Back up for sale.
The History:
I've had this amp for around six years. I bought it off a wealthy amp collector chap in Scotland, he had a tone of amps and was liberating a few esoteric examples. Prior to this, I had the 4x10 Hot Rod Deville, which was a complete pig of an amp, and was either ON-full-blast or OFF. It also sounded terrible through the overdrive channel. I had looked into getting some work done to it by Jim at Omega Amps in the US, but his fully fettled HR Deluxe appeared for sale, I bought it, and I sold the Deville instead.
The seller told me that he had taken the chassis out, had it professionally packed in a wooden crate, and sent to Jim at Omega Amps. I'm lead to believe that nearly 400 alterations were made to the chassis/circuit. Upon it's return to the UK, Jim recommended that the stock speaker be upgraded in favour of an Eminence Cannabis Rex in the amp, and a Swamp Thing in the 1x12 cab. The owner loved it for years, but then sold it to buy a well gigged amp from jamiroquai guitar player.
When I received the amp, I was completely blown away by the tone of the thing. Channel 1 is now a fantastic Blackface tone. I play it at breakup level, where it has incredible sustain, and a beautiful bloom to the note. When I pick lightly, the tone is clean and chimey, when I dig in, the amp breaks up beautifully. I would describe the soundscape as HUGE, it has a real breadth of tone, it fills the room. It's pretty spectacular.
The Drive channel is Marshall Plexi flavoured. It sounds exactly like a Marshall plexi, but with buckets more gain on tap. It'll go from a touch dirty, to full on metal without the need for an pedals. The amps also has a built in boost (pedal), stomp on it, and it not only boosts the volume, but also bumps the mids too. It pushes the Marshall channel really over the edge, and sounds absolutely incredible through the Fender channel.
The More Drive options is now a third channel, and is Dumble voiced. You do need to tweak the tone controls to get that classic Dumble tone out of it, but it's there, and it's incredibly useful. If I liked Santana, i'm sure I'd use it a lot, but I'm really just a Fender amp guy .
I don't really want to sell this amp. I sold all of my other amps first, My Kustom Coupe 36, Traynor YSC90, Ceriatone Marshall Plexi clone, Fender Bassman, Laney VC30, custom built point-to-point 5E3 clone etc It shows how much I love this highly tweaked FSR Fender Hot Rod Deluxe that it's the last to go (save for my diddy Blackheart Handsome Devil, which is out on loan to a friend, and my new Tone King Imperial 20th Anniversary).
Why am I considering selling it? Well, the work situations hasn't been great the last few years, so many of my amps and guitars have gone to new homes, plus I no have a Tone King Imperial (20th Anniversary model), and I can't justify having to loud gigging amps (despite the fact that I no longer gig)...
Bad points.
It's loud, REALLY loud. I use it at home with a basic attenuator to reign it in (luckily, it sounds great like that).
Another point - it has shared EQ between the channels. I have found several setting that work well for the Fender and Marshall channels, but to get the Dumble channel sounding Dumbly, you do need to tweak to controls.
That's it really - all else is great!
Oh...and the cleans are not 100% squeaky clean. The clean always has touch of hair to it - so this amp is best suited to blues guys, rockabilly guitars or rockers. It doesn't have the bionic crystal cleans that jazzers like.
Good points
It sounds epic, with killer tones. Looks great, rock solid, very stable, and never given me any issues. Do you're own search online about Omega Amps, they specialise in reworking Fender Hot Rod amps to make them sound fantastically good. Some independent reviews
hereHave a scour around online for yourself, you won't find one bad word about these amps.
Photos to come tomorrow.
A Bargain at £600. Highly upgraded Rod Deluxe, plus matching 1x12 cab - all with upgraded speakers.
Marlin
Comments
I have a basic attenuator sitting in the effects loop, to regulate the volume for practice levels. Even at household levels, it sounds fantastic.
Will put my new Tone King Imperial up against it tomorrow, and feedback a comparison.
Note. This is to a standard HR-Deluxe, what a Ducatti is to a mountain bike.
Marlin