Trying Hard to Like the HDRX20

[Lewguitar]

I haven't had a chance to gig mine yet, but the thing I'm planning is to use a pedal to, shall we say, "underdrive" the HDRX 20. I'll set the master volume up for my lead sound, then use a pedal to cut the volume down for rhythm work but still keep some dirt. The "roll back the volume" thing doesn't work for me, volume wise. Tonally, yes, absolutely, but I need a solo boost. The pedal I'm thinking will do the job is my Wampler Pantheon, some OD's sound lo-fi and pedal-ish if they aren't pushing an amp a little, but the Pantheon has a nice, wide, amp-like sound, even when cutting down the volume. Probably will also have a front end boost option for pushing the saturation up a notch on those solos, but that's easier to do with a wider range of pedals. Horsemeat, Friedman Buxom Boost, Fender MTG, Wampler Tumnus are all things I have on hand that would work well for that.

It's a technique I've not tried, but I think it could be cool, in an old school way. Also have considered getting a Tone King Ironman II, which I would use very much for its load box function, but also could use the footswitchable attenuation levels for a solo boost. I was totally against it before I had the HDRX 20, but now... might be worth it. Just depends on what volumes I end up playing at. It's one heck of a loud amp, but I might be able to get it cooking enough going light on speakers with a 1x12 cab. It loves my open back 1x12 with an Alnico Cream.

I'm just the opposite.

I set mine up for a great clean or "rock clean" tone because I'm as much of an acoustic guitarist as electric guitarist and clean or semi-clean tones are what I want to hear when I'm playing chords and rhythm.

Doesn't make sense to compromise my chord and rhythm tone that I use for 90% of a song, just so I can take a fuzzy solo for 20 seconds of a song.

I have three overdrive pedals and a compressor/boost. With this amp, that's where my overdriven tones come from. It's fun!

But that's not the way i play live. I just bring my Deluxe Reverb and my Wampler EGO for a little boost and compression.

I use a lot more overdrive when I'm home and just having fun!

 

[El Fenix]

Just spent a few hours with my LP with ReWind JPP pickups plugged into an HDRX 20 head.
Sounds killer.
LP>Belle Epoch>HDRX>Captor X 4x12 with greenback sim = killer LZ crunch.

 

[Longneck Tenon]

You might want to consider a treble booster. Some of those overdrive pedals you mentioned might be to middy whereas the treble booster won’t color the inherent tone of the amp I played one last week, and I don’t think I will buy one because I have done the whole Marshall thing and have outgrown it musically. But it sounded great, and if you want to get Jimi’s tone, throw a wah, fuzz face and a Uni-Vibe in front of it go crazy!

 

[László]

I don’t think I will buy one because I have done the whole Marshall thing and have outgrown it musically.

What are you playing through now?

 

[Deleted member 5962]

You might want to consider a treble booster. Some of those overdrive pedals you mentioned might be to middy whereas the treble booster won’t color the inherent tone of the amp I played one last week, and I don’t think I will buy one because I have done the whole Marshall thing and have outgrown it musically. But it sounded great, and if you want to get Jimi’s tone, throw a wah, fuzz face and a Uni-Vibe in front of it go crazy!

How does one outgrow the whole Marshall thing, musically? The older I get, the more I worry about some of these things.... these scary things, that they say happen to old people. I don't WANT to outgrow the Marshall thing. Does that mean I'm immature? Do I need to stop wearing my Speedo??? HOLY CRAP!

 

[Longneck Tenon]

How does one outgrow the whole Marshall thing, musically? The older I get, the more I worry about some of these things.... these scary things, that they say happen to old people. I don't WANT to outgrow the Marshall thing. Does that mean I'm immature? Do I need to stop wearing my Speedo??? HOLY CRAP!

Nah, you do you! To be honest, I just always preferred old Fender Amps. Old JTM 45 combos are great though, since the circuit was basically copied from a tweed Bassman.

 

[Longneck Tenon]

What are you playing through now?

I have two Fender Vibrolux Reverbs and a Supro Keeley Custom 12. I have tried everything but just love the sound of 6L6 and 6V6 based amps. I have to have a great clean sound with a little grit when turned up at the guitar, and then add pedals for more than that. EL84 and EL34 amps just couldn’t give me that, although it may have been the amps in question, not the tubes.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Nah, you do you! To be honest, I just always preferred old Fender Amps. Old JTM 45 combos are great though, since the circuit was basically copied from a tweed Bassman.

