Fender Acoustasonic 30 Guitar Amplifier

Feature:
Very complete for a basic acoustic amplifier. Chorus feature is very well done. I have read some reviews that a pre-amp in the guitar is necessary for proper volume to be produced by this unit. Most pickups have this feature nowadays.

Quality:


Value:
A great value for the budget priced amplifier market. Less than 500 Cdn dollars.

Desirability:
Looks very aethetically pleasing. Nice tilt feature and closed back.

Sound:
The only reason I wouldn't give this little amp a '10' is the fact that nothing is truly perfect, no matter what it is or how well it works. A '9' is my rating because it fits my needs perfectly. For home use, it gives great acoustic sound reproduction. Before purchasing, I compared it to the similar priced Yorkville AM100 in a side by side test. I played a high end Gibson acoustic using the same chord progressions and licks on each amp, using a variety of effect settings in each test. Although the AM100 performed very well, the Acoustasonic 30 carried a richer and more true sound reproduction with each and every style of music. I used basic chords, fast light picking patterns, and even some Drop D tuned riffs in my testing. By the end of a 2 hour test session of plugging back and forth between the amps, my opinion, and that of my son's (also a guitar player) was that the Fender was the best choice. I will mention that I peformed the test in a closed sound room at the local music store, so there was little interference from any other noise source. The volume was satisfactory in that setting, with no feedback from the unit, even when facing directly towards it while playing. The Chorus feature is wonderful, far surpassing that of the Yorkville. If a budget priced amp is what a buyer is looking for with the purpose of home use, I would recommend this one firmly.

Support:
Fender supports a Five Year warranty with this product.

Overall:
After much research on newsgroups, websites and reviews, plus an extensive side by side comparison with a competitors product, I am very satisfied with my purchase of this product.

I got tired of lugging a 2X12 Power Chorus around, so I bought one of these - great acoustic sound, both clean and with reverb; a wonderful match for my Taylor 914ce. Less control on the chorus than I like (one knob instead of both depth and rate) but still sounds nice. And I definitely like to front-mounted line-out jack; normally I use it as a personal monitor and run it through the house system.