Product: Fender 800 Pro Head
Price Paid: USD 800
Submitted
09/21/2007
at
12:19am
by
Douglas
Features
:
9
Bought the amp in the spring of 2007 from Bass Central in Orlando, Fl. Tried and SWR 750, Genz-Benz 600, and an Eden World Tour. I chose the Fender 800 Pro. I am currently gigging with a 7 pc Country Band out of St. Augustine, Fl. I have used this amp in small venues, to large, outdoor stages since purchasing it. I power a Genz-Benz 410XL cabinet with the 800 Pro. WOW ! So far, the amp has exceeded all of my expectations. Plenty of power, more than enough tone control, I have yet to feel warm air blowing thru the vents !
Sound Quality
:
9
We play a variety of old and new Country, with some Southern Rock, Classic Rock, and even a few Motown and old school Funk tunes. Using a Fender Jazz Bass with Bartolini J-9's the sound is solid and clean. I normally play with bass controls wide open, the amplifier pre-amp set at about 9 on a scale of 1 to 10, and the master gain set at about noon, give or take a hair. The tone controls are set at the "Thumb Funk" settings shown on the chart that came with the amp, fine adjustments are done with the 'room enhance' knob. I control the dynamics totally by touch, the dynamic range is huge !
Reliability
:
8
No problems so far, gigging 2-3 times a week. I did get a Stagg, padded gig bag case to house the amp head in.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Comes with a 5 year warranty, and as I stated already, so far, so good.
Overall Rating
:
9
I have owned Fender, Gibson, Yamaha, Ampeg, Eden, Kustom, SWR, and Peavey bass amps over 35 years playing, and the 800 Pro is by far the best to date. The amp head is heavy, but for that kind of power, it needs to be. The power cord has a 'pro-prietary' looking plug on it, would have been nice for one of those 'standard' type's in case you leave it at a gig, or run into a crazed fan with a circular saw.
Product: Fender 800 Pro Head
Price Paid: US N/A
Submitted
09/26/2005
at
06:28pm
by
ohiidesu
Features
:
9
Check the fender web page for details at www.fender.com
Sound Quality
:
3
This is a very subjective area to comment on. One man's hell is another man's paradise. I will say that there are plenty of EQ options. I personally have found it difficult to dial in good basic tones. No matter what I do with the EQ section the mids sound either way scooped or overly pronounce at loud volumes. I have tried every option I could think of to get a plain and simple fat bass tone but have not been able to do so. I have owned at one time or another just about every major brand of amp/preamp in the market during the last 30+ so I am not new to fiddling around with tone controls. This amp however has not been user friendly in that area...at least not to me.
Reliability
:
2
After a little over a month of using the product the amp cut out in the middle of a gig. After disconnecting the speakers and power cycling the unit off-on it started to work again. Since I am a technical person and comfortable working with electronics I decided to check the unit out. I removed the top cover and found at least 8 different poor/bad solder connections on the main power amp board. Any one of these could have been the cause of the failure. I repaired the faulty connections and the amp has not failed since... so I am assuming that I fixed it. Not something you want to happen with any amp in any price range and within two months of buying it new.
Customer Support
:
1
My local dealer called Fender and they reported that they had never heard of the problem I described before...yup...So I guess that not only was I on crack but so were the other 400 people at the gig because everyone stopped to look at me when the bass dropped out of the dance song we were playing when the thing crapped out.
Overall Rating
:
2
Can't say that the product in general is a bad product. I can only comment on the one that I have. Your result may vary..!!
Product: Fender 800 Pro Head
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted
02/28/2005
at
02:12pm
by
Anonymous
Features
:
9
The 800 pro is the newest model to come out of the Fender shop
I play everything from rock to funk to a bit of country, it's extremely versatile.
It comes with all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a high end amp. 800watts @4ohms and 1200@2ohms.
It's solid state with the warmth of tubes.
Main bass is a Stingray and I run the head through an SWR 210 on top of a SWR Triad. It has loads of headroom with the ability to smooth out the tone to a fierce growl that scares people.
The only thing I wish it had were a few onboard effects.
Sound Quality
:
No Opinion
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
Been playing for 18 years. I'd definitely buy it again but it's a pricey head.
Love the versatility but hate the weight. It's a back breaker.
