This is the Fender telecaster that is manufactured in Mexico. It has 22 frets, as well as the standard telecaster setup as far as bridge and pickups. The simple bridge and the two pickups - one standard single coil and one of the lipstick types. It's got a volume knob and a tone knob for bass/treble balance. In addition, there is a pickup selector for switching between each pickup or both. The neck is a blonde hardwood.

All of the telecaster makes seem to play quite nicely - even down to the Squier variety. The neck has a very smooth feel that is great to play. There is a large cut in the body on the telecaster so access to those high notes is easy. The design is very ergonomic for standing or sitting. Telecasters have a very distinct sound - so if you like the sound of a telecaster then it won't be hard to dial up something you like.

The telecaster is generally best suited for country music, and certain kinds of pop or alternative where you want sort of a twangier or more jangly sound. This is where the telecaster shines. This particular make though - the mexican manufactured one - is definitely a bit inferior to the american counterpart. The american guitar is built more solidly, and it's easier to get a nice sustain on it. The mexican version uses cheaper wood and components, so the sound does suffer a bit. However - this guitar still generally sounds good. The best sounds seem to be clean or with perhaps light distortion, on twangy lead lines or light chord comping. The new age wall of distorted guitar comes through a bit weak when played with a telecaster however.

The Fender PT-10 (Pedal Tuner) is a very basic one-button pedal that allows you to mute your signal (or run to effects rack, or both) and get precision tuning. It has a silver metal casing with a wide black plastic on/off switch.

This is used, for example, at the beginning of an effects chain from the guitar, or in another case, running out to a rack effect, or both. While the pedal at first appears sturdy, constant use in a live situation may eventually reveal problems, such as pedal sticking, 9v powering issues and overtone/hum when it's active. This is not really the fault of the pedal for the price however; electric tuners are well-known for dampening the 'true tone' of the guitar, but if you need it, try putting a compressor right after it, this will help harness the kind of sound you need. This pedal seems best when it's not over-abused and has a fresh 9V, or a good chain-power wall wart.

Well, the sound quality in this case is different, as we want to know how it DOESN'T affect our tone. When the amp is cranked, don't be surprised if while tuning you hear a funky 'buzz' or 'overtone; however, it often seems fine in one location and then buzzy in another. Ultimately this means that tuning pedals really are sensitive to a number of factors that can in unison combine and mess around with your tone. Explore a number of different methods as to what works for you; for example a friend uses this in his studio exclusively and operates perfectly.

Overall, use caution if you are a heavy stomper; it's caused me to bend over at a gig and mess with it more than once at a gig, but in the application of gentle or studio use, it's a very non-invasive pedal in comparisons to others in its price range. Also beware as the notes themselves are small and difficult to read sometimes in crazy stage setups.

The Fender Super 60 is an all-tube 12'' speaker amplifier, manufactured in the US "Rivera" era of Fender amps, which means the early 90s and also sporting their fiery red knobs. 2 ax7 Pre-amp tubes, 26L6GC post tubes. Rivera went on to form his own amplifier company, but the one's he designed for Fender are well known. This amp is a hybrid, sort of a more powerful Blues amp, with two channels of tone, one clean and one driven. The clean tone boasts a bass, mid and treble setting; the drive channel has volume and tone. Both channels have a sweet dial reverb and a dial presence knob. The pedals I've found for it pass the signal back and forth between channels only; the reverb has to be dialed in. This is a fundamental weakness in the design of the reverb, as it sounds really lush and full (and sensitive; 3 is like 'church-room' reverb) but you can't cut it off for a solo or something. It has 1/4'' ins on the front and the usual direct outs and effect loop 1/4''s on the back. It has the solid grey grille with one 12'' speaker, red knobs and the "Super 60" in cool cursive. Oh by the way the thing weighs in at a hefty 55 pounds, so do what I haven't and invest in an anvil road case.

The set up is as easy as any combo, plug in and you're ready. You can fool with the split effects patch in the back but I just use my pedal board in the line. I've been using this as my stage amp for all of 2007 and 2008 and at any coffee-house or bar level this amplifier it's sufficient. The two channels have a shared eq which can be limiting. I've been able to stay on the clean channel all night, using volume + tube drive pedal to get a kind of rich bluesy distortion, however if you do use the overdrive channel, be prepared for bone-crushing volume and distortion. It's almost unheard of to use 60 watts into one speaker nowadays. I just tapped the knobs on the O/D channel and ran my guitar through an '81 MXR Distortion+ and a mild setting on an Ibanez Tube Screamer and came out with the most amazing "Sabbath" meets "Deep Purple" tone, it split my drummer's face! However, all is never perfect in using a vintage amp like this...read on.

