The Fender Excelsior Amplifier

It’s clear to see why the Fender Excelsior was deemed ‘too out there’, visually at least. It takes the word vintage to a new level with a vinyl cover and ‘E’ shaped grille finished with a golden logo. You can almost picture it surrounded by miscellaneous junk in an antique or indeed a pawnshop.

‘Underneath the hood’, or so to speak, we clearly see that Fender have based this on a vintage amp. A practice amp 13-watt design around a 15” custom designed driver. Fender have described the amp as being capable to provide tones from ‘refined’ to ‘raucous’ thanks to the amp being an all-tube design, two 6V6 tubes and two 12AX7 tubes, the more tubes the better (apparently).

The Excelsior has a pretty unique feature unusual to amps; it has a separate microphone, instrument and accordion input. This may not be to everyone’s benefit but could be very useful to blues harmonica players. It also features a tremolo with speed control, treble/bass switch and an external cable output.

In my opinion this is a love it or hate it amplifier. It wasn’t designed to everyone’s taste and I think Fender are targeting, how shall I say this, the experienced guitar player. It really does have an authentic vintage feel to it and just seems to have character, something I’ve rarely found in an amp.

GuitarDaddy Note: This is a Guest Post from Steve Williams, a friend of mine who works for a music shop in the UK. He loves playing and writing about guitars and amplifiers. Thanks Steve!

January 6, 2012, North Hollywood, CA (Press Release) – 65amps introduces their newest guitar amplifier, The Producer. This innovative 28-Watt amplifier utilizes a unique tube circuit that addresses the characteristics of modern tubes in a new way.

The Producer from 65amps

65amps’ Dan Boul says, “Copying old circuits is becoming more and more dangerous due to the fact that old circuits were designed around tubes that could take high voltage, and modern tubes just can’t.” 65amps has created The Producer as their own, unique solution to coaxing consistent and reliable classic tube warmth from modern tubes.

The Producer runs its pair of EL34s in an extremely safe and unconventional way. With help from Mercury Magnetics, 65amps developed a unique transformer and circuitry that allows EL34s to produce great tone in such a way that they last for an extremely long time – we’re talking decades. Aside from eliminating costly re-tubing, this new approach simply delivers both an outstanding classic distortion, and a fantastic clean tone.

Many players find EL34 amps too loud for their liking, and are forced to use attenuators or master volumes to compensate. The 28-Watt Producer takes advantage of 65amps’ proprietary Master Voltage circuit to deliver tone-rich distortions and cleans at reasonable volumes.

The Producer has two channels, each with an independent 65amps Bump control, which allows for four distinct voices – all accessible through a standard 2-button foot-switch. With 65amps legendary build quality and style, the Producer solidly delivers versatile, luscious tone.

About 65amps:
65amps was conceived in 2004 when partners Dan Boul and guitarist Peter Stroud created a custom amp for Peter to use on stage with Sheryl Crow. Today 65amps’ range of guitar and bass amplifiers delivers surprising power at low volume, amazingly versatile tone and meticulous, road-worthy craftsmanship. You’ll find 65amps on stage and in the studio with a wide variety of players including Richie Sambora, Bruce Springsteen, Keith Urban, Sheryl Crow, Peter Frampton, Bob Dylan, and many more.

Find out more at www.65amps.com

This week, more (official) information is available!

In a historic collaboration, Fender introduces its first artist signature amplifiers—EC Series amps bearing the name of legendary guitarist Eric Clapton. Built to the exacting specifications of Clapton himself, the three amps—the EC Twinolux™, EC Tremolux™ and EC Vibro-Champ®—are fascinating variations on their original ’50s-era ancestors (the ’57 Twin™, ’57 Deluxe™ and ’57 Champ®, respectively), and are our answer to his call for special models with distinctive features.
- From the Official Fender Web Site

CLICK HERE to visit the official Fender site to read more about these amps!!

What I enjoyed most about this video was listening to Brian Farmer’s encyclopedic rambling as he went from one piece of gear to the next. After watching this video I have to believe he is one of the top guitar techs on the road. This guy knows his stuff!

Fender Eric Clapton Signature Amps

Fender just announced its first-ever signature amps–the Eric Clapton Twinolux, Eric Clapton Tremolux, and Eric Clapton Vibro-Champ are all based on Slowhand’s specifications.
- From the Premier Guitar Facebook Page

The information was minimal, so I did a little digging…and I read that Fender’s Visitor Center recently opened next to their Corona factory.

The visitor center encompasses a modest museum with exhibits on Fender legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jeff Beck.

