Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

Clean and gain channels. Same equalizer. 40 watts. Reverb. Good features, but separate eq would be better.

I use a epiphone les paul (which is a great guitar), and the amp sounds good. It does seem to be a little thin, but not twangy. A quiet amp with a good sound. I at first thought that this was the best sounding amp out there for the price. Good clean tone, can do jazz and blues. Rock and alternative is no problem either. I almost ended up buying this amp. But after looking around some more, I found another amp that I thought was better. The Carvin BelAir 212 is a great amp. It sounds like the deluxe, but a bit more bassy, with a sweeter reverb. I am lucky because I have a Carvin store right near my house. I would never buy anything from mail catalogs.

Don't know. Just tried it out a few times.

Don't know.

I just bought this amp in September so its a 1998. I play blues rock and it is the sound I have been looking for at a low volume. I can get the same tone a high volume playing in a band or low volume playing in a studio. This amp sounds great distance miked. I wish that there had been seperate eq for the clean and drive channels but I can live with it. I handels pedals well I used an old MXR distortion plus. I also would have liked a switchable reverb but this reverb sounds great I dont mind leaving it in. I use the amp on stage and in the studio and live radio. This amp has more than enough head room. -1 for the eq section.

I use a strat and a gibson explorer and it works great for both. If you want to hear it go to http://www.mp3.com/johnturnerband and listen to roundhouse boogie. Thats the amp on both guitar parts.

The tolex started to peel off of the top but the dealer took care of it

The dealer I bought it from, Carpenter's World of Music has been great. Nothig major yet but if there is a problem I feel that it will be taken care of

I love this amp. I am more pleased with this purchase than any other amp I have ever bought. I played with another guitarist who had a half marshall stack. After the set he told me that he was going to replace his rig with one. This amp cuts through the mix. It kills

By now everyone knows the skinny on this amp. The one thing I don't like is having one EQ for the clean and drive channels. I have to compromise the clean ch becasue I have the EQ dialed in for the drive ch. I'm just starting out and I'm not in a band but I do jam with who ever, when ever. The one thing I hate is the weight, but it is actually light for a tube amp. It's still a pain.

I have a Jimmie Vaughn strat (my first strat but not my last!) that is totally stock. I play mostly blues, blues/rock and this amp is fantastic for that style. The clean channel is just that CLEAN, Fender clean. I haven't been able to turn it up far enough to break up, it is very, very loud. When I first got the amp and I switched to the drive ch I was dissapointed. It sounded like I was using a Wah-wah stuck in the down positon, it was awful. I messed with the EQ and the tone pot on my guitar and found the sound I was looking for. The more drive ch sounds perfect for my style. It is not a saturated Soldano distortion but is very tight and focused. I put the treb mid and bass on 10, the pres on 3, the dirve on12 and the reverb on 2.5. The tone pot on my guitar is on 1. This setup might seem strange but it works great! When I switch from more drive to drive the tone is a creamy blues overdrive HEAVEN. Clapton's woman tone is there. Headbangers look else where for your amp. The amp is not noisy at all. The reverb is not very good in my opinion. It sounds cold and layered. Maybe if it were tube generated I would like it.

I've had it for about 4 months with no problems. I use it everyday to practice or jam with.

Haven't had to call on them yet

I have been playing for about 2yrs now. I own several effects but since I got this amp I don't use any of them. The tone of my Strat directly into the HR is all I need and it makes the setup easy, just plug in and wail. I think that says a lot about the pure tone of the amp. If it were lost or stolen I would buy one just like it. I have to deduct a point for the shared EQ, and two points for the reverb. This is supposed to the famed Fender reverb, I know its not tube but still it could sound better, a lot better. Over all my rating is a solid 7, a thumbs up in my book. You can compromise on the EQ without too much fuss and find a good outboard reverb unit. The amp I had before this was a horrible Fender R.A.D (remember those) solid state. When I got the HR Deluxe I sounded like a BLUES GOD! Okay maybe not that good but there was a HUGE improvement in my tone and my motivation

40 watts all tube. point deduction for only one eq shared by both channels

i got an SG. Ive had this amp for about 6 months and it sounds great. its really bassy and fat. fender claims it sounds like a bassman on the clean channel and they are right. the drive is a great boost and more drive is excellent and chunkier but i just dont really like it for solo's, it just doesnt have enough sustain. i still love the fat chunky distortion. btw im into radiohead, foo fighters, smashing pumpkins (older stuff) and all that other "grunge music"

i dont think there will be any problems here. always ahve extra tubes on a gig though.

not know and im not going to find out

this is an amazing amp for the money. i compared it to a vibrolux which i was initally going to purchase and this this sounded just as good. there was definately not $300 dollars of difference between them. great amp for the money.