The bottom and top of the amplifier are relatively thin, meaning the bassy tone and the trebly. The fender speaker has a slight muddy feel at high volumes in general and this amp is no exception. The treble can take more before it 'thins out' and starts to sound cheap. The amp is extremely versatile. It can play picky country twang (try a Tele with a good chorus pedal), clean channel on 5 and crank the presence. It can handle heavy metal (try a Les Paul with bridge pickup and a tube screamer), distortion channel on 3 and that's enough for most bars in your town. It can even handle midrangey jazz; the "Fender" tone is really excellent on this amp, it can often sound like some of their best lines, but requires a lot of adjustment to make really clear. I've found that by 1) killing the bass volume, 2) cranking the tone and 3) chiefing the mids around here and there you can cut through everything from horns to loud drums. But like I said, I found myself wanting when I finally got her to a festival stage. The open air swallowed up my tone and I found myself raising the volume to the point where my pedals became muddy. If you use it outside make sure it's miked AND/or the sound man knows what he/she is doing.

- What type of amplification (Tube,transistor,...)?
This is hybrid: a tube for the distortion channel preamp, and transistors for the rest, i believe.

- How much power is delivered?
Too much!
100W RMS and the volume is unusable: turn it a tiny bit and the sound gets stadium-loud...i just can't see the point!

- What connection types are there?
It has a footswith jack, and the supplied one is good: clean, distortion 1 or 2, and reverb.
FX loop too.

- What are the setting controls, effects?...
3 band EQ, volume, gain...reverb...the usual stuff.
The EQ is not bad.

- Is the general configuration/setup simple?
Oh yeah.

- Can you easily get a good sound?
I don't like the clean sound much but when i had this amp i was using a crap Washburn KC-20V guitar with real bad mics.
I used to like the yellow distortion though, unique & nice!

- Is the manual clear and sufficient?...
No idea! Who needs a manual with an amp? If you do then you need to get a nicer amp... ;-)

Never managed to get a decent sound out of the FX loop with my Boss ME-6 or my Digitech RP-5.

- Does it suit your style of music?
Not really...but i think the guitar was to blame...the distortions were good...very nice to have 2 to choose from.

- With what guitar(s)/bass(es) or effect(s) do you use it?
I used to use a Washburn KC-20V, awful guitar!

- What kind of sound do you get out of it and with what settings ("clear", "heavy",....)?
Nice yellow distortion when you curve out the mids a bit. Great for rhythm.
Nicely aggressive red distortion for solos.

Made in Mexico. It has 21 frets with two single coil configuration. The bridge is a fixed stock Fender bridge. One control for volume and one control for tone. Has a three-way selector switch. Not sure what the neck is made of, but it doesn't feel like an expensive wood. The action is OK, mine needs a good set up.

The neck is OK. It doesn't play well since the strings are old and it is time to have it set up. With the double cutaways, it is easy to access the top notes. Unfortunately, with only 21 frets, you don't get much range. Being a smaller scale and what I consider a beginner guitar, this one is very light. It's your typical strat style design in a smaller, more 60's or 70's design. When this guitar was younger, it actually sounded decent, especially through a Fender Twin. It needs some TLC now, but I am unsure if that will even make it better for me than my beginner Ibanez. There simply aren't enough frets, and the guitar needs to be bigger for a bigger sound.

This guitar can do in a pinch if I break a string on my main guitar. Not exactly a metal guitar or even a shred guitar. It's nice for smooth, slow solos. It's also easier on the hands as it is a smaller scale, but that doesn't really help one's development and hand strength. I used to plug straight into whatever amp I was using at the time. Since I don't use this guitar much, it doesn't get plugged in to my current setup much. Like I said, it's not that great for metal or hard rock. But it can work for that jangly 60's and even 70's sound. I guess you could play Santana, or David Gilmour with it. There is a cool sustained harmonic that automatically appears when you play the 5th fret of the 3rd string, without having to pinch the string or purposefully attempt to create a harmonic. It is probably the coolest signature of this guitar. This is good, because I don't feel it has too many other cool features.

This is the classic tube amp of the ages. I am not sure of the wattage on this model. However, from the volume, I am pretty sure it is at least 60-80 watts per channel, of which this amp has two. With the clean or overdrive channel volume at 2, this amp is already plenty loud enough.
There are two sets of stereo inputs. One set of two is for switching channel mode. And this amp came with the channel switching foot-switch included, which is great. The other set of two is for parallel channel mode. It defaults to the clean channel, and you can pull the volume knob of the distortion channel to switch to it. I guess this is useful if you don't have a foot-switch. On the back there is a foot-switch output, effects loop (preamp out and power amp in), power amp thru output, two extension speaker outputs, one for series and one for parallel. There is also an impedance selector which allows you to select between 4,8 and 16 ohms, which is very cool and makes the amp very versatile. On the front, the clean channel has knobs for volume, treble with boost (by pulling the knob), mid and bass. The distortion channel has gain, treble with boost, mid with boost, and base with boost. It also has a wonderful presence knob and a volume knob. (The one that can be pulled out to select the distortion channel.) Finally, there is a reverb knob that controls both channels.

