Redsand Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 I'm considering buying a 2008 Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, it's the 1x12 40 watt combo version. The fella that owns the amp now suspects the amp needs "new tubes" since the amp turns on but is barley producing a sound, beyond this issue the amp is cosmetically sound, comes with foot switch, dust cover and even a new 12" Eminence speaker. I figure at $200, it'd be hard to muck this one up! What are some other mods that I should consider doing to this particular amp besides a retube? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PunkKitty Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Hopefully tubes are all that's needed. $200 for that amp is a great price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffB Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 I was given an HRDLX that had what seemed like every mod on the web done to it. I cant recall all the mods that had been done but it seemed like a lot of work was done on the gain channel to make it more.....marshally? (I guess) It sounded terrible on the clean and gain channels. The guy who gave it to me had spent a lot of money to make it sound that bad. It was running EL34's, I took them out and put 6L6's back in, biased it by ear till it sounded about as right as it could. Then I systematically undid every mod I could find playing through it after each mod removal to see if I liked it or thought more should be done. Eventually I got to where the only mods that remained were the speaker swap and expensive cap replacements. I cant guess at what the cap replacement had done for the over all sound but a speaker swap is a quantifiable thing. One final bias at the end of mod removal and it really did sound pretty good. He had put a V30 speaker in it and it seemed to sound alright. Its(speaker swap) probably the most expensive mod if you do things yourself. I really like the HRDLX as it is. Its a really useful amp. The gain channel is useful for me only at the lower gain settings. The thing that made me angry about all this was that the tech had done all the work sold this guy on the idea of the mods. They were terrible and not worth paying for. The tech took the ideas from a website that has a list of HRDLX mods and sold them as his own ideas like he was some sort of amp guru. He charged like a wounded bull and the out come was a completely crap sounding amp. My advice is play it for a few weeks to figure out if there is something you dont like about it and then work from there fixing those things. Start at tightening all the screws and speaker mounts. Then maybe a speaker to tighten the bottom end and sweeten the highs if you find you need to. Google Hot rod Deluxe mods and a sit should come up in the search. They have about 10mods listed. Theyre the ones I undid. Edit: I just saw that its already had a speaker swap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billgelder Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 I have one of this amp it is very versatile and can get very loud for a small amp.The good news is you can replace the tube yourself. without adjusting the bias.You have 3@12AX7 preamp tube and 2@6L6 Power tube, You can match the tube that are in it now with the same rated tubes from Fender. Mine are GT6L6S with rating RED. I think there are 3 different ratings. Find out what tube are in it now and go to http://www.fender.com/store/tubes/ Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 I agree with everyone. They sound great stock. Change the tubes and see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redsand Posted January 1, 2014 Author Share Posted January 1, 2014 I have one of this amp it is very versatile and can get very loud for a small amp.The good news is you can replace the tube yourself. without adjusting the bias.You have 3@12AX7 preamp tube and 2@6L6 Power tube, You can match the tube that are in it now with the same rated tubes from Fender. Mine are GT6L6S with rating RED. I think there are 3 different ratings. Find out what tube are in it now and go to http://www.fender.com/store/tubes/ Good luck Thanks for the info Bill!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redsand Posted January 1, 2014 Author Share Posted January 1, 2014 I was given an HRDLX that had what seemed like every mod on the web done to it. I cant recall all the mods that had been done but it seemed like a lot of work was done on the gain channel to make it more.....marshally? (I guess) It sounded terrible on the clean and gain channels. The guy who gave it to me had spent a lot of money to make it sound that bad. It was running EL34's, I took them out and put 6L6's back in, biased it by ear till it sounded about as right as it could. Then I systematically undid every mod I could find playing through it after each mod removal to see if I liked it or thought more should be done. Eventually I got to where the only mods that remained were the speaker swap and expensive cap replacements. I cant guess at what the cap replacement had done for the over all sound but a speaker swap is a quantifiable thing. One final bias at the end of mod removal and it really did sound pretty good. He had put a V30 speaker in it and it seemed to sound alright. Its(speaker swap) probably the most expensive mod if you do things yourself. I really like the HRDLX as it is. Its a really useful amp. The gain channel is useful for me only at the lower gain settings. The thing that made me angry about all this was that the tech had done all the work sold this guy on the idea of the mods. They were terrible and not worth paying for. The tech took the ideas from a website that has a list of HRDLX mods and sold them as his own ideas like he was some sort of amp guru. He charged like a wounded bull and the out come was a completely crap sounding amp. My advice is play it for a few weeks to figure out if there is something you dont like about it and then work from there fixing those things. Start at tightening all the screws and speaker mounts. Then maybe a speaker to tighten the bottom end and sweeten the highs if you find you need to. Google Hot rod Deluxe mods and a sit should come up in the search. They have about 10mods listed. Theyre the ones I undid. Edit: I just saw that its already had a speaker swap. I totally to agree with the message and will probably stick with just new tubes, thanks for your input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gitfiddler Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 These are very useful and toneful amps right out of the box. If any mods are needed, simply upgrade the tubes and speaker and leave the rest alone. For a $200 purchase, you can even sell it and make a couple hundred if you don't like the amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoslate Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 That's a great speaker, and not cheap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schundog Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Nice deal, Matt, that speaker alone is probably worth $80! I have had a couple of the Hot Rod Deville amps, and really liked the clean channel. Leave it there and use pedals as needed, because the gain and "more gain" options don't yield a very pleasant tone, IMHO. The only thing you may wish to address at some point are the input jacks. They are plastic, and prone to break. I had a Switchcraft jack put on my Blues Junior when I had it worked. on. I probably wouldn't worry about any of the other jacks though, unless you use them a lot. