Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV 4-stars Reviews

Just an awesome amp

the combination of a strat and the hot rod deluxe is just simply magic

Good but not great

This is a great amp considering it's price, it's well suited for the gigging musician with all the needed features to be a great live pedal platform, but there are a couple things you should consider before deciding:

- There are better sounding amps from fender, if you're looking for the very best with recording in mind, try a deluxe ou any other non master amp from them

- It's not a good solution for home/bedroom playing, because it's loud and control is difficult, the master doesn't work for the clean channel and there is a very high jump in volume from 1 to 2 and beyond that is quite unusable outside a stage or a studio

- the gain channel is an acquired taste, most dislike it, if you're planning to use it as a platform amp that is not an issue

All that being said, this is an awesome amp for most band and/or back-line scenarios, it's light, it's powerful, it has plenty bottom end, it sounds great.

A Handy All Round Gigging Amp

I wish I'd had this all these years, but better late than never. A very versatile amp as is. I say this but it comes with a caveat that is that I don't think that Fender has really mastered the overdrive on this yet. Still some insufficient midrange on the overdrive section. But I make up for that by using my Blackstar Hi-Dual pedal. And, I did wind up modding this amp by switching out two of the 12AX7's for an 12AY7 and a 12AT7 which smooth out control (or eliminates the volume jump) But all in all I love this amp. It's been really handy for gigging when I don't want to drag along a bigger rig or if the style I'm playing is better suited for its clean tones and lovely vintage sounding spring reverb sound