This amp was bought used, so there is no manual. The general configuration, in my opinion is self explanatory as long as you play with the knobs and inputs long enough. This thing is known for the tone that comes out of it, and it has a wide array of wonderful sounds that I keep discovering from additional use! With this being a vintage tube amp and being considered a vintage "red knob" model, I try not to use this as much. Just power it up from time to time to keep the tubes working or if I need it to impress at an audition. I also plan on using it more primarily for recording. If I am playing stadiums, I guess I can afford to play with this loud, tone-full baby on stage more often to get more volume and that wonderful tube sound!

This is considered a blues/jazz amp, styles which I incorporate into my playing. It is not really a heavy metal amp, but it takes pedals pretty well. However, I frankly don't remember the distortion channel being that good when I first played this amp in the nineties. But I played it recently, and I don't know if it aged gracefully, but I'll put that 2nd channel against many high gain amps today. With the gain at lower levels, you get a nice tube overdrive from this beauty. Set the gain on 10, and you have a great 70's or 80's heavy metal tone, in my opinion. To get thrash metal, death metal, or nu-metal, you will need a pedal. But like I said, this amp takes pedals well. I put a digitech death metal pedal through the clean channel, and it went from pristine heaven to absolute palm muting hell ! Speaking of the clean channel, I agree with many that it is the best in the business. I've played "boutique" amps that cost 3 times more, and their clean sound didn't sound any better. This baby has always been known and liked by me for it's beautiful "glassy" clean sound. It's got the right amount of shimmer and a wonderful thumping low end bass range. I love it, and there's probably nothing about this amp I hate, as far as tones!

This is a solid state amp. Mine is a black-face metal grill, so it doesn't say what the wattage is. But it is reportedly 15 watts, not 38 watts, and I think that is more accurate. There is one input. Also has an output for an 8 ohm minimum extension speaker as well as for headphones. It has two channels, including a clean channel with normal volume knob. The drive channel has drive volume and gain controls. Treble, mid, and bass knobs control both channels. The amp also has a drive select button to switch between channels. No foot-switch capability. All controls are on the front of the amp.

Being a practice amp, the configuration of the controls is very simple. I bought it used, so it didn't come with a manual. I don't believe it's necessary to have one, though. As with all my amps, my baseline setting is treble 10, mid 0 and bass 2. And with just this setting, I can get great sounds, especially on the drive channel. (See sounds section.)

The drive channel definitely suits my preferences for distortion ! (See settings from previous section.) With my baseline settings, the drive channel, has this raunchy, growly, powerful distortion with a wonderful presence to it ! The clean channel is OK. It's probably the worst Fender clean I have played, but that doesn't make it bad compared to other amps' clean channels. And the clean channel takes pedals quite well, so I can live with that, especially with the awesome drive channel ! I play a beginner Ibanez electric through a couple of pedals, specifically a zoom 505 multi effects pedal. When I set the Zoom to the Fender Twin setting, this baby's clean channel sounds awfully close to a fender twin. So I love the sounds that come out of both channels: the drive by itself, and the the clean with pedals through it.

Fender's G-DEC is a solid state combo amplifier with 15 watts of power and an 8" special design speaker. It features 16 amp models, 15 special effects presets (delay, chorus, flanger, etc), 15 drum and bass accompaniament loops, a metronome, and built-in tuner, and more.

Its controls include Gain, Volume, Tone, and a dedicated knob each for selecting amp models and effects, Backing Volume, Tempo, Key, Loop Select.

Its very cool how you can plug in a second guitar, for jamming or teaching and also plug in external music source (such as an ipod) for play-along.

Even due it being the smaller version (Fender also offers a 30 watt) it offers nearly all the features of its older bothers, and is very user-friendly because Fender managed to utilize knobs and avoid complex menus, so you still feel like you're playing an amp and not a computer.
I've tinkered with a Cyber Twin before, and this amp has a bit more ease-of-use, so it seems good for beginners or guys like myself that want to PLAY with what little time we have instead of being obsessed knob twiddlers.

First of all, the stock presets are a bit opver the top almost to the point of being cheesy. Some are useless. So you will have to invest some time creating your own presets but it will familiarize you with its capabilities, and its subtleties.

I particularly liked the Tweed and Blackface for clean sounds, and the Metal amp model was nice and extreme. It is hard to believe such a wide variety of tones is available in one package. You can get a full range of tones from jazzy clean, gritty clean, classic hi-gain, all the way to artificial harmonic-squealin, chugga chugga metal sound.

Just don't expect it to sound just like the real thing, or like a roaring half stack. Its great for bedroom volumes.