Fender Amp Can

I've had my Amp Can for about 7 or 8 years. The amp is simple and works well for my needs, which is just for playing guitar at home. It has two channels but I've rarely used the second channel. There is no headphone jack. A little reverb might be a nice addition. This amp has way more than enough power for home use. The best thing about this amp is the portability and rechargeability couple with good basic tone. Power outlets are hard to come by in my home so I appreciate the ability to just take it anywhere convenient and play. A charge seems to last forever when the the battery is fairly new. After five years or so, you will want to replace the battery ( ~ $50) as it loses its ability to hold a charge. My only real complaint with this amp is that the controls are not visible when the amp is in the position that you would be listening to it in.

I use this amp with Fender solidbodies and also with a jazz box. I think it has a very nice clean tone which is especially nice for jazz. I place mostly rock, blues, and R & B through it, but also some jazz. The distorted sound is OK but I can't give it a very high rating in that category. The amp sounds pretty clean at the volumes that I generally use. I've never had any need to push the volume. There is just the one tone control so the major tonal variations will have to come from your guitar. The tone control works fine though. The distortion setting is kind of brutal and there is no variation other than what you get out of the tone contro.

It has been totally reliable, other than the degradation of the battery after several years of use, which is normal and expected according to the manual.

My only dealing with customer support was to find a source for a replacement battery when its time was up. They referred me to a place to buy the battery and I had no issues with that.

I've been playing for 40 years. In the 7 or 8 years that I've owned this amp, it is the one that gets used probably 75% of the time when I play at home. For me the second channel is mostly a waste and I'd rather it's space be filled with something else; probably better distortion and maybe some reverb capability.

To continue with what the other reviews had to say, the distortion on this paint-can amp is really, really good. You can put a Boss SD-1 in front of it for an extra boost while the Amp Can is in distortion mode. Great sound for a portable!!! It blends well with a drum machine + guitar or mic + guitar for practice or street-gigs. The speaker can handle any instrument you've got. Guitar, bass, acoustic, mic, keys, drum machine, electric banjo, or electric mandolin...whatever you've got will sound good through this thing. Volume and tone for each input, and a distortion button. Like the guy below me said, GREAT distortion. You can also have two completely clean inputs at the same time...just switch out the distortion.

This thing sounds amazing for its size. It gets LOUD. The speaker has an exremely wide frequency-range. It probably wouldn't work as a stand-alone amp for electric bass, but any other instrument I mentioned above, and you could play a club-gig with the Amp Can (mic'ed through the P.A.)

It's tough and strong, but it shouldn't be left standing without a cover on it. I got some dust in one of the volume pots, and it crackled, but I opened it up and put some contact clener in the pot and it works fine. It's sensitive to dust...so if you get it, make a cover for it out of something (I used jean-cloth to make my cover).

I talked to Fender on the phone (about the scratchy pot), and they said they would be happy to replace the amp with a brand-new one if I couldn't get it fixed myself. That's pretty good customer support as far as I'm concerned.

Great value!!! I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to anyone looking for a portable amplifier. It has great tone, great looks, and great vibe. Get a cover!!!

This is not really a "style" amp, although folk musicians would be happy enough with the tone. Its main benifits are portability and freq. range.

The 12V battery adds a bit of wait, but at low volumes it seems to last for ever. It allows me to practice on my back deck with no power cord for hours on end. I've never run it down, but I've never tried to use it for a hole day.

I use the Amp Can with: Fender Fat Strat H/S/S (Seymour Duncan Humbucker) and Takamine 541SSC.

I bought it off ebay as a practice amp. I can't handle practicing with headphones, and needed a small amp that sounded clean.

The amp sound very clean no weird compression or tinny sound that I've heard in some other smaller practice amps. It has very good rage for a 6" speaker, but you obviously won't get a big bottom end. That said, it can put out pretty good volume, I'm amazed how much air this thing can move.

