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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 6:24 pm
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Man do I miss those toppscore postings.................NOT!!!!

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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 6:28 pm
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socal323 wrote:
Man do I miss those toppscore postings.................NOT!!!!


Trust me -- we still have an ample supply of assclowns here.

:lol:

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 12:29 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
socal323 wrote:
Man do I miss those toppscore postings.................NOT!!!!


Trust me -- we still have an ample supply of assclowns here.

:lol:


Yep, yep, yep.....
:lol:

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 10:00 pm
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63supro wrote:
Retroverbial wrote:
socal323 wrote:
Man do I miss those toppscore postings.................NOT!!!!


Trust me -- we still have an ample supply of assclowns here.

:lol:


Yep, yep, yep.....
:lol:

Arjay


Absolutely. :lol:


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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 5:02 am
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If you guys don't mind me asking,...what has been the biggest problem with the older HRD
amps made before 2010? I have the HRD III amp(Serial number B-544702) and I like it,...never had the older ones. I am going to assume mine was made early this year,or really late last year. Can anyone determine by the serial number when mine was made?
I'm not going to be one who comes on here and bash another fellow musician's amp,...we each have our own personal preferences! My first tube amp years ago was the Blues Junior(1997 or so),...wish I still had it and I never had a problem with it,either.

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If it aint' broke,...don't fix it! I like to keep my amps and guitars factory original,...no mods necessary,...don't want them,...don't need them!

My gear as of now;
Standard Strat
Hot Rod Deluxe III amp
Champion 20 amp
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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 5:05 am
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Trust me -- we still have an ample supply of assclowns here.

:lol:


Yep, yep, yep.....
:lol:

Arjay[/quote][/quote]

Absolutely. :lol:[/quote]

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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 5:06 am
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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 5:16 am
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KC9SYJ wrote:
If you guys don't mind me asking,...what has been the biggest problem with the older HRD
amps made before 2010? I have the HRD III amp(Serial number B-544702) and I like it,...never had the older ones. I am going to assume mine was made early this year,or really late last year. Can anyone determine by the serial number when mine was made?
I'm not going to be one who comes on here and bash another fellow musician's amp,...we each have our own personal preferences! My first tube amp years ago was the Blues Junior(1997 or so),...wish I still had it and I never had a problem with it,either.


Not to be a wise guy but this topic had been discussed and argued forever. A simple search will help.
This link will help explain things too.
http://www.justinholton.com/hotrod/

Lets just say the III MIM series is a little better than the older MIM HRD series amps. They improved the flimsy PCB board and a few other issues. It was a crap shoot in the earlier HRD amps depending on whether you gigged it or not seemed to be another factor. Many didn't hold up, many did. Flame suit on GTG just keep the personal attacks to yourself. You don't know me personally. :lol: But to be fair, other manufacturers had quality issues too and still do. I build my own now. :mrgreen:

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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 12:23 pm
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KC9SYJ wrote:
If you guys don't mind me asking,...what has been the biggest problem with the older HRD amps made before 2010?.....


Solder joints, particularly around the +/- 16 volts power supply. This seemed more troublesome on the versions made after 2005 because of the new type of RoHS solder being used, and was even a problem in other areas such as the tube socket joints.

Quite a few other newer amp models suffered the same, solder joint problems.

I have always maintained that the HRds were really no worse off percentage wise than any other amp made during the same period, it's just that they are so prolific you hear about them much more simply because there are many more of them. Case in point, the newer DRRIs have been more troublesome than the newer HRds, and as far as we can tell, there are many times more HRds sold than DRRIs..

I have a 1998 model HRDlx, and it's been carried around in my car and used for years, modified, used as a test bed, taken apart umpteen times and is still going strong. When it was new, knowing about fast wave-soldering in modern amps, I went over all solder joints and didn't have any problems with them, except for one of the many times that I had it apart piddling and caused a broken trace myself. I even fitted heat sinks on the resistors in the power supply just as a test, then removed them as I haven't had any heat related issues.

If any amp has a problem, and is thoroughly inspected the first time it's in the shop, there should not be any return trips to the shop. In other words, the HRds reputation is compound by piss-poor repairs when they do have problems. And of course, stories sort of grow as time goes on. :wink:

I wish that I could find the thread, because I'm sure that I remember a certain someone that said that he had two years of trouble free operation with his HRDlx, and also numerous trips to the repair shop, most times for faulty solder joints. No excuse for not touching up all solder joints once and being done, except for laziness. :wink:

The modifications that I have on mine now are; a jumper on the mid pot ala Billm, changed the tone stack caps to different values, cut R105 from tone stack, new power supply cap job (F&T caps), increased the value of the SGRs to 2K ohm, changed resistor value in the bias circuit for more range, dressed the power supply leads for less noise, and of course my own preference for tubes, V1 GE 5751, V2 GT 12AX7-C, V3 GT 12AT7, and GT 6L6 output tubes biased at about 60%. Everyone who tries it wants one, and it's my favorite still. :D

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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 2:42 pm
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63supro wrote:
KC9SYJ wrote:
If you guys don't mind me asking,...what has been the biggest problem with the older HRD
amps made before 2010? I have the HRD III amp(Serial number B-544702) and I like it,...never had the older ones. I am going to assume mine was made early this year,or really late last year. Can anyone determine by the serial number when mine was made?
I'm not going to be one who comes on here and bash another fellow musician's amp,...we each have our own personal preferences! My first tube amp years ago was the Blues Junior(1997 or so),...wish I still had it and I never had a problem with it,either.


