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Post subject: Re: Waiting....Hot Rod Deluxe III....
Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 8:38 pm
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WorldFender wrote:
Hell, most people love the look of tweed amps.


Indeed they do! But it may take some time before FMIC's marketing gurus "re-remember" that. Patience, sir......my money's on an eventual LE HRDIII. Probably in tweed, at least initially. Blondes and browns may follow, contingent upon the success of the tweed.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Waiting....Hot Rod Deluxe III....
Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 8:54 pm
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Buh-bye. :roll:

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Post subject: Re: Waiting....Hot Rod Deluxe III....
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:02 pm
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What dumbasses. Why produce guitars in alternate colors. Black and grey guitars--no options. Hell, most people love the look of tweed amps. So they put out more than one option and look better as a company. Good luck--my last post.

haha WorldFender wasn't even around long enough to say hello. But whatever...

I still see making amps in just the black (or tweed) is the smarter way to go. As a consumer, it would be cool to maybe have a surfgreen, brown, blonde colored amp (etc.), but through the producer and seller's eyes it can be more of a gamble. Some colors are just distasteful to consumers (I'm not a big fan of fiesta red for example...)

And if you think about it, a guitar is like the exterior of a car, its going to be what the musician "shows off" to the crowd with, which is why it comes in different colors.

The amp is like what you have underneath the hood of the car. The color of your "engine" is not really that important to your performance on stage. Its about that sound you get out of it. A HRDIII that has been painted with gold leaf will sound no different than one that is its standard black.

My .02

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Post subject: Re: Waiting....Hot Rod Deluxe III....
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:23 pm
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Maybe they should concentrate on making great reliable amps again instead of worrying about what new color will sell. :mrgreen:

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Post subject: Re: Waiting....Hot Rod Deluxe III....
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 6:26 pm
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63supro wrote:
Maybe they should concentrate on making great reliable amps again instead of worrying about what new color will sell. :mrgreen:


Marketing is "job one".

:mrgreen:

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Waiting....Hot Rod Deluxe III....
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 7:21 pm
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I had GC all to myself for maybe 1/2 hour one day last week. I just happened to be in the neighborhood at the time they opened and no other customers were there. :D I grabbed a Deluxe HSS Strat, with the switch that bypasses all controls and puts the humbucker straight to the output jack. I plugged into a HRDlx III and got to noodle around for awhile in the quiet store before people started wandering in and making noise.

After trying all the positions, and tone controls on the Deluxe, and fiddling with the knobs on the HRd with which I am very familiar, I really liked the sound with the humbucker with bypass switch engaged and the more drive channel, it was very nice and clear, smooth and rich sound, that could get crisp and crunchy too, very responsive, and surprisingly sounded a lot like my HRDlx (first version). I use the GT12AX7-C Chinese preamp tubes on my amp, which improved the drive channel enough that I use it a lot now, and GT6L6 Russian output tubes. I peeked at the tubes in the HRDlx III and saw the 12AX7-R Russian preamp tubes, but 6L6-C Chinese output tubes. I am liking these newer Chinese tubes more and more, for both the the clean and driven sounds, but especially for the driven sound. It seems to me that a humbucker equipped guitar will be an excellent match with the HRDlx III.

I haven't personally seen the inside of the IIIs, but from some reviews/pictures online it seems that Fender is using much better circuit boards, and has made some other improvements to the HRd amps, so they may turn out to be very reliable and durable. I guess time will tell, but if I were in the market for a new amp, and didn't already have one, I would definitely give serious consideration to a HRDlx III, whatever the covering material or color. :)

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Post subject: Re: Waiting....Hot Rod Deluxe III....
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:06 am
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I saw photos of the PCB. It looks a little thicker which is a good thing but It still seems like the heat related issues weren't addressed. Especially the 5 watt resistors. IMO, True, hard-wired chassis mounted tube sockets would alleviate tons of reliability issues. Some people think some of the changes ruined the tone the amp. :lol: The one I tried seemed like it was tamed a little. Still sounded a little brittle to me though. But just a little.

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Post subject: Re: Waiting....Hot Rod Deluxe III....
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 12:02 pm
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Yeah, with many single coils I find that they can be bright sounding with the HRDlx, you have to adjust the tone controls etc, there sure is plenty of treble if you want it in that amp, which can make the drive channel sound pretty harsh also.

Those 5 watt resistors probably wouldn't be an issue, other than a waste of power, if better PCBs were used, and/or the resistors are lifted off the board, securely.

I don't know if you remember when I put the heat sinks on my resistors (and zeners) within the last year, but there was little-to-no indication of heat damage on my PCB before that. Those two resistors in my amp each have two bumps on one side that keep the resistors off of the PCB. Other resistors that I've seen were just flush with the PCB, no bumps. :idea:

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Post subject: Re: Waiting....Hot Rod Deluxe III....
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 1:22 pm
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Yep Shim I remember. Maybe Fender will add the heat sinks after seeing how simple it is. Mine burned the board in 8 months. If the leads were long enough, the resistors could be mounted vertically. I found the HRDlx III performed better with humbuckers. Single coils were really thin sounding to me. It's a shame. Those amps have the potential to be great sounding. They need to raise the price point and put quality components in them. A tube amp made with cheap components is nothing but a reliability nightmare. I would gladly pay a couple hundred bucks more for a quality version of the amp.

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Post subject: Re: Waiting....Hot Rod Deluxe III....
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 1:42 pm
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63supro wrote:
They need to raise the price point and put quality components in them. A tube amp made with cheap components is nothing but a reliability nightmare.


Forrest White quit his long-time position as Fullerton's plant manager rather than be part of sullying Fender's name and reputation when FMI/CBS rushed those gawd-awful transistorized amps into production.

Guess integrity counts for little in this day and age......

:(

Arjay

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