Fender has come up with a charming and unconventional take on vintage tube amp design with the Fender Pawn Shop Special Amps.
Like excellent finds from a thrift store, the small but terrible Greta, and the elegant Excelsior gives you the classic vibe of pawnshop gems.
These amps were designed to look and feel like something that you can only find in a second hand store, or at a pawnshop. They will bring you back to a time when guitar players will plug into any amp they can get their hands on, mimicking the primitive and true analog tone of old tube amplifiers.
The most charming of the bunch, I would say, is the Fender Pawn Shop Special Greta, a diminutive amp that takes the form of a vintage tabletop radio. The Pawn Shop special Greta is, as fender put it, their most unusual tube amp ever. Behind its cute old-school VU meter and vintage style enclosure is a true spirited tube amplifier – you get a single 12AT7 output tube and 12AX7 preamp tube, with 2 watts of power and a 4″ Special Design speaker. With this setup, you can get a variety of low-volume clean and overdriven guitar tones, and you can also use it for playing music via its 1/4″ instrument jack input, giving the songs on your iPod a tube and analog coloration. And if you are not playing, it turns into a harmless great looking vintage display, perfect for surprising friends.
Here is the Fender Pawn Shop Special Greta in action:
The bigger Fender Pawn Shop Special Excelsior looks a bit more refined than the Greta and features brown textured vinyl covering, stylish “E” grille design and a nice crossed swords front panel badge. The 13-watt Excelsior come with a single 15″ Special Design speaker with a bottom-loaded primary chassis, and controls that are set on the top of the chassis.
At its core are two 6v6 output tubes and two 12AX7 preamp tubes that give you a variety of old-school tube tones. Additional features include a bright/dark tone switch (for treble or bass emphasis), tremolo circuit with speed control, volume control and 1/4″ internal speaker disconnect that lets the amp drive an external speaker enclosure. Excelsior also features 3 inputs, one for instrument, microphone and even for an accordion with each having their own specialized circuitry.
Here is the bigger Fender Pawn Shop Special Excelsior in action:
The Fender Pawn Shop Special Greta is currently retailing for $199.99, while the Excelsior retails for $299.99.
For complete information about these fine amps, visit Fender.
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