Feral Feline
Well-known member
No need to get pissy about it...
If you were to build one fender amp
- Thread starter kweefthief
- Start date
SillyOctpuss
Well-known member
See that's where I'm at too. I can buy a hot rod deluxe or deville for £350/£400 all day long and any Fender amp kit is significantly more expensive than that.
Id love to build an amp but for the price I can find a deluxe reverb kit I reckon I can either buy a second hand DRRI or a Hot rod deluxe AND a Marshall dsl 40.
Harry Klippton
Not Interested
You trying to tell me you think a hot rod deluxe is gonna be as good as an amp you build yourself on a turret board? 
It's cheaper for a reason
It's cheaper for a reason
SillyOctpuss
Well-known member
You trying to tell me you think a hot rod deluxe is gonna be as good as an amp you build yourself on a turret board?
Leaving aside the horrible horrible drive channel the hot rod deluxe is a fantastic amp. You'd have to spend a lot more money to get anything with a better clean channel than a HRD.
In a gigging scenario a hot rod will cut through a lot better than most lower powered Fenders in a bar with a poor PA. I gigged a hot rod deville for years and it sounded fantastic every single night. There's a reason there's so many which have been sold and the fact there are so many out there is why they're so cheap. It has nothing to do with them being poor (except for the drive channel, I don't think I ever plugged mine in)
A friend of mine had the Mike Landau Hot Rod Deville with two clean channels and it sounded awesome.
Guardians of the analog
Papi Fuego
I think Will was just referring to the construction quality wise. Having modded a a couple of the HRD and Blues Jr series amps, the construction of the pcb leaves much to be desired. They are notorious for fried components and tube failures but sound great in spite of those short comings.
Harry Klippton
Not Interested
HRD and blues Jr are apparently notorious for leaking Illinois capacitors and resistors burning the board. There's a repair shop I follow on Instagram and they're fixing one literally every day
Guardians of the analog
Papi Fuego
SillyOctpuss
Well-known member
Sorry @Harry Klippton I've just read my response back and it comes across as quite defensive. I'm just a fan boy of the old cheap much maligned HRDeville, I genuinely think they sound fantastic and they just get better the louder they get.
I've no doubt many people on here could make a more reliable amp on turret board but I doubt my first attempt would be as road worthy.
SillyOctpuss
Well-known member
In fairness the sheer number of them out there could also make them seem more unreliable than another model which has sold a lot less units. I totally agree they're built to a price point but apart from the usual flickering bulb which plagues all of them (I changed mine for an Led) anyone who I knew whose had one hasn't really had any trouble with them.
ChrsGuit
Active member
A blackface Super Reverb isn't loud. I have a 66 myself.. Silverfaces, yes, but some of those have master volumes *edited "volunteers" back to "volumes" *I'm looking for a winter/summer break project! I really love the sound of a blackpanel princeton but don't feel like shelling out $800+. A super reverb would be so cool, but tooooo loud. Personally, I just play at home and would like something quieter. Right now, I'm just running a blues jr with a crex keeping it clean (looking to change tone stack on it). I would love to run two amps in stereo.
Anyways, if you guys could build only one fender amp, which would it be?
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Chuck D. Bones
Circuit Wizard
Passinwind
Well-known member
I made my early 80s Fender 30 into a BF Vibrolux Reverb 2 x 10, essentially. Wouldn't mind getting that build back, it was quite fab.
ChrsGuit
Active member
The Hotrod Deluxe sounds really good until you hear something better. The clean channel sounds loud, clear and sweet at first but when you compare it with something better you start to notice the woofy low end, the shrill high end and high noise floor. I've owned a Hotrod Dlx, Deville and Blues Deluxe in the past and they sounded ok until I started using them in a band. In that context they got lost. I graduated to Bassman and Super Reverb RIs and eventually got into building my own. I'm not an expert but the difference in sound quality is night and day. If you use good quality parts you can built something vastly better. You don't even have to become a woodworker any more - Mojotone makes fantastic cabinets.
ChrsGuit
Active member
I had an early blonde tolex 4x10 blues Deville that sounded great, but MAN was it heavy...
Passinwind
Well-known member
I always thought the More Drive function should have been Less Drive...
A local tech friend of mine gutted one and put in a hand built P to P board, and a former bandmate of mine was still gigging with it last I heard.
coltonius
Well-known member
Having built and sold a dozen different Fender-style amps, my PR build is the one I miss most. There's just something special about it..
___
To answer the OP's question, I'd have to say it depends on the circumstances.
For general, at-home use: Black Panel Princeton Reverb, hands down.
For most gigs: Black Panel Deluxe Reverb
For pissing off the neighbors: blonde/black Bassman or brown Super
Since it's a popular suggestion, I'll say that I'm glad to have built a 5E3 Deluxe; it's a legendary circuit for a reason. I later modified the heck out of it (per Rob Robinette's website) and liked it a whole lot more than stock- but in the end, it wasn't really my style.
For those interested in building an amp that's off the beaten path, Marsh Amps sells faceplates and chassis on eBay under the username 1032canter1961.
Here's an incomplete family shot + a shot of the Deluxe Reverb:
