Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV 1x12" 40-watt Tube Combo Amp Reviews

I had the first version of this amp for many many years... quite a workhorse, loved it and always rocked it hard... until a beer was spilled on it and put it out of service. After having it serviced, it was never quite the same. So I took the opportunity to try other amps that were okay but I eventually came back to the Hot Rod Deluxe. It is now version IV and sounding better than ever. Best bang for the buck in my opinion. Get yourself one a see! ;o)

I bought a Hot Rod about 12 years ago new. I loved it, but when it was time to get a new amp, I thought I'd try something different. I bought a Fender Mustang 100 watt. Horribly Chinese sounding and actually a 50 watt amp through 4 ohms, which made it 100, but not really. I then bought an Orange solid state 100 watt amp. I later found out that although they say it's made in England, the components are made in China. It broke after 4 months.
So, with help from Jason at Sweetwater, I got a new Hot Rod. Couldn't be happier. Very loud with a great tube sound. At 40 watts way louder than a 100 watt solid state amp.
If you plan to play out and not sound like you're playing Chinese music, the Hot Rod is your answer. Take a walk down Broadway in Nashville. Every band you see in any club will have at least one Hot Rod amp on stage.
Thinking of buying something different. Don't!

What a beautiful thing it is to have Fender's classic clean sound in an affordable amp with some real volume. The equalizer and various tone controls give players plenty of options to shape a sound. The knob design makes it easy to see settings in dim lights.

I have always had solid state amps throughout my musical history. I wasn't anti tube amps, I just didn't want to spend the extra money. But I am so glad I finally did because the sound is superior to solid state. I would be remiss if I didn't add the Sweetwater was the best buying experience. After each purchase I've made this year, I received a call from my Sales Engineer ensuring that I had everything I needed and to answer any questions. I will 'ONLY' Buy from sweet water now.

I usually do not write reviews but my new Fender Hot Rod Deluxe is the best all around amp. i can get pristine cleans and durty dirty sounds as well. Being a pedal nerd, i was more than impressed by the way the pedals sounded and the way the Hot Rod did not clash with any pedals. Gain(drive), delays, trems, reverbs(even the Fender reverb is great), all just jived with the amp. Simply put, this has become my go to for gigging. Not to mention this thing will get LOUD. I LOVE MY HOT ROD.

I've had a zillion amps. Ok, maybe that's an overstatement, but I've had a lot off them. The clean on this amp is beautiful and it takes pedals really well. I also like the drive channel but I always have more drive engaged. I'm getting tones I've been trying to get for a long time. I'd highly recommend those amp! As always, Andy Rice from Sweetwater was amazing!

I played on one amp of a fender hot rod it used at Rock n robins guiter store And Houston Texas at the Heights and it sounds really good but I would really not buy used Due to maintenance work.

I would buy a brand new fender hot rod Deluxe
To be fresh and whatnot and only play at gig venues. And if I did have a. Used Fender hot rod deluxe
I use it for practic gigs and back up.

I prefer to buy new gear of any product guitar or amplifier.

I received my fender Deluxe 40 w amp today. What can I say, so glad to have a good amp again. Years back I had a DeVille and life circumstances dictated that I needed the money more than the amp. Through the past 15 years I've been using just smaller solid state amps and. It's night and day. I am so stoked to have a nice amp again. I also bought the bugera PS1. It complements this amp very well. Nothing like heating those tubes up. I couldn't be happier. I cannot see how anybody would not like this amp.

this doesn't even need a review. you already know. solid amp. classic fender tone with no eq/boost/etc really needed. flawless with a full stack of shoegaze pedals too. unlike my '58 reissue twin reverb, this sounds good at lower volumes.I just hammed with someone who was on the blues junior and it was basically the same sound, just fyi.

I've been playing on and off over the last 30 years and have played thru many amps but this one just does it for me. Takes my pedals well and of course the clean is perfect. I highly recommend this Amp!!

This Amp sounds awesome. I give it five stars because it does exactly what it says it will do. If you are thinking of buying one, you should know that the taper on the volume is wonky. It's very loud at 2. At 3 the neighbors are complaining. I use a passive attenuator between the preamp and the power amp in the effects loop and it makes all the difference. JHS makes one but it's just a potentiometer in a box so one could easily make one if they wanted. That said, I have no other complaints about this amp.

