New Fender EC Amps

[Kap'n]

and cheeze wire with lead-free solder.

I don't think they have a choice about that.

[Rickenjangle]

... they unfreeze Clapton and Buddy Guy, failing to mention that both have been musically irrelevant for the last 20 years.

Irrelevant to whom?
OK Clapner I get - but every time I see Buddy Guy play I realize the man's getting better. One of my good friends went to see Buddy and BB and said the comparison couldn't be clearer...BB is clearly tired and slowed way down, whereas Buddy is still an energetic live performer.

[curtisstetka]

Yeah, how much innovation do you want out of a guy? I wouldn't say Claptop is musically irrelevant at all. There are still millions of people paying to hear him play and I'm sure there are tons of young guitarists still influenced by his past work and present music as well.

I haven't bought an EC album lately but still remember that feeling of hearing him for the first time when I was a kid. EC and John Fogerty made me want to play guitar.

[Doc W]

I think, note for note, Clapton is the best blues player there is today. I didn't listen much to him for the last 25 years until recently. He not only plays great, but he has become a really articulate and well-seasoned singer. And he covers the waterfront, from electric to acoustic. I even saw him playing "Over the Rainbow" on a big fat archtop. Also, He runs the Crossroads festival and brings in great guitar players to huge audiences.

Geez, how "relevant" does a guy have to be?

[Offshore Angler]

Blues is irrelevant music. Really, in the big picture... it's not commercial, it's not ground-breaking, it's certainly not giving us anything new. It's as relevant as Mozart or Dixieland or John Phillip Sousa. Think about it.

Plus, I dont care you are, take away Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce to push him, and Clapton is just another guitar player with great studio work behind him. His sound is soooooo reworked with tails and exciters you wonder what he really sounds like.

[Rickenjangle]

Chuck, I know where you're coming from but day-ummm you just put a 'flame me' sign on your back!

[wingnut1]

I still enjoy EC's and BG's music as well as the blues. I also find it interesting that you have all decided that these amps aren't worth buying, yet as far as I can tell, none of you have even played through one.

[Kap'n]

I still enjoy EC's and BG's music as well as the blues. I also find it interesting that you have all decided that these amps aren't worth buying, yet as far as I can tell, none of you have even played through one.

I'm sure they're lovely amps, even with the stupid marketing spin.

Why would I buy what I can build better for 1/4 the price?

[Gravity Jim]

I have the same feeling about the Fender Custom Shop. Haven't played a CS guitar yet that feels as good as my dialed-in Warmoth, so... why pay that much for a sticker?

[wingnut1]

Here are a couple of links you might find interesting.

Fender Handwire Amp Factory visit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=54sNv1Ck6dc#!


Tweed Clapton Signature DEMO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=FauVlhtu8nQ

[buckaroo]

great video. While the amps do look nice...i couldn't help but be impressed by Rebecca Dirks and her sensational fitting Premier Guitar T shirt!:

[Don]

Most of us don't have a problem with these amps themselves. I'd love to try one! The issue is the high price due to the Fender and Eric Clapton names. They're very straightforward designs and can by built or bought for less money.

[Skip]

Most of us don't have a problem with these amps themselves. I'd love to try one! The issue is the high price due to the Fender and Eric Clapton names. They're very straightforward designs and can by built or bought for less money.

Correcto Mundo exactly.. Champ for $999... better off with a custom built Weber Kit made with the best components and speaker

[Doc W]

Why the big deal about the EC signature? Should we be uncomfortable about Les Pauls or Gretch "Chet Atkins" signature guitars?

[ch willie]

Fender has made a smart move. I have a friend who'll have one of those as soon as they can get them in Germany.

As for Clapton's relevance, I still have 18-21 year old students who love Clapton and who wear Clapton shirts (as well as Who shirts, Hendrix shirts, etc).

[Rickenjangle]

great video. While the amps do look nice...i couldn't help but be impressed by Rebecca Dirks and her sensational fitting Premier Guitar T shirt!:

And an equally nice fitting pair of jeans...

[Gtrplyr]

What Fender needs is another "Big Star" to officially endorse and use the EC amps to get more sales

[Doc W]

What Fender needs is another "Big Star" to officially endorse and use the EC amps to get more sales

Ok, Fender markets with star endorsements (so does everyone else, since the 19th century). Most of these endorsements are utter nonsense. Think of the endless parade of "artist models." That might be fodder for some healthy criticism of Fender, but what is this animosity towards Eric Clapton? At least what he endorses has a certain amount of credibility. The EC Strat, while not for me, is hardly a piece of junk. It is well thought out and modestly priced (the CS version is another story). The tweed Twin, brought back into production because of EC, is a helluva good amp. And now, the guy who plays Fender tweeds has his initials on a line of Fender tweeds. Gee, he should be arrested!!!!