I've been using this with and without a POD XT in front. I use the POD to get the right sound, and the clean Amp Can combinations works pretty well. I like the sound without the POD but if the POD is around I prefer that when playing the Strat. Sounds very good with the accoustic alone, and has enough volume to compete with my Son hammering on the accoustic piano (pretty loud) when we are jamming.

There is a minor hiss when there is no input, not too noticable, when I use the POD in front some of the POD amp settings have significantly more hiss, so it doesn't bother me too much.

Seems to be built like a brick compared to its competitors. The schematic is simple enough that I don't think there will be major breakage problems.

It's definately not waterproof so if your gonna be using it outdoors plan accordingly.

Never dealt with them.

Overall pretty useful.

Purchased the Amp Can in 2001 from Sam Ash Music in Ontario, CA. It has two channels ( guitar channel has a gain button) and the other for a mic, etc. This thing in surprisingly loud for it's size. I play all types of Fender based products through it( primarily outdoors).

I ususally play with my '52 Tele reissue with Vintage Noiseless Pups, Fender Custom Scorpion Esquire, Sting Precision Bass. It can get a little noisy with single coil guitar ( especially the bass ) but the sound is what I need when I play outdoors. You may want to play with a seperate multi-effects uinit for more variety.

So far, so good . I have not had any real problems, until recently the channel is beginning to sound fuzzy on low volumes on the guitar channel. The Amp Can don't like no SCREAMERS for singers. One sound on one channel can drown out the other.

Never had to deal directly with FMIC.

I have been playing for about 13 years, mostly at Venice Beach or in Pomona, CA. If it were lost or stolen, I would probably get another one. Wish it had more guitar channel options though. The Crate Taxi did not seem loud enough for me. So if you want to venture outdoors, this may be your best bet.

For a portable amp, it's got what you need. Two channels, has a distortion button (which is okay). Let's face it, this is a bare bones, minimalist product. Personally I find it very good for what i do (street, subway busking). If you are a street busker, particularly a classical guitarist, this amp should do you nicely. I've had it for 6 weeks now, using it daily for at least two hours a time, and I've never even come close to exhausting the battery charge. It is extremely powerful for it's size - believe me you will be surprised by its power. I usually keep my volume around 3-4 (out of 10) and find it very adequate for noisy situations (streets or subways).

If you want more effects, get a pedal. I would've liked some reverb though. One other little complaint is it has no headphone jack.

Wow! This little mother kicks! I play acoustic guitar and even with old strings this thing sounds just terrific. Very good clean sound, no hissing or nasty sounds come from mine. I think I'm in love with it! As I mentioned b4, it's very, very powerful, so it's more than adequate for busking. Distortion: not half bad with my acoustic (Takamine eg530sg that has a volume and equalizer effects built in so I can adjust it nicely when I'm playing). Honestly I don't use the distortion all that much but it's nice to have.

No problems here yet. I've only had this thing for 6 weeks but I've never ran out the battery charge.

NA. Haven't had any problems yet. I treat it pretty good.

Hey, being a busker it was a mathematical equation. My buddy told me to buy a second hand amp and just use cheap batteries on a low volume. He says he gets 12 to 14 hours on 4 packs of dollar store batteries. Well, I figured that works out to at least $30 a month. Thus, if my math holds up, in ten months he would have paid more for batteries than I did for my amp (which sounds better too, I might add). So if I get a couple years out of this sucker than its more than worth it.
Hey you know what too? It looks pretty cool; people always look at it when they walk by because it's unbelievable that something so small can be so powerful. The paint can is a terrific design (Kudos to the design team!) The control panel is dug into the upperside and you can easily angle this thing in any direction.

I probably should have waited a few months b4 writing this review but I liked it so much that I couldn't resist. I'm a complete minimalist when it comes to playing (no effects or gadgest) and this amp fits my style perfectly. Seriously, as a street musician I can't see a better deal out there. If this thing breaks down I may change my mind but until then it's a great deal. I play anywhere from 4-6hrs a day and I needed something for noisy subway corridors and such to get heard (especially if i'm fingerpicking). I also find it great to amplify my guitar so that it isn't drowned out by my voice (I sing quite loudly).
One last comment: it's a heavy little guy!

