Finally! The Fender Hot Rod Deluxe version 4 is now available nationwide in stores. And I had a chance to sit down with one and spend some quality time. I was playing a new Fender Players Series Strat as my guitar, because to test a Fender amp properly, you need a Fender guitar. Here’s my review…
The Good
This amp line has always sounded good when turned up loud. I used to own a HRD v3 and I bought it because, when you turn it up, it sounds huge and amazing and fills the room. Does the v4 still continue the awesomeness? Yes, yes it does. It might even sound a little bit better. There’s not much to say about this – at about $300 less than a Deluxe, it sounds bigger and better when turned up loud in a big room. I wish I could have kept mine, for the same reason I wish I’d kept my PA system – it’s really neat to have an amp that sounds so awesome in a live setting and fills a room. What a great, loud, clean amp this is.
The Bad
I’m a big fan of both Fender and Gibson. I have Fender posters on the wall of my home studio as well as a big old Fender clock. I own several Fender t-shirts. But holy crap, will they EVER listen to their customers when it comes to this amp? Everyone who has played or owned this amp has had the same two problems: you can’t play it softly because the amp has a huge jump in volume between 1 and 2, and the dirt channel is borderline unusable. They didn’t fix these issues in version 2. They still didn’t fix these issues in version 3. Did they finally fix them in version 4? NO! No no no no no. They SAY they did. But go play one. It’s a little bit better, but there’s still a massive amount of volume coming out of this amp if the volume knob is set to 2. The Bassbreaker lets you cut the wattage with a switch on the back of the amp. So does my Peavey Valveking Micro head. So do most amps on the market today that are decent. Why not do that? Here’s the pisser – this amp has a three band eq that only works on the dirt channel no one actually uses. Wait… every HRD player knows the clean channel is great and the dirt channel is bad. But I’m thinking it might be useful on a nearly $800 amp to have access to EQ. You’re going to need a pedal for that. Why not do what other modern amps do and give us a preamp volume, like on the dirt channel? And don’t get me started on the “newly improved” dirt channel. Or do… in the next section…
The Ugly
Fender says they’ve taken the comments about the dirt channel to heart and improved the circuit. That’s sort of like saying “I’m going to stop the rain” and then putting up an umbrella. But in this case the umbrella is 5 inches wide and I’m still getting rained on. I played around with the dirt channel. It sounds a little bit better than the v3. But it doesn’t sound good. At all. Some people might find it usable, but I personally don’t know any of those people. It’s a lot like a cheap Chinese dirt pedal that you can almost get to sound good. Nope, HRD 4 owners will need to go to a pedal, yet again, to get a usable dirt sound. Fortunately there are tons of good dirt pedals on the market, but damn Fender… who the hell thought this was a big improvement?
I might sound a little harsh, but I own the Bassbreaker 15. I also own a Marshall DSL15 tube head. The Bassbreaker sounds amazing – it sounds more like a great Marshall than the Marshall does. Another great sounding Fender amp for dirt is the Supersonic. I’ve always wanted one. Fender CAN make a good dirt sound. Fender’s argument is that they’re not going for a Marshall-type sound with the HRD 4 dirt channel – they want it to sound like a Fender amp, cranked up to the point of breaking up. Like a Princeton on 8. But it’s not even in the same zip code. It’s not close. They reached for a sound and failed, and the reviews that I’ve seen online from big name reviewers are all “Yes, this does sound better than the v3.” Which it does. But that’s as far as they go. No over the top praise. They’re being diplomatic. I don’t have to be diplomatic. The dirt channel is still crap, and they should get rid of it and give the EQ to the clean channel. There is a version of the HRD that has two clean channels. It’s a signature amp, but I can’t remember the jazz guitarist they made it for and I can’t find it via the Google.
Conclusion
If you need a big, loud, clean Fender amp that can sound amazing in a big room, this amp kicks ass. It sounds amazing when you turn it up. If you aren’t a gigging musician, don’t buy this amp. Get a Deluxe, or a Princeton, or a Blues Junior, or a Bassbreaker (if you like good sounding distortion.) Fender is a great company and I love their products. But they make some really dumb decisions. That said, I can’t blame them too much. The Bassbreaker is one of the best amps they’ve ever made, and they aren’t selling anywhere near as well as they should be. People go to Fender amps for the clean. So it makes sense that they have mixed values about dirt. Had the Bassbreaker been a massive runaway hit, maybe things would be different. But damn. So yeah, this is an amp for a gigging musician who plays big big rooms, not just the bar down the street. Big amazing loud sound. For anything else, look elsewhere.
One more thing. Small amp cabinets sound boxy. A 12 inch speaker in a small cab gives you a boxy sound. The Blues Junior sounds box. The Bassbreaker 15 sounds boxy. I wish Fender would give us something like a Blues Junior in a HRD enclosure. People have no idea how huge an impact the cabinet has. A big part of the reason the HRD sounds big is the cabinet itself. Fender knows this. But the Blues Junior is maybe the best selling amp in history, in part because of its small size. Fender is definitely giving people what they want, not what they need, in the Blues Junior. Put a Blues Junior in a HRD cab, and you might kill the HRD. Probably why they do it. I want to buy a used Blues Junior and stick just the amp into an amp head case. That’d be killer. Surprising Fender doesn’t make a Blues Junior head.
