Fender 75 Head

I got this amp with a 1x12 (my first amp) cabinet. It has reverb and a lead channel, with the footswitch included. It may be skimpy on effects (c'mon, it came out in the 80's), but it does have individual volumes for clean/distorted, so that was pretty cool. It's 75 watts, so it was good for what I'm playing (small gigs). Other than that, it has a power jack in the back, which is great because I can plug an extension cord in and get my pedal and a light powered.

I use a Hamer Les Paul copy and play punk and ska, and the amp actually sounds pretty good. Boosting the treble give it that extended high tone that ska needs. The amp isn't noisy, but it feedbacks a *lot* with built-in distortion. The clean channel starts to sound like shit at higher volumes, as does the bass. I wouldn't call the distortion brutal, it's actually pretty crappy-sounding. The tubes make leads sound great, but rhythm sucks. Most of the time I just use my Korg effects processor on the clean channel and leave the amp's distortion for solos. So, in a nutshell, it sounds great clean, but bad distorted. Use a pedal on the clean channel, and it sounds great.

The damn thing's blown fuses on me. It started buzzing like hell for a while, but a set of new tubes solved that (God knows how long it had the old tubes). Right now, it's been getting a lot of buzzing with heavy-bass sounds (i.e., palm-muting). I would gig without a backup with it, but only because our singer plays rhythm but isn't necessary, so I could use his setup.

It didn't come with a manual, but I sent a letter to Fender asking for a manual, and they sent it to me. I brought it in to the local shop for buzzing and they fixed it.

I already bought something else, but I don't plan to sell it, because I like to hold on to stuff. If it were stolen or lost, well, it's not my main amp. I would definately NOT replace it at the same price.

I love the clean sound. This bears repeating. Even the distortion, if set low, gives it a nice compressed sound. I hate the maxed-out distortion, and the fact that it's given me problems frequently. I wish it had separate tone controls for the lead and clean channels.

This amp has the cleanest, chunkiest tone you'll ever find in a cheap head! Do you want a pristine blues tone? How about a smooth overdriven tube tone? Need a ballsy rock sound? All of it is available here in the Fender 75. I'd literally tried 4 different heads before landing the right sound for me, and it really happened by accident. I was sick of this Marshall JTM60 head I'd bought so I brought it to this used gear store in Chicago to trade it for something better. After trying numerous heads (including an old Music Man, another Marshall and a Bassman) I'd decided to quit, but as I was leaving bumped into this big block of a tube amp that was sticking out. I plugged it in and marveled at its tone. It's really a stripped down head, with a clean channel and a lead channel as well as an effects loop and reverb. I use a PRS and play that through a Boss Digital Delay, a Blues Driver and a Marshall Guvnor pedal. It's both chunky and subtle. I use it with a 1x12 Mesa Boogie cabinet that I'd slightly modified and it really sounds like a 2x12 closed back. All you've gotta do is dial it in and you're on tone highway baby!

Like I said I use a PRS loaded with two humbuckers. It's a real versatile guitar. In fact I've used it in blues and alternative rock bands and it's stood up to every single head I'd ever played through. There is a Low and Full power setting (a'la Mesa Boogie) that comes in really handy when you're playing smaller venues. Though there are two channels I only use the clean one and let the pedals do the rest. You can plug any pedal in here and literally get any sound you want. The EQ is quite good.

There was only one gig where I'd had a problem with it, but that's because of the way I'd transported it. These old tube amps don't take rough car rides too well so some padding underneath it wouldn't be a bad idea since the resistors can go loose. A road case isn't a bad idea either. But other than that I've enjoyed hours and hours of music through it!

I e-mailed Fender asking for a copy of the manual and they'd sent it, without question, a few weeks later. Now if that isn't support I don't know what is.

I've been playing guitar for about 8 years and it's definitely the best amp I've used. If you can find one (which is a task in itself since they're so rare) pick it up and take it home with you! It's worth every penny.

Picked this amp up for free literally! The local shop had sold it twice and the customers brought it back complaining that it wouldn't work and kept blowing fuses. The shop owner said the amp tech refused to work on it any more and if I wanted to mess with it I could have it. The preamp section for the overdrive/lead gain really sucks....early efforts by most amp makers did back then. I keep it turned off....but otherwise I've run it through the proper ohm cab and really enjoy the tones I get. She's played 6,000 seat auditoriums as part of my backline....run for probably 60 hours working pretty hard...wolume around 6 on both gain and master and I was slammin it with od pedals. No problems....I'm curious if any one else has one of these and what their experience has been.

Tone wise...she has more than enough bass...I usually run it around 3-4 only but then I'm running to an Old Kustom ported 2x12 with lots of bottom anyway. The thing willstaurate you with bass and then it has a pull for bass boost!! the top end gets plenty glassy and produces plenty of Fender tone....make no mistake...this ain;t my '65 Showman but I can tweak it to come pretty close for live situations and it allows for a lot of variety.

reliable - I run more than one amp in my backline so I can survive if it were to die on stage...but so far I've had noone of the problems the prior customers complained about. I went back to the store and told them about this and offered to pay for the amp....they passed on my of offer so I'm enjoying a great deal. I'm wondering if she blows fuses on the wrong ohm cab load?...any help?

0verall an enjoyable amp....I find myself using it primarily for the rythm portions of my backline but it provides inspiring tone