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Post subject: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:41 am
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Which is the BEST all around amplifire out of these three HotRod Deluxe Blonde top Vs. Egnater Tweaker 40 Vs. Egnater Rebel 30? For those of you that have played these amps which is the clear winner and why? Tone and reliability, I really like a more deeper tone a little more bassey. Does the rebel 30 scare you with all of the tubes and switchs? Thanks for any advice.


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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 1:27 pm
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I like the Egnater, but you just opened pandoras box, and all the crazies are about to emerge. Just check out the thread on my output tranny blowing. Im not a fan of the Rebel 30 though, i think youd be better with a Tweaker 44. I like the tone on the Blonde Blues deluxe, but reliability isnt quite there. Egnaters seem to have a heavier bottom than the Fenders. Plus versitility wise, output tubes dont make as much of a difference as all the ad men would have you believe. Its the circuit and tone stack. Ive heard amps with ELs sound american and vice versa. And again, Id hate to have todo a a full retube of a rebel 30


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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 5:51 pm
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I have a Hot Rod Deluxe III and I really like it...the Egnators are cool and arguably better but, they also cost quite a bit more money. For what I spent (600 bucks) I am quite happy with my purchase!


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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 6:29 pm
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mortalengines wrote:
I have a Hot Rod Deluxe III and I really like it...the Egnators are cool and arguably better but, they also cost quite a bit more money. For what I spent (600 bucks) I am quite happy with my purchase!

That's cool, un curious to hear them. How does it describe the sparkle feature? I got the impression it does thr opposite of what you'd think it would do? Like it disengages a bright feature. Besides a different lookibg control panel, what's the difference? Speaker? Does it have a loop? I know the hot rods do but the blues jr doesn't. I pedrsonnally think if they're more reliable, it'd be a great amp. Many don't like it because it doesn't have the 'fender' sound.this usually is the blackface sound,but this can easily be changed to give it a mock Twin tonem blackfaces donthave a midrange knob, its set with a fixed frequency using capacitors. On the hot rods, even with the middle @ 1, it still has a higher midrange, this is extremely easy to modify, at least on the older (not III) hot rods.

Open the back panel and find the midrange control pot. Take a small piece of wire (I clip the lead off a resistor since it doesn't have to be insulated). Stick one end in the far left eyelet on the pot (far left relative to the speaker facing away from you) pot it in the eyelet, solder it enough that it won't fall out, but don't use do much hest that you can damage thr pot. Put the other end into the center eyelet,and solder it the same way. You're done! As you turn down the middle knob, more midrange frequencies get sent to the groundm so from about 1.5-4, iy os voived like a blackface1. Move above 5 and the hot rod mids come back. Another cool feature about this mod is if you like heavy gain with a real sccooped sound; at 1 it removes almost all the midrange, REALLY SCOOPED. And if you don't like it, you don't even have to remove it, just clip it in the middle of the jumper you just installed & bend the wires away from each other. One thing to be careful of; you don't want to push the wire all the way into the eyelet or it may cause a short. I haven't tried it, but I assume it'd work on the highs/lows and possibly gthe presence.


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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:54 pm
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The Egnaters can get the Fender tone, you just need to turn the master volume up. My Tweaker does a great job at simulating a Marshall tone also. It's all about the master volume with them. At low bedroom volume, it is not as convincing.

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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:00 pm
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A
rjake wrote:
The Egnaters can get the Fender tone, you just need to turn the master volume up. My Tweaker does a great job at simulating a Marshall tone also. It's all about the master volume with them. At low bedroom volume, it is not as convincing.

Itv doesv do fender well, i thinkv itv does fender better than thev rest, especially Vox which I never use, maybe I'm just not a Vox guy. It didb the Fender best when I replaced V1 with a NOS tube, not a 12AX7, can't remeber whT is was. I got it from a TV repair shop(can you believe they're stoll open) that mostly repsirs jukeboxes (he gtold me there's almost 30 wires that come off an output transformer~ abyways whatever it was, thry said its what they used to use in places where a 12AX7 would go nowm

I didhowever find that the recommended settings they have in the manual all have too much bass. The BEST. Thing I did was replace the OP transformer. You can get a custom made one for about $175. It makes a set of cheao chinese tubes sound better than the stock trannny w/the best NOS tubes, ad cheaper as well when you take into account the cost of 2 power amp tubes and 3 preano ones.

