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Post subject: Machete Amp... Any experience?
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 2:53 pm
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Hi everyone...

Curiousity has gotten the better of me, or maybe it's GAS... but in my area anyway it looks like the price on the Machete combo amp has just dropped considerably. I looked at them for fun when they first came out at what I considered to be a bit of a hideous price, and never seriously because of it, although I did dig the retro hot rod styling and the amount of various controls it had. But now that the price has dropped I can't check one out locally because no one's got one. I was wondering if anyone here has one, or played around with one extensively to know...

Most importantly, is the sweet Fender articulate cleans what I can expect from this amp? What kind of clean headroom is there? Is it enough to cut through a fairly loud drummer and other guitarists jamming without a PA? General thoughts on the amp - design / sound / versatility?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

CHEERS

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Post subject: Re: Machete Amp... Any experience?
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 10:31 pm
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http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifie ... amp#review

Quote:
"Best amp I have ever owned"

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Post subject: Re: Machete Amp... Any experience?
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:05 pm
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I'm going to order one in. Found a fairly local dealer with it on sale for $989. Torn between this and a mint used Twin Amp at a real local shop for $750. The Twin Amp has that very handy arena / club switch for 1/4 power output, but the Machete has got loads of tone tweaking and some more modern features I wouldn't mind having on tap. It's also 14 pounds lighter being a 112 and a reasonable output at 50 watts. I'll hopefully have some feedback for anyone sizing one up now that they're dropping in price to what many feel they should have been introduced at...

Thanks for the link. The best video I've seen on them is the Anderton's UK review on Youtube for it, and they rave about this amp (which no doubt they do about anything they can potentially sell... however they seem pretty genuinely blown away by the Machete...)

We'll see soon.

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2011 Custom Shop Custom Deluxe HSS Strat
2011 Custom Shop Custom Deluxe SSS Strat
2011 Custom Shop Jeff Beck Strat
2012 Fender Select HSS
2013 American Deluxe Tele
59 Bassman 410, Blues Deluxe 410
Two Rock Studio Pro 35 and 410 Cab


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Post subject: Re: Machete Amp... Any experience?
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 7:28 pm
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Please let us know your impressions. Since this is a new venture by FMIC, it might actually be built well. Corporations gut the branded items thinking they have a captive audience. Something new might be something they look to get some customer loyalty about. Can't do that making it like crap right from the start.

Once a person dials in how sociopaths think, it is not too hard to think along with them. They are not very creative. There are only so many ways to to rob someone.

I have only purchased their "disposable" items. Some of them will last longer than their planned obsolescence. I have already gotten my money out of my Mustang l. It still works nicely for the headphone and recording amp I bought it to be.

A few years back the cost of the amp amounted to a 2 week supply of silly weed. Two years later I still have an amp. I have turned a lot of my money that used to go "up in smoke" into something I can show for it. I'll even pass a urine test. :lol:

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I have some Fender gear.
(Telecaster, Jaguar, Villager 12 String. Mustang l, Bronco, SCX2, Rumble 350, HRDIII, Rumble 2x8 Neo Cab)
http://www.reverbnation.com/modwiz


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Post subject: Re: Machete Amp... Any experience?
Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:21 pm
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modwiz wrote:
A few years back the cost of the amp amounted to a 2 week supply of silly weed. Two years later I still have an amp. I have turned a lot of my money that used to go "up in smoke" into something I can show for it. I'll even pass a urine test. :lol:


:lol:

Just picked it up and brought it home today. Played for about 1/2 hour then went out and plugged it in and played along with a drummer, bassist and another guitarist. My initial thoughts are that the clean channel is awesome, very much typical Fender with more gain on hand than I'm used to with other Fender tubes I've played. I set the gain at around 8 oclock and cranked the volume up more and with a little reverb dialed in really enjoyed the clean sound. When I pushed the gain up it quickly changes into something I'm not used to from Fender on clean channels. Great bluesy crunch goes to more distortion than I personally like beyond that for a clean channel. I didn't spend enough time with channel 2 to make any educated comments, as I use a pedal board into the clean channel when I need it, but I'll break away from that to do more testing soon. I did find that adding any effect before channel 2 sometimes sounded pretty awful with gain dialed up as you might expect. But running a clean signal straight to channel 2 did offer a real hard-edged crunch even without a heck of a lot of gain set. Volume wise this pushes a lot more air somehow than my Hot Rod Deluxe, a much fuller sound somehow. I had no trouble punching through the other guys when needed though granted we weren't cranking it up much.

Really found the "notch" control useful... fills out or beefs up the tone going clockwise. I plugged in a Strat, a Tele and a Les Paul and the notch control alone really helped balance out the three very different tones. Reverb sounded surprisingly convincing considering it isn't a true spring.

The cabinet is much bigger than my Hot Rod Deluxe - surprisingly so actually. It's also noticeably heavier. Still won't mind lugging this around instead of my half-stack for jams like tonight, since it does offer a little more volume than the HRDx.

