Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue Vs Hot Rod Deluxe Iii

MrMilezz

So i tried both these amps out yesterday and they both sounded great, the clean channel sounded great on both amps and i didnt hear much difference, the dirt channel was better on the hot rod imo. So the question is: which amp has the best quality, is it worth paying extra for the blues deluxe?

Homesick345

They are the same amp basically, & not a very high quality amp, for that matter. I liked the ones with the tweed, they looked cool. Other than that, not worth paying a premium for the Blues Deluxe, unless it has some feature (cosmetic or other) that would be worth it.

carver

Ive owned both of these amps,. and it all really depends on what you plan on doing,.. The BDRI was a great amp i thought, i loved lining it into a 412, but i didnt play it much by its self, the hot rod i had was the 410, again a great amp, i didnt use the drive channel on that hot rod much at all, normally just pushed it with an english muffin, where the bdri i used to use the drive on, i know strange right?! i would just push the drive with a BBE boosta Grande and it would sound awesome at high volumes. but these amps,. its the clean channel that i loved,. it was a great platform for building a pedal stack from.
the wiring is what made me eventually get rid of it.. there is no merit in what im about to say, but at one point in time i decided i only wanted PTP amps in the collection and i got rid of everything with a board circuit in it. i dont know why.. i just did.. to this day i miss the bdri sometimes, i dont really miss the Hot rod much at all though, but i know if i didnt have a 410 bassman i would miss that hot rod.

xoso

A BDRI is my main Fender amp (also got a Champion 600 and a Super Champ XD that came out of the box twice and is now firmly back in it). For years I played a Vox AC30 and I still have one but I prefer the Blues Deluxe which kind of feels like a strange thing for a Brit to say but that's the way it is.

I have no real terms of reference to compare my BDRI against - I've never played a Bassman or the DRRI for instance but I really can't understand Homesick's comment that they are 'not a very high quality amp'. I guess they're not a Mesa or a Dumble but they're not in that price league either. Maybe I've got cloth ears but to me the sound of my strat direct into the Blues Deluxe with nothing but a splash of reverb is purely magical. If that's 'not a very good amp' I need to get out more and discover what is. I recently started a thread asking what the main differences between a deluxe, super and twin were and what people preferred because so many times I hear these amps venerated as the Holy Grails of Fender tone that I thought I ought to buy one but the comment from at least one person was that if I already had a blues deluxe I wouldn't get a massively better tone from any of the silver face amps and if anything the Blues Deluxe was slightly warmer and bluesier.

swanseajack

I've got a HRDX Ltd Edition laquered tweed, it's has one of those Jensen p12? alnico speakers as standard. I haven't tried the other Limited or normal versions. The clean channel is stunning Fender tone IMO and it is very loud and clean. I find it takes pedals well too. The drive channel is ok, but your better off sticking a nice OD or booster pedal infront of the clean channel. Without a attenuator, you will go deaf trying to get the clean channel to produce output tube saturation, I have done it briefly when I bought it. The other customers started to run away and it wasn't all to do with my playing 8¬)
I see both amps used by session guys on UK music programs (Jools Holland show etc) So they are working musicians amps not cork sniffers..

tonmo

Bdri has awesome tone and if you want dirt throw in a stomp box (I use big muff pi and a volume box (not an attenuator) because the bdri itself gets very loud)

Shades of Blue

I've owned a couple BDRI's and one HRD. I liked things about both. I prefer the cleans on the BDRI by a long mile, but the dirt is better on the HRD. I'd get a BDRI and put a pedal in front for gain.

swanseajack

Bdri has awesome tone and if you want dirt throw in a stomp box (I use big muff pi and a volume box (not an attenuator) because the bdri itself gets very loud)

Nice one, I'll explian this to our readers who don't know.-

The volume box is a box with an input and output jack wired to a pot/volume knob. It is plugged in via the send and return of the effects loop of the amp. It is used to reduce the signal from the pre amp section (those little 12ax7 pre-amp tubes) into the output section of the amp (those big tubes 6L6 ) It can make the clean channel a little bit easier to drive at lower volumes..
sorry if I'm teaching my granny to suck eggs...

Captain Bb

Same function as the pre amp gain knob on the amp then?

swanseajack

The clean channel doesn't have a pre amp gain control.

steveneddy

Either if these are great amps.

And they are virtually the same amp inside to be honest.

If you are going to keep it and play it out - here are a few key items to get your amp guy to do for you.

Change all if the screen and grid resistors on the power tubes from 1 watt to 2 watt.
Remove the original tubes and trash them - replace with Sovtek tubes.
Use some clear silicone and coat all of the coupling and tone caps on the pcb to make them secure.

A great tube choice for both of these amps:

V1 - 5751
V2 - 12DW7
V3 - Sovtek 12AX7LPS

Power tubes - Sovtek 6L6 WXT+

set bias to 65-70 ma with these tubes - the amp will rock!

"I sound about the same on a Squire" -BW

swanseajack

Thanks. One of those mixed gain tubes in v2? Very creative

steveneddy

The second half of that tube is where the gain channel lives - and less gain will wake up that amp IMHO.

Try it - don't like it put the other one back in.

"I sound about the same on a Squire" -BW

swanseajack

Cheers Steve. Yeh, might try that, If I don't like it in the HRDX it could be tried in almost any amps pre amp section.... to see what it'll do.

steveneddy

Anyone got a Bassman or old Bandmaster - those old tweed amps?

Put a 12DW7 in the PI - that will really alter the tone - sometimes it works well - sometimes it doesn't - power tube choice I would imagine.

This is a good trick if you have two Strat guys in the band but sound too similar for a good band sound - do this to one amp- makes one if them sound different enough that the overall band sound jumps right out.

"I sound about the same on a Squire" -BW

swanseajack

Excellent post Steve. More colours for the artists palette indeed.

Captain Bb

The clean channel doesn't have a pre amp gain control.

Ah yes, I missed that small but cricial point!

I replaced the volume pots on my BD with log tapers anyway (an easy mod and low cost) so volume control isn't an issue on either channel.

thermality

The HRD and BDRI are very similar. It tried an HRD first but it was too icepicky so I swapped it for a BDRI. The HRD seemed louder and had a bit more headroom, the BD is definitely warmer to my ear, which I prefer, but it needs more headroom. Think I'm gonna swap the tubes out and install a Cannabis Rex, but reject other mods that would void the warranty. There's quite a bit of tube rattle on both amps.

Both amps mic fairly well and take pedals well but distortion gets muddy in the bass. People diss the BDRI's drive channel, but I think it does fine if you dial it in for mild gain. I like having a variety of gain options for different kinds of music, so I use the drive channel for just a subtle effect and pedals for phatter sounds. It's annoying not having separate tone controls for each channel, but my workaround is to use an equalizer pedal for the drive channel so I can switch channels without changing amp settings.

Bottom line, both amps are good values at their price range, but they are a compromise. Sure, I'd rather have a boutique amp, but at a third the cost, the Hot Rod line is a decent solution for the price-conscious. Once you learn to dial in your tones on the amp and guitar, you don't have to be ashamed to bring it to your next gig.

Brunning Pissompons

Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue Vs Hot Rod Deluxe Iii

Fender blues deluxe vs hot rod deluxe

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