Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Make it loud here.
misanthropic-man
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu May 17, 2012 9:56 am
Location: Colorado

Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by misanthropic-man » Tue Jun 19, 2012 8:13 pm

I thought I was a Vox purist, I love the chime of a Vox. I am a bit of a throwback person, though. I have a bit of bias in which anything with 1950's or pin up girls is probably the best bet. I found a Vox VT20+ at a guitar center, I didn't know what Valvetronix was, but it said Vox; looked nice and compact. I have had it for about nine months, and I've heard that others are having the same problem regarding the hissing noises using nay of the effects, and that annoys me. It has nice amp presets, I saw Vox AC30 in there and thought it was good considering the price, but aside from those presets: some of the effects sound bad and don't trust this Valvetronix. My first guitar was a Fender Starocaster, a knock off of the Strat in those starting kits that had a small amp and a whammy bar. I know that the only thing Fender really has going for them is their clean signal, and my amp only had dirty and clean at the time. The guitar broke, and I took it all back. I got an Eastwood tenor guitar, the Vox and a new Airline Twin Tone over the accumulation of one year. (Both the guitars were birthday and graduation presents from my parents, I'm not a millionaire.) I bought the Vox. Just having that hissing sound, and the mundanity of some of those effects is making me reconsider to trade in the Vox for an Excelsior. I realized that I paid 180 for the vox, and the Fender is 300, so I'll have to rummage the rest by selling some of the vinyl records I don't listen to anymore, or blood money.

I just love the vintage look of the amp, like Cold War-ish sort of thing. Not really condoning that, but something about that logo makes me think of that. My only concern is the opened back and no reverb, I'm sure that is prone to dust and if worse to worse moth balls and god knows what else; I'm a reverb junkie with my guitar. I love the Lo-Fi sound, makes me think of the harsh production on Tom Waits' Real Gone. That LP always made me believe my needle had rusted. I honestly love that sort of thing, but to each his own. The tremelo when heavy enough makes me think of some swelling, goth music, if used right. The amp looks a lot more compact, and not as heavy for me. I'm 5'7, fairly skinny and 125 pounds, and I climb a lot of stairs depending on the jam sessions with some of my family and house hopping.

What do you guys think? Is this a decent replacement? anyone that's used it what are your thoughts
I Hate Love

User avatar
sookwinder
Mods
Mods
Posts: 11179
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:47 pm
Location: Melbourne Australia

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by sookwinder » Tue Jun 19, 2012 9:04 pm

misanthropic-man wrote: My only concern is the opened back ...
everyone of my amps, large and small, is open backed. Not a concern.
relaxing alternative to doing actual work ...

User avatar
mastermorya
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 624
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2011 10:27 am

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by mastermorya » Tue Jun 19, 2012 9:59 pm

I tried out an Excelsior in a Guitar Center (it's in, and so is the thinline Jaguar, though that was set up so poorly it was unplayable). It's quite bigger and heavier than it might appear to be, than what I thought it would be from seeing it on the internet. But it sounds great. Won't stay clean at more than moderate volume, but that's ok.

I feel you on the Valvetronix. I had one then I traded it for a Roland Cube 30 something. The Roland had far simpler controls and was fine. And I could use headphones. Then I got a silverface Music Master Bass, which is great and sounds more like a Fender amp than the Excelsior. Which is why I'm not getting an Excelsior. I ended up swapping the Roland for a Pathfinder because I wanted to get even further away from the modeling and the effects business, by the way. I have plenty of pedals anyway. I use the Pathfinder for headphones and its line out for recording.

User avatar
burningflan
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 186
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 7:03 am
Location: Brighton, England

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by burningflan » Mon Jun 25, 2012 7:11 am

Seeing as you like the Vox sound, have you considered a Vox AC15-VR? I'm using one at the moment, it's reasonably light (I'm pathetically wimpy), reasonably priced (more so if you can find a used one) and (IMO) they sound really great.

misanthropic-man
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu May 17, 2012 9:56 am
Location: Colorado

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by misanthropic-man » Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:32 pm

here's one thing I'm wondering, the excelsior has one volume, and I assume no 'gain' switch exactly, would this amp make some good feedback? I purposefully like to do that, and if it can do that I'm sold. Would I have to plug in a distortion + or gain pedal?
I Hate Love

User avatar
jacobyjd
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1822
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:09 pm

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by jacobyjd » Fri Jul 06, 2012 4:50 am

misanthropic-man wrote:here's one thing I'm wondering, the excelsior has one volume, and I assume no 'gain' switch exactly, would this amp make some good feedback? I purposefully like to do that, and if it can do that I'm sold. Would I have to plug in a distortion + or gain pedal?
You'd have to crank it up. A fuzz or distortion would help, but you'll need higher volume either way.

misanthropic-man
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu May 17, 2012 9:56 am
Location: Colorado

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by misanthropic-man » Fri Jul 06, 2012 2:30 pm

Thanks, jacobyjd! I was hoping that wasn't a stupid question. As much as I love classic blues, I have become something of obsessed with Post-Punk/Gothic-Rock like Bauhaus, HTRK and Rowland Howard as well; and was hoping this amp could do that too.
I Hate Love

User avatar
tubeswell
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 310
Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2012 2:38 am

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by tubeswell » Sun Jul 08, 2012 12:25 am

The fender excelsior is a really a blues amp. Altho it might sound good for rock with a hotcake in front of it.

