View other reviews for this product:
mooseherman « Good, not Great, Amp »
Published on 01/31/11 at 11:36This is a tube amp made by Fender. It's a similar amp to their Blues Junior, but it is a much bigger and therefore louder amp. It's part of their newer Hot Rod Series (at least this reissue is). It has two 1/4" inputs, two channels (clean and drive), 40 watts of power, a solid state rectifier. It also has controls for volume, drive, EQ (bass, middle, treble), reverb, presence and master volume.
UTILIZATION
Getting a good sound out of this is relatively easy. I tend to prefer the drive sound, even when I'm going for a cleaner tone, as the clean channel lacks some of the bite that I associate with tube amps. The clean tone definitely feels a little weak, and tinny almost. But a good way to deal with that is to increase the low end, roll of some of the high end on your guitar's tone knob, and keep going. The Drive tone is definitely much better in my opinion.
SOUNDS
I like using this amp mostly with Fender Guitars. It doesn't do the hard rock thing very well, so a humbucker probably wouldn't work on it as much as a single-coil pickup would, hence the reason Strats and Teles tend to work better. I like the sound of this amp, though I think it could honestly be a little better. The clean channel is just far too pure and weak for my taste. For an amp with blues in the name, it doesn't have a lot of grit, at least not until you get to the drive channel. There is where the amp really starts to shine. I think that that channel is honestly better for clean sounds anyway, as it's got a little bit of grit to it when you hit the strings harder.
OVERALL OPINION
I liked the dirty channels on this amp, but not so much the clean. That tends to be my consistent complaint with all the Hot Rod amps. I guess they just have different taste than I do when it comes to this stuff. It's not that expensive so it's not exactly a bank-breaking investment, but it's also not the best amp out there. I'd say save up for something a little bit better than this, and I don't usually say that about most Fender amps! This one just doesn't really have it as much as the other ones do.
UTILIZATION
Getting a good sound out of this is relatively easy. I tend to prefer the drive sound, even when I'm going for a cleaner tone, as the clean channel lacks some of the bite that I associate with tube amps. The clean tone definitely feels a little weak, and tinny almost. But a good way to deal with that is to increase the low end, roll of some of the high end on your guitar's tone knob, and keep going. The Drive tone is definitely much better in my opinion.
SOUNDS
I like using this amp mostly with Fender Guitars. It doesn't do the hard rock thing very well, so a humbucker probably wouldn't work on it as much as a single-coil pickup would, hence the reason Strats and Teles tend to work better. I like the sound of this amp, though I think it could honestly be a little better. The clean channel is just far too pure and weak for my taste. For an amp with blues in the name, it doesn't have a lot of grit, at least not until you get to the drive channel. There is where the amp really starts to shine. I think that that channel is honestly better for clean sounds anyway, as it's got a little bit of grit to it when you hit the strings harder.
OVERALL OPINION
I liked the dirty channels on this amp, but not so much the clean. That tends to be my consistent complaint with all the Hot Rod amps. I guess they just have different taste than I do when it comes to this stuff. It's not that expensive so it's not exactly a bank-breaking investment, but it's also not the best amp out there. I'd say save up for something a little bit better than this, and I don't usually say that about most Fender amps! This one just doesn't really have it as much as the other ones do.