Anyone using a Fender Excelsior?

[Noise...]

I'm looking at picking up a small-ish tube combo, and this has my interest. Any of you guys using one?

I'm mainly curious about how clean it can stay, and how well it'll handle fuzz, delay, and reverb.

At $300 I'm tempted, so any info is appreciated!

[sonidero]

There is one up the street I can try... I was kinda intrigued by it till I saw it in the store... Something weird about it, it's got anti-je ne sais quoi or something... It uses flex conduit to route the wires and the tubes are in a weird chrome cage on the bottom... Did I say weird...





I know there are some on ILF so maybe they'll come forth with the knowledge yee seek...

[MEC]

I have one and you can't beat it for the price. It takes pedals well and stays clean up to about half way which is pretty loud.
My biggest knock on it is that it is pretty bright sounding. It only offers 2 tone selections and one of them is unusable for
anything I want to do. You can, and I plan to, add a tone knob (http://billmaudio.com/wp/?page_id=1203. When
I get around to it, I'll probably try and use the "Dark" setting as my midway point.

The Tremolo is pretty nice and the overall build quality is excellent. It also works as a great practice amp for bass.

[Gone Fission]

The tube cage is surely for modern safety compliance standards. I'm not aware of any new tube amp that doesn't screen off the bottles from buyer as delivered.

The tone switch is an odd choice over a knob, especially since the circuit it cops is pretty straight 5F11 tweed Vibrolux. I'd add that knob and a depth knob on the trem.

[jefg]

The speaker will break in and loosen up fairly soon. That will render the treble position a much more useful range.
Beyond that, retrain yourself to really work the god-given knobs on your guitar.
This is how you did it when this style amp was invented (late 40's ~ 50's). You crank the amp (all 13 watts of it), and start playing with different pick-up, tone and volume settings on the guitar, even different guitars. Lots of tonal and distortional possibilities.
An amp like this is particularly responsive to what you're pushing through it. Drop pedals on the front end, and the possibilities are way cool.
Keep in mind the Excelsior was purposely designed to NOT sound like a Fender, but rather to emulate...faithfully copy, in fact...the old dusty amp you might find in a smalltown Kansas pawn shop; that old Supro, Valco, Gibson relic. It's not the supersonic shake-the-stadium, blow-down-the-walls, mega stack amp.
And that's the point, it ain't supposed to be.
Yes, I'd do the Billm tone knob mod (swings between the existing top and bottom ends of the original switch).
It's roughly as loud as a Blues Jr, but bigger (and older) sounding, with a some great F*U*Z*Z of its own. Fender did a good job of it's intended goal with this amp. Old school amp with brand new parts.
A little curiosity and adventurous experimentation will bring some fine results.

[jefg]

I'm looking at picking up a small-ish tube combo, and this has my interest. Any of you guys using one?

I'm mainly curious about how clean it can stay, and how well it'll handle fuzz, delay, and reverb.

At $300 I'm tempted, so any info is appreciated!

~~~ DEPENDS on the guitar, of course, pickups, etc., but generally clean to maybe 10 or 11 o'clock. Keep in mind you're not looking at a lot of volume at that setting...

[jefg]

The tube cage is surely for modern safety compliance standards. I'm not aware of any new tube amp that doesn't screen off the bottles from buyer as delivered.

The tone switch is an odd choice over a knob, especially since the circuit it cops is pretty straight 5F11 tweed Vibrolux. I'd add that knob and a depth knob on the trem.

--- The tube cage is done that way for both a practical and authenticity reasons. Old amps (some) came this way, which is also why there isn't a trem depth knob. Not that it's not a good idea to add one yourself.
I like keeping nice glowing 6v6 tubes protected. And speaking of tubes, the ones the amp ships with are pretty crappy, often microphonic. A new set of jj's makes a noticeable difference.

[theavondon]

I recall the trem being fucking gorgeous on that amp, too. I just wanted to leave it on all the time.

[DarkAxel]

Pretty bright, but i like that... the dark setting is pretty bright as well, but about exactly as i like it

the trem is very nice and pleasant

the volume isn't all that high and as i recall, it stays pretty clean all the way up (using the guitar input)

i like it