User avatar
pj
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 745
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:33 am

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by pj » Sun Jul 08, 2012 1:46 am

I just tried this amp while on vacation in VT. I played a Tele through it and I liked it a lot. Still need to get my Ampeg fixed and I'm loving my Vox AC15 so I don't see it happening really soon but eventually I think I may own one if I trade something for it. Loved the tremalo on the amp and the 15" speaker was very cool. (I'm used to 12" speakers so it was fun to listen to something else for a change.) I only listened to it clean.

PJ

User avatar
micaiah
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 680
Joined: Wed May 09, 2012 7:46 pm

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by micaiah » Mon Jul 23, 2012 11:58 am

I have it and I play my own stuff in the styles of coldplay, radiohead, nirvana death cab for cutie and lovedrug and its a great amp I run it though a block Dyna comp, JD-9, DS-1 DOD chorus, and RV-5 and a DD-3 into either a strat, tele, blacktop jazzmaster or a 70's LP copy (that I trade of the BTJM) its just great...but very British crunch though even ran just the amp cable and guitar cracked not very fender-ish at all more so the vox-ish flavor


also Like the striped down config it just lets guitar shine though and the pedals do the work better to shape your over all tone
Excelsior amp love it a shit load more versatile then given credit for fender strat, squier standard tele don't hate, it has the tone I've been chasing since I modded it with my secret I won't reveal unless you REALLY wanna know and a blacktop Jazzmaster

User avatar
kalipigeon
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1421
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:31 pm
Location: Little Rock, AR, USA, Earth
Contact:

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by kalipigeon » Mon Jul 23, 2012 5:53 pm

The Excelsior I played was a great clean to overdrive type of amp. It reminded me tone-wise of an old school take on a Peavey Delta Blues. I'm pretty sure that by plugging into the accordion in jack that you'll see a nice midrange gain spike that might give you some help in the feedback quest, but this amp isn't really designed with distortion in mind. You might look at a Delta Blues or an Egnater 15w amp (rebel, tweaker) to get similar tones but with a preamp volume control that will let you get feedback levels of distortion when you want it.

User avatar
beq00000
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 78
Joined: Sun May 17, 2009 7:05 am
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by beq00000 » Fri Jul 27, 2012 5:57 am

I would disagree with Kalipigeon. There are other ways to boost gain in a non-master-volume amp (clean boost pedals, or distortion pedals for example). If you need more gain from a non-master-volume amp, you turn it up. A master-volume control only allows you to decouple preamp gain from power amp gain, it doesn't actually give you any more gain than you'd otherwise get from a given amp design.

I'm biased though, I much prefer non-master-volume amplifiers, they're the only kind I own... and I do a lot with feedback.

User avatar
astricii
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 99
Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2012 9:51 am
Location: Queen City of the Plains

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by astricii » Sat Jul 28, 2012 10:43 am

If you're into post-punk goth stuff you might want to get a brighter amp. that 15" speaker isn't going to push high transients as much as 10" would. Id say save your duckets and get a used Hot Rod Deville 4X10. Bright and LOUD can get great feedback when pressed in the right way. It's what I used in my post-punk band. You can find em in the 400-500 range used.

They're tanks too. I've had one problem with mine in the 4 years I was gigging regularly with it and it was a cold solder joint that broke loose. been solid ever since.

This EP was recorded with my CP jag into my HRD 4x10 using the gain channel some fuzz delay and chorus flanger in a feedback loop for some parts. Also had my Moog Ringmod in parts but the main "dry" signal was just Jag bridge pickup into the HRD with the gain at about 75% Master vol at like 2.5 (LOUD)

http://idealfathers.bandcamp.com/album/retail-eyes
I have too many jags.

User avatar
jimboyogi
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 2083
Joined: Tue May 27, 2008 2:38 am
Location: Melbourne
Contact:

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by jimboyogi » Sat Jul 28, 2012 2:42 pm

beq00000 wrote: A master-volume control only allows you to decouple preamp gain from power amp gain, it doesn't actually give you any more gain than you'd otherwise get from a given amp design.
This kind of true, but also kind of not true.

A non-master amp only needs enough gain in its pre-amp to drive its output tubes up to and beyond overdriving. But intrinsic in their design is that with just a guitar input, the first thing that will distort is the output stage.

A master volume amp is designed to not only overdrive the output stage, but also to have enough gain in the pre-amp to overdrive the pre-amp itself. So by design a master volume amp needs significantly more gain available in its pre-amp than a non-master.

User avatar
beq00000
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 78
Joined: Sun May 17, 2009 7:05 am
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Thoughts on the Fender Excelsior?

Post by beq00000 » Sun Jul 29, 2012 7:14 am

jimboyogi wrote:
beq00000 wrote: A master-volume control only allows you to decouple preamp gain from power amp gain, it doesn't actually give you any more gain than you'd otherwise get from a given amp design.
This kind of true, but also kind of not true.

A non-master amp only needs enough gain in its pre-amp to drive its output tubes up to and beyond overdriving. But intrinsic in their design is that with just a guitar input, the first thing that will distort is the output stage.

A master volume amp is designed to not only overdrive the output stage, but also to have enough gain in the pre-amp to overdrive the pre-amp itself. So by design a master volume amp needs significantly more gain available in its pre-amp than a non-master.
I said, "for a given amp design". It's true that most non-master-volume amps are designed to overdrive the output stage, and that many don't easily overdrive the preamp stage. Some are designed to overdrive both. It's equally true that many master-volume amps are designed to not overdrive the output stage.

In my experience, the two types generally provide the same overall amount of gain within a given design family. Your milage may vary.

Post Reply