Fender Acoustasonic FSX II, Pro's, Con's?

[00-28]

For those who are familiar with the Fender Acoustasonic FSX II amp, what do you think? Pro's? Con's? Thanks, ...Mike

[dogdog49]

I bought one and returned it after owning the original SFX. The original was not only superior in tone, but the SFX effect was far more pronounced and more pleasing.

[Bobalouie3]

I have no experience with the SFX II but I really like my original SFX, have had it since late 2000. It is heavy and bulky but I bought a folding luggage cart to schlep it around which helped out a lot. You should be able to find a used one at a good price.

[DjFuzzyMcPickle]

I agree so much take a good look at my tag below, and I swear to you I've had that in there since i joined this forumn.

So completely agree with the above. The first one the SFX Acoustasonic PR 370, and no not mine and not selling mine either. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fender-Acous...0#ht_950wt_972
PROS: Great tone for not only acoustic, but for semi hollow bodies, other various versions of Acoustic / electric (ES355...things like that...woundn't suggest trying your LEs paul though it but that's up to you. Early years of so called 'Acoustic Amps' as far as voicng in general as well as the effects / processing. Plenty of inputs for up to two guitars and a vocal mic. The general DSP isn't bad considering it's early years. LOTS of power 180 watts and to me seem under-rated. It's been used for many gigs, wedidngs and small groups of up to 100+ and it alone was strong. Can even run a keyboard through it. The SFX theory that they sold on this one (and take this with an obvious 'grain of salt')...it's basically an 8" driver and tweeter section in the top half of the cab and i believe the same configuration in the newer smaller versions. What it also has is a bottom 10" driver spun 90degrees to the right. Yup a little more of "theory than works that much in reality"? The deeper the tone / bass response the more uni-directional it becomes unlike mids / highs being more directional. Hmmmmm..you say..so did I. I took it to my amp / pa guy and he simpy remounted it to more directionally like the rest. Why bother since the low end being less directional?? Good question..That comes to the

CONS: And in my opinion these two don't matter to me but the two biggest complaints seem to be -
A) Yup..it's Heavy for some @ 62 lbs. Personally I've lugged so much gear in my life that even though @ 47 I certainly don't dig it, but i also believe that 5-10 lbs on an amp ain't gonna make a difference.
B) No XLR out...yup, if you're going to want to mix any of the amp sound color into the stage mix you'll have to mic and hence the reason I switched the bottom speaker back around to face the front so i could mic 1 SM57 to the right overall sweet spot. This way I split the signal from the DI to the amp and can use my amp as my monitor as well as send DI signal and a little of the amps color, reverb, effect etc; to the mix and adjust accordingly.

BUT AND THIS IS A BIG BUTT...I was also told that in the smaller power version the drivers are in general pretty crappy in sound and power. I played one with the intent on using it for a 2nd amp with the smae features with again not having to lug that bigger one around and figure for the right event, nice back-up, keep the big one at home unless needed, etc. Played it for 15 minutes and thought.."Well that was a waste of time"

So this might be a lot more info than you wanted by I figured "hey..why not one long reply instead of days and days of pages and pages, well you know...!! My opinion...if you like the smaller one, you'll REALLY DIG the bigger older version. I know this sounds crazy but if you do find an older in good shape one (and there's always one on CL or Ebay), they are totally worth it IMO. The only amp I've bought since then is a Genz Benz 300lt. My fender is in impeccable condition and love the overall sound. Even re-clothed it after that got torn.