Can You Make A Hot Rod Deluxe Sound Good? 

Man, I love Olympic White strats with minty pick guards!

The need to drop the bass as the volume increases can also be explained by the "Fletcher Munson" curve. That curve describes the human ear's sensitivity to different frequencies at different volumes. It turns out the ear does not hear flat. When the volume is low we cannot hear the low end as well. That is why the old hifi stereos had a "loudness" button. It added back in the missing bass at lower volumes.

My main amp is a Hot Rod Deville and i love it!!! I have always just used the clean channel and used pedal distortions/overdrives and fuzzes. It's always sounded great!!!

I like how the title is "can you make a hot rod deluxe sound good". The title should be "can you make it sound *BAD",* because everything I heard sounds amazing.

This was a lot of useful information delivered in 10 mins. I really appreciate how Phil dug a bit deeper to demystify things like why people who intuitively know to do things like drop the bass off when you're upping the gain actually do that. It's really great to hear just straight facts rather than people waxing lyrical and fluffing around the actual science of what is happening with your amp when you're switching and dialing. IMO that's so important when you're considering adding pedals to your rig, if you're not sure what is happening to your signal at the amp, making even further changes upstream can just make it more confusing to arrive at a tone you're happy with except by accident, and then you need to take a pic of all your settings in case your kid wanders in and messes your tone up 😂

The brief chat about "bass dump" that starts about 8:55 and goes to about the end is something that should be taught to every guitarist before they start playing live. Complement the sound, don't compete with it! Bravo, Phillip! Awesome discussion.

The thing with this amp, it sounds great. I get so many compliments on my tone. Simple overdrive pedal I have all the gain I need for classic rock. The clean is rich and gorgeous on any eq setting. The overdrive isn’t what I was going for so I just use a Boss OD

Been using my Hot Rod Deluxe III since 2012 and haven’t looked back since. One of the best amps I own!

Man, I love a rosewood strat with 3 different shades of white.

Dialling an amp to full potential is an art

Hell yeah! Hot Rod deluxe sounds great on its own

Sounds like Guitar Center on a Saturday afternoon.

Is great to see Rick addressing that the amp has a good sounding overdrive but you need to dial it in. He’s not just selling he’s explaining the good and bad of the amp.

5:43 LOL, Phil's face says it all.

Wow, using an amp designer to discuss how to use a guitar amp - so simple that 95% of the guitar bloggers missed his point. Congratulations Mr. McKnight for being smart enough to understand this.

Can You Make A Hot Rod Deluxe Sound Good? they come sounding great so YES ! if you know what you want!

Had one of these for years. Rarely had anything other than a tuner between it and my guitar.

Seriously? Lol. Can you make a Ferrari fast without any modifications? Can you make a fish swim in water without installing an engine on its tail?

"Dont quote me on this" lol. Says the man who's in charge.

I've had an original DeVille 4x10 since I bought it new - my big tip is to use the lower gain input (2), I find it makes the amp much more controllable and a bit sweeter🍬

So helpful. I have a HRD 4, that has mostly ran silent due to me getting crap tone out of it. Now all has changed. Thank you Phil and Rick!

That fender amp on the right looks amazing and so tempting.

I have the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe v.1 Corona,Ca I play in a Beatles cover band and this amp coupled with a British tube emulator pedal [I use Aclam Dr.Robert] recreates some of the best late 60s early 70s tones. Very close to Vox sound. Then I'm able to get the crisp, accurate clean tones necessary for my Yacht Rock side project. It also rocks out when set to do so. So versatile, I will never get rid of this amp.

Phill, this is one of the best interviews I have seen you do. I've seen anyone ask Rick Hines the depth of question from a player's perspective. This amp sounds like hell at home, but in a club with bass and drums it sounds great. It sits in the perfect spot.

I played one finally used at GC. Took me about 30 seconds until I realized the amp sounded incredible. I have owned/still own other amps such as the Blues Junior NOS Tweed , 5150, JCM 2000, etc etc. Definitely would love one.

I've had my HRD 3 since it was released. As we know, the v1 volume can go from inaudible to way too loud with the slightest bump. I remedied this by changing pre amp tubes. V1 = 12AY7 V2 =12AX7 & V3 = 12AT7. The mod worked and now I can play with the volume on 4 at home without the neighbourhood yelling abuse 😅 and the tone is sweet! Another mod was buying a Dr Watson attenuator (no cables just 2 male jacks into the line in/out with a chicken head master volume knob. With this set-up you can really push the amps valves and get the best tones it has to offer on clean and overdrive channels 😉 the 6L6 valves love this set-up and fire up like a pedal using the attenuator for master volume. It's a inexpensive mod that will cut through any live mix. Give it a go, you'll be wrapped with the sound and tone. 👌🎶💯

Great information. He is absolutly right about bringing down the bass volume. and get on your guitar equalizer zone only, and mind your own biz only.

