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Post subject: Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 1:18 pm
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How about the hot rod deluxe instead of the Blues Deville?


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Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 1:42 pm
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You'd be better off with a 59 Bassman RI, Super Reverb RI or a Deluxe Reverb Reissue either new or a clean used amp. Like I said before, my HRDlx was the most unreliable amp I've owned in my 40+ years of playing guitar. I didn't even keep it as a backup.

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Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 2:45 pm
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Yes, Some folks here have had terrible luck with their HRD... I am not one of them. I have not had any problems with the amp, and I've had it for about two years now. I have purchased JJ tubes from eurotubes, but have not installed them yet.

One thing for sure is, that if i had the cash, I would have the DRRI... This seems to me to be one of the best in the Fender line.

Just go try them all out, and do what sounds right for you

Good Luck

Bill

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Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 3:05 pm
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bill948 wrote:
Yes, Some folks here have had terrible luck with their HRD... I am not one of them. I have not had any problems with the amp, and I've had it for about two years now. I have purchased JJ tubes from eurotubes, but have not installed them yet.

One thing for sure is, that if i had the cash, I would have the DRRI... This seems to me to be one of the best in the Fender line.

Just go try them all out, and do what sounds right for you

Good Luck

Bill


Bill, those JJ's will make a world of difference in your amp. It did in mine. It's a shame I couldn't trust it anymore. The JJ's cured the icepick in the forehead syndrome it had.

I was gigging the amp and it just wouldn't hold up. I sold it while it still had 7 months left on the warranty to stay clean with the amp karma gods LOL. I was truthful about it's problems. The buyer figured nothing else could go wrong with it.

Be sure to check the bias when you install the JJ's. Bob at Eurotubes has a video on biasing the HRD amps. Very simple, just be careful.

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Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 3:23 pm
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63supro wrote:
bill948 wrote:
Yes, Some folks here have had terrible luck with their HRD... I am not one of them. I have not had any problems with the amp, and I've had it for about two years now. I have purchased JJ tubes from eurotubes, but have not installed them yet.

One thing for sure is, that if i had the cash, I would have the DRRI... This seems to me to be one of the best in the Fender line.

Just go try them all out, and do what sounds right for you

Good Luck

Bill


Bill, those JJ's will make a world of difference in your amp. It did in mine. It's a shame I couldn't trust it anymore. The JJ's cured the icepick in the forehead syndrome it had.

I was gigging the amp and it just wouldn't hold up. I sold it while it still had 7 months left on the warranty to stay clean with the amp karma gods LOL. I was truthful about it's problems. The buyer figured nothing else could go wrong with it.

Be sure to check the bias when you install the JJ's. Bob at Eurotubes has a video on biasing the HRD amps. Very simple, just be careful.


I have those stock GTs drivin hard 87mv :D i cant believe their still kickin'

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Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 4:37 pm
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bill948 wrote:
63supro wrote:
bill948 wrote:
Yes, Some folks here have had terrible luck with their HRD... I am not one of them. I have not had any problems with the amp, and I've had it for about two years now. I have purchased JJ tubes from eurotubes, but have not installed them yet.

One thing for sure is, that if i had the cash, I would have the DRRI... This seems to me to be one of the best in the Fender line.

Just go try them all out, and do what sounds right for you

Good Luck

Bill


Bill, those JJ's will make a world of difference in your amp. It did in mine. It's a shame I couldn't trust it anymore. The JJ's cured the icepick in the forehead syndrome it had.

I was gigging the amp and it just wouldn't hold up. I sold it while it still had 7 months left on the warranty to stay clean with the amp karma gods LOL. I was truthful about it's problems. The buyer figured nothing else could go wrong with it.

Be sure to check the bias when you install the JJ's. Bob at Eurotubes has a video on biasing the HRD amps. Very simple, just be careful.


I have those stock GTs drivin hard 87mv :D i cant believe their still kickin'


Haha! That's great. Usually the stock GT's give up the ghost at 77mv. That's great.

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Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 7:13 am
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The Hot Rod Deluxe is ubiquitous. It is the largest selling amp in the world. With those kind of sales, sure some have had problems. But generally they are a good, reliable amp. New ones have 5 year warranties. I have had one since 1996 without ever a single problem.

The most frustrating amp I ever had was waaay back in the 60's. A black face deluxe reverb point to point hand wired amp. Piece of crap.

The hot rod deluxes definitely benefit from a speaker change IMO.


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Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 1:58 pm
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prolux wrote:
The Hot Rod Deluxe is ubiquitous. It is the largest selling amp in the world. With those kind of sales, sure some have had problems. But generally they are a good, reliable amp. New ones have 5 year warranties. I have had one since 1996 without ever a single problem.

The most frustrating amp I ever had was waaay back in the 60's. A black face deluxe reverb point to point hand wired amp. Piece of crap.

The hot rod deluxes definitely benefit from a speaker change IMO.


It's actually Fenders best selling amp. They are seriously flawed and unreliable and this is well documented on many forums. It's not just me that received a lemon, I personally know many others that have too. I've also helped many people repair them because they usually all have the same flaws.

This is the only real way to fix them.
http://www.tjadamowicz.com/amps/convert.html

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Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 6:17 pm
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It's not a seriously flawed amp.


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Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 7:27 pm
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prolux wrote:
It's not a seriously flawed amp.


