Fender sure knows how to give its favourite guitar amps a glow up to mark a special anniversary, and has just treated the Hot Rod Deluxe to a limited edition makeover that marks 30 years of the much-loved 40-watt combo.
If you have been following these launches closely, you’ll notice something familiar about the 30th Anniversary Hot Rod Deluxe – it comes with the same western-style textured vinyl covering and that vintage ‘50s-style grille cloth, looking just as the 30th Anniversary Blues Junior IV did last year. And there’s an anniversary badge and a vintage leather handle to complete the look.
The similarities between these tube amps don’t end there, either. This, too, has had a fresh speaker, with Fender swapping out the original’s 12” Celestion A-type speaker for a G12M-65 Creamback, both ceramic speakers, but the latter has a more “vocal” midrange, not to mention a heritage that goes way back to classic rock’s formative days of Beck, Clapton et al.
And just as Fender took the opportunity to make some tweaks to the Blues Junior’s circuit, here we have some refinements to the preamp in pursuit of “increased overdriven note definition” and the spring reverb has been modded to make it smoother. These modifications worked gangbusters on the Blues Junior so we’ll be intrigued to hear how it it sounds on this 40-watt platform.
For many players, the Hot Rod Deluxe screams ‘pedalboard platform’. There is an abundance of clean headroom, with that speaker upgrade was made with pedals in mind, and there is an effects loop so you can place your time-sensitive effects – your modulation and delay petals et cetera – after the preamp, before the power amp.
The Hot Rod Deluxe presents us with three channels to choose from – Normal, Drive and the evocatively titled More Drive. A three-band EQ serves all channels, and there are Volume, Drive, Master, Reverb and Presence controls, plus a Bright switch should you need to spritz up the treble.
It certainly looks the part, with black chickenhead knobs mounted on a high-shine stainless steel control panel. All your 1/4” connections, including that for the two-button footswitch, can be found here.
As for the tubes, there are a trio of 12AX7s in the preamp, a pair of 6L6’s doing the heavy lifting in the power section, and it should be said that this is a loud guitar amplifier, which is a good thing. It’s part of its charm.
The 30th Anniversary Hot Rod Deluxe is out now, priced £1,269/$1,299. See Fender for more details.
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