It seems to be built well. I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I actually like the non-typical-Fender styling with the retro Hot Rod car piping and leather. The back is fairly much closed up. The 4-button footswitch is handy and you can engage the gain boost and bright boost with it as well as switching channels and controlling reverb. It comes with castors, but a little disappointed there was no cover for it.

Anyway, that's a few initial impressions. The guys all commented it sounded good, and was nice to get it heated up pretty good already. If I come up with any better evaluation I'll be sure to post it up. Pretty happy so far.

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2011 Custom Shop Custom Deluxe HSS Strat
2011 Custom Shop Custom Deluxe SSS Strat
2011 Custom Shop Jeff Beck Strat
2012 Fender Select HSS
2013 American Deluxe Tele
59 Bassman 410, Blues Deluxe 410
Two Rock Studio Pro 35 and 410 Cab


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Post subject: Re: Machete Amp... Any experience?
Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 10:00 pm
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Dunzie wrote:
It comes with castors, but a little disappointed there was no cover for it.

Dunzie, according to Fender, the combo comes with a fitted cover: http://www.fender.com/series/machete/machete-combo/

Glad you followed up on your impulse. The Machete caught my attention when it was introduced, but at the original price it was not a serious option. When I noticed the reduction my interest was piqued once again. If you were able to get it for $989, that is close to half off the MSRP.

I don't really want to consider why Fender decided to have a fire sale...but I have not seen this amp in stores and haven't run into anybody who owns one, so my guess is they're not selling well at all, and at their former price, no wonder! As noted elsewhere, the Machete is obviously Fender's attempt to compete with Mesa Boogie in size, configuration, features, and tone, which is not something the Supersonic was about, in my opinion.

Let's hope, since the Machete was demanding a premium price, that the components and workmanship are a cut above the other assembly line amps, and that your amp proves to be reasonably trouble-free!

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Post subject: Re: Machete Amp... Any experience?
Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 9:36 am
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I own the Fender Machete head and 1x12 Cabinet and for Classic Rock, Blues and R&B it's the best multi channel amp I've ever played and I play 2 or 3 gigs a week. Excellent note separation, Sweet Cleans to 5150-like Sustain, the great tone stays with you at LOWER volumes, whether you're playing single coil or humbucker guitars. I love the fact that there's separate EQ's, the controls are extremely interactive like several Mesa's I've owned (and have moved on) so you'll need to spend some quality time tweaking your unique sound. The Notch Controls and Damping Switch lets you dial in just about any pure amp sound you can think of and I'm betting you won't believe how great this thing sounds. I was a little unsure about the overall style and the head is about a third taller than most, but I was really impressed with how sharper it looks in person, I especially like the handsome embroidered canvas cover. The chrome Tele style knobs look cool but are hard to see in lower level light. Never say never but I can't think of anything this professional grade amp can't do for the styles I play.


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Post subject: Re: Machete Amp... Any experience?
Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 11:31 am
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modwiz wrote:
I'll even pass a urine test. :lol:

Stayed up all night studying and I still flunked mine. :shock:


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Post subject: Re: Machete Amp... Any experience?
Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 3:38 pm
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Sweetwater Music & Sound in Ft. Wayne,IN has that amp priced at $1,149.99,...still a tad high for my budget if I were to buy another amp,...but I'm happy with my HRD III amp for now :) .
I have been eye balling the DRRI as my next amp,though,...I tried one out and liked it,...maybe for my 50th birthday next February! :)

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If it aint' broke,...don't fix it! I like to keep my amps and guitars factory original,...no mods necessary,...don't want them,...don't need them!

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Post subject: Re: Machete Amp... Any experience?
Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 5:46 am
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Location: australia
They sound like a nice amp. Think i go track one down and give them a go...


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Post subject: Re: Machete Amp... Any experience?
Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 12:38 pm
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Hi all,
Here is my info on the Machete. One, my first one died after a week. 6L6GC went bad but I have a new amp, GC sent me a brand new one in a box. From a week or so use of this amp, as I have said in a review, it is nothing short of fantastic! But i think the problem with this amp is that when people see Fender they think clean, clean, clean! That is not what the Machete is about, it's about high gain. I own a Marshall JVM410H on a Classic(Celestion 30s) slant cab as well as a Carvin V3M. Both high gain amps. And the machete kicks $@!! They never should have put channel one on this amp, it's all about channel two. This has so much gain I run the gain control at about eleven o'clock! Stick in a little more bass and turn down the mids and you a killer sound. I also run the notch control at about one o'clock to three o'clock. The reverb even works great on this amp. All of the modern features too.

And don't let it's small size fool you, this will fill up any gig you may use it at. Has a very wide sweet spot too. I use a full range of guitars through it too, Les Pauls, Strats, 6 and 7 strings. If you are looking for a more blues tone with a hard edge go with the Supersonic. But if you want to scream like John Petrucci's Mesa Boogie Mark V try this Fender Machete instead. It sounds fantastic and is a lot cheaper. I may never buy another amp again! I doubt that, but this a really good amp. The hard part is finding one to try it. Here in Southern California out of all of the Guitar Center stores, and there are a lot of them, Hollywood was the only place that had them. That's where my first, broken one came from, so beware of that crazy place! :twisted:


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