As the other reviews have stated, there are two independent pre-amp channels driving a single power stage. For reasons which I've explained elsewhere in this review, I've yet to seriously evaluate the gain/distortion setting on the guitar input, and am only dabbling at playing with a microphone plugged in for vocals. So this jurist will abstain from comment on those features.

There is one omission in, my opinion, and that's the lack of a reverb. Given the close quarters inside, it would probably have to be a digital reverb, but that's the only thing I missed. Of course, you can always haul a reverb pedal, but this is starting to get away from the minimalist approach that this amplifiers affords you.

10?! Yup -- IMHO, considering the modest (6") speaker size, this is a very impressive-sounding little beast. The 15 watts are good, honest and clean, if that's what you're looking for. And it turns out, that was exactly what I was looking for. Although it sounds very good with a guitar plugged in directly to it, the clean sound is especially suited to the way I use it -- driven by my Line 6 Pod. This makes a wonderful one-two punch suitable for just about any style of music. Previously, one could only dream of such versatility in sound from a low-powered, compact rig. This is also the reason that I don't have any clue about the utility of the gain/distortion mode on the Amp Can -- with the Pod, who needs it?

Would I use it at a gig without a backup? Yeah, but mainly because I don't have the money for two of 'em. I've only had it for a short time, and it's survived surgery. (Don't ask. Ok, I tapped into it to get power from the battery to drive a DC-AC inverter so that I could run the Pod's AC adapter, overcoming IT'S main deficiency...)

It appears robust enough in construction to withstand rough handling, but time will tell. So the 5 in this category means "I just don't know" - it's not a negative.

The unit comes with an impressive 5/2 warranty, but I'm sure I've invalidated it by drilling a hole in the case to install a connector for the 12 volt power tap for the inverter. I'd be really impressed with customer support if the thing should happen to blow up and they didn't try to blame this minor modification for causing it to wig out. But that's not likely. So I'll give 'em a 5 here, too, and hope it doesn't suffer a premature death.

I've been playing since the late 60s and this thing sounds better than many of the "real" amps I've owned. And I got it quite by accident. First time I saw one, thought: "Sheesh. Stupid gimmick." Didn't even bother to give it a listen.

Then, when a bandmate suggested we play in the park instead of the bar, my reaction as primarily an electric player was "How in hell am I going to play 2/3 of our stuff on an acoustic?" I was walking through Media Play one day soon afterwards and saw that this for a little over $100. I thought, "How bad can it be?" and bought it on impulse.

When I showed up with it at practice the next week and plugged it in, our other guitarist was knocked out by the sound from this little thing. And he's been out trying to find one ever since. Last week, he showed up with a Crate Taxi amp, because none of the local stores stock the Amp Can. We turned it on and it goes into "motorboating" sporadically. That Taxi went back the next day, and I don't know what he'll show up with this week. But I'll bet he wishes he could find an Amp Can...

Battery powered amp maily for street use. Runs on rechargable battries and has two separate channels. Should be a good amp for street musicians, but is unfortunately not (see reliability).

Sounds very good for what it is. One of the best sounds I've heard in a street amp, and I've heard a few. Can't play and sing through it at the same time though unless you do it at relly low volumes.

Here comes the dissaster. I've had two and they both broke down pretty quickly. With a street amp reliability is a very important thing. No other amps get kicked around as much as street amps. The potentiometers in this one broke down due to the weather. Now if this was an amp meant to be used indoors this would not really be a complaint since you are not out with it in damp weather, but with a street amp you are. I ended up turning them back to the shop.

OK I guess, I got most of my money back.

Would be good if it worked and coulkd take the beating it's meant to take. AS it is now it's an expensive toy, that's allo.