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redsand Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 Well gang, I followed thru with the purchase and took a gamble on this closet queen Fender HRD and hot damn am I glad I did. After some new tubes, a new speaker and a few simple mods the amp sounds better than I could have ever imagined, seriously folks, it sounds FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC!! (tone demo coming soon) Since the updates, I've had 2 jam sessions to play around with the tone capabilities and it's become crystal clear that this HDR will be my work horse amp. I took the amp to a relatively well known Detroit area cat named Dean Zink who is quite possibly the most knowledgable and humble "amp whisperer" I've ever had the pleasure of working with, he's also an INCREDIBLY talented guitarist to boot which made conveying my tone seeker requests very easy to translate. He had me stop by his shop with only 1 day notice and did all the work while I waited in just over an hour, he even invited me to watch while he worked which was extremely educational considering he talked me thru every step gladly answer questions. So all in, I've got a fully functioning near mint amp that will blow the doors off any stock HDR for $359.64 ($200 for the amp and speaker + $159.64 in parts and labor) So needless to say it's already been a very Happy 2014! Here are the details of what we did to the amp: 2 new 6L6GC Tung Sol Duet (bias set @ 32/33ma) 1 new 12AX7 JJ Select 2 new 500UDE F&T Caps (power cap) 1 new 12" Eminence Red Coat "the wizard" "Bill M- Tone Stack" mod which seriously widened the amps versatile and usability by leaps and bounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Sounds like you've got yourself a great deal and a good tech in the same week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redsand Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 Sounds like you've got yourself a great deal and a good tech in the same week Big time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gitfiddler Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Sounds fantastic! What was the impact of the Bill M tone stack mod? More cleans? Earlier breakup? Please explain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redsand Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 Sounds fantastic! What was the impact of the Bill M tone stack mod? More cleans? Earlier breakup? Please explain. A stock HRD: Even when the tone controls (bass, middle, treble) are turned all the way down to 1 the amp still produces a relatively "flavored" but full powered sound. HRD w/ "tone-stack" mod: When the tone controls (bass, middle, treble) are turned all the way down to 1 the amp barley produces any playable sound at all until those tone knobs are brought up and adjusted to the tone the player is after. The true benefit of this mod occur's within the "overdrive" or "more drive" channel, the HRD's have a reputation of having a fantastic clean tone that break's up nicely, however, they also have a reputation of having a overly hot, almost unusable "more gain" stage. The mod simply lowers the noise floor of where the signal starts producing sound. It's my understanding that the mod lower's the overall output by 7 or 8 watts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gitfiddler Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Great. Thanks for clarifying. I've got a Blues Deluxe that is also 40 watts, but a slightly different animal than the HR series. You got a great deal, even after your amp whisperer's magic touch. Congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockabilly69 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Good deal on the amp, and better yet, you found a good tech! I would replace the input jack with a switchcraft and hardwire flying leads to the board instead of having the jack soldered directly to the board! The jack is always breaking on these amps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tulk1 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Quite a few of the country players around town use these. Great for very clean country. Seem to take pedals well, too. Just have to watch the Treble levels. For some reason too many local players think clean means treble. Then it just becomes biting. When I jam on this amp I generally have to attenuate the highs. But, that's what the controls are for, eh? Good deal on the $200 amp! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Sounds like a winner! Congrats ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbright Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 What mods are in the Beorge Benson flavor of these? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gitfiddler Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 What mods are in the Beorge Benson flavor of these? A more efficient speaker and fancy tolex...with his logo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbright Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 easy to do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrymclark Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 What mods are in the Beorge Benson flavor of these? A more efficient speaker and fancy tolex...with his logo. ... and a solid pine cab. Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrymclark Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 As widely used as these are, for clean and slight break up tones, I still think the Hot Rod series is a bit of a sleeper. They just don't get much respect. Shame. Really good amp. But, the upside is you can get one used at great deals. Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redsand Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 I totally agree Barry, this particular amp has held its own against several of my gear head buddy's amps both vintage and boutique. That lack of respect you mention is fine with me, only real downside is a weak resale value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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