The Fender Hot Rod Deluxe is the big brother to the Blues Junior. It’s 40 watts come cranking out of 2 6L6’s and it is loud. The amp has a tone of clean headroom on the clean channel and gets quite dirty on the lead channel. We used one for our Easter worship service this past month and it was louder than the 40watt Class A Matchless we were also running.
The Fender Hot Rod Deluxe is gaining some popularity largely in part to it’s bass response and ability to take pedals extremely well. Bobby Strand from Bethel Church is currently using one of these and we all know the gorgeous tones they are putting out.
Pros
- Price: $729 New & $500ish Used
- Durability: These things are built like tanks.
- Bass Response: The 6L6’s crank out some great bass tones.
- Weight: Compared to an AC30, carrying this thing is like a walk in the park.
Cons
- Over Complicated: With most boutique amp and vintage amp manufacturers sticking to Volume Tone and sometimes a few more controls this amp has alot more flexibility but also can become complicated to dial in a great tone.
- Looks: Let’s face it we all care about looks. Some of the limited editions are cool but the standard black tolex and silver grill cloth leave something to be desired.
- LOUD: This thing is loud. It is not a good practice or at home amp and guitarists playing in small churches will struggle to tame it.
Should You Get One?
If you like your amp to run hot and clean, and either play at a larger church or have iso booths this is the amp for you. If you like to run your amp dirty or if you like a brighter amp this amp is not for you. For less headroom in the same tonal family head to the Fender Blues Junior. For a brighter amp check out the Vox AC30.
If you play a Hot Rod Deluxe let us know your favorite settings as well as what pedals and guitars you use in the comments section below.
5 Comments
I’ve been using my old faithful HRD for about 3 years now at church. We had been running our amps fairly loud on stage and finally turned them down to allow more FOH control. Good for everyone else, not so fun for us on stage but it needed to happen. Mine is the late ’90’s US made model. I put JJ 6v6’s in it and also changed out the stock speaker for a WGS reaper. These two changes helped to warm up the amp a little. Has slightly more warm midrange and the sharp highs are cut out. It’s not a big change but I’m happy with it. Will probably go back to 6l6’s next tube change but I love this speaker in it. When I said we ran loud, that was still only 3 on the clean channel and that was plenty loud. Down now to below 2. Still same toneore or less, was just fun feeling the amp on stage. For a pedal platform amp it is great, which is exactly what I use it for.
What guitar do you play through it and what overdrives work for you?I play a strat and just bought one. Also, they’re is a slight hiss that gets louder with volume.
That is pretty normal for a tube amp and single coil pickups. You will want to stand as far from your amp as possible with single coils. Also if you have a bunch of lighting on stage that can add noise to the signal path. You can do little things like adding shielding copper/tape to the inside of your pickguard and pickup cavities to minimize the noise. The other thing that you would want to do is upgrade your wiring to something by Emerson Custom and also pickups. You should look at Pioneer Pickups, Lollar or Porter. If you are on a budget for pickups the noiseless strat pickups from Fender are pretty good.
Can someone please give me some good recommendations for overdrives to get that modern worship sound with the hot rod. I just bought a new one and play a strat. I would like to get that overdriven Jesus culture, bethel and Hillsong sounds. Help. Hopefully someone will respond.
Marshal,
Thanks for reaching out. Any low to mid gain overdrive will work good. The Hotrod Deluxe and Blues Junior’s are very versatile and take pretty much any pedals well. My personal favorites include: Jackson Audio Prism, Emerson Custom Pomeroy, Cusack Music Screamer, Ibanez TS808HW Tubescreamer, Bondi Effects Del Mar, Bondi Effects Sick As.