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Topic: Fender Excelsior amp for lap steel? |
Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Hal Braun
From:
Eustis, Florida, USA
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Posted 23 Aug 2012 7:15 pm |
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Thanks for pointing that out! I was going to get a little blues jr. to carry around because of weight, but prefer the 6V6 tubes over the EL84..
Cant beat the price and it comes with a 15 inch speaker and weighs 33 lbs.. the video shows a lap plugged in and playing for a few minutes.. at least gives you an idea..
Not so sure of the "styling", would rather have a tweed.. but you cant have everything! |
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Rick Barnhart
From:
Arizona, USA
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Nate Hofer
From:
Overland Park, Kansas
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Posted 23 Aug 2012 8:01 pm
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Andy, I bought one and posted what I thought of my Stringmaster through it on the thread posted above. (In short, I liked it for low volume situations.)
I have a sound clip here. (I posted this earlier to another topic.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyPGOjEfMPE&feature=plcp |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 23 Aug 2012 8:09 pm
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This sticky comes up on the PDF schematic file, which I found, from a google search, on google docs - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B94M9utkFx4iVVgteEE0X3lYdlk/edit?pli=1
| Quote: |
3/29/2012 1:29:04 pm D. Wiggins
Please note that in the United States and Canada this product is warranted for 1 Year only, and IS NOT serviced in the field. |
My interpretation:
- Replace (not service) under warranty for 1 year.
- Service parts are not available.
- After 1 year, if it breaks, you're on your own.
If someone can authoritatively show this is not true, I'm all ears. I realize that this type of (non)service policy is getting to be SOP for electronic stuff these days. But I wouldn't touch this with a ten-foot pole. My opinion, YMMV. |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 23 Aug 2012 8:42 pm
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| If you can find one without the rattles, buzzes, and other various noise issues plaguing this model, you may be able to improve it's steel worthiness by swapping a 12AT7 into the preamp gain stage (not the trem) to allow it to stay clean longer as the volume increases. To mod or not and to what degree, of course depends on individual tastes. Their looks may not appeal to everyone, but most are happy with the retro appeal and it matches the company's goal in tapping into the cheap vintage amp sounds market. Be warned, I've never encountered an amp that varies so wildly in user reviews, they're all over the map, contradictions are rampant about any aspect, so it's try before you buy, in spades for this one. |
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Hal Braun
From:
Eustis, Florida, USA
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Daniel Policarpo
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Posted 25 Aug 2012 5:40 am
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| I used my Jersey Lightning through the Excelsior. Humbuckers break up a lot faster than single coils on this, but I had an MXR Micro Amp and MXR 7 band EQ which also provided a great deal more headroom and tonal capabilities. I almost always had the volume on the Jersey Lightning at about 6 or 7. It's a good all around amp for lap steel , and makes a good practice/recording amp for pedal steel. Not quite the clean volume I need for live pedal steel in larger rooms. Lap, I don't mind it a little dirtier and you can push the amp volume quite hard, pulling the steel's volume back a little to get a good gritty sound that's not excessively dirty. Depends on what you want to do with it, where you want to play. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 25 Aug 2012 8:45 am
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Once you drill down into all the many posts on the web about this little amp you realize folks seem to be all over the map in talking about this amp ...."not much clean headroom", "plenty of clean headroom", "great right out of the box", "good value but you need to change tubes & speaker." THanks for all the links and feedback here.
Guess I'll have to take a guitar to the store and try it out! |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 25 Aug 2012 1:47 pm
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| Andy Volk wrote: |
| Guess I'll have to take a guitar to the store and try it out! |
Make sure you focus on plucking low D's and D#'s, most people find that to be the biggest buzz trigger. |
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