Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've had the HRD for a little over 12 months and resisted the urge to tinker with it ............until now.

While the clean channel was magnificent, the Drive and More Drive Channels were a case of flat out or nothing, the dirt came on too fast and too much.

After reading some reports about changing the valves and the effect it had, I decided to change the preamp valves.

I put a GE5751 in V1 and V3 (PI) and a GE6072 (12AY7) into V2. All valves were JAN, I was able to source locally.

The change was fairly dramatic: the clean channel is not as boomy and the top end not quite as shrill and it has a bit more clean headroom. With the Drive and More Drive Channels the dirt now comes in a lot more gradually, making those channels much more usable.

Certainly worth the dollars for the improved tone and performance.

I'm not sure if changing the power amp valves will make anywhere near the same difference, but for the time being I am quite happy.

From what I've read, Fender uses linear (not audio) pots in these amps, so that is why the volume and distortion controls blast you in the first few degrees of rotation, then don't do much as you continue to turn them up. Bad design, IMO -- replacing these pots with audio-taper pots would likely make the amp more usable for you.

- Scott

Thanks Scott

The pots are another item to be replaced, but at this stage I'm reluctant to do anything that will void the warranty. Maybe in another year or two. The speaker is another item on the list, but that is getting a little expensive.

Yes it is poor design, and it was done apparently, to impress inexperienced buyers about the amount of volume available.

Another benefit I failed to mention was that the amount of background hiss has been greatly reduced.