Any Hot Rod Deluxe Mods out there??

[Ringwraith]

There used to be a great site for this but it's long gone.
Anyone have any tips for modding this amp?
Not looking to take out the PCB just yet. Would just like
to change some values at first, try to open up the sound a bit.
When the amp is pushed it sounds like it's being strangled or something.
Just looking for options I can try.

Cheers
Sean

[Robert M. Martinelli]

Hmmmm...
If you don't want to mess with your amp's guts yet, my advice would be to try some lower gain valve(s) (12AY7, 5751... ) in the preamp section.

Your amp probably sound "strangled" at higher settings due to excessive gain, and you might be in for a big surprise in discovering that, to achieve a "good tone", even in a lead channel, you don't really need "all that gain"(unless you want to emulate your grass mower's engine sound).

The rationale for the above: An ECC83 /12AX7 has an input capacitance of 1.6pF, which gets multiplied by the stage's gain (Miller effect), so, if you move to, say a 12AY7 (Cgk = 1.3pf, mu = 40), or a 5751 (Cgk = 1.4 pF, mu = 70) the benefits will be twofold: the stage will have less gain, which will in turn help to reduce the "strangling" effect, and the equivalent input capacitance of the stage will be lowered, opening up the tone somewhat.

Hope this helps

Best regards

Bob

[ron45]

Email me privately and I'll forward all the mods from that page or you can do it yourself here Fender Forum but you have browse thru the posts to find the links. The mods are for HRDX and Dv amps. They are very similar. One thing I'm fooling with in my DeVille is replacing the GT's with JJ6V6S power tubes. The 212 Deville is a bit bassy to my ear. These tubes turned that off like a switch. They will reduce the head room so it breaks up more smoothly and the cut the wattage by about half. They sound very nice at low volume here in my studio. Haven't tried these at gig volume. Another side benefit is I can turn it up past one at home. The character of the tone stack is different/better also. If the amp is not too loud for you this may not be your best move. Reducing the power of the tube in the three preamp tubes is a good idea. Easy to do and hear the result.

Ron