Fender Amp Can

I bought it from Chris' Guitar online for $125.00. I bought it because I wanted a small, battery powered amp for practice and to play outside at a campfire or picnic.

I almost the exact same size as a one-gallon can of paint. About the same weight too. It holds it's charge for several hours of playing at moderate volume and has great tone for such a small package. It has two separate channels, so you can plug two guitars or a mic and a guitar in at the same time. Most people think it's a much bigger amp until they see it. It's small enough to fit in a small backpack like a school kid would carry the books in. That makes it really easy to transport.

About the only thing I don't like is it's distortion channel. It sounds kinda of cheesey, but I never use it anyway since I only play electric acoustic soft rock and folk songs anyway.

Very solid. I don't treat it roughly, but I think it could withstand being dropped from waist height.

Very Happy with the product. I recommend it highly for acoustic amplification.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The 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.

- Amplifier Transistor
- HP 6''
- 15 W
- 2 channels of input Jack (1 + 1 Instr Guitar / Mic)
- A switch ON / OFF, Volume 1 knob and 1 tone knob for each channel, a switch on the channel distortion guitar
- Supply of batteries included (8h theoretical, more than 4 hours in practice)
Ultra simple, source of failure possible.

UTILIZATION

Setting very simple given the number of knobs ...
The manual only serves to remind the proper use of a battery, we do not really need to know more with this amp ...
A little heavy, but the transportation problem for stability.
In my opinion the amp outside of nomadic ultimate small rugged simplicity.

SOUNDS

- Rather Folk Blues Jazz and it's going pretty well.
- Electro / Electro-acoustic Godin, Electroacoustics Samick, Samick bass
- Its pretty clear, pretty fidèleavec guitars. No low "full and deep" but better than what you might fear a HP 6''(my neighbors are still mounted to complain when I try the bass).
Distortion channel, to avoid on electric, but I was quite surprised when I tried with electroac, it did not sound so bad. But with the lack of settings ...
Better to get a pedal for distortion. Given the ultilisation and price range, I'm not disappointed because I'd rather have an amp as simple as possible with natural sound and honorable added externally what I need, rather than a mediocre ultra versatile amplifier configured but whose effects may be of dubious quality ...
The sound quality is quite acceptable given the fact that this amp is first made to play outside.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for a month
Special-I love most: avrai amp nomad.
The least-... I see too much. I would not even say the simplicity is what I also are looking for. Of course if I had the same amp (size weight price simplicity) more powerful or more autonomy, and superior sound quality I would taker, but I am quite happy because it is already perfect for my needs.