The thing I did that best improved the OD tone was disconnect the negative feedback loop (Grey wire) going to the speaker output. The clean is not as pristine but has an interesting vintage quality to it. I inserted a push/pull pot so I can insert the NFB loop if I still want, but honestly the OD sounds so much better without it. You won’t get the glassy clean tone, but if you’re ok with that, look this mod up

I have an American HRD and found a list of mods years ago that split the tone circuit so you don't drag bass up with every tweak. I also put switchcraft input jacks AND INSULATED THEM, that's a must. The intl. safety jacks suck. They only contact sleeve through a piece of thin sheet metal. It's been a pretty versatile amp ever since. The speaker that came with it was kind of flabby too.

Great video! Something I'd like to hear more about is how "Presence" differs from "Treble" or how it fits into the EQ in general. Thanks Phil!

You bring lots of good content now Phil. Where will this end? Great video. 🙏👋🏼

I gigged from 1996 to 2006+ with the first generation Hot Rod Deluxe, playing pop country and Blues. The only pedal I used was a boss compressor sustainer pedal. Still have that amp still love it.

I bought the Hot Rod Deluxe 1 by 12 combo in 1996 when it came out. I gigged the ship out of it and I still really love the tone. There's a reason this is one of the most popular amplifiers.

Rick Hines is so cool, just seems so down to earth and chilled, great player too.

Phil, I would love to see a feature video on the Super Champ. I've owned both the XD and now the X2 and this is such a great amp for the money. I have never understood why the blues Junior out sells it when this is less expensive and more versatile.

Absolutely! I freakin love the drive of the hot rod!!!

I've had a lot of compliments playing out in my rock band over the past 10 years and my main tone is the Drive Channel. Master is usually around 3, Drive 10, Treble 10, Bass and Mid at 6.5, Reverb between 3-5 depending on the room, and Presence always at 8. It's pure classic rock, AC/DC and Zeppelin tone. Having a guitar with great humbuckers is very beneficial. I also will push the clean channel with a MXR micro amp and it creates a great distorted drive tone. Underrated amps, you just have to know how to create good tone. With that being said, I loved my tone even more after putting in a Weber Legacy speaker, Russian groove tubes, and upgrading to a Monster internal speaker cable. The amp also sounds even better hooked up to a 2x12 running a total of 3x12's.

Short answer: Yes. Yes you easily can.

good and to the point explanation of how to work with a hot rod in case using the drive channel. its not a high gain amp of course, and the "more drive " channel doesn t really make it for me, but the first stage (channel) is pretty useful. love the slightly cranked blues /rock tones from mine.

Of course! What kinda question is that?! They sound great, not just good. And they are one of the most selling amps of all time.

Best way to make an amp sound better: Play as well as Rick. Also, I find it interesting that he didn't use the foot pedal to select the drive channel.

I only watched this video because I used to have a hrd many years ago. I didn't care for it. However, one time I was in 8th Street music and heard a cop playing a Strat into an hrd clean and finger picking. He sounded amazing!

I changed the speaker to a Warehouse G12C/S, and the first tube to a 12AY7. Sounds much sweeter and more tamed. I can use the amp now at home. The 12AY7 really helped bring the volume control under control - because we all know the volume control sucks and goes from 0-60 in 1 second!

been playing for decades and only now am understanding how to play fender amps lol would love to hear him talk about dialing in vox and using other guitars like the jazzmaster, telecaster deluxe etc. great video friend!

maybe i'm wierd but i played on one recently..and granted about 5 hours in one of the power tubes died...but before then...it sounded pretty good. shimmering cleans and smooth over driven tones...i liked it.

After 15 years of owning the original version of the Hot Rod Deluxe came with the Fender Gold spkr. Got it" re- tubed" & it seems to sound better than ever! Was going to sell it. But after watching the video, I think that I'll keep it around for a while longer.

Very informative video. And it was nice meeting you at guitar center in Tempe this week Phil. Your videos are helpful.

Love the original. Ritchie. Did a amazing job. Its kinda sad what they did to it. Not everone needs a metal tone.

I was given a gift of a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Mod 3 and I love it! Especially with my JBL I made. Now I want to split my 2 heads. From my pedal board in which my outputs are divided by my 2 heads. My Bugera (built to use EL-34) simular to Marshall's circuits and now my Fender and their 40watt system using 6L6's.