You're right.

I'd call it a TERMINALLY FLAWED AMP!

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Arjay

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Post subject: Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 9:20 pm
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US made HRDlx owner since 98-99. I am still happy with it and just bought my first replacement preamp tube, just to try to improve the sound a little (all amps have room for improvements), the original tubes still sound as good as they did when new. I used a 12AT7 that I tried in all 3 preamp stages. Ended up leaving it in V1 as that seemed to tame some of the speaker farty sound that I could get at high volume.

When the amp was new, I went through it and checked the capacitors for leaks and tested their value, and touched up any questionable solder joints that I found. The bias was dead-on from the factory, no adjustment needed, which I think has contributed to the long tube life that I've gotten (Red Label GTs). I don't really care about voiding the warranty, it's a habit that I've developed with just about anything new that I buy. It just saves me a lot of possible hassle later, and I've grown accustomed to working on my own stuff anyway(a stitch in-time saves 9).

Very recently, a friend was playing my HRDlx at my house, and he discovered that the drive channel master volume didn't adjust the drive volume. I found that there was a cracked trace on the circuit board in the power supply. The crack was at a solder joint, in an area of the circuit board that showed some discoloration from the heat given off by the resistors and diodes. I repaired the cracked trace in a couple of hours and all was well again. It's possible that I caused the already weakened trace to crack when I removed the circuit board to do a tone stack mod, the circuit boards are very thin and flexible. After thinking about the excess heat problem in the power supply, I fashioned some heat sinks for the 2 resistors and 2 diodes and attached them. That should help keep the heat away from the board and help prevent further damage from heat.

Some of the HRD amps have had issues, I understand that, but I would think that after making them for well over a decade now they may have worked out some of the bugs (revisions). The issues of excess heat in the power supply, cold solder joints and thin circuit boards are the same problems that you can have with any mass produced amp, and the problems can be addressed quite easily, and they are guaranteed for five years.

This is just my experience with a HRDlx, and I would say that it has been a very good experience overall. One minor repair in ten years isn't unusual by any measure, especially since this amp has traveled a lot and been banged around a little. I wouldn't say that it is the best amp out there, but decent quality and sound when compared with other mass produced amps in the same price range. At the same time, I think that saying that it is a POS isn't a fair assessment.

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Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 6:26 am
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"Some of the HRD amps have had issues, I understand that, but I would think that after making them for well over a decade now they may have worked out some of the bugs (revisions). The issues of excess heat in the power supply, cold solder joints and thin circuit boards are the same problems that you can have with any mass produced amp, and the problems can be addressed quite easily, and they are guaranteed for five years.

This is just my experience with a HRDlx, and I would say that it has been a very good experience overall. One minor repair in ten years isn't unusual by any measure, especially since this amp has traveled a lot and been banged around a little. I wouldn't say that it is the best amp out there, but decent quality and sound when compared with other mass produced amps in the same price range. At the same time, I think that saying that it is a POS isn't a fair assessment."

+1 Very well said sir. Another user here with a '96 who has never had a moment's trouble with it. A 14 year old amp without any trouble whatsoever at any time is not a seriously flawed amp.


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Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 7:10 am
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Retroverbial wrote:
prolux wrote:
It's not a seriously flawed amp.


You're right.

I'd call it a TERMINALLY FLAWED AMP!

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Arjay


My HRD isnt...but I am :D :D :D

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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:15 am
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It depends on how seriously it's gigged. You can make any amp last forever if it sits in a corner and is played a few hours a week. There have been sites dedicated to repairing the HRDlx and all it's flaws. The HRDlx is flawed and any honest amp tech will admit it. Not just some had problems, lots of them had problems. Just check almost any amp forum. Mine was a decent sounding extremely unreliable amp and loaded with cheap components.

It's human nature to defend what you own just as it is trash something you didn't have a great experience with.

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Post subject: Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 8:48 am
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That is true 63supro, easy to defend an amp that is yours, especially when it works. ;) It is also true that something that isn't used much will last longer than something that is driven hard. My HRDlx has been used extensively for the first few years, by me and many other players. Many times I would leave my amp wherever I had been jamming, and others would use it for a couple of days. I have sat in and played with several local bands over the years using my HRDlx. I understand that you had a horrible experience with your HRDlx, and I can find maybe a couple of dozen more people that had problems, out of the thousands and thousands that have been sold. You can also find many, many more owners that have had great experiences. How many of the people on this forum that complain about the HRDlx, have actually owned one? Maybe 2, 3? If available mods are the criteria for whether or not an amp is good, then the DRRI must really suck. Here are just a few of the dozens of sites that offer, or show, mods for the DRRI.

http://www.fargenamps.com/hot-mods

http://aga.rru.com/Events/MM-DRRI-rebuild/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUJVxMZqS5M

http://www.legendarytones.com/fenderdeluxereverb.html

http://acruhl.freeshell.org/mga/main/deluxemod.html

Makes one wonder, how the HRDlx got to be the number one seller, and yet it's a POS.......? Fender has also quietly upgraded some amp components, like the input jacks, among other things. I find it funny that some people don't flinch when it comes to replacing the relatively expensive stock tubes or speakers, but complain that they shouldn't have to modify an amp by replacing some inexpensive caps and resistors....? It can cost as much as a dollar more to touch up some solder joints. :roll:

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