Need suggestions for Hot Rod DLX 212 improvements

There is a mod that i did on my HRDv that converts the mid contr to work like the old fender amps where turning the mid all the way down will actually turn the amp volume all the way down
Ditto on the bass bass control. It allows a lot more control of you tone and really helped to get the muddiness out of that amp
 
not if he doesn't have the amp set up right for that. Rolling off the volume cuts the highs which equals more mud.
Totally with you, and especially true for single coils - I'm thinking of the humbucker and a slight rolloff which might be a good idea - I'm also thinking of the bridge pickup. And of course, it's totally reversible :)
 
There is a mod that i did on my HRDv that converts the mid contr to work like the old fender amps where turning the mid all the way down will actually turn the amp volume all the way down
Ditto on the bass bass control. It allows a lot more control of you tone and really helped to get the muddiness out of that amp
I've read about that mod. Supposed to really work well.
 
I've read about that mod. Supposed to really work well.

It really does lt bob. I've done 3 mods that really improves the amp. The tone pot mod that we are speaking of....changing the liner volume pot to an audio pot (much smoother volume control) and clipping one of the wires going to the reverb unit (drastically improved the reverb sound)

I did the mods myself. There is a website that walks you through it.
Just google " fender hot rod deville modifications" and you will see a site devoted to the hot rod deville and the hot rod deluxe amps.

It's been a while since I visited the site but I believe they also have full schematics on those 2 amps
 
Well, I'm going to start by just adjusting the bias, since that's simple and easily reversible. I've also tried having him play with different picks to see if that helps, since I have noticed that I get different tone out of different picks, but I think Lt. Bob is right. Well, I know he is right. Some players can make any piece of gear sound great, and some players make any piece of gear sound awful. I am not super fond of Fender amps, at least not this one, but I have managed to get a usable tone out of it when I've played through it.

What suggestions can I give him as a player? The obvious one I give him every practice is to please, for the love of god, mute strings you shouldn't be hitting. He rides the low E (or D, usually) all the time, and that is a big part of his mud for sure, especially when the distortion kicks in. I have also suggested that he try playing with a lighter touch, though I know that isn't always easy to do. He breaks strings all the time, even after I smoothed out his nut and bridge, so I suspect he is hitting very hard. If I had to describe his current tone, aside from mud, piercing is a good word. He claims to not like treble that much, but he always has a lot of the wrong kind of treble bleeding through as well as all the wrong kinds of mids. Maybe I can post a clip if you want, though for our album we were using an AC30 they had at the studio.
 
If I had to describe his current tone, aside from mud, piercing is a good word. He claims to not like treble that much, but he always has a lot of the wrong kind of treble bleeding through as well as all the wrong kinds of mids.
Maybe he just has refined sensibilities, like me. I've cleared out entire bars before - they don't get me (and my piercing mud love missile).
 
A trick I've seen to mute inadvertent open strings is to put a hair scrunchy or whatever they're called around the neck at the nut. Of course it will also mute open strings you want to use but depending on the chord shapes he's playing it could quiet things down.
 
A trick I've seen to mute inadvertent open strings is to put a hair scrunchy or whatever they're called around the neck at the nut. Of course it will also mute open strings you want to use but depending on the chord shapes he's playing it could quiet things down.
sounds like he could maybe put that scrunchey right in the middle of the neck say, around the 5th or 6th fret!
:D
 
We played a show last night where the band before us had the same amp and a nicer Lies Paul and sounded great. Then the headliner used my guitarist's amp with his Jaguar and sounded great. I made sure to point that out to my guitarist.
 
i have gigged and had band practices with a hot rod dlx many times. This is in a fairly loud playing 2 guitar rock band. The amp can produce very good tones, especially rock clean tones. Its interesting that your singer prefers neck pickup, muddy tone (as you describe) but you say the amp is a trebly mud, which seems a bit oxymoronic (jumbo shrimp, goverment intelligence, etc). I wouldn't start replacing tubes, speakers or pickups just yet, although all of those things will impact the tone. Instead you need to start by agreeing with him on what kind of tone is appropriate. If you're looking for a nice balanced clean humbucker tone then I would start with the guitar on the bridge pickup with volume and tone full on. Then go to the amp and set all the eq at 12 o'clock, slightly cutting the mid and boosting the treble. Of course you need to do this at playing volume because tone controls sound different at low volume than full band volume. Based on what you describe you may find this setting too bright. At that point you can slightly boost the bass, slightly cut the treble. If its still no good then try the both pickups togther, slightly back off the volume on the guitar or slightly back off the tone on the guitar. If you need to reduce either guitar volume or tone below 7 then its too much and you need to tweak at the amp.

If making these small incremental tweaks from 12 o'clock setting is still not doing it for you, the biggest bang for buck is trading in that LP studio for a Stratocaster. It will sound totally different but great for clean playing, and it will not take up as much sonic space as the LP. If budget is an issue the new Squire classic vibe strats are really impressive, better than the mexico strats in my opinion. Get a rosewood neck model and I suspect that will be the sound you are both looking to achieve.

Good luck and let us know what you try and how it works.
 
It's interesting how much you guys all love the bridge pickup. On my The Paul, that was my favorite for a long time, but I have to say I prefer the deep tones of the neck pickup for most clean stuff. Almost never for anything with any real amount of distortion, though, which is where I run into problems with him. Nothing but mud there. But I, at least, get a real nice and clear tone out of all my neck pickups.

I do think he has the bass set too high right now (I noticed it was at noon at the show), even though I'm pretty sure I turned it all the way down last time we did a tone session. I'd like to think I know a thing or two about finding the sweet spot of an amp - I spent months (usually hours at a time) tweaking my Roadster's tone knobs to get just the tone I want. Such a picky amp...

I feel like the problem might just be that he strums way too hard. He breaks a string almost every other practice. I think I have broken a string maybe twice in the 10 years I've been playing.
 
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