[Tomm Williams]

Originally Posted by jomaynor

Indeed.

Marshalls, even their combo amps, sound much different than the Fender Hot Rods - Marshall is gloriously saturated, while a Hot Rod Deluxe is gritty and punchy. Both are cool sounds, but different.

To be fair to Fender, though, the renowned sound of Fender cleans is associated with amps like the Princeton, Deluxe, or (especially) the Twin, and not with the grittier Hot Rod amps.

I agree with some other posters here about using a plexi pedal vs. speaker replacement for your Hot Rod Deluxe. A good plexi pedal, like the Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret or the Ramble FX Marvel Drive, will get you MUCH more of a Marshall sound than a speaker change will.

Read a number of revues about the DLS based on your suggestion. People seem pretty impressed with it so I just ordered one.