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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:20 am
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blues bondsman wrote:
The problem is perspective, the Amps of old, you know the ones still working 40-50-60 years old were indeed very expensive in their time.

A 1940's princeton was $65.00 new and that was a ton of money back then.

What we have now are cheaply made inexpensive amps that are not up to par with the amps of old.

However !!!! Fender makes plenty of very well made, very sturdy amps, you just have to be able to pay for what your looking for.

The new 57 champ reissue being made today will be here and working for a very long time.

If your looking for an amp you can make a living at, be prepared to pay the cost, I don't care who the manufacture is.
I have no problem spending the money on a nice amp, what I have a problem with is, spending money on anything that doesn't last. And sadly, I'm not speaking in terms of years but rather months in this case. I've been thinking of picking up a hand wired Deluxe, hopefully that will solve some problems.


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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:38 am
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[quote="blues bondsman"]The problem is perspective, the Amps of old, you know the ones still working 40-50-60 years old were indeed very expensive in their time.

A 1940's princeton was $65.00 new and that was a ton of money back then.


It was a lot of money but you only bought it once. If the HRDlx was $199 It wouldn't bother me as much. But at $700-800 it not cheap either. It's pretty bad when my 1973 $69 Pignose amp can last for 35 years and still work flawlessly and my $700 HRDlx can't work but a few months. I think the PCB on my Pignose is thicker though. LOL


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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:42 am
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If fact it does cost more to build a better more dependable amp.

Componant costs alone drive the price as well as labor time.

It takes far longer to build a hand wired amp than a pcb amp.

Good caps cost 100% more than cheap ones at the very least.

Now if you want to compare brands ??? open up the back of most of the asian made amps, crate, ampeg ect.....

Talk about cheap garbage !!!! just one look at the tube sockets will tell you its junk and won't be around long.

And yet Fender amps yes even the H/R stuff built in Mexico is close to the same price and a hundred times better.

If fender stops making them and all you have to buy is china rejects you'll realize just how good we have had it !!!!

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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:59 am
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blues bondsman wrote:
If fact it does cost more to build a better more dependable amp.

Componant costs alone drive the price as well as labor time.


The components are fine. It's the design that kills those amps.

Seriously. All they had to do was think about it.

Bet my MIC Egnater outlives a Hot Rod by a good, long time.


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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 3:21 pm
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So what exactly are the design flaws ???

What is more likely is that it is componant related and then there is the fact that were talking about one of the most popular groups of amps on the planet (if you include the Blues jr.) and the fact that thousands upon thousands of these amps are out there being played every day, your bound to have failures and what % of failures come to forums like this to complain ??? a bunch I would guess.

Now if we had numbers to see the % of failed hot rods to compare to those that have sold and are still serving their owner well, I believe you would find it a very small % of failed amps compared to sales figures.

And most of the issues (failures) are simple fixes, tube sockets, 1/2 watt resistors changed to 1 watt resistors, better tubes, the fact is they are still great platforms to tweek into great amps.

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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:42 pm
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No, it's not tube sockets and crappy tubes. It's burnt traces on the PCB board (which renders the amp essentially useless) because it is designed so that heat build up in the amp can burn the damn circuits.

I've seen the boards burned with my own eyes.

Now, my Egnater does not have the tubes hanging underneath the PCB board, so it can look all cool and "vintage-y." It has the tubes mounted above the board, so heat from the tubes doesn't fry the damn amp.

You want the skinny from some people who actually know something about amps? Join www.thefenderforum.com and search through their library of HRDlx horror stories. They'll set you wise.


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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 9:23 pm
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I've heard a few HRDX owners complain too about the power tubes being far too close to the speaker in the 1 x 12 model, so they take a lot of vibration and get noisy and fail quicker.


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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:00 pm
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63supro wrote:
blues bondsman wrote:
The problem is perspective, the Amps of old, you know the ones still working 40-50-60 years old were indeed very expensive in their time.

A 1940's princeton was $65.00 new and that was a ton of money back then.


It was a lot of money but you only bought it once.


...You only bought it once! Exactly. Years ago when my drummer spent what I thought was way-too-much money on a frying pan I told him he was insane, he could get one for ten bucks so why pay a hundred for one? His reply was that the frying pan was so well made, and of such quality material, that it was the only one he would ever need for the rest of his life. His kids could cook on it too for their whole lives, and pass it down to the next lot. A light went on in my tiny brain!
...you only bought it once. :idea:


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Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 8:57 am
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nickbeatnik wrote:
I've heard a few HRDX owners complain too about the power tubes being far too close to the speaker in the 1 x 12 model, so they take a lot of vibration and get noisy and fail quicker.

Tube rattle is horrible in them. I use tube dampers.


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Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 9:36 am
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63supro wrote:
nickbeatnik wrote:
I've heard a few HRDX owners complain too about the power tubes being far too close to the speaker in the 1 x 12 model, so they take a lot of vibration and get noisy and fail quicker.

Tube rattle is horrible in them. I use tube dampers.
Supro, i can vouch for that.When i bought my Blues Deluxe I had this problem and it only did it on certain notes, but they sounded like crap.I thought i had a microphonic tube.I did the tap test, switched some of them around , but they were ok.Fender has this foam piece around the tubes , so i ended up pulling it down to the middle of the tubes to take care of the problem.There has to be a better solution.


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