Comments about Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III 40W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

This amp gives me the full range of sounds to compliment my playing style, from clean to as much distortion as need. I can go from crystal clean to overdriven with no, or just the right change in volume. Or, if I need a dirty rythm sound the More Drive button is perfect for soloing.

Comments about Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III 40W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

My friend has this amp and it is a joy to play through every time. Good sound quality, nice warmth, and very easy to use. The only downside to this amp is it's weight. It's not the easiest amp to transport, but when you use it, it makes it all worth it. Everything sounds like god when played through this amp. Highly recommended!

Comments about Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III 40W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

Bought a Fender HRD III and was excited about the sound for the price. Less than 45 days later it started buzzing really loud. Thought I did my research by looking at reviews on sales web sites. Turns out the problem I have is very widespread. Search for Hot Rod Deluxe Issues on Google. The quality of the amp is very poor and I am very dissapointed in Fender for even releasing such a low quality amp.

Comments about Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III 40W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

First and foremost, I will put it out there that you should likely change the tubes ASAP. Groove Tubes are notorious for short life-spans, and they're generaly not very complimentary to your sound.

Overall, I enjoy this amp. It's my first tube amp, and I did quite a bit of research before I purchased. Probably my favorite feature is the effects loop. The amp takes pedals pretty decently. I tend to use two Blues Drivers side by side and a volume boost, and occasionally some delay and other effects. This is because I am not a fan of the Drive/More Drive channel.

The problem I have is that it's either too thin or too flabby. I can sometimes coax a decent alt rock distortion from it, but switching between it and the clean channel is rough because you really need to change the EQ drastically between the two. This is due to the way everything was wired up at the factory. I won't be going into the details of that, though. All I will say is that I would've liked to see separate EQ for the normal and drive channels. For this reason, I use pedals on this amp.

If you need clean, and you need it loud, that's where this amp shines the most. The amp overall has a dark sound to it. You honestly have a lot more bass in this machine than you'll ever need. At the same time, the high-end is very sharp. The amp has no trouble cutting through the mix whether distorted or clean. The additional Presence control is nice to have when you need to speak with just a bit more authority.

I've used this amp in many scenarios over the last year since I've owned it. Mostly pop-punk, funk, and hard rock. It's most effective when clean. Turn it up to around 6 or 7, roll back your guitar's volume knob, and you have very warm backing guitar sounds. Crank that knob back up, and you can get some serious screaming, full-bodied leads.

Two inputs is nice. Input 1 is a good bit hotter and brighter than input 2, which is very dark. If you have active pickups, you'll wanna use input 2 more often than not, I'd think. Normal/Bright switch is nice. Give you a quick way to adjust to a bright or dead venue until you catch a break to make more thorough adjustments.

All in all, a great purchase. It's versatile if you know how to adjust everything. Get new tubes.

Comments about Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III 40W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

I purchased my hot rod deluxe in January of '99 and have been using it ever since. I have owned several fender amps over the years in addition to playing through GK, Marshall, peavey, vox, line 6, sunn, and likely a few more that have been lost in the haze of 46 years of playing. It is simply the best tone for the money. Period. I replaced the tubes after 7 or 8 years with groove tubes- matched duet of power tubes and matched triplet of pre amp tubes and it is still going strong. It seems like it does not really care what instrument is plugged into it- strats, teles,, steinberger, Parker, PRS, les Paul.... It seems to love them all. I am on my 4th foot switch as I tend to use it quite a bit when gigging, and have gigged steadily with this amp since purchase. I looked at so many others before buying this, and was motivated to write this review when considering replacing it with something a bit lighter as it is getting harder and harder for this old man to heft it into my trunk several times a month. The more I look at the other options available, the more I come to appreciate what this amp does. It delivers the classic fender sound, on command, every time. There is a reason these amps are still in production, still sought after, and still in use by scores of musicians. If I had to complain, it would be the lack of that killer classic fender tremolo, but that was remedied with a pedal. While I feel the second channel/ overdrive on this model is a tad harsh, I understand fender has tamed it on the current models. I can't say that I have had any other piece of gear hold up as well as this amp has. Last summer I did an outdoor gig where it was 113 degrees at load in, and 102 at load out (at midnight no less) and it performed flawlessly. And that was not the only gig in adverse conditions it has done in the past 13 years. Beginner or pro, this amp is indeed tough to beat.

