I bought this amp as a replacement for a vintage 70s Fender Twin (which is a great amp but not at all practical). Let me start with the cons - this amp is fairly "no frills". It only has a master volume control for the drive channel which means if you use the clean channel at low volume (say, bedroom practice levels) you get an excessive amount of hiss/hum. I actually returned the first one Anderton's sent me because of this, but the replacement has the same problem (though much less severe) so I think it's an issue with the amp's design.
Thankfully, though Fender have cut corners (or been "authentic") by not including an overall master volume they have included an effects loop. At the moment I have my trusty Boss CS2 compressor pedal in the loop with the output turned down (effectively making it a master volume). This has worked wonders, allowing me to drive the clean preamp stage out of the noise floor but dial the final output down to a neighbour friendly level (though I think you will only get the true voicing of the amp if you push the power amp valves and speaker as well).
Now for the pros - this amp sounds lovely! The clean channel seems to give you every sound a Fender should - as guitarists you'll know whether this is the sound you are looking for or not. The dirty channel is noticeably thinner sounding though still quite able to give you decent tones from driven blues to classic rock. The spring reverb is nice if a little bit too bright (I've read that the amp can be modded to tone this down).
This is a special edition of the HRD and the two tone tolex looks awesome. I can't say what difference the Eminence Wizard speaker makes over stock as I've not tried them side by side, but I can say it stands up well in comparison with a 30 year old Twin Reverb. It perhaps loses some of that "rip the tops off milk bottles from across the room" top end but for me that's not a bad thing. The amp is a loud 40 watts and whilst pretty weighty it also feels like it will take some abuse and not be too much trouble to move from home to gig to rehearsal.
As an overall package this amp is hard to fault, especially now I've worked out how to make it usable at practice volumes. It's a workhorse - beautiful clean channel that takes pedals like a dream, usable drive channel, effects loop, practical size, robust, loud. Recommended!