Unbeliveamle for this price all you nee will work well with peadels. Just set the Knobe were it sound right to you a Play. Small but with the loud sound with all of this and look Super Great.

I can't compare this unit to other Deluxe models but this one seems to be a higher watt ( 40 watt / 22? ) This may give you a cleaner sound with enough volume on 3. The volume knob goes to 12 if your prior amp didn't cut it at 11. Very smooth transition to distortion channel. Enough reverb to float a battle ship. Many tone adjustments. I feel that Fender has listened to guitar players on this one. You don't need an instruction book. It is very fairly priced in my opinion. To me it looks like a solid gig amp.

I have the HRD IV and a DRRI 65 and much prefer the former in the house and on stage. It has both more girth and headroom than the deluxe. My secret is half treble and bass, and crank mids to 3:00. Compressor set light and a couple Boss ODs. Rules in a band mix, gotta go 6L6.

Once upon a time I worked for a music retailer... and every lunch break I would go to our music store and play with the selection of guitars and amps, partly for research, but mostly for the fun of it.

My favorite combo ended up being a Fender Custom Shop Heavy Relic Telecaster, a $5K+ instrument... through this amp (well, a previous revision of it). And keep in mind, that I tried many other combinations of guitars and amps, which in the latter case, included some of Fender's more boutique handwired offerings. This just had THE SOUND. The balance of girth and spank, the tube sparkle, the pleasant compression, all of it. In just the right amounts... at least to my ears.

Anyway, if you're a mostly clean player like me, and love the Fender sound, look no further than this amp. Nevermind that it also happens to be a bargain compared to some of the more "desirable" re-issues. This is the beginning and the end of your search.

This Amp was just what I was looking for, sound and tone quality is awesome. As always Mason and the Sweetwater team provided high quality customer services and the fact that this arrived on time and in a timely manner was higher than expected as it was ordered over the holiday season. My family and I will diffentily returning to Sweetwater for all of our sound needs.

This is a little amp that definitely can.
Classic Fender reverb that goes from 0 to seriously in your face.
Great classic clean and the OD channels make this a well rounded amp. Great tone that matches my existing rig with the same 6L6 tubes.
I needed a smaller amp to drag around to practice, small jam sessions, and etc as compared to the half stack.
It fulfills that requirement and then some, as it is perfectly suited for gigging as well.

Versatile, but to play larger rooms you've got to push it a bit. Top end rolls off after a set and tone gets a little mushy. Still a really great amp compared to hauling my outdated and ridiculously monstrous Marshall JMP w/ 4 x 12 cab.

Run a Tube Screamer on the front end as a boost and you'll get the most from it.

Rock on!

Pro playing since 1979.

Good for:
Rock
Blues
Jazz
Funk.RnB

Wow, Nice amp

Version IV is fantastic. I've an old version 1 user, 1998 model. Was time to replace it and the IV is just as great with the latest added tweaks very nice as advertised. I feed it pedals straight in to the clean clannel, including dirt pedal staging. Probably the best pedal amp there is. I love tubes and have many point to point wired amps ...my most classic being my '59 bassman. I always come back to my hot rod deluxe though ...even with the pcb (I feel dirty saying this). Just can't beat the tone for me. ...and now the version IV. It's great. I picked up the extension cab too in order to make it a 212.

Great amp all around! It's good for every genre except metal, but it takes pedals extremely well so a high gain pedal in front of it will fix that.

I'm a Fender amp fan, but I've never owned a Hot Rod Deluxe. I purchased it so I would longer need to haul my 71 Super Reverb to gigs. I put the two amps side by side and used an A/B switch to toggle between them. They have different characteristics, but the Hot Rod will likely cut through the band better on stage and at rehearsals. Easy as hell to dial in a good tone.

Bought his for my husband who absolutely loves it. Great company. They kept me informed at all times regarding my purchase and it came quick!

played tons of amps over decades ( ya im old ) ,this particular amp version 4 / with my fav pedals , very very happy .I play jazz ,rock,shred....all sound like they should thru this amp and its quite easy to lug around . Sounds great at condo 2 am volume or with the full band a giggin .