Comments about Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III 40W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

My HRD has sat in my garage for 13 years, usually uncovered, getting damp and dirty, but always ready to deliver when that red pilot light goes on (well, almost always ready. But you have to change the oil and tires on that F150 every once in a while to keep it humming and don't forget to replace that timing chain somewhere doen the road).

This is a rock-solid, time-tested product that has won the respect of musicians of evey stripe.

I'm buying a second one this week.
I've owned a HRD for the past 13 years. It's been in the shop and a couple of modifications as well. Remember that this is not a boutique amp, it's not a Mazerati--rather, it's like the Ford F150 pick up of guitar amps.

It's diverse and well-suited for rock, metal, blues, country, jazz and anything else you want to throw at it. It can produce warm blues tones at low volume or screaming harmonics when you play it loud. It has drive and more drive and those are serious drive channels--you really won't need a distortion pedal with an HRD (hey, unless you want to go crazy--have at it).

But there are reasons why this is the best-selling tube amp of all time. It's a workhorse, baby!
Fender cuts a few corners to keep this amp relatively affordable. The reverb and drive channelsshare circuitry, so when both are engaged the signal is fluctuating rapidly between the two. That can go south, as it did on my amp (it tarted cutting out). A Fender approved repair guy fixed that overnight and added a cheap modification Never had that problem a again.

The input jacks are soldered directly to the circuit board and after years of pluging in, they can come loose. It's an easy fix and, again, an easy and cheap upgrade.

The shell is pretty solid and can take a lot of abuse but after a few years of my son and his friends playing grindcore on the HRD, things got lose and started to rattle. That's not really easy to fix for some reason, but it's manageable.

The original tubes lasted for a decade. I upgraded to some old Sylvania 6L6s and added amazing harmonics.

The fact is, this is an amp that has a lot of strong qualities and responds well to modifications (if you want to throw another $200 or $30 into it, you can easily bring it up to boutique quality. Fromel Electronics sells mod kit s for the HRD that are highly recommended)
I've owned plenty of other tube amps, including Vox and Peavy. The Fender HRD has lots of power, a killer drive channel, and a much tighter, tougher sound than a Peavy Delta Blues or Classic 30, for instance.

I'd say that pound for pound (and dollar for dollar) you can't match this classic guitar amp.

Comments about Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III 40W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

What's not to love - rich tube tone, great clean and dirty channel, effects loop, 40W, 1x12 for good bottom.
I've had them all - mesa's, egnaters, vox, and multiple fenders. The clean on these amps is why most people love them and buy them. But, unlike the old HRDII version which had the world's flabbiest dirty channel (unusable), both the Gain and More Gain settings on this amp really sound great for rock and for blues. I actually don't even run an overdrive pedal into it anymore - I just love the gain and more gain sound.
So far so good - I've had it for 6 months and it's working really well.
There are so many amps at this price that are junk. This amp is a keeper for me.

Comments about Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III 40W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

The hot Rod Deluxe has some problems that will show up after playing a while. The amp gets so hot some of them will have to be repaired. Mine is not old at all the reverb quit and the drive and over drive quit. Get ready to take it to the sound shop. Just letting you know. Fault soidering on the board and input jacks. I wish I would have read the problems before I purchased it.

Comments about Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III 40W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

Can't beat this little amp for quality, sound and features. Unless your playing really large venues, this is a great amp!
This amp has everything you need to make a guitar sound great. Forget all the modeling gimmics. Give me a good tube amp raw sound any day! This amp lets you chose between that gorgeous Fender clean sound and two levels of overdrive with the footswitch. The reverb is excellent and don't forget the presence knob. It can really help define your sound.
40 watts of tube power and a 12 inch speaker is more than enough for most small clubs. This little thing Rocks!
Fender nailed it! Everything on this amp is first rate.
I'd love to pay a little less than this for an amp this size, but it's a fair price for the quality of the amp.

Comments about Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III 40W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

most complaints I see are probably from shredders. This is not a marshall amp! It has beautiful sound, great reverb, and much lighter than a 4-10" amp like a super reverb. If you like clean, you can't beat this amp, this size, this price.
basic amp. I do not like modeling amps, or amps with digital effects built in..when those break. They're a pain to fix
/thats hard to judge since these use circuit boards, and not point to point like my old super reverb was. But seems strong and durable. I had a Frontman 212r both had good sound but the frontman was solid state, thats not a bad amp though.
I bought this used but in new condition and got one heck of a deal. A friend of mine has one, and I always kept on the lookout for a used one I could afford.