It's a 2023 Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV. It looks pretty much brand new. The previous owner replaced the stock Celestion V-Type speaker for a Celestion Neo Creamback speaker and man, it really brings this amp to life! It also takes some weight off the amp, as well. I bought from a shop that didn't realize the speaker was swapped for this. I could see it in the pictures. I assume they saw a Celestion in the amp and copy/pasta the manufacturer specs.
The clean channel is pretty much the basic Hot Rod/Blues Deluxe clean channel they've always had. Just a sparkly, sweet clean tone that starts to break up nicely at noon on the volume knob. The gain channel is fantastic for this kind of of amp. A HUUUGE improvement over the old Hot Rod Deluxe and Blues Deluxe amps I owned for a brief moment. The "more drive" channel is actually very usable. The clean and drive channels both take dirt pedals very well, which I guess it what these amps were always know for.
I'm going to check on the bias this evening and roll the preamp tubes a bit. Then jump on getting it to cooperate better with my direct recording setup. I already picked up a Celestion IR for a Neo Creamback in a 1x12 from Celestion. Sound pretty spot on from what I've been able to do directly with the amp at the moment.
