Few questions about HRDX tube amp volume

[matt.lew]

Hey guys, I was looking for an answer to these questions online, but I couldnt find any that satisfied me, or trusted.

I have a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe HRDX Limited Edition 40w 1x12" Tube Amp. (buddy was selling it, so I started playing with it for fun and I fell in love)

The problem is that I still live with my family, and they arent a fan of my "music," and the amp is just too loud. With the amp only on 2, its rather loud, and when I turn it below that it just doesnt sound good anymore. Even when I have the amp on 3 and my distortion on, its almost blowing me away.

Is there a relatively simple way that you can make a tube amp not as loud? Or even a way to hook up headphones to it? Or even any ideas that may help me out?


Thanks in advance.

[Jazz P Bass]

The headphone idea is going to require a high wattage resistor to take the place of the speaker load.
Then you have to resistor divide the current to run the headphones, which have to be wired for mono.
The volume pot that Fender uses is a scream.
At 3-4 the amp is putting out full clean power.
Anything above that it clips. (distortion)
Let me suggest a few things.
#1: Try the other input jack. It is padded to lower the input signal.
#2: Rethink where you have the tone controls set at.
Try everything at 1. Raise the Treble first.
Then raise the mid & lastly the bass.
Now, if what you like about the tone IS the distortion, you may be out of luck.
I have never tried one, but there are Power Soaks out there.

[matt.lew]

Hey J. Thanks alot for the reply. I will try the other jack first and the tones and see what i come up with. I dont really use the distortion on the amp, so that range does suit me also.

Thanks again!

[Pedro Vecino]

Volume potentiometers that Fender uses in this amp are with lineal curve. Ideal would be to use pots with logarithmic curves. This helps a lot to control at low volume.
In your situation you can use a potentiometer fitted between send and return to control at this point the overall volume. This will be useful.
Simply using two jacks inserted in send/return jacks and installing a 100K log. potentiometer wired between them you´ll get it.
Is another possibility.

[Alex R]

You can get somewhere on the distortion channel only by replacing the MV, a 100K linear pot, with a 100K audio (log-type) pot - but it's not so easy to deal with the volume on the clean channel. The clean volume pot is a 250K which is already audio (log-type) - replace that with a lower value still and by the time you get a low enough value to make a big enough difference (47K?) you may well become dissatisfied with the gain throughput generally.

You might want to source a pot with the little metal stand on it, but you can get away without be running short wires from the board.

Pedro's idea works on both channels though!

[Albert Kreuzer]

In your situation you can use a potentiometer fitted between send and return to control at this point the overall volume. This will be useful.
Simply using two jacks inserted in send/return jacks and installing a 100K log. potentiometer wired between them you´ll get it.

You could build one like this:

[pdf64]

In case you're not sure how to wire this up, see link
Build a Volume Box

[matt.lew]

Sorry Guys, Ive been swamped with finals and all that good stuff. But ill check into what you guys said.

And thank you guys very much for the responses.

[Dezzy]

The headphone idea is going to require a high wattage resistor to take the place of the speaker load.
Then you have to resistor divide the current to run the headphones, which have to be wired for mono.
The volume pot that Fender uses is a scream.
At 3-4 the amp is putting out full clean power.
Anything above that it clips. (distortion)
Let me suggest a few things.
#1: Try the other input jack. It is padded to lower the input signal.
#2: Rethink where you have the tone controls set at.
Try everything at 1. Raise the Treble first.
Then raise the mid & lastly the bass.
Now, if what you like about the tone IS the distortion, you may be out of luck.
I have never tried one, but there are Power Soaks out there.

Hi there and greetings from the UK. I have just orded A hot rod deluxe which arrives on Friday. I heard the amp in the shop on the guys personal one and it sounded great on 2-3, I fell in love with it. My questions = how loud can U have the volume before it sounds to low and you are not getting a good tube sound, and how hight can you have the volume before the nice clean sound starts to ''well not sound good clean'', and what is a really good leavel to have it at to get the best sound out of it. cheers

[Alex R]

Well you're soon going to know :-)

[Jazz P Bass]

From Post #1.!
"The volume pot that Fender uses is a scream.
At 3-4 the amp is putting out full clean power.
Anything above that it clips. (distortion)
Let me suggest a few things.
#1: Try the other input jack. It is padded to lower the input signal.
#2: Rethink where you have the tone controls set at.
Try everything at 1. Raise the Treble first.
Then raise the mid & lastly the bass.
Now, if what you like about the tone IS the distortion, you may be out of luck."