As long as you know how to. Bleed the filter caps, know how to follow instructions, and can solder, its not tough. To get the best tone though, spend the extra few $s for upgraded filter caps. Nnot you won't get the same improved results in all amps. A Matchless, Dumble, or Dr. Z. Will already have top shelp components, only the ones with cheap, small chinese ones that you'll notice it. Its like guitars; you drop a Callaham orKCG (but more Callahm since they're steel and KCG is brass) in a squire, you'll notice a big difference, but with a custom shops already use high end hardware.


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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:24 pm
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IME, the finest iron made are Magnequest (Peerless). I built an single-ended 300B guitar amp (of all things) for a guy a long time ago. That amp oozed tonality and was extremely responsive to input. Of course, $$$ has to be no object.

I have a Matchless Hurricane and have used my friend's DC-30 a lot. They are good amps. But have a different tone than typical Fenders. Tad browner, more vintage British tone (like old Voxes, IMHO again).

http://www.magnequest.com/products.htm


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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:02 pm
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There's no comparison between the HRDlx and Egnater. The Egnater is better built, IMO sounds way better is more versatile and reliable than my HRDlx ever was. I dumped my HRDlx and never looked back. I like my Rebel 20 better than the 30, but the 30 is a tiny bit cleaner. You would need to check the Egnater line out for yourself. Tone is all a matter of taste. Reliability is in the design and components.

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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:14 am
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I have heard alot of complaints about the earlier Hot Rods but, I understand the most recent version (the one I bought) has addressed those issues. I don't know...I played some of the Egnaters in the past and yes...they are certainly loud and very clear! Frankly tho I found them lacking character. I see a lot of guys jumping on the Egnater bandwagon (when I see a trend I usually run in the opposite direction as a matter of personal policy). I would have bought a Deluxe Reverb RI if I had the money on the day I bought my Hrdlx but, I tried them both out side by side in a store, and found I didn't have to work too terribly hard to get pretty frickin' close to the DRRI in terms of sound with the Hrdlx and I could squeeze out a few other nice tones just by playing with the controls a little. You buy a Fender cuz it sounds like a Fender. An Egnater or a Blackstar wont sound like a Fender but, they certainly DO sound nice for the cost of your arm, leg and possibly first born child...LOL!


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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:31 pm
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The Egnater has plenty of character. I've been playing over 40 years and have had almost every Fender model manufactured at one time or another. I have plenty of reference points. Egnater aren't new amps. Egnater has been around since the early 70's. Bruce Egnater was a custom boutique amp builder. If you think the Egnater has no tonal character, you didn't spend enough time with it. And no a HRDlx sounds nothing like a DRRI. They are two very different amps. I've owned both. Finally, I really didn't pay that much more for my Egnater than I did my HRDlx. The was actually only a $125 difference.

Hey BMW, that Matchless is really sweet.

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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:39 pm
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63supro wrote:
And no a HRDlx sounds nothing like a DRRI. They are two very different amps. I've owned both.


+1
+1
+1

Such a comparison is wishful thinking......like apples to asparagus!

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:43 pm
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Compared to my Egnater, my HRDlx was a total tone turd. :lol:

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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 1:51 pm
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I was going to post HRDlx vs Twkr 40, but this thread is already here, so...

I already have a HRDlx, and love the sound. I really enjoy the unique kind of clean, and it has been my favorite amp for many years. It has wonderful clean, and with the right tubes a fantastic drive channel distortion. You can play anything from country to hard rock and sound great for any style.

I have been looking at many amp heads for a while now, leaning towards a newer model with 6V6 output tubes, but still wanting a higher powered amp, maybe 50 watts or more and 6L6 not out of the question, but something simple, small and light, and all tube. I recently acquired a Carvin 100 watt head, so I have that covered and wanted a smaller head.

I originally tried the Rebel 30 first, and thought that it was a very nice sounding amp, with great tone shaping capabilities, and a wonderful 6V6 sound. The Rebel 30 has two selectable channels and reverb. Next I tried the Rebel 20 and thought that it was very similar to the Rebel 30 in sound, very nice, but without reverb or channel switching. I came close to buying the 20, but kept looking.

With both amps I preferred the 6V6 side on the blend knob, so I figured that the Tweaker 15 might be something that I would like, so I bought one new at GC on sale for $349. After playing it for a while and dialing in some great 6V6 tones, I realized that the 15 wasn't quite what I wanted. I could dial in some great cleans at low volume, and some great driven sounds at low or high volumes, really liked the sound, but wanted more power, and channel switching would be nice.