I have often bitched in here about how Fender overprices a lot of stuff. I just don't get the assault on EC. If you want to attack Fender on pricing, start with that overpriced relic stuff from the CS.

[Gtrplyr]

Ok, Fender markets with star endorsements (so does everyone else, since the 19th century). Most of these endorsements are utter nonsense. Think of the endless parade of "artist models." That might be fodder for some healthy criticism of Fender, but what is this animosity towards Eric Clapton? At least what he endorses has a certain amount of credibility. The EC Strat, while not for me, is hardly a piece of junk. It is well thought out and modestly priced (the CS version is another story). The tweed Twin, brought back into production because of EC, is a helluva good amp. And now, the guy who plays Fender tweeds has his initials on a line of Fender tweeds. Gee, he should be arrested!!!!


I have often bitched in here about how Fender overprices a lot of stuff. I just don't get the assault on EC. If you want to attack Fender on pricing, start with that overpriced relic stuff from the CS.

I get the star endorsement thing it’s the “signature status” marketing that amuses me. Call me old fashioned but I liked the old days when a Stratocaster was a Stratocaster. One may have been inspired to buy a Strat because Jimi played one but it didn’t have Jimi’s name plastered on it.

As for the EC amps I. not sure who Fender’s target market is on this but being middle aged I would have preferred to see a re-issue of the original line of the tweed models true to the originals. Sure put Clapton in the ad endorsing them but why put his name on the amp? Doesn’t Fender already have enough brand clout? Are young kids going to be attracted to these or does Fender really feel the vintage collector crowd will jump on these?

I’ve been a lifelong Clapton fan but I certainly don’t want to buy a bastardized version of a Tweed with EC’s name on it for a premium price. A) It’s not what Clapton has played though B) There’s a certain EC wanna be feel to it.

My gut feeling is that Fender will sell enough to to make a decent profit on them selling to those hard core Fender Collectors (who will keep it in their closets with all the hang tags). Don't see the EC line of amps having much staying power. One year of production? Sure they may be a decent amp but my opinion is that using EC's name is a bit of a cheesy sales gimmick that they really didn't need to do to sell them. But then again I'm not in marketing and may be totally missing the mark.

[wingnut1]

I like bias wiggle tremolo. I like the features of the twin that you can go to one speaker and it has built in attenuation. This amp has a lot of flexibility. I've built most of my own amp, but I do like a lot about these amps.

[Don]

Why the big deal about the EC signature? Should we be uncomfortable about Les Pauls or Gretch "Chet Atkins" signature guitars?

Personally, I have no problem with Clapton or his signature being on things. In fact, he's the reason that I picked guitar back up.

I love Martin's EC 000-28 guitar. Not for the signature, but for the features.

My only concern is the price. You're just not getting you money's worth with this gear based on other, even better quality, gear that's available. I think that's the only real concern that most of us have with these amps.

[Doc W]

Well, I won't beat this to death, but if you guys are upset at a price just because it has an artist's name on it, that train left the station some time ago. One of the cars, for example, was labelled "David Gilmour Strat - 4800 bucks." Check out some of the other CS shop guitars while you are at it. Or how about a Jim Campilongo Tele for $4500? Or a 60th anniversay Esquire for 6K?

This is the official end of my rant.

[Kap'n]

As far as I'm concerned, the only artist signatures I want on my guitars are Chet Atkins and Les Paul. Both of which were pretty radical departures from conventional guitars at the time, and had reasonable input into their design from these electric guitar pioneers.

Most current artist models differ from other models by the paint job or the number of points on the body.

Come to thing of it, I've got a "McCarty model" and a "Seth Lover" model guitar. Only it says Les Paul on it.

My 6120 doesn't even have Chet's name on it.

[Don]

I have a Gary Moore Signature Les Paul and had Seth Lover pickups it it! Signature overload!

But...

...I bought the guitar and pickups used, cheap!

[goofballone]

just ran across THIS
I like the sound of the champ. but probably not the price

[Doc W]

Here are the prices:

Vibro-Champ MSRP $1,399 (MAP $999)
Tremolux MSRP $2,799.99 (MAP $1,999)
Twinolux MSRP $4,199.99 (MAP $2,999)

[Rickenjangle]

I'm sorry, but handwired or not, that seems a bit pricy to me...

[Mikey]

Don't be sorry...... the manufacturers should be sorry for ripping us poor slobs off. Wait! I never bought any of that stuff. As far as amps go I just built my own and bought an American Deluxe Tele that I thought was a little too expensive but I spent unexpected inheritance money for it so I didn't care.
I just am too stingy to spend a lot of money on things. I love $4K acoustic guitars but will probably settle for a $900 one just because I don't want to spend the money. Man, what a jerk I am!

