Overall Rating: I'm 45 years old and have been playing for over 30 of them. I play mostly classic and modern rock and R&B. I've always liked Fender amps, and this review is in comparison to the other Fender amps I own. I realise it's not really fai...
Overall Rating: I'm 45 years old and have been playing for over 30 of them. I play mostly classic and modern rock and R&B.
I've always liked Fender amps, and this review is in comparison to the other Fender amps I own.
I realise it's not really fair to compare it with the Dual Professional, as it costs 3X as much as, is almost twice the size of, and is almost twice the weight of the DRRI, but sitting side by side, the Dual Pro makes it sound like a toy. The Dual Pro is an amazing amplifier.
The Hot Rod Deluxe, however is, after NOS retube and speaker change, comparable in terms of cost, size, and weight. The Hot Rod is a more agressive sounding amp by comparison. It's not quite as articulate in single note definition, or as "chimey" in the clean sound, and I prefferred the reverb in the DRRI to that of the Hot Rod. But it's not as powerful as the Hot Rod, and it's not as compatable with my pedals, nor is it as quiet as my other amps. The DRRI I had, had a noticable "hiss", that while not loud, was annoying, and present with all my guitars, as well as with no guitar plugged in. I'm guessing the circuitry does not include a negative feedback loop.
Overall, I guess this amp just isn't my cup of tea. If I was playing strictly Fender clean, I would have found it much more useful. I also suppose the a retube and new speaker could significantly improve things, but that would put it in a price range that would make other choices a consideration.
As always, YMMV.
Tom
Features: 2003 model, 2 channel, 22 watts, reverb, and tremelo. No effects loop, no channel switching. Footpedal controls reverb and tremelo in vibrato channel only. 1 12 inch speaker. All tube design.
Sound Quality: I bought this amp along with an American Series Telecaster, and ended up keeping the Telecaster, but returning the amp. I use the Telecaster, a Stratocaster with Fat50's, a Les Paul Studio with 490/498 HB's, a Les Paul Standard with Burstbuckers, and an ES 335 with '57 Classics. As a point of reference, I own a Hot Rod Deluxe, that has been retubed with NOS tubes, and the speaker swapped with a Celestion Vintage 30, as well as a Custom Shop Dual Professional.
Clean :
What I found was that as much as I liked the way it sounded with my Fender guitars, I didn't care for it at all with my Gibsons. I would descibe it as thin when paired to humbuckers, although a good match with the Fenders single coils. I did try swapping in a V30, and thought the improvement from the stock Jensen was substantial, as you would expect, the bottom end and mids were much more pronounced, giving a warmer sound. Single note aticulation and definition with single coils was very good, Reverb is very nice also. I don't find much use for tremelo, but it performed with yomen duty. I never did get the thick creamy tone from my 335 I find so easily with my other amps
Distortion:
Previous reviews address the attributes of this amp when overdriven so I'll also comment. At about 5 on the volume dial, single coil breakup starts, about 3.4-4 with humbuckers. At that piont it's pretty loud, but not overly so. Although the breakup was smooth, and easy on the ear, it lacked focus and definition. I guess I would call it "loose", or "splatty". It wasn't in the same league as a Tweed Deluxe. I would compare it as very similarly to the Drive channel in my Hot Rod, which I DON'T find very useful.
Pedals:
I only own 3 pedals, a Boss Blues Driver II, and 2c Barber Direct Drive's. I really don't use the Boss since getting the Barbers, mostly because I found its effect, "loose" and "splatty". The Barbers just leave it in the dust. That said, the only way I could find to get distorted tone I liked was to plug into the no. 2 input on the vibrato channel, dime the volume, and control volume from the pedal and guitar. Overall, my pedals were not very satisfying with this amp.
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