So, I took the 15 back to trade in for a Rebel 20 which was only $80 more. Well, they only had the display model and it was damaged, and I didn't want that. The Rebel 30 was a little more than I planned to spend, so as I thought about what to do I spotted the new Tweaker 40 (with channel switching and no reverb), which I had forgotten about as I was fixated on a 6V6 amp. I was already familiar with the 40 controls, which are identical to the 15 except some controls were duplicated for the two channels on the 40.

I thought; what the heck, $549 for a 40 watt 6L6 amp wasn't too outrageous, and I could always modify it later to get the 6V6 amp that I wanted if the 6L6 didn't satisfy, so I bought the Twkr 40. When I first turned it on and initially set the controls, I was pleasantly surprised that the amp sounded more like a 6V6 than I expected, possibly due to the gain/master volumes' settings. The clean tone of the Twkr 40 is comparable to a HRDlx at lower volumes, but the 40 gets smooth distortion as it is turned up. The HRDlx can get much louder before distortion, maintaining its clean sound. The 40 came with Ruby output tubes and Tung-Sol preamp tubes. This set of tubes sound very good and I see no need to change just yet.

Both the HRDlx and the Twkr 40 sound similar on both channels, the HRDlx gives more clean longer on the volume range and has reverb, and the HRDlx is noticeably louder, both clean and distorted. The Twkr 40 has more tone shaping ability than the HRDlx, and with the Twkr 40 you can get a little-bit-creamier overdrive that sounds closer to a 6V6 sound. Also the Twkr 40 has two identical channels, so either channel can be adjusted for clean, distortion, similar or very different. The tone shaping switches on the 40 are really nice and allow you ample control to completely change the character of the amp for a wide range of sounds. I only have one small complaint about the Twkr 40 head, you have to remove two metal screens, to pull the output tubes in order to pull the chassis out of the cab, in order to access the test points and bias adjust. Other than that it is a great amp, with wonderful sound, and probably doesn't need 6V6s.....at least for a while. :wink:

I am glad that I don't have to choose between the two (HRDlx, Twkr 40), they both have their own merits. As far as construction, both amps have the output tube sockets mounted to the chassis and the socket terminals soldered directly to a circuit board, while the preamp sockets are just mounted to the circuit board, the same in both amps. Both amps use double sided, through hole, circuit boards and both seem well constructed (a recent update included in the HRDlx III). Both amps include a footswitch, the HRDlx for channel switching, and the 40 for channel switching and effects loop switching. Really, the big difference is combo vs head, which is better for you.

Having A/B'd the two amps for the past few days, I am enjoying some really sweet tones from both. Also, keep in mind that the HRDlx has two Sovtek output tubes and three Chinese preamp tubes, while the Twkr 40 has two Ruby output tubes (look to be Shuguang) and three Tung-Sol preamp tubes, but both were compared using the same HRDlx 1x12 ext cab. I don't think that I would part with either amp, but the Twkr 40 is definitely easier to transport, and seems a little more versatile for tone shaping, so I'll have to take it traveling with me to see how it holds up. And that's the main reason that I wanted a head instead of another combo. I can't even comfortably carry the HRDlx anymore. Of course you need a speaker cab with a head, but two trips to the car to carry lighter gear is easier for me than one heavier trip.

All things considered, I prefer the Twkr 40 over the Rebels and the Twkr 15, but would have a hard time choosing either the Twkr 40 or the HRDlx. I think that is high praise for the Twkr 40 as I really like my HRDlx. Time will tell if the Twkr holds up as well as the HRDlx has for me.

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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 8:33 pm
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63supro wrote:
There's no comparison between the HRDlx and Egnater. The Egnater is better built, IMO sounds way better is more versatile and reliable than my HRDlx ever was. I dumped my HRDlx and never looked back. I like my Rebel 20 better than the 30, but the 30 is a tiny bit cleaner. You would need to check the Egnater line out for yourself. Tone is all a matter of taste. Reliability is in the design and components.



Never looked back? Guitar Player likes the Tweaker 88.


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Post subject: Re: Hot rod deluxe vs Egnater
Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 4:15 pm
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I just saw that the other day. Seems like Guitar Player as well as just about every other guitar magazine has nothing but praise for Egnater. The Tweaker 88 seems pretty wild. Way more power than I require these days. Even the Tweaker 44 is more than I need. My Rebel 20 and two 112 cabs can be seriously overwhelming for such a tiny rig. I wish the Tweaker 44 was around when I bought the HRDlx. It would have saved me a world of aggravation. :lol:

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