This is a very versatile little amp. I play mostly blues and boogie woogie. (SRV type stuff) It does good for that, but obviously not as good as some "blackface" stuff, but pretty close for the price. It has 3 channels Normal, Drive, and more drive. Drive sounds nice, but more drive comes in too loud. The best part is the clean channel. I have only used this amp for a few weeks, so don't take my advice totally. It is a fully tubed amp, (two power tubes, 3 preamp tubes) Comes factory equipped with Groove Tubes, which was a plus for me. the reverb sucks, and I usually keep it on 1 or 2. Any higher and it sounds milky. I use this amp for practice and home use, plenty of power.

I use single coil pickups, I play a Strat. It suits my style very well. It is not noisy at all, even at high gain setting. It is noisier than lower ones, but no reall hissing or anthing of that nature. It breaks uo around 5 or so, anything below that is very clean. The distortion is really driving on the more drive channel. Only one EQ, so you have to even things out.

Never dealt with Fender. but the company I bought it from is musicians friend. They are great, I'd reccomend businness with them anytime.

I have been playing for a couple of years. I own a strat, wah, distortion pedal, all the basic stuff.
If it was stolen I would probably get a Vibrolux instead.

Reverb, channel switching, gain boost all very handy to have but this amp executes them with varying success.

I A/B compared it to a Classic 30 that I have modified, my Soldano SLO100, my 58 tweed Deluxe and a Crate GT-60. The clean sound is O.K. but not as good as the Crates, thinner than the Soldano's (which both have tons more headroom)and similar to the Classic. When you start turning up the gain you really see the shortcoming of this amp. It in general, lacks the complexity of tone all the other amps (except the Crate) had. The sound is thin and one dimensional compared to the Classic at all volumes and I had to "max" out the controls to get anything near the "thickness" of distortion that the Classic and Soldano achieve. The reverb sucks and the amp has a "peak" in the 200-400 Hz frequency range that I first percieved as good bottom end but compared it to the other amps I found it "colored" the sound and is truly annoying. In use with a band the sound gets lost and lacks definition. I am unimpressed and think if you want a clean sound go with the Crate (it's cheaper and has no tubes to replace) and for more distorted tones you would be better off with a Classic, Crate VC or Boutique amp (Soldano, Matchless, Naylor-especially the Naylor) if you can afford one.

Amp is only a couple of weeks old - don't know yet.

40 Watts all tube Combo, 12" Speaker, 3 channels (clean, drive and boost drive), shared EQ, Reverb, Prescence, Efects Loop, Footswitch for channel switching (no reverb switching) preamp out, power amp in, NO Headphone jack. It's very simple,,,,Cool for ME!!!!!!!!!

I own a Gibson SG with Seymor Duncan 59 pickups and a Fender USA 62 Reissue with EMG's and both of them sounds perfect through this AMP, Sweet and FAT tones with both guitars. I've 8 years of experince and I play a lot of styles (Classic Rock, Alternative, Pop Music, Jazz, Reggae,,etc..!!!!!!) and this Amp suits all my styles, I'm very happy with it.
I use this amp for practice and sometimes I "JAM" with a another guitar player&singer, a bass player and a drummer (40 Watts are enough, this thing is very loud) . For pracice I used the clean channel at a very moderate volume with no effects (guitar directly to AMP), the sound is Awesome even at high volumes. The drive channel also sounds cool but sounds great at high volumes.
When I jammed I used it at high volumes through a couple Boss pedals (Compressor, EQ, a little bit of chorus or flanger, sometimes Delay) ,,The clean channel is great at high volumes and the distortion is great for classic rock. The other guitar player has a Marshall VS-65 and he admits that the Deluxe sound better!!!!! I give it a 9 because I have played other amps that sounds better. But for the value, I think is great. Never use it on Stage but I think it could do a good job.

I have this AMP only 2 years,,,Very Reliable,,Looks and feel very Solid,,,,Of course I would use it on a gig withot backup!!!!

Never contact Fender

Like I said before,,been playing 8 years, this is my only Amp, If it were stolen or lost, I will buy it again or the Deville if I wish more power. I wish another EQ and a footswitchable reverb!!IMHO this Amp sounds better than CRATE tube Combos or Marshall Valvstate combos,,BUY THIS AMP, I Recommend it to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can e-mail me if you have any specific questions.