I had always gravitated more to Marshall/Vox style amps in the past because I loved the clean/edge of breakup tones they produced, but the Marshall JCM2000 DSL100 I have owned for 20 years actually sounds pretty bad with most of my drive pedals. The Hot Rod Deluxe IV is a great pedal platform amp & I have been super happy with it! I run the amp completely clean and stack overdrive pedals. I do not use or care for the sound of the drive channels in the amp, but that's just my preference.
I would recommend swapping out the first (V1) preamp tube. The Hot Rods are LOUD & difficult to dial in low volumes at home. The slightest movement of the volume knob between 1-2 caused huge jumps in volume & was so hard to get right. I replaced the stock 12AX7 tube with a 12AU7 tube from Sweetwater and it was the perfect solution. The 12AU7 is a much lower gain tube and sounds a bit warmer to my ear. There is still plenty of overall volume/headroom, so don't worry about that... it's still deafening! It dropped the overall volume level enough that now I run the knob closer to 3 for playing at home & about 5-6 when playing live, which is only 1 number higher than before the tube swap. Since then i'm able to push the preamp section a little harder and get some of the best clean and overdriven tones out of this amp than ever before. I'm super happy with it overall.

It"s just right for my simple basement studio. Sounds great clean or with drive. I"m kind of a punk dude so I like the drive. I can turn it up nice and loud and get great tone and feedback.

Just got this amp in and in fifteen minutes I knew this amp is a keeper. for the last year I"ve been playing the dsl40cr and it"s little brother the dsl20hr; before that the blackstar ht club 40 so I"m pretty well versed with the competition in this price range. The first impressions were glorious. I set the amp at a flat eq with a touch of the great reverb. And it just blew me a way. Blues power all the way! I tested the drive channel which is notorious bad on the previous version and I might say it wasn"t bad. I plugged a od glove by electroharmonix (it"s a inexpensive pedal but is basically a heavier tubescreamer makes it kinda sound plexish)into the clean channel it"s just great. I"m convinced with the right pedals you can make this amp do any genre you want it do. Think of this your guitar is your paint brush this amp is the canvas and pedals are the our colors. This amp really captures the True Tone of your pickups! Very pleased with everything and the guys at Sweetwater are so nice, and super relatable I could talk gear with my service rep for hours!

I have several tube amps, and all of them are great.
Vox, Marshall, Peavey, and a Fender. They all do what they do really well, but I have always wanted one that was more versatile and that would set up quick and easy. I actually had something come up pretty quick and this type of amp was needed, so I took a chance on the HRD IV. No disappointments!

First, this amp is LOUD. Saying "it has enough clean headroom" doesn"t do it justice. It has enough at about half of it"s available volume. Playing with a super loud drummer to 300 people? No problem. Playing in a small bar to 40? It"ll cover that too, and sounds great all the way up the dial.
So far I"m mainly using the clean channel with pedals, and so far I"m 110% satisfied. Some folks say it does better on the dirty channel with pedals, but I haven"t gotten that far yet. Yet.....

The reverb on this one sounds really good to me. I don"t use Reverb constantly, but I"ve played with it some and it sounds great. I"ve also heard others say the gain channel on these are unusable. I can"t say that about this one. It"s not really my style, but if it were, it"s a totally usable feature. It"s not a Marshall, but it has some nice grind.
The clean channel has a slight mid scoop too. Not blackface scoop, but it"s there. A Tube Screamer type pedal works really well with this amp. Really, every pedal I"ve tried does great. I"ve had a board set up for a Vox amp, and I"ll still keep and use that set up. (I"m a big Vox fan) The HRD is definitely gonna be my gigging amp though. I"m setting up another board just for this amp, plan to make it simple and functional. Strats, Teles, Les Pauls and P90"s all sound great through this thing. I can get good, fat, cutting tones no matter what I"m playing. Honestly, I"m thinking a MoJoMojo, a Plexidrive, and a delay may be my only pedals with my Strats through this amp.
If you are looking for a gig worthy amp with plenty of headroom, that takes pedals well, isn"t super expensive, and isn"t extremely heavy, jump on this one. It"s great!

This Amp. is exactly what I was looking for. Great sound, adjustability and quality construction!

This latest version is much lighter, sounds awesome and one of the best bang for buck amps you can find. Great clean tones, overdrive and reverb. Love it!

