Fender Excelsior Guitar Amp for Voice on Solo Gig (& as a Second Amp for Fun) ?

scotty

Hi,

I am contemplating getting a Fender Excelsior Amp (< R3000). I need something to push my voice through ( I don't have a PA etc.), I have a Fender Super Champ that I use for guitar. If I get the Excelsior I then have an Amp that I can run a mic through and I should be sorted for playing small solo gigs (Voice on Excelsior & Guitar on Super Champ). I then also have a second amp which is nice to play around with.

Q: Has anyone tried it with the microphone input? Is the amp 'sweet' enough or would one need to add more effects to the MIC (reverb?)

The amp has a voice, accordion and guitar input. Refer to this previous post for pictures and lots of discussions:

http://www.fender.com/amps/guitar-amplifiers/excelsior-120v

http://www.guitarforum.co.za/amps-speakers-and-valves/new-fender-amp-13w-tremolo-and-15'-speaker/msg186837/#msg186837

Thanks.

AlanRatcliffe

Not sure, but I suspect it'll be a bit of a trade-off. AFAIK it's a tweed-inspired amp and they don't have much headroom. Unless, of course, that's what you want:

If you're looking for something cleaner, more like a mini PA, take a look at acoustic amps like the Roland ACs that also have mic inputs.

scotty

Mmm. Good point. Will have to do some research on the acoustic amps. Thanks Alan.

I just realized I was never really sure what headroom actually meant (had a vague idea).

So I looked it up:

http://www.fender.com/news/headroom-what-is-it/

Learning something new every day.

From the article:
A car analogy illustrates the concept nicely. If you have a car that can go up to 100 miles per hour and you always drive the car at 100 miles per hour, you’re constantly pushing that vehicle to the upper limit of its abilities and specifications. You can’t make it do any more than it’s already doing; there is no spare “headroom” to go faster or to get more power out of it.

But if you usually drive the car no faster than, say, 65 miles per hour, you’re not constantly pushing the vehicle to its performance extremes. You’ve got some more speed in reserve there and extra room to go faster. In other words, you’ve got some headroom—another 35 mph, to be exact, if you need it. Headroom is like power to spare.

Keira-WitherKay

hey they still cool amps.... ? love that vintage look..... and theres tons of online mods for em already ......

but as a vocal mic amp...unless you gigging very softly it will add distortion/breakup to the vocals as the amp breaks up quite early ... but for a soft gig it may offer a nice warmth to vocals at low level ....... and just look way way cool onstage if you after the vintage vibe.....

as alan said just find an acoustic amp BUT they too are not meant for loud gigs...

best is just buy one powered speaker with a 12 and horn and about 200W and your vocal needs are sorted ... these range from cheap behringers to expensive bose

AlanRatcliffe

With a valve amp, it usually refers to clean headroom - how loud it gets before it starts distorting. Not a big problem for guitar (we likes our amps dirty, like our wimmen).

Keira WitherKay wrote: best is just buy one powered speaker with a 12 and horn and about 200W and your vocal needs are sorted ... these range from cheap behringers to expensive bose

This is a good option too. A lot of powered speakers and monitors have mic inputs these days.

andrewjbryson

LOL@ like our wimmen ?