I would love a HRDLX head with no drive channel and no reverb. It’s a great pedal platform and that’s it and a wonderful one.

Great concept! I'd love to see this video format with the various settings for the HRD, clean, and a variety of pedal combos.

Right off you know that so much tone is in your hands, listening to that guy play.

My HRD IV sounds great.

As a bass player, I wish more guitarists knew to cut their bass frequencies. As a guitarist I love my G&L Legacy cos its passive treble bass circuitry lets me control that from the guitar.

I built a master volume pedal(very easy) and plug it into the effects loop on my HRD. Best thing I could have done for it

I think I am going to buy a Fender Blues Deluxe and a matching 112 extended cabinet, put them together and have a Fender half stack.

Great content Phil, I think you've really upped your game in the past few months! As a bass player, I really appreciate the part about eq and how each instrument should stay in their respective frequency range. So many guitar players do not understand this. They think bedroom tone = live group tone....this is usually far from the case.

So I just bought a 2nd hand one, with the chrome control plate. The distortion is much saggier but if you refer to the manual it tells you how to dial in an Austin Strat tone. It's loud!

I like the sound of these amps but everyone I’ve known who’s had one has had problems with it (twin reverbs too) sometimes they sound great, sometimes they don’t know what’s going on haha. But I do love some gnarly fuzz into the clean channel

Best hod rod tone I heared

Love the sound of mine type iv hot deluxe special edition ( tweed with sparkly grille cover looks perfect guitar center exclusive ) . Watched a video of speaker replacements ( about 7 of them ) Celestion creamback sounded awesome but it’s $320 speaker that clean was amazing but I doubt I’ll do it . Most other ones sounded equal or less to the factory which imho factory sounds great . But I definitely agree don’t bang out the knobs . Very clean and vibrant amp . There are a lot of Fender factory issues that they should address like get rid of the cheap capacitors . Pennies more for better ones . And upgrade the wattage of the resistors . Also lift the ceramic resistors up off the board so it doesn’t burn or melt the board . Swichcraft input jacks also . This costs lots of money for a amp tech to do but you’ll get 20 years out of it . Also tighten up the screws on it mine were all a turn shy of being tight especially the Handle ! I don’t get it fFender ? Charge an extra $50 bucks . I’m gonna get this all done to mine soon since it’s not a year old yet. Need to find a good tech in my area .

Clean channel, volume on 8, treb 6.5, bass 6.5, mids dead center, reverb 3. Great fender scream.

I am a metal guy, thinking about buying this amp for my headrush. But I have really been getting into blues lately. SOLD!

(1.) Put a simple potentiometer volume knob in the *effects loop*. (2.) Turn that all the way down to zero to temporarily silence the amp (3.) push the amp volume and master channel level up high enough, even 7,8,9, say, to get what ever distortion and tones you would like, crank it, turn it up because you wont hear anything due to the new volume knob in the effects loop being at zero. (4) now with the amp driven hard, just turn that “new” volume knob in the effects loop up just to the sound level you want in the room, it can be fairly quiet. You will have that knob almost at one maybe if you are really cranking the amp. Then, because the amp is actually being heavily pushed, the rig will sound very driven and full of articulation and making beautiful tones but it won’t have to be loud in the room to get that great sound pallet. Then do every thing this guy in the video was talking about to find preamp settings that make you happy on a great foundation of a driven amp, Without the new effects loop sound level knob, the problem most people have with this amp is because they can’t drive the amp hard enough to get the sound they want because it would be very very loud and drive you of the room, piss off the neighbors, cover the entire band, etc. The amp sounds great loud and not great otherwise is the problem imo. Driving the heck out of the amp to get the great tones possible and then turning down the sound level in the effects loop is a super good hack,really it is. If you think this can’t work please don’t tell me about that unless you have done this and observed the thing work this way. Try it, it works really well and transforms using the amp. Fender should put a potentiometer on the effects loop thing in the first place I think. I have turned into a big HRD fan after years of really not liking the amp much and a couple of my friends have done this successfully as well. (Note that you could use a Dunlop volume pedal ( dont use a digital effects pedal) in the effects loop if you don’t have a knob potentiometer with a plug-in setup available. Its so simple and easy and effective that its hard to know why its not just the way one uses that amp, period. Hope that might help somebody having a disappointment HRD!! They are actually really good amps it turns out.

Okay! You convinced me to take my HRD out of storage and try again. It's version III.

