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King Loudness « Great portable rig »
Published on 10/20/11 at 08:00The Fender Amp Can is one of the myriad attempts by companies to offer a portable "on the go" type of amplifier for travel, playing outdoors, small gigs, etc. These have ranged from downright tiny battery powered mini amplifiers that hook onto the waist to the many different "lunchbox" amp heads designed for small gigs. The Fender Amp Can was introduced as a bigger and more practical counterpart to the mini amps. It puts out 15w of power, has separate sections for guitar and microphones and is able to run on battery or wall power. It contains one speaker and a unique can shaped enclosure that allows for tiltback too.
UTILIZATION
Getting a good tone out of this amplifier isn't terribly difficult. It is laid out with very basic controls that don't really counteract, making setup a breeze. It has separate inputs for guitar and mics which also means separate sections for each. This is handy if you are a singer who wants to be accompanied by a guitar all in one unit. It's not terribly loud but it would work for smaller background events such as a party or coffeehouse. It sounds pretty good too considering the size and shape too.
SOUNDS
I've used this amp with various guitars in smaller gig situations. The guitar channel has a decent sounding clean tone that, while not remarkable, does a decent job with both electric and acoustic electric guitars. The drive channel is reasonable sounding and I don't mind it for certain rock or blues tones. It has a bit of a tendency to feed back at higher gain settings but that's the trade off with these small amps sometimes. The mic channel is very flat... great for a speaker but it tends to muffle vocals a bit too much for my liking.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the Fender Amp Can is a cool and certainly eye catching portable amp for travel and small gigs. They sound decent and are fairly light too. They sold new for about $200 which is a decent deal considering the features. Definitely worth a look if you need a cool little portable amp.
UTILIZATION
Getting a good tone out of this amplifier isn't terribly difficult. It is laid out with very basic controls that don't really counteract, making setup a breeze. It has separate inputs for guitar and mics which also means separate sections for each. This is handy if you are a singer who wants to be accompanied by a guitar all in one unit. It's not terribly loud but it would work for smaller background events such as a party or coffeehouse. It sounds pretty good too considering the size and shape too.
SOUNDS
I've used this amp with various guitars in smaller gig situations. The guitar channel has a decent sounding clean tone that, while not remarkable, does a decent job with both electric and acoustic electric guitars. The drive channel is reasonable sounding and I don't mind it for certain rock or blues tones. It has a bit of a tendency to feed back at higher gain settings but that's the trade off with these small amps sometimes. The mic channel is very flat... great for a speaker but it tends to muffle vocals a bit too much for my liking.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the Fender Amp Can is a cool and certainly eye catching portable amp for travel and small gigs. They sound decent and are fairly light too. They sold new for about $200 which is a decent deal considering the features. Definitely worth a look if you need a cool little portable amp.