Rechargable battery power.Two channels. One for guitar. One for vocals. Each channel has volume and tone controls. Guitar channel has a switchable distortion button. The amp looks cool. it's small like a lighting can or paint can. Good handle that changes position to have the amp sit at different angles - very cool. I wish it had better EQ control - a single tone knob isn't that great.

My Taylor acoustic sound great throught the amp can. But it does need a bit more treble than the amp is able to give, so i use a boss EQ pedal and that makes it sound really good - clearer and more highs and lows. Acoustic guitars seem to sound better through the amp can than electrics. the amp has a bit of a hiss from just being turned on - but once I start playing never hear the hiss. The switchable distortion adds too much distortion for my tastes. Turning down the guitar's volume knob helps lesson the distortion but then you get more his and noise. If you want distortion, just use a distortion pedal. The amp goes plenty loud. A Sure SM 58 sound good plugged directly into it without any other effects. Both channels are not just the same channel twice. The vocal mic input seems to have a different EQ voicing built into it-which sounds fine.
The amp can sound much better than the crate taxi (too dull and lifeless) and the new taxi Limo. the Limo has a tweeter which makes it sound brighter but it's too bright and causes feedback way to easily. the effects on the Limo aren't all that great anyway. The amp can sounds better than the old classic electrosonics maxi-mouse.
Overall, I really love the sound of the amp can. You just have to add a little high end with a pedal.

I've had it a few months. It seems to be really solid and strong.

I haven't had to use costomer support yet.

I'ts a cool amp. I'm glad to have one. I like how it doesn't look like a regular guitar amp.

Paid $139 on ebay. Just got it a few weeks ago. Its smaller, heavier and much higher quality than I expected. Played acoustic, bass, and electric guitar through it. Haven't tried the mike. I like this thing.. well done for a battery unit. With a Boss chorus pedal, acoustic sounds pretty good. I use it around the house as a practice amp for my acoustic. The midrange is solid and has a "punch" to it. Not like a tube amp midrange "punch" (in other words, no where near my Soldano) but surprisingly better midrange than my transistor 12" Peavy guitar amp. For the price and what I need it for ( the occasional situations at the Honolulu airport - for voice and ukelele and possible acoustic guitar -- to back up a hula at the departure gate) it does the job. I'm a person who likes owning equipment for the sake of owning lots of equipment. This one fills a niche for me. David Kwock

Great features - good clean/distortion sounds, good portability, loud (but see below).

Overall a great practice amp. Great sound. Noisy though - constant low level hiss when no signal/ no guitar.

When I first bought it the amp's Distortion channel was quite noisy. Brought it back to the store that I bought it from - they weren't sure whether this was a "feature" or a "bug". Eventually they dialed up Fender tech support, let them listen to it over the phone, and was told to send it back. It took approx. 1 week to get a replacement. I swear the replacement amp's regular channel is more noisy than the original amp but the irregular "ocean waves crashing on the shore" noise was gone from the gain channel. I suspect this amp's innards are made in the far east and that the quality of the components fluctuates somewhat. The only reason I'm writing this review is to warn others: I would recommend you go to a BIG music store and listen to 3-4 of these and buy the least noisy unit. Check out the amp with all gain controls turned to zero, and then with all controls turned up and the "gain" button engaged (with nothing plugged into it). You shouldn't need to do this but you might be sorry if you don't. Although I can easily tolerate the noise in the replacement unit's power amp circuitry (it's still there with all the gain controls turned to zero, but I probably wouldn't be able to hear it playing outside), I find it annoying since it shouldn't be that hard to produce an amp that is quiter. After all, this isn't a $5 Taiwanese boom box but a $250 Cdn Fender amp. My old Garnet tube amp is quieter!

OK - I guess (see above). I'm giving them a "6" since I resent functioning as an unpaid Fender quality control inspector. However
the Fender factory people were great in accepting the amp for return and sending out a replacement as fast as they could.

Great concept, good sound (in a relatively noisy environment) poor quality control.