I have 2 HRD's the II and the III. After some slight mods being done I am not going anywhere else for amps and I have had Marshall and other Fenders in the past to compare to. I find the OD channels are quite usable and sound great to me with lots of sustain for lead playing even when using single coils. Even before the mods they sounded pretty good although the modifications have solved the global EQ problem when going from dirty to clean sounds.

I'm pretty sure when someone asked Joe Bonnamassa what amp one should buy if they can't afford something more premium, he said to find a Hot Rod Deluxe. These are great amps...

I use a Fender Super Champ x2 Head through a Orange 1x12 Cab and it sounds fantastic. Best tone I’ve achieved in some time.

Another home run Phil. I'm loving these Gearhead U videos.

I have a first generation hotrod deluxe and I get some of the darkest tones without pedals.

Hrd best amp all time hands down. Total bad assery!!!

I have enjoyed your videos before, but this right here made me a subscriber.

Hot rods have too much low end, I ended puttin' an eq pedal on the preamp to tame it at 100hz and a bit under 250hz. I also diminished the volume on the eq to rise with a better control the volume on the amp. I wish I had know this trick earlier

A lot of dudes out there are bashing the hot rod deluxe for years. They just expect something else I guess. I have always loved the overdrive channel. When you set it just for a little breakup, then the more drive doesn't go over the top and is very nice. My only complain would be that I would like to have the reverb footswitchable. Now I use a reverb pedal instead... Let me add something. The stock eminence speaker on the older models are the best. I have tried like 4 other speakers because of some dudes saying they had "way better tone" with a swap, and each time I lost that Fender cristal tone. This amp is almost perfect. If you don't like it, by Vox or Marshall.

What a sweet guy. Reminds me a bit of Robert Baker, perhaps in a few years mind. Great advice as always brother 😊👍

Oh my, very very good video. I always wondered about that Fender amp guy cause mostly I think of him as a salesman for Fender. But in this video we really get to know Rick Hynes and why the Fender Amps are fun to play and sound so good. Thanks

Thank you! I’m buying one of these! 😎👍🏻

Turn it up to 4 1/2, Put a Fulltone OCD in the mix, Plug in a LP Junior, and you're golden!

At the TGU, it seems that anything can be made to sound amazing! I love these videos at the event, and I wish I could have been there!

On my Tweed deluxe to deal with the bass "flubberiness" I got Weber to build a speaker with a ribbed cone to tighten up the bass. Huge improvement.

i finally understand the presence knob lol

I love my HRD and my bass and mid stay really low, around 8 or 9 o'clock with treble set just after lunchtime. To be fair I stay on the clean channel and add a little bit of hair with a blues driver. But that's perfect for me.

“Everything at noon, with a little bit of reverb”? It’s Mark Agnesi with a wig on!!

Mine has that same hiss on the overdrive channel, even louder when you press the “more drive”

Thanks for the info as I am looking for lighter gear to play out with with minimal pedals. However I wish you had an example with hotter humbuckers to see and hear that too.

Great set bro. I just bought a hot rod and looking for some true input. Very informative, thanks

I have a Old Hot Rod Deville that I put Ruby Tubes in and that thing will not cave in on itself when cranked, I believe the setup changes the DNA of the sound.

Love mine . It’s a workhorse wish I had bought one years ago .

I have a version IV like in this video. Et90 speaker, 230-240 voltage change and nos Philips power valves just gave it another dimension. Very addictive amp, gives me inspiration when writing and once I start playing I can't stop. Hard to believe for the price I paid. It sounded good stock. Sounds Stella with the mods.

Excellent video I learned a lot and no annoying chit chat just real talk lol Peace !

Really liking this series of videos. Good content. Asking good questions. Great guests. Thanks!

I put 12ay7 tubes in my hot rod deluxe and it sounds great not so ice picky

Great vid Phil, HRD is the model and Rick’s explanations very informative. Thanks and cheers from Canada.

The treble affects what is going inside the preamp, and therefore changes what part distorts. Presence is a treble effect that happens after the preamp.

Great video,thanks guys

I bought one in 97 and used the clean channel alone with a pedal board of modded tubescreamers , and 3 or 4 high quality pedals, this amp seems to flourish then

Great review. My favorite amp, but the gain always sounded fuzzy to me.

Clean Sounds really great at 01:03 perfect for my ears

I always value good advice and he certainly gave some good tips on how to dial in good tone from an amp.

I used to have a Hot Rod Deluxe and a Hot Rod Deville 2x12. With my Tele (humbucker at neck and Lindy Fralin bridge) I ran the red light all the time and controlled the volume at the guitar. It always sounded great. I only sold them because they became too heavy to move.