Visitors also will encounter a salute to the company’s founder, electric guitar innovator Leo Fender, on their way into a showroom filled with guitar equipment, accessories and memorabilia, as well as a room where potential customers can create their own customized guitar on the spot. Digging a bit further on the web I read this on Daddys.com/Blog:

One of the most exciting exhibits in the hall gave us the first look at Fender’s only signature amplifers, the Eric Clapton Series. It consists of three amplifiers, the 5 watt Vibro Champ ($999), the 12 watt Tremolux with English made Celestion G12-65 ($2295) and the 40 watt Twinolux with a Special Design Weber 12” speaker ($2999).

These amps are all hand wired in Corona and encased in a finger-joined solid pine cabinet that is covered with an antiqued golden -brown tweed. Clapton has been heavily involved in the design of these amps, you can bet they’re full of tone.

More to come as more information becomes available… stay tuned!

Now I see this “Limited Edition” Jr and I just may have to take the Jr plunge again…

The Fender Blues Jr Limited Edition is a Pro Guitar Shop exclusive, with only 150 amps made in this fetching red tolex.

This new Blues Jr LE also sports a Wheat grillcloth and cream chicken head knobs atop it’s non-reflective black control plate, lending it a refined appearance you won’t see anywhere else. But fear not, the upgrades are not all cosmetic.

This Fender Blues Jr. Limited Edition also features a 12″ Celestion Vintage 30 speaker under the hood, giving it a warmth, clarity and harmonic richness that might surprise you, especially when paired with Fender’s superb new “sparkle circuit”. A pair of El84′s pump out 15 watts of tube goodness, and new rattle-reducing shock absorbers keep this combo quiet and buzz-free for optimal studio recording.

The Fender Blues Jr Limted Edition has a full complement of tone controls, including treble, middle, bass, and a foot-switchable “fat switch” for beefing up single coils, and a Spring Reverb circuit completes that unmistakable Fender sound.

Enjoy!!

The PRS JAM AMP combines a great-sounding guitar amp simulator, a backing track audio file player and a super-accurate tuner into an all-around first class application that allows me to jam along to backing tracks and slow down riffs and solos for optimal practice — all through my mobile device and the privacy of my headphones.

The PRS JAM AMP lets you load, loop and slow down audio clips for repeated practice of those tricky parts. Upload and play back popular riffs and songs in MP3, ACC (unprotected) or AIIF formats using the onboard web interface.

You can even adjust the tuning of your audio tracks to your guitar. For example, if the backing track was recorded in the key of C#… you can adjust the pitch upward by three tones and play along on your guitar in E!  That means any track can be played in your favorite key!

The amp application includes the standard tone controls as well as input boost, reverb and crunch (overdrive). There is even a slider to adjust for room size.

As far as I am concerned, this is the ultimate iPhone-iTouch application. I can walk around in my house with my Les Paul strapped on and my iTouch in my pocket. The optional (but required) Guitarbud cable that connects my iTouch to my Guitar and headphones is neatly tucked in my back pocket and I am jamming along (walking room-to-room) to a backing track — all the while listening to everything through my headphones.

The best part is…. I am playing LOUD… and my wife hears nothing!

Whether you’re practicing, recording your latest idea, or just killing time, true inspiration and killer tone is finally as close as your iPhone or iTouch.

I have purchased a few items from them over the past year that had great special prices. You can add it to your RSS feed as well. It’s a pretty cool idea and I would recommend you get their daily feed.

Anyway, I have been reading about the VOX JamVox for several months. The product is supposed to strip the guitar from any MP3 music file you have so that YOU can play along with the track as the lead guitar player. The JamVox includes software and a monitor and requires a pretty powerful computer.

Well, good old St Nicholas at MusiciansFriend must have known what I wanted for the holidays as The JamVox popped up as the “Stupid Deal” for today at $129 with free shipping. That’s a really good price!

I know… it sounds way to good to be true and I am sure the JamVox is not perfect.  But I pulled the trigger and ordered one since the price was only good for TODAY.

Does anybody already own one of these?

Bjorn Riis authors a wonderful website and blog for David Gilmour fans titled Gilmourish.com. Click HERE to visit.

The site is chocked full of “everything-Gilmour”… from David’s personal gear… to how to get David’s tone… to amplifiers… to some excellent quality backing tracks of those classic David Gilmour songs.

One of my favorite features of the site is titled “The Gear Gallery” where other readers have uploaded pictures of their own personal pedal effect boards and gear. Check it out by clicking HERE.

It is obvious that Bjorn has put many hours into this fantastic site. Send him a quick note to thank him…and be sure to tell him GuitarDaddy sent you!