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Post subject: Re: Is the Hot Rod Deville the finest tube amp ever made?
Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 5:06 pm
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So going back to how bright my HRDV 2x12 is, even without punching the "more bright" button, should I just dial back the tone knob on the guitar to get ride of that or bring the treble down, or is it the MIM stock pickups, or all of the above.

And Sup63, before you say it, I'm not going to get another amp, at least not any time soon... :)


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Post subject: Re: Is the Hot Rod Deville the finest tube amp ever made?
Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 5:23 pm
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Nah, I'm giving that part up. But yeah, that's why they put tone controls on guitars and amps. First things first, check the bias. If it's stock, it's probably set really cold. That will make it sound too bright and brittle. Dial the treble control back on the amp too. I put JJ's in my HRDlx when I had it and it did away with a lot of the icepick in the forehead tone. The drive channels still sucked though. That was a huge disappointment. I needed distortion pedals with the HRDlx, I don't with my Egnater. I like having the option. The band I'm in now is really old school Blues. It sounds better with real tube/amplifier distortion. Usually it just me, a cord and my amp. I control it all from my guitar. Gibson's P-90's are really great pups for what I do. My HRDlx sounded better with Humbuckers.

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Post subject: Re: Is the Hot Rod Deville the finest tube amp ever made?
Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 5:40 pm
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Thanks Sup. A couple more stupid questions: So the bias selector is in the back of the amp? I can play with it without messing anything up? What does really cold mean?


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Post subject: Re: Is the Hot Rod Deville the finest tube amp ever made?
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 7:36 am
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Please don't "play with" the bias adjustment, you can do some serious damage to the tubes and/or amp if you don't know what you are doing. You have to monitor the current through the tubes with a meter or bias probe to set the bias correctly. The only adjustment that you should play with are the controls on the panel (vol, bass, etc).

Really cold means that the bias is set so that the output tubes in an amp run at a cooler temp. Some people like their tubes to run cooler and some like their tubes to run hotter. Almost all agree that the stock bias setting in many Fender amps is too cold. The HRDvl and HRDlx are two that have a cold bias from the factory.

If you can use a meter, you can set your bias yourself, but the adjustment isn't a tone pot, and as mentioned you can do damage if not done correctly.

Search the forums for "Bias" and read up on the how-to of biasing.

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Post subject: Re: Is the Hot Rod Deville the finest tube amp ever made?
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 8:13 am
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Highline, here's a link with a video on how to bias a HRD amp.
http://eurotubes.com/euro-video.htm

As Shim says, if done improperly you can do some damage, but the most important thing is there are lethal voltages inside the amp. If you don't feel comfortable trying it yourself and don't fully understand the instructions, take it to a tech. But I'll bet that's your whole problem with the brightness in the amp. If you take the back off your amp, remove all jewelry. Bob the guy in the video is wearing some. Makes me real nervous. Safety First!!!!

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Post subject: Re: Is the Hot Rod Deville the finest tube amp ever made?
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 8:45 am
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63supro wrote:
If you take the back off your amp, remove all jewelry. Bob the guy in the video is wearing some. Makes me real nervous. Safety First!!!!


+1000!

When I was in the service, getting caught working on a piece of gear while wearing rings, wristwatches, even dogtags was immediate cause for an Article 15 (non-judicial punishment) which could cost a soldier a month's pay if caught by a supervisor.

SAFETY FIRST......ALWAYS!

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Post subject: Re: Is the Hot Rod Deville the finest tube amp ever made?
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 9:22 am
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Here is another video this time from tubedepot showing how to do a bias on the deville
http://www.tubedepot.com/biasdeville.html

Note at the beginning he suggests checking the fragile socket solder joints each time you have it open . :)

Alternate issue:
I'll try to get an image of one of my old now sold deluxe's that apparently has developed one of the other major issues these amps have.
The new owner accidentally tugged a bit on the instrument cable, and the substandard plastic input jack sheared off.
Relatively easy but time consuming fix, repair shops are quoting him 2 hours labor @75$/hour to put in the new 1$ part.
Torres Engineering offers a rather expensive 15$ kit to DIY, most of the repair is in the dismantling and reassembly of the amp.
http://torresengineering.stores.yahoo.n ... epkit.html

Ghosts of Christmas past coming back to haunt me :)

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Post subject: Re: Is the Hot Rod Deville the finest tube amp ever made?
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 10:49 am
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peterp wrote:
Ghosts of Christmas past coming back to haunt me :)


At least the POS isn't cluttering up your bench now, Peter!

:mrgreen:

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Is the Hot Rod Deville the finest tube amp ever made?
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 2:51 pm
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All,

Thanks for the advice on not getting myself electrocute. I'm no tech but I know a guy who can do it. I guess I was hoping there was a little knob like an attenuator for the bias.

Other thing is, I turned the treble way down and that fixed most of the problem!


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Post subject: Re: Is the Hot Rod Deville the finest tube amp ever made?
Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 10:08 am
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I have a Hrdlx III and I LOVE it a little more every day. I think it gets down to quality control issues tho as I hear a lot of reliability complaints about it. I hope I got one of the good ones and only time will tell on that issue. I tried the Hrdlx side by side with a Deluxe Reverb the day I bought it. I had to tweak the Hrdlx a little to get some sweet sounds whereas the Deluxe Reverb sounded great seemingly no matter what did to it. In the end, the Hrdlx (a 40 watt, single 12") won out tho simply because with a little futzing here and there I could get it CLOSE (I won't say identical but, pretty dang close) to a Deluxe's tone and save myself 400 bucks in the process. The Hrdlx also has a GREAT effects loop! I have never used the effects loop in an amp prior to getting the Hrdlx. I always thought effects loops sounded like crap in my previous tube amps but, my analog delay, chorus and tremolo pedals just seem to add a third dimension to my sound when run this way now. Is the Hot Rod the best ever made? I don't know if I could go so far as to say that but, I could say it's the best ever made in terms of "bang for your buck!"


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Post subject: Re: Is the Hot Rod Deville the finest tube amp ever made?
Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 6:28 pm
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Got another question. Is it OK to play my Wurlitzer electronic piano through my HRDV? Read somewhere that the lows of a piano can blow out the speakers in guitar amps. True or false?


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Post subject: Re: Is the Hot Rod Deville the finest tube amp ever made?
Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 7:38 pm
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The answer is......(precipitous drum roll)......mebbe.

An electronic keyboard generates a relatively hot signal -- and it's capable of producing some pretty heavy bass tones. That said, I played for years in a band with a keyboard player who played his Fender/Rhodes stage piano through a JBL-equipped Quad Reverb. He never had an issue though we played quite loud (this was back in the day before miking everything through a PA became commonplace).

As for your amp, I'd say the chassis is more than adequate for the task. But in the interest of speaker safety, you might consider using a sealed-back bass-reflex cab whenever connecting your Wurlitzer to it. Something like a 2 x 12 Supersonic or Tonemaster enclosure would be ideal. Use the amp's #2 (lo-gain) input to prevent overloading the pre-amp stage.

JMOOC

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Is the Hot Rod Deville the finest tube amp ever made?
Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 11:16 pm
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Makes sense, thanks Arjay.


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