WOW!!!! what an awesome amp, I heard a lot of good thing on these amps but had never played through one. it was a religious encounter so sweet but yet so down right dirty.This is an amazing amp and I encourage anyone in the market for a new amp go play one and see for yourself. And my hat goes off to Jordan Dean who is my sales rep. thank you sir for making my purchace experience so smooth and good .And all the sweetwater crew merry Christmas and happy new year!

Awesome Fender cleans and Channel 2 is a perfect compliment. It accepts pedals very well...And it's light enough to load without a forklift...

I own a 68 custom twin reissue and was looking for a lighter amp to gig with that had good clean tones. The Hot Rod has the clean tone that Fender is know for with enough grit to play any style of music. Jorge took very good care of me when I explained what I was looking for, I had to have a amp that took pedals well and the Hot Rod does it all!! This amp is extremely loud!! Sweetwater has been my go to store for all my gear, and I would highly recommend this amp for anyone that needs a great amp at a good price that won"t break your back when you move it.

Hot rod 3 sounds better the new hot rod 4 sounds tinny not what I expected played both for a month straight when I went out to gig my band and people in the crowd asked me if I changed my settings on my amp because it dont sound as good as it used to I told them that this is a new amp and the settings are the same as I always use my band the crowd and me didn't like it so next time we played out I brought the hot rod 3 out people asked what I did to get the sound back that everyone loved coming from the amp I said I brought my other amp out they all told me not to use the new one I said I won't and sold it I didn't like the sound either glad I didn't get rid of the hot rod 3 dont know why fender changed the circuitry in the amp for the worst I thought it was a improvement but it was not sticking with my hot rod 3 unless fender makes a hot rod 5 that really is improved

This amp rocks all by itself but really love my effects. I have all my modulation effects running through the effects loop and compressor, distortion, overdrive wah and talkbox straight in. Other than the extra cables this is the best sound for me. I was a bit concerned it wouldn't be up to snuff volume wise but I was mistaken. Plus it is very controllable for small venues and large. Have only played a few gigs so far but I like what I am hearing. I wouldn't hesitate using this raw with no effects but as I said it loves effects. I am going to play around with some other digital effects for grins and giggles. Sum this all up and it is a Fender.

This amp is amazing!!!
Sounds super clean and crisp
Just beware this amp is loud!!
Sounds amazing with my set-up
And sweetwater's customer service amazing
Thank you Matt!!!
Sweetwater is my go-to for any gear needed

Great amp for the money I play a strat and a prs2 and they sound great

Simply put, this amplifier is absolutely amazing! The Normal channel sounds, with a little Reverb added, as if though the heavens have opened up and angels are singing...it's immaculate Fender tone is true to legend. Period. The Drive channel allows you to push the amp's tubes into a pristine, warm, overdriven signal with a beautifully balanced harmonic distortion that allows played notes to shine through while maintaining a down-and-dirty growl. The More Drive channel is, without a doubt, your destination for pure tube crunch. I don't find the need to utilize More Drive as it provides a bit more overdrive than I need; however, I'm sure that will change with this incredibly dynamic piece of audio equipment. All of the knobs go to 12...there is a lot of finite control available to shape your sound. And, it's loud. I mean really loud. Not harsh or shrill, either. It delivers ALL of it's tone at any volume. The Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV is worth it's weight in monetary expenditure. It's an expensive amplifier. You pay for the Fender name and with that comes an unbelievably exceptional level of performance. If you can afford it, buy it.

Back in the '60s I used a Twin Reverb and have, for the last half century, missed that unmistakable tube sound. I have a Mustang III and a Mustang V and felt that the sound was just a bit sterile (I know it's, to a large degree, a personal perception). A few weeks ago, I bought a Peavey Bandit from Sweetwater and, sadly, it was defective. Sent it back and they shipped another to me which had the same problem (RFI). My experience with Sweetwater has always been phenomenal - Ken Davis is fantastic in terms of customer service. After the second Bandit went back, I decided to try the HRD and ordered it. I ordered the III on a Monday morning and found out the IV was out that Monday afternoon. I called and they understood completely, shipping out the IV and instructing me to refuse delivery on the III. When the IV arrived and I turned it on, it squealed so loudly, dogs all the way down the street started barking. After already having had two bad amps, I started to wonder what was going on. After a little troubleshooting with the service department, I switched out one of the preamp tubes and the problem disappeared.
I have only one complaint about the unit. Fender had always used a linear pot for the volume control (I'm not the only one who has complained about this. One must turn the knob very judiciously as doing more than just tweaking it from a low level will have the amp blasting your ears out. Some people have overcome this by replacing the first preamp tube with a 12AT7 which has lower output but I don't feel Fender (who have known about this problem for some time) should leave such a bad design in place. Bottom line - love the amp, love the sound, and am careful with the volume control.

