I definately prefer the hot rod deluxe over the blues deluxe. I've played a few of them and find you can get a variety of different and more modern tones with the hot rod version(don't forget about those classic tones too!). If you like the pretty tweed then that's a plus for you. For me, I prefer the black tolex. overall, they're both excellent amps, but I think the hot rodded one has a little bit more going for it in terms of versatility.