Not to be a wise guy but this topic had been discussed and argued forever. A simple search will help.
This link will help explain things too.
http://www.justinholton.com/hotrod/

Lets just say the III MIM series is a little better than the older MIM HRD series amps. They improved the flimsy PCB board and a few other issues. It was a crap shoot in the earlier HRD amps depending on whether you gigged it or not seemed to be another factor. Many didn't hold up, many did. Flame suit on GTG just keep the personal attacks to yourself. You don't know me personally. :lol: But to be fair, other manufacturers had quality issues too and still do. I build my own now. :mrgreen:


I have no problems with this. Interesting point would be the numbers. Failure rates, types of failures, rates by manufacturer, by amp. Then a person could make an informed choice. It's all in the delivery, man. :mrgreen:


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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 2:43 pm
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shimmilou wrote:
The modifications that I have on mine now are; a jumper on the mid pot ala Billm, changed the tone stack caps to different values, cut R105 from tone stack, new power supply cap job (F&T caps), increased the value of the SGRs to 2K ohm, changed resistor value in the bias circuit for more range, dressed the power supply leads for less noise, and of course my own preference for tubes, V1 GE 5751, V2 GT 12AX7-C, V3 GT 12AT7, and GT 6L6 output tubes biased at about 60%. Everyone who tries it wants one, and it's my favorite still. :D


All solid and battle-tested alterations.

8)

Plus being a '98, it isn't saddled with the RoHS-compliant solder from hell.

:mrgreen:

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 3:11 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
shimmilou wrote:
The modifications that I have on mine now are; a jumper on the mid pot ala Billm, changed the tone stack caps to different values, cut R105 from tone stack, new power supply cap job (F&T caps), increased the value of the SGRs to 2K ohm, changed resistor value in the bias circuit for more range, dressed the power supply leads for less noise, and of course my own preference for tubes, V1 GE 5751, V2 GT 12AX7-C, V3 GT 12AT7, and GT 6L6 output tubes biased at about 60%. Everyone who tries it wants one, and it's my favorite still. :D


All solid and battle-tested alterations.

8)

Plus being a '98, it isn't saddled with the RoHS-compliant solder from hell.

:mrgreen:


Arjay




The solder itself is a huge factor. I actually found some spools of solder at my Dad's house when we were cleaning it out that I bought for an electronics class in high school. That's what I've been building the tube amps with. :lol:

As far as failure rates go on the HRDlx, when mine failed for the third time it's new home was a closet. It didn't give me any more problems then, but it wasn't helping me make any money either. It never got a chance to pay for itself. If I was paying for all the bench time I would have hook shot that thing to the dumpster in the first year. Outta sight outta mind I guess.

I like the amps I built the best now. Could be psychological don't know, but they sound great to me. On par with anything I've ever bought from the big boys. I've been pushing that 5e3 clone pretty hard and not even a buzz or rattle. Reminds me of how my old Fender Vibrolux Reverb and Twin and Deluxe Reverb were.

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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 3:30 pm
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BWhitehurst wrote:
Does anyone know what the MSRP was on the pre-2010 blonde toltex Hot Rod Deluxe?
I’m looking at buying one used and want to make sure I can haggle well, but there is almost no info on these amps online anywhere.


Thanks
Brooks



I bought mine for $499 brand new at Musicians Friend on sale one day back in the early middle of the 2000 to 2010 decade.

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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 5:54 pm
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I have a older USA Hot Rod Deluxe, will look up the year again. I like the link above for modding this amp. I am wondering if changing the volume knob will make it easier to sit in a small room with? It is very loud a few feet from it. Bought mine used about 2 years ago. had to have a little transistor or some 2.00 piece changed. 40.00 with labor. It would crackle or break up easy even on the clean channel. Put in two new Russian power tubes and the tube for reverb, now sounds real nice. I like the more full sound of the HRDLX. A bigger fancier amp does not fit my budget, but I am happy for those who can afford them. Or need them to make a living. And also I like my Mustang 1. Carry's easy, and has lots of toys on it. I am not a gigging musician, so these work well for me. I picked up guitar 4 yr, ago, and bass 1 week ago. Next year or so drums. :) Tom. :) :)


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Post subject: Re: Pre 2010 Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 8:02 pm
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Using some lower gain preamp/PI tubes will help tame the volume somewhat, and smooth the drive, but changing the volume pot won't do much. FYI, there is no tube for the reverb, it's driven and recovered by an op-amp.

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