus 1990, American Std. Tele - American Std. Strat - Deluxe Roadhouse Strat - Classic Player 50s Strat - Jimmy Vaughan Strat -Fender acoustic


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 2:24 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Sat Mar 18, 2017 7:05 am
Posts: 7
Yes my clean channel volume control was pretty aggressive. Basically off or “shake the windows” were the two settings available. Hence the need for volume pot in fx loop to tame the beast!


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Hot Rod IV
Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:08 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2014 11:44 am
Posts: 2
Bought a ver 4 hot rod deluxe, retubed it with JJ tubes and went with the clean channel and high gain option. Got these tubes from eurotubes. Amp has warm clean and total useable crunch and distortion. Sweetness


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 30 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2
Go to page Previous  1, 2

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: TimsAudio and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: