I bought this amp from GC, it was the last blond version on the West Coast...or so they said. I've waited a while to really burn it in before reviewing it, and now I'm ready. I have a love/hate relationship with this amp, yet I still give it a 4 out ...
I bought this amp from GC, it was the last blond version on the West Coast...or so they said.
I've waited a while to really burn it in before reviewing it, and now I'm ready. I have a love/hate relationship with this amp, yet I still give it a 4 out of 5. I love the A channel; it takes me back to my old black face Princeton, and has many things in common with my BF Vibrolux Reverb. I also like most of the amp models (high gain was kind of a dumb addition, IMHO, on a 15W 1x10...). I think Fender did a very credible job in modeling so many amps....but maybe too many amps.
Now the down sides: I think they could have mastered the gain on the models so they don't jump in volume from one model to the next...this makes it a major PITA to switch amp models live on stage. What I also don't like is the lack of controls on the EFX side...a rotary selector? Seriously? It makes most of the EFX useless...I do like the reverb with the slapback, the rest I never tried after the first few months. Additionally, they sell the channel switch/efx on/off pedal separately for ~$25...come on, package it in, it makes the amp ten times more user friendly. There is so much Fender didn't do with this amp/platform, but of course, they were planning on a new version even before this hit the street, but the sad fact is they don't offer the user adequate access to the features, then again for under $300, it isn't a deal killer.
Bottom line, I can get some great sounds out of this amp, but I will likely never use half of the features because they are hard to mix together.
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