Yeah, I was joking, but wondered what you meant by outgrowing it. I thought you might mean the distortion.

 

[Longneck Tenon]

Yeah, I was joking, but wondered what you meant by outgrowing it. I thought you might mean the distortion.

A dimed Marshall is a force of nature. But I am a huge Neil Young/Crazy Horse fan, and I love the distorted sound he gets out of tweed Deluxe and Magnatone amps.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

A dimed Marshall is a force of nature. But I am a huge Neil Young/Crazy Horse fan, and I love the distorted sound he gets out of tweed Deluxe and Magnatone amps.

Yeah, I love those tones too, and if I had 7-10 amps like I did a few years back, I've have those tones covered. But those are not my main tones so when I scaled down, I really stayed with amps that are. But I really like more amp tones than I have room for.

 

[Tone-y]

I would say that the Guv'nor or SSS are not the right kind of pedal for this amp. It's an amp-in-a-box going into a similar-sounding amp. Bad combo

But isn't this basically how Gary Moore got his sound for his blues albums in the 90s? He ditched the JCM800 he was using for rock in the 80s and used the guv'nor into a jtm45 - which is basically the plexi circuit in a combo.

 

[László]

I have two Fender Vibrolux Reverbs and a Supro Keeley Custom 12. I have tried everything but just love the sound of 6L6 and 6V6 based amps. I have to have a great clean sound with a little grit when turned up at the guitar, and then add pedals for more than that. EL84 and EL34 amps just couldn’t give me that, although it may have been the amps in question, not the tubes.

A lot of things hinge not so much on the tubes as the design of the rest of the circuit. I've had several Mesas that could take either EL34 or 6L6, and swapping between them made a fairly subtle difference.

But --

To my mind, it's great to have strong preferences, and it's great to have choices!

 

[László]

A dimed Marshall is a force of nature. But I am a huge Neil Young/Crazy Horse fan, and I love the distorted sound he gets out of tweed Deluxe and Magnatone amps.

He gets a fantastic, iconic tone, no question. I had a client request that kind of sound for one of my Ford ads, and I was able to get very close with my Fillmore 50 set to 25 Watts, but wound up using a Tweed Deluxe for authenticity.

 

[Longneck Tenon]

Yeah, I love those tones too, and if I had 7-10 amps like I did a few years back, I've have those tones covered. But those are not my main tones so when I scaled down, I really stayed with amps that are. But I really like more amp tones than I have room for.

I really question why I have more guitars than amps!

 

[Lewguitar]

I really question why I have more guitars than amps!

Because guitars are sexy and amps are just square boxes.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

But isn't this basically how Gary Moore got his sound for his blues albums in the 90s? He ditched the JCM800 he was using for rock in the 80s and used the guv'nor into a jtm45 - which is basically the plexi circuit in a combo.

Interesting... I saw one live video (a whole concert) of him playing blues, and he was using his red strat into his Soldano!

 

[Lewguitar]

Interesting... I saw one live video (a whole concert) of him playing blues, and he was using his red strat into his Soldano!

A lot of people say he used the Peter Green Les Paul through a Tubescreamer into a Marshall to record Still Got the Blues For you.

 

[Longneck Tenon]

A lot of people say he used the Peter Green Les Paul through a Tubescreamer into a Marshall to record Still Got the Blues For you.

An article in Guitar World from 2019 said he ran a Classic Fifties Les Paul Standard into a reissue Marshall JTM 45 through a Marshall “The Guv’nor” distortion pedal. The mids we’re both boosted on the amp and pedal. Playing mostly through the neck pickup, the rhythm track was recorded cleaner with just a little chorusing (most likely a Boss Dimension D unit).

 

[Longneck Tenon]

Interesting... I saw one live video (a whole concert) of him playing blues, and he was using his red strat into his Soldano!

He would switch things up, and it’s possible he just didn’t want to switch guitars for the gig!

 

[László]

Because guitars are sexy and amps are just square boxes.

If I had to choose between having one guitar and several amps, and one amp and several guitars, I'd go with the one guitar and several amps. There have been times I've done exactly that, and times I've had only one amp and several guitars.

I find having more amps makes a bigger difference than more guitars. Or maybe I just like square boxes!

This isn't to minimize the effect of different guitars, but compared to amps, speakers, etc, it's more subtle. At present, I have four amps, and four electric guitars. It's a pretty good balance!