[phantomman]

Here are the prices:

Vibro-Champ MSRP $1,399 (MAP $999)
Tremolux MSRP $2,799.99 (MAP $1,999)
Twinolux MSRP $4,199.99 (MAP $2,999)

PFFFFFFT!

Sorry, but I'd buy a Victoria 50212 for $2950 before I'd ever pay FMIC over four large for their "Twinolux". EC's name doesn't have any particular appeal to me and I'd prefer a true-to-spec 5E8 clone in any case. And I fail to understand why FMIC bothered including a bias-wiggle trem......to my knowledge, Clapton has never used such an effect on any of his songs from any era.

[Rickenjangle]

What about Badge? I have a live DVD of Clapton where he has some kind of tremolo on the descending arpeggiated section...

But I'm with you I'd rather have an actual low powered tweed twin too...

But seriously I still think that that is a lot of money!

[68goldtop]

hi!

i really don´t get all the negative comments on these amps...

i think it´s great that they offer handwired tweed-amps with added features not found on other tweed-amps. they even offer three different models for various player´s needs.
i´m not a huge fan of mr. clapton myself, but he sure deserves some respect. and if fender chooses to work with him on a project like this, i respect that, too.

if they make good money on this - that´s fine with me.
it keeps them in business, keeps good amp-tone alive and shows some respect for claptons achievements throughout his 50-year career.

price-wise, these amps are in the same ballpark as any other "name"-company´s offerings.

if you don´t want the added features nor the EC-badge - fender offers the ´57 champ, ´57 deluxe and ´57 twin as handwired versions - again in the same price-range as their competitors.

if i were running the fender-company i´d make sure our offerings were priced UP THERE with the companies that copy fender´s designs.

cheers - 68.

[Kap'n]

Here are the prices:

Vibro-Champ MSRP $1,399 (MAP $999)
Tremolux MSRP $2,799.99 (MAP $1,999)
Twinolux MSRP $4,199.99 (MAP $2,999)

I believe these are the same prices as the previous hand wired Champ, Deluxe and LP Twin reissues. I suspect this is an attempt to breathe life into those amps, which I think sold far below expectations. I mean people have been screaming for them to make a 5E3 Deluxe for years, and I'm guessing sales were pretty lackluster seeing as they were about 15 years too late for the party. So they are a better value than their predecessors, I think, but the fact that they have to meet all sorts of international regulations and provide their dealers deep discounts means that their list prices, by necessity, have to be higher than the typical small shop.

[Meaux]

I'd like to see the 'grounding scheme' on the New Ones... :)

If it's even possible, where can I find the Diagrams?... Probably nowhere yet...

[NTBluesGuitar]

Somebody let me know when they publish schematics for these...I should build one one of my own to avoid having an amp named 'Twinolux' on principle alone.

Yet, these provide even more potential circuits to put into gutted HRD chassis.

[refin]

As far as I'm concerned, the only artist signatures I want on my guitars are Chet Atkins and Les Paul. Most current artist models differ from other models by the paint job or the number of points on the body.

[NeoFauve]

As far as I'm concerned, the only artist signatures I want on my guitars are Chet Atkins and Les Paul.

What about Les' kid?

[Kap'n]

Somebody let me know when they publish schematics for these...I should build one one of my own to avoid having an amp named 'Twinolux' on principle alone.

I suspect you should be able to tell what the schematics are for most, at least grossly - the finer points, like the B+ dividers, are subject to interpretation.

The VibroChamp probably is extremely similar to the regular Vibro Champ, only without a tone stack and lower voltages. Whether there's one or two bypass caps are probably determined by taste.

The Twinolux probably has the bias wiggle trem from the 2x10 Vibroverb grafted on it. Not to difficult to determine how Leo would have done it - and FMIC as well.

The real wild card is the one "based on the 5E3 Deluxe." Seeing as that phrase in and of itself seems to be fecally-loaded, there's really no telling what's in there.

[Don]

What about Badge? I have a live DVD of Clapton where he has some kind of tremolo on the descending arpeggiated section...

He used a rotating speaker on Badge. He used it quite often back then.

[NTBluesGuitar]

I suspect you should be able to tell what the schematics are for most, at least grossly - the finer points, like the B+ dividers, are subject to interpretation.

Yep. Open for customization, tweaking, personalizing, adding magic pink smoke caps, etc.

I'm a fan of bias-vary tremolo and the point I'm really making is that the ideas on these are somewhat interesting, and being hand-wired means it shouldn't be too hard to mimic on our own.

But we would be missing the oh-so-uber-full-of-mojo 'EC' medallion on the cab, after all.

[Rickenjangle]

He used a rotating speaker on Badge. He used it quite often back then.

Ahhh. A "real" Leslie, then...hmmm. No wonder I liked it so much!