Fender Acoustasonic Junior Amp [Archive]

John Rosett

Jun-27-2004, 10:43am

i have been using an acoustisonic jr to amplify my mandolin for about three years. i've never tried to run vocals through the other channel, but i did run my electric guitar through it once.
the acoustisonic is pretty good sounding, and the feedback supression works well. that's the good part.
the bad side is that i think it's underpowered (40 watts per channel). i have a mcintyre feather that runs through a fishman preamp, and i have to run the amp at about 9 to hear myself on stage. now if your playing solo gigs, it might be enough. i play in a 6-piece band with drums and steel guitar, so it's a pretty loud stage.
my other main problem with the acoustisonic is that it's not really made for the rigors of the road. all of the control knob shafts are plastic, and mounted on the circuit board behind the face panel. they break off real easy, and the knobs fall off easily too. (a regular fender tube amp has metal shafts that are bolted to the metal face panel-it's just about impossible to break them off.) i probably broke off 4 or 5 just from riding around in the trailer jostling around with the other amps. if you get one, plan on getting a padded cover.
if i were doing it over again, i would look at the carvin acoustic amp, the genz benz 100 watter, and the swr. the carvin esspecially seems like it would be well suited to what you're doing, with it's three channel and 100 watts.
if you still want an acoustisonic, let me know. i'd probably sell you mine for $250-complete with the home made padded cover.
good luck, john