Your basic tube-based combo. 40 watts, one 12" speaker, three channels (clean, drive, and more drive), a main volume and a master for the drive/more drive, three EQ levels (treb, bass, and mid), plus reverb. It came with a footswitch. Apparently Fender doesn't include the cover anymore, 'cause I didn't get one with mine and I bought it brand new.
The power is operated by means of a main and standby switch. Standby is useful...it keeps it warm while you go off to take a leak durin a practice, and it can also save on your tubes and electric bill a bit.
There are two inputs, a footswitch jack, and an FX loop/preamp in/out (plus an output jack down underneath everything in the back). The two inputs come in handy if you haven't got an A/B box and don't feel like switching cables in mid gig. They're also great for doing "weird" stuff, like feeding your amp back on itself (you don't have to unplug your guitar, just run a short cable from an open input to the preamp out and twiddle the knobs). As usual, the effects loop is so-so...I recommend it for recording but little else. The out jack on the back is something I haven't messed with as I don't have a cab.

I run a Strat into the thing and between the two, classic rock and blues are a snap. The overdrive is warm and quite nice for a built-in, and fits blues/classic rock well. More drive is good for soloing...I found that it can help get a mildly Hendrix-like tone if you hook up a wah. The only downside is that tube overdrive isn't really distortion. This was my first amp, and so I thought it did distortion good, until I realized it's too warm for alternative, metal, and anything else that requires a heavy crunch. So go get a stomp box (I decided to get a Fab Tone, which I'm waiting on right now) and patch that in, and you'll have a nice pallette of tones to work with.
The clean channel is pretty sweet if you're working off single coils. Very good for clean rhythm, all right for jazz and ska. I don't know about humbuckers on the clean...if you have push/pull pots it'd probably work well 'cause you could "coil tap" to single-sound.
Reverb is okay. Could be better, could be worse. I like cranking it up all the way because it adds space around a solo and sounds really odd, though there's little practical application. I always have reverb set around 4, just to give my guitar some "room" but not too much.
Complaints? Well, like I said, the drive/more drive is just overdrive, so forget getting heavy without a dedicated fuzz/distortion box. The footswitch pops audibly when kicking back to clean from drive or more drive, but that has to do with the difference between the volume and master (tweak it and you can cancel it out). I wish the footswitch had a reverb on/off, but you can't always win.

It's a Fender. Durable, reliable...just let me get my thesaurus and I'll tell you how quality this thing is. Be careful of the tubes, but that goes without saying. All in all, a real workhorse.

Never dealt with Fender. The warranty is five years, so I should be all right. Hope I'll never have to utilize it. Seems like I won't have to.

Good amp. Not the greatest I've heard, now that I've tried some nicer things like a Boogie and some half-stacks from Sunn and Marshall, but unless you're pro it's great. Perfect combo for playing in the garage/basement/barn, in your room, or at a small club or in a park or in a church (whacked as that would feel) or any other small venue. Reliable, nice tone, 'nuff said.

Three channel, 40 watt amp. One set of tone controls. All-tube. Reverb.

I play in a modern surf-rock band, using Fender Strats and Teles, and also use the amp in our church band, which runs a gamut of styles from country to alternative. I also occasionally use my Gibson Les Paul Custom and Epiphone Sheraton through it. The clean channel stays clean for my purposes, I never turn it past three or three and a half. At that volume it is absolutely beautiful. The Fender tone is amazing, and makes you thankful and blessed that you learned to play. There's a Bright switch that makes it a littler brighter, I usually have this on. It only affects the clean channel.
The second channel adds overdrive. For surf stuff, I have usually set the drive at 4 o'clock or so. It's not heavy, that's for sure. Then for leads I would kick in the third channel for "more" drive and a bit more volume. Let share some thoughts on this amp's overdrive: I've had it for about 11 months now, and I really struggled for awhile to enjoy the drive on it. It's not a pleasant overdrive, rather harsh in fact. Seems like it lacks bass or something. Just raw. Let me comment on the tone controls, too: they change the tone in VERY subtle ways. That's not necessarily negative or positive, just a fact. The other guitar player in my band uses a Strat with a Hot Rod DeVille 4x10. What I also came to grips with is that when everybody's rocking, you hear less and less of that individual tone. You can drive yourself crazy, which I did, sitting in my basement experimenting with "tone" all you want, but to a certain degree, some of those lovely subtleties that you'd get with a Matchless or Vox amp are lost when the whole band is going. I noticed that some of the harshness of my overdrive ended up sounding, when the whole band was going, just like an overdriven guitar, which is what I wanted! I'm not suggesting that it wouldn't be totally awesome to have a higher-end boutique, Class A tube amp, I'm just saying that I'm trying to be happy with my $500 Fender amp. In fact, I played a $1000 Fender Prosonic at lunch today, and thought it sounded worse, clean and dirty, than my Deluxe. How's that?
All that said, I tried a new setup recently to improve the sound. I have a Boss Turbo Overdrive pedal, where you can hook up an external footswitch to it and move into Turbo OD mode. I highly recommend this pedal. It's versatile (can literally go from simply a volume boost to pretty molten tones), sounds great, and kind of serves as a two-channel amp. What I've been missing in my setup is a clean boost for clean solos. (I've never been a volume pot manipulator guy...turning down the pot always seems to muddy up the tone for me). So recently I've been using my Turbo OD in place of the Deluxe for Overdrive purposes, and using the second channel on the amp (drive) for a clean boost (have the drive set at like 2, it's pretty clean). This works great.

