[Harp-L] Tube swapping in the Hot Rod Deluxe



--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Vince Curcuru" <vcurcuru@xxxx>
wrote:
>
> Hi All,
> I was wondering if anybody here has any experience with subbing tubes in a
> Hot Rod Deluxe.  I have one and like the tone pretty much but someone
> suggested that I can get an even fatter tone by subbing out some of the
> 12AX7 preamp tubes for different ones.
> Any help would be appreciated.


Vince,

I've had a HRDx for about 3 years now and I can say that yes, you can sub
the tubes and greatly improve the sound.  What you want to do is swap out
the first 2 preamp tubes (the ones closest to where you plug your mic cable
into) with either 12AY7s or 12AU7s. The 12 AU7s have the least gain and will
fatten up you sound.  Since you have the drive channels there it's not that
they fatten up your sound so much as they provide for earlier break-up at a
lower volume.  You'll also have less feed-back with either of these tubes.
The third tube, the one closest to the power tubes should stay as it is as
this stage doesn't effect the gain levels before the power stage.

I highly recommend you get a Boss graphic equalizer pedal. This will really
cut down on feed-back.  You will also want to check out this site completely
devoted to the HRDx:

http://studentweb.eku.edu/justin_holton/

This site is excellent! there are loads of mods listed here that you might
be interested in.  The HRDx is the best selling, most popular amp in
Fender's history (yes, even more so than the Bassman)and there are lots of
mods you can do to improve it's sound.  But let me warn you, there isn't
much you can to about feed-back after you get to a certain volume. It will
sound beautiful at home but get it out on a stage with other amps and it
just wants to feed-back.  If you are playing through the clean channel and
you want to fatten up your best bet (after swapping out the tubes) is to get
some kind of adjustable preamp for your mic.  I ended up using my Sabane
anti-feed-back box.  It does absolutely nothing for feedback but it boosts
the mic signal just enough to add some break-up. I'm sure there are some
units out there that would accomplish that same thing and cost a lot less.

The drive channels are great but you loose a lot of bass with them but there
is a mod that you can to to restore the bass to these channels.

I'm selling mine now that I got the Holland but I have to say that I had a
lot of fun with the Hot Rod.  Good luck.

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh





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