Fender Excelsior

Strange amp, straight out off the sales floor from a local music store, Excelsior sounds fine at lower volumes (< 1/2) with just about anything with an output jack. Bright switch, volume, tremolo; effective controls which shape the sound well.

It's did particularly well at producing clean tones, bone stock at moderate volumes (1/4 - 1/2) Nice in small bar venues for any genre or instrument; a jack of all trades tube amplifier hence three inputs.

(High) quality MDF cabinet, very (too) heavy with nice hardware i.e. proper tube socket orientation, steel feet, steel preamp chassis, steel power chassis w/ bx armored fly by chassis wire, & steel tube cage...Incredibly good value and a tinkerers gem needless to say.

It does need some work however, for it's more often than not, a lousy sounding amp when turned up (>1/2) or paired with certain insruments / devices

In particular, "hot" outputs. With strong input signals, it CAN "buzz" due to a major design flaw which lies in the speaker baffle. I would recommend building a proper wood cabinet AND uprgading some electronic components while you're at it, however, it can be remedied by disassembling the cabinet.

The speaker cone surround interferes with the speaker baffle cutout, which isn't entirely round. Byremoving some extra material thus creating a round cutout, this design flaw can be completely rectified!

The distortion sounds great once its speaker cone can move freely

At the end of the day, if you're up for the challenge, Excelsior has the potential to evolve from pawnshop "good enough" tube amp, into an impressively reliable workhorse which sounds an awful lot like its distant relative...a 50's Fender Tweed.

All tube, cathode biased 6V6 pair, 2 12ax7s on the preamp side, 13 watts, 15" speaker, volume, vibrato and a bright/dark switch, 3 inputs: guitar, mic( lower gain input ) and accordion ( basically filtered somehow to give a "honkier" sort of sound.

I'll give it a 9/10 here because I did two mods to get it to where I wanted it.

UTILIZATION

I did two mods to get it to perfection as I see it. I changed all the Chinese fizz-bottles with: JJ 6V6s for the power end, a vintage RCA 7025 for V1 and a JJ ecc83s for the vibrato slot ( V2 ). The amp actually sounded pretty darn good out of the box but the JJ 6V6s and the 7025 really got it smoothed out. The vibrato was barely audible with the Chinese 12ax7 in V2 but it really started to come lively with the JJ. The second mod was a 500K potentiometer to replace the bright/dark switch. "Bright" was too bright, "Dark" was too dark. The pot basically pans between the two extremes, my general-purpose setting is halfway, 5 on the pot.

SOUNDS

I've got a G&L Legacy, a G&L ASAT, a '74 Les Paul Standard and a couple of pretty wonky no-name guitars and I can get just about any sound I'm looking for out of this baby. It's a player's amp, not a knob-tweaker's amp. Turn it up, it gets dirty, turn it down, it gets clean. Turn up the guitar volume, it gets dirty, turn down the guitar and it cleans up BEAUTIFULLY. Turn on the vibrato and play some country licks, you're there. Jazz? Turn down the tone pot ( which you WILL install, it's dead easy ) to it's darkest setting, hit the neck pickup, adjust the guitar's tone knob to taste and you're there. Rock? Get some dirt and let it fly. Weird honky twang-thang sounds? Hit the accordion input, get the vibrato warbling, adjust your guitar's volume and tone controls to dumb settings and you're just plain retro hi-fi alien. Clean, dirty, skinny, fat, it's all there. It's just one spunky little amp that's a blast to play.

"Little" is not a good word 'cause it's also pretty loud, I would say small gig territory.

This amp is VERY responsive to what you put in it, dynamics, gain, tone controls on the guitar, etc.

Ok, so it's not for metal-style sounds, but that's kind of a no-brainer, huh?

OVERALL OPINION

I love this amp. I think the two tweaks I performed on mine are pretty well necessary. My only outlay after the initial purchase of the amp was the pair of JJ 6V6s. I had the JJ ecc83s and the RCA 7025 sitting in a drawer as well as the tone pot. About 2-3 hours of work and I was good to go.

Value for the money, you bet, I'd do it again in a second.

I've joined a photo of my tone pot mod. That's a Strat Volume knob, by the way.

Here's the horrible, shameful truth. I like it better than my Orange AD-30 Combo and I like my Orange A LOT...

13-watt all-tube amp manufactured in China Pramp two Chinese power two 12AX7 Chinese 6V6 tage Pramp and amplification floor a spare HP 15''reli has the power tage by in 6.35mm jack which allows to attack a firm
volume adjustment knob a tremolo swich a bright and dark for rglage of tonality among microphone guitar and accordion
this amp is its configuration and architecture a veritable potluck aisment it allows to change the configuration of the hp from 15 '' to 12 ''
and serve as a test platform has all the handyman of plantte indeed there is much room to give free rein to his imagination
an example
change of the output transformer
we just regret the absence of a standby

USE

Configuration is very simple
knob to 4 or such a strat in between guitar with dual it is better to go through the microphone between the sound is warm and clear and bright the trmolo is very effective it is Wild and wishes
pushing the volume background can play stones satisfaction intro without using a fuzz pedal the output transformer is under dimensioned it saturates has great speed v is what gives it its charm
the manual is superfluous config is so simple

SONORITS

this amp is suitable to my style of rock music blues
t he used with
fender strat telbr /> gibson les paul sg maker młody the paul
I prfere sound medium volume, but playing with the guitar volume knob can deal with the amp

NOTICE GLOBAL

I use it for one week
I tried other amps before making this choice
I regret the absence of a knob rglage of tonality and a standby switch
I regret that Fender does not manufacture the stro would have been intrssante
I regrtte not have earlier bought the retail price was 250 300 euro