Fender G-Dec Junior

[kiteman]

Well it came in 2 hours ago and I'd just got through playing with this amazing little toy.

http://www.fender.com/products//sear...tno=2351000000

It's a 15 watt solid state guitar amplifier with a special designed 8" speaker. Yea, lots of 15 watt 8" speaker boxes all over the place but this one, Fender claims, is one of a kind. This one, the smallest member of the G-Dec family, is a band in a box. Retailed for $180 it's got:

15 effect settings - 16 amplifier types - 15 rhythm/bass loops with selectable keys in D to D# (spans over an octave)

and more.

I like the amp. I tried out bunch of combinations and found a nice combo that I jammed and jammed on it for a long time. The amp sounded damn good with everything running. Everything are adjusted with knobs which is a big plus and only one button to push and that's to toggle the ryhthm section.

One row of knobs to adjust the amp and another row of knobs for the rhythm section. Simplicity at its best.

Also got a built in E tuner. That's right, an E tuner so you would have to know how to relatively tune the other strings or have another tuner.

I saw several advantages of this amp and what it can be used for:

As a stand alone amp with the amp and fx selects.

As a rhythm machine for someone who's playing an acoustic guitar, harp, and what have you, even singing.

And as a band, (Your Name) and the G-Decs. ude:

[tot_Ou_tard]

An E-string tuner?

Seems odd.

How are the rhythm tracks kiteman?

[ted s]

I had a G string tuner once, very uncomfortable..

[kiteman]

An E-string tuner?

Seems odd.

How are the rhythm tracks kiteman?

Kewl! I'm playing with it again. ude:

You can play just drums or drums with bass. Tempo adjustable from 30 to 240 bpm. Some interesting stuff in there but you have no way of knowing what exact tempo you're at as it's only marked in three places (30-120-240.) That means adjusting it as aproximations. That caused me a little problem as I have songs that changes tempos. Time for calibrations and etchings.

The rhythm section is pretty loud especially with the bass playing but the amp can drown it out easily so the amp's volume's turned down a bit. Also depends on the amp selections as some are loud. Using the rhythm section as standalone works very nicely. Grab your harmonica or your kazoo and jam!

EDIT: you know, I'd prefer an A tuner instead because I tune my other strings to the A string by fretting As on 'em.

[kiteman]

An update on this amp. It quit working right in the middle of the session. No power. Jeez, I wore this damn thing out.

Anyway I think the power supply's out but I checked the fuse and it's still intact. I blew the warranty by opening it. Oh well, I'll fix it myself.

Such a fun little amp "sigh".

[Algonquin]

Any luck with the amp KM? It has to be a bummer when something as cool as this f*rts out early.

Hope you get it up and running soon.

[kiteman]

Ya, I'm pretty sure I will, I know electronics pretty good. I haven't started working on it though.

[kiteman]

Ok, I looked at the amp and the power transformer's out. It has three sets of wires coming out of the secondary coil. My guess is three different voltages and one set is dead.

I emailed Fender about obtaining a transformer and so far I haven't heard from 'em.

[marnold***]

I would be floored if Fender will offer you the part or even have it fixed. Most companies have gone to replace-only warranties.

[kiteman]

Yea, what I feared but that gives me a very dim view of Fender.

I can fix it by adding a transformer but what's the voltage? No schematic were avaliable for now. Well, I can shelf it and wait. It costed me $180 and I can't chuck it. It was a fun little sucker. I'm gonna fix it one way or another.

Anyway I ordered a Kustom 12 gauge combo amp new for $100 from MF. Its a 16 watt 2 channeled amp with 1x12 speaker (hence the name 12 gauge). It has onboard analog reverb and delay too. Sound like an interesting amp and the reviews says at this price point it's really a good buy.

I used to have a Kustom quad100 2x12 amp and while some of the onboard FXes are a joke it was a kicking amp. It was too big for me and I sold it. I bought the gdec amp with the money and got spare change to boot.

I'm just glad I still have my epi valve jr combo.

[marnold***]

Is there a Fender authorized repair shop near you? They could probably give you the best info.

[kiteman]

There's a local shop that's a Fender dealer. Gotta wait for the technician to come in and he'll check.

[kiteman]

Mmm, got some good news. I went through my receipts for the sweetwater invoice and found the hang tag for the amp. It says 5 year warranty and all the time I thought I had 90 days instead. I called sweetwater and told 'em what I did with the amp trying to fix it. They told me send it back, here's the RMA# and fedex# and we'll give you a new one.

Gotta love sweetwater.