Help! Ok, I've ditched the Mesa Express, how about a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe limited edition?

[Slingy]

You might want to vist Justin Holton's site for information about which tubes are the cleanest which are not always the most lively. I like that edge of slight break up.

He also has sound clips of different speakers and a wealth of info.

The Unofficial Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Owner's Guide!

 

[yesandno]

Thanks for the link!

I guess this answers my question. I always thought the clean channel was supposed to be fully clean and the overdrive chammel was for dirt.


Understanding the Compromise
Typically, the clean channel starts distorting between 3 and 5 on the average Hot Rod. It must be realized that these amps were not designed to stay clean. The circuit is based on the Blues Deluxe, with a few changes, so the amp is primarily a blues amp. It is, in reality, a "hot rodded" Fender Blues Deluxe.

You may be surprised to learn that the Volume and Drive controls are the same control—not literally but as far as what the circuit "sees" it is. The Hot Rod amps are actually a one channel amp, which reconfigures itself for more gain when a drive "channel" is selected. An amp with real multi-channel selection has independent EQ controls for each channel—this amp does not, which limits its flexibility. What I'm getting to is that this amp wasn't designed to stay clean until 12; if so, the Drive control would also stay clean—though not completely since an extra gain stage is added. In other words, changing the character of the Clean channel will also change the character of the Drive channel and vise-versa. So, raising the clean headroom will also decrease the amount of distortion in the drive channel(s). This is why it's hard to voice this amp for both a perfect clean and distortion sound—both channels are compromises.