Incredible tone, great with pedals, one of the best selling tube amps of all time. That pretty much sums it up.

For the money, this amp is the perfect match to my Tele's and the Start sounds great as well. 40 watts of tube power is more than enough. Try it you'll love it.

This amp has a phenomenal clean channel. But I'd like to take a minute to explain to others how its should be used IMO. This is a great OEM amp. It's like a sports car. It's great out of the box but if you want to compete you gotta add a little sugar under the hood. Let me explain. Put in the preamp tubes of your liking. ( the stock ones are really great but I installed mullard style tubes). The same goes for the power amp tubes. (I dont reccomend changing those). Put in the speaker of your choice. For me that is a celestion gold 12" 8 ohm. And the dirty little secret? Use the effects loop to install a master volume knob so you can drive your preamp tubes to the edge of breakup. The amp takes on a whole different character when you do that. A GREAT character. Use your OD pedal of choice straight into the 1st input Jack for full signal input and she really sings and has a response that's bar none for the price. When it's all said and done you may have a little over $1000 spent on the amp but for a core tone that is essentially a custom tone designed by you using a fender head, you cant beat it. It will compete with boutique amps twice its price and keep up. And best of all, its YOUR OWN SOUND. who wants to sound like Brad paisley when you could be the NEXT Brad paisley. Just my 2cents.

I've been playing a mess boogie twin for years and although I love the sound of it my back just doesnt agree with having to lift it anymore and so the time finally came for me to get a new amp. The HRD4 was the nicest thing I played while trying several amps including the dsl40cr, orange rocker15, box ac15, and a fender supersonic The cleans on this amp are exactly what I was looking for. Just beautiful. And the gain channel is very much usable. Not sure why some people are bashing it. I only use a little crunch most of the time and this amp will do the trick. That being said I do plan on trying out some OD pedals as i had an OCD plugged into it in store and while the gain on the amp is decent the OCD was certainly a better sound. So theres definitely options if you are concerned about the on board gain channel. Dont let it hold you back because this amp is a beauty and the volume pot mod by changing out the preamp tube is a great option for home versus a gig.

Love my three. Reverb stopped working so I figured time to put it in the shop, right. Before I did, I removed the back to have a look for my self before dishing out the repair bucks. As luck would have it, I removed what I would call the cheapest reverb unit I ever saw. No more than a metal box with two small springs in it. First thought was leo would have never put one of these in his amp. Then I remembered the business moto, make them cheap and sell them fast. Got the reverb working and gonna keep the amp. When i bought it it was marketed as the top choice of touring musicians. Next time I buy, I buy hand wired from someone else. Love my tele though. Joe.

I"ve only had it about a week but it sounds wonderful. I"ve never owned a Fender tube amp but always loved the clean tones they are known for. This one delivers just like it"s predecessors. I"m having a good time getting all the similar tones like Jimi, Eric and Stevie. I run a tube screamer through it and she sings. Very happy with my purchase. Thanks Scott.

Great amp if you're willing to spend some money to stabilize it. These amps are known by techs to be prone to fail at 2 different points. The coupling capacitors are junk, made by a IC brand. They've been known to fail sometimes right from the factory. They leak causing amp failure. They need replaced with reliable caps. Then the power resistors are right against the circuit board. They get very hot and burn the board and can ruin the traces causing expensive repairs. All Fender has to do is lift them off the board a 1/4" and it would fix the problem. There are a couple dollars to replace. The big cost is the time for a tech to disassemble the amp and put it back together after replacing the components. Once you do these things to the amp it will be very stable and last for decades. If you don't do these things, it's just a matter of time before you have very expensive amp failure that will cost more than the preventative measures. Just a warning. Look it up and you'll see what I am saying is true from many reliable techs. Fender knows about this and still sells them this way to save a few bucks on an amp. Shame on them for that! Otherwise a fantastic amp that is a great pedal platform.