Fender Hot Rod Deluxe- Epic Speaker Shootout

According to the folks at Fender, the Hot Rod Deluxe (HRDX) is their best-selling amp of all time.  So while there are plenty of folks who diss the amp . . . obviously there are many MORE who like the amp enough to actually buy one!

What’s up with that?  Seriously, is it a great tube combo or not?  If not, what can be done to MAKE it great?  A quick Google search returned plenty of “mods” that various folks have tried, with varying success. The average user, however, isn’t going to be qualified to actually whip out a soldering iron and start swapping resistors and capacitors.  Bringing the amp to a tech to “mod” it could easily cost more than the amp itself!  Ah, but WE know that NOTHING can alter the tone of an amp like the SPEAKER, so let’s look at a speaker upgrade.   I always say:  Change your tubes or your strings and you’ll see a SLIGHT tonal change … but change your speaker and you’ve got an entirely new amp!  So, let’s get to crackin’.

I did one of my infamous, monsterous, totally epic speaker shootouts, and I hope you will take the time to watch all 37 minutes of it.  But hey, if ya ain’t so Inclined, I totally understand (Shoot even I can’t take that much of ME sometimes).  If ya want the end result here it is:

******Spoiler Alert******

The Reaper HP was the winner.  Several models were very nice in different ways, but the Reaper HP just plain excelled in bringing what the HRDX was missing while retaining what’s already great about the amp.  So there, if ya wanta go the whole 9-yards, here is the video:

in case the vid doesn’t display for ya, here is the direct link: http://youtu.be/fvjkdK7KW6Q

See ya all next time around.  I’m finishing up another big honkin' shootout with my Supersonic 22 … with a little luck it’ll be ready to go next!

emailVaughn     About Vaughn Skow