Amp Help

Fenders Hot Rods are nice amps. the clean setting is beautiful. it has all the warmth you'd want out of this smallish tube amp.
the gain is nice, but Id run a stomp box for the extra distortion you seem to want.

Yeah, the Hot Rod Deluxe gets recommended a lot around here. Quite a few of us own one. But that is not why I recommend it.

Fender claims the HRD is the best selling tube amp of all time. You don't get to be #1 by accident or some fad. Fact is, the HRD is a very good amp for several reasons.

1) Very reasonable price- The HRD is a very good amp that can be afforded by most anyone. There are better amps out there, but you usually have to pay double or triple the price to get there.

2) Plenty of power- The HRD is LOUD. You can gig anywhere with this amp. This amp will easily compete with far more powerful 100 watt amps, no problem at all.

3) It is portable- The HRD is fairly heavy at 49.5 lbs. (I read the manual), but pretty easy to carry around. It will easily fit in the back seat of your car if you want to go jam with a friend.

4) It has an excellent clean channel- The most important thing is to get a good clean channel. You can always use stomp boxes or processors to get distortions. But no pedal can make an amp sound clean.

5) It is reliable- These amps have a pretty good reputation for quality. They do not have a lot of problems. Of course there is the occasional exception, but overall the HRD has an excellent track record for quality.

So is the HRD perfect? No way. It has some downsides.

1) It would be better if it had seperate EQs for the clean and drive channels- With the HRD it is a little difficult to find tone settings that sound good for BOTH the clean and drive channels. So, you end up setting it up for one or the other, or find a compromise.

2) Boomy bass- The HRD can be a little boomy. I find you have to get bass down when you play at high volumes. At low volume you can turn the bass up though.

3) Reverb- Some complain the HRD has too much reverb. I don't agree myself, I like the HRDs reverb. Turn it up and you can play some real Surf tones. It doesn't have the fantastic reverb of a Twin Reverb, but no amp does. Anyway, just keep reverb turned low and it sounds fine.

4) Drive channels- The drive channels for the HRD are not as popular as the clean channel. It is very 70's sounding, much like the tone Carlos Santana uses. You can even get a SRV type tone. But you absolutely need pedals to get modern Metal or Grunge distortions.

OK, enough of that. There are some good amps that compete with the HRD.

Peavey Classic 30

The Peavey Classic 30 is a great amp used by thousands of gigging musicians. It is known to have a very good clean channel. The overdrive channel is said to be much better than the HRD.
This amp is 30 watts but is plenty powerful and can gig most anywhere.

Traynor Custom Valve 40

Traynor amps are also excellent amps and very popular. This amp is known to have a Fender like clean channel and a Marshall like overdrive channel. Can't beat that. 8) This amp comes with the famous Vintage 30 speaker, one of the most famous speakers of all time.

Fender Blues Deluxe

This amp was just brought back by demand. The HRD was really an update to this amp with a souped up drive channels. But many liked the mild overdrive of the original Blues Deluxe. So it is back. I played one of these this last weekend. It has an excellent clean channel. The drive channel is a mild blues type overdrive. You would absolutely need pedals to get distortions. This also has spring reverb, so folks will probably like this reverb more than the HRD. I really loved the tone of this amp, it is going to be very popular.

These are a few ideas, maybe others will suggest some other good amps in this price range.

All of Wes' suggestions are great. I know a guy who owns a Traynor tube, he loves it, and it sounds great. Another guy I know has a Deville, similar I believe to the Hot Rod Deluxe. The HRD is an amazing seller, it seems as though everybody has one. Must be something to it, I'd suggest checking it out.

so im not gonna find an amp that as a great od and clean right so just get the nice clean channel and go with the tube screamer?

oh and thanks for all that info wes im probably gonna get one of those 3 that was invaluable

aroundtheclaxon

My HRD made some buzzing sounds at a gig last week, first time it has ever done anything like this in 4 years. Since then I have played it for many hours and it has performed flawlessly, so I really think it was an electrical problem at the venue.

I did get concerned though, and thought I might need to start carrying a backup amp. So I went to Guitar Center this weekend. I spent hours there and tried many different amps. I was really curious about all the modeling amps that are so popular. I tried the Behringer and thought it was pretty great sounding, but I am not sure it has the power and volume to play gigs. It would be pushing it a little. I tried the Vox amps everybody loves, but I was not too keen on it. Not putting it down at all, it just didn't do anything special for me.

I also tried many effects pedals. The one I really liked to my surprise was the Korg. It had the most realistic acoustic guitar model I've ever heard. It also had the best tremelo and rotary speaker models I've ever heard. These are effects I really love but have never found pedals that really sounded right to me. But this Korg blew my mind. I might get one someday.

Then I went back to the amps. This may sound like blasphemy, but I was not even that thrilled with the Vox AC30. This is one of the most famous amps of all times.

But then I tried the Fender Blues Deluxe. I absolutely loved it. It was awesome. Then I realized it really sounded almost exactly like the amp I already have, the HRD. So I left the store realizing I already owned one of the best sounding amps around.

But this is all my personal opinion. An amp I love may sound terrible to you or others. There is no perfect amp. One works for one person and not another. So, I am in no way saying the HRD or any other amp is the best out there.

These are all good amps. Go down and spend some time playing them. Turn the knobs. Try the reverb, overdrive channels. Spend some time and really listen. Go for the amp that turns you on.

Good luck and tell us what you get. 8)

Hi aroundtheclaxon
As you have a V-AMP 2 with all it´s Amp/Speaker simulations you should have AMP/Speaker with a good clean channel or a FX input/output channel where you can connect the V-AMP2 .
If you you want to use the Amp/Speaker simulations of the V-Amp 2 you should have Amp/Speaker that doesn´t color the sound too much.