No problems so far. Reading other reviews makes me concerned, but after using it weekly for gigs and practices for almost a year, I feel pretty secure with my amp. No backups. Cover is nice touch.

Never dealt with them.

This amp is by no means what I think I'd like to have the rest of my life, but it's definitely useful for my purposes now. It's not too heavy (although I would like to know why it's waaaaay heavier than it's older brother, the black and silver-faced Deluxes). It's loud enough for a club surf band, yet sounds good at lower volumes for church purposes.

40 watts, single 12" speaker, 2.5 channels with shared EQ, reverb, preamp out, power amp in, ext speaker jack (8 ohm only), two function footswitch. Would like to see separate EQ at least for the clean channel. I view the More Drive "channel" as simply a boost switch for the Drive channel, that's why I call it 2.5 channel. Would also like to see impedance selector for ext speaker jack.
However, if taken just in terms of other tube amps in it's price range, I'd give it a 9. Can't expect high end features in a bargain amp.

First things first. Compared to other reviews, I don't consider this to be a one trick pony, or blues only amp. Still, I wouldn't get one of these and expect to duplicate Dream Theater or thrash either. Anywhere from country to jazz to blues to classic rock to any other mid-gain sounds, this thing is great! I run an EBMM Axis and a Mexi-std Strat through it, and usually also use a Mesa V-Twin pedal and Boss CH-1 Super Chorus.
The clean sound is very nice! Even with the Axis, I have not had any trouble maintaining a crystal clear clean tone when playing in a band situation, although we don't usually get very loud. If you push the clean channel, it breaks up very nicely in a bluesy way. I beleive that this channel is sort of based on the bassman circuit and sound.
As was noted, the EQ is shared between channels. Although it would always be nice to have independant EQ (and I would prefer it), I can't really complain about it. I'm pretty happy with the sounds I get sharing the EQ. I find the tone to be a tad bass heavy for my taste, but it's easy to tame it and most other people now would probably like it better this way. The reverb is also shared by channels, and there is one level control and it's not footswitchable. Although it certainly would be nice to set separate level per channel, or footswitch it off, I can't really complain with it. The charicter of the reverb is very smooth. I tend to use just a bit of this though, just enough to give the sound some depth.
The Drive channel can pretty much cover any distored blues or classic rock stuff. The distortion is a very tight and smooth type, not fuzzy. This is the way I like it. I've played numerous high end amps by pretty much every manufacturer, and for classic rock type sounds, this is my favorite regardless of price! Just wish it had more high end features.
The More Drive channel basically just adds a preset amount of gain to the Drive channel. To me, the character of the distortion on More Drive is very much like a Boogie, but doesn't get anywhere near that saturated. It just has that type of tone. This channel to me is really more of a "solo" channel. For any of the rock stuff, if you go to More Drive from the Drive channel it just gives a bit of a volume boost and a bit different tone.

I've had this for about 9 months now and not had a single problem. Although I don't gig with it, I do lug it around for jams. I do make it a point to be careful, and always use the included cover. I don't see anything that would make me question how well it's made.
Personally, I'd never gig without some type of backup, no matter what gear I use. Let's just say that I don't think this amp would demand that you bring a backup. I also have the V-Twin that I could run through the PA in a pinch.

5 year warrentee. I haven't needed to have anything done, so I can't comment. Given the size of Fender, I wouldn't think it would be hard to find a certified repairman.

This is actually my first tube amp, and I'm exceptionally happy with it. There are certainly other amps that have a better list of features, and some even sound better. But not in this price range! If I were to buy again, I'd probably go for the DeVille 410 for a bigger sound, but it's essentially the same amp.
If you want heavy metal, this isn't the amp for you unless you're prepared to use a distortion pedal. If you've got a pedal that gives you the sound you want, then this is a fantastic amp to provide the base for it!
For any other type of music, unless you have a specific desire to exactly replicate a sound or want maybe a VOX tone, you should be happy with this.
Although I've given it an 8 overall, that's based on everything else available. If you're not into thrash/HM, then for the price I'd give it a 10!