Thursday, April 3, 2025

Fender Tube Amps For Less Than $400?

 

A Fender tube amp for less than $400? No way! If you don’t mind used equipment, they are available in the used market.  

Pawn Shop Prizes

Back in 2012 Fender introduced their Pawn Shop Prize amplifier line up. These included four tube-based amplifiers that were offered that year. None of which resembled a Fender product, and none even have the Fender logo. 

The idea that the designers had in mind were amplifiers, perhaps from Montgomery Ward or Valco that you may find in a pawn shop. 

Bruce Zinky
All of these amps were designed by Bruce Zinky. He worked for Fender for a number of years and was responsible for some of Fenders classic amplifiers including the Pro Junior, the Prosonic, the Tonemaster, the Vibro King and the Vibrolux Reverb. 


When he left Fender Zinky set up his own company and produced amplifiers under his own name. You may remember Smokey Amps. These were tiny 1 watt solid state amps that were originally placed in a cigarette package. However I am digressing. 




Fender Pawn Shop Prize Amp
At the time Zinky was tasked by Fender to come up with the Pawn Shop Prize amplifiers. These went along with their Pawn Shop Prize guitar line up. The amps and guitars were featured at NAMM in 2012.  


I would say the most popular amp in the series was the Excelsior. This amplifier pumped 13 watts of class AB power into a 15-inch Fender special design speaker. The control panel was very minimal. A volume and a tremolo knob, plus a Bright/Dark switch. 


Like many amplifiers from the 1950’s and 60’s it had three input switches labeled Guitar, Mic, and Accordion. 

The tube configuration included a pair of 6V6 power tubes and two 12AX7 preamp tubes, one controlled the tremolo circuit. On the used market The Excelsior is selling for an average of $375 USD. The 2012 version came only with a brown covering. The 2013 version was offered with colored covering and sold for around $100 more. 


The Excelsior amplifier brings to mind the 1960’s Supro Thunderbolt amplifier I used in 1965. The Supro had a 15-inch speaker, and had more power, rated at 35 watts based on its twin 6L6 power tubes, a 5U4 rectifier, and a pair of 12AX7 preamp tubes. 



The Thunderbolt was marketed as a bass amp, however it was inadequate due to the baffle buzzing. However it was a wonderful guitar amplifier. Controls were very basic as it only had a volume and tone control. 

The Pawn Shop Prize Excelsior gives out a clean sound with the volume going up to one third volume,  after that it breaks up considerably. If you are looking for a Blues amp, you may want to consider the Excelsior.  

Fender Vaporizer

The Fender Pawn Shop Vaporizer was an interesting amp. This amp had a pair of 10-inch Fender Special Design speakers and it pumped 12 watts of AB power from its twin EL84 power tubes. The preamp section was solid state. 

Vaporizer Controls
The control panel included volume, tone, and reverb knobs, and inputs for normal and bright. One trick this amp accomplished with its reverb knob allowed the player to turn off the volume and turn up the reverb. This produced an ethereal sound. (You could do the same on a Silvertone Twin Twelve)


Vaporizer (back)
The bonus feature on the Vaporizer was the footswitch that was included. Depressing this bypassed the volume and tone circuit producing a raw gritty overdriven tube amp sound. 



Colors for The Vaporizer
This amp was offered with red, blue, and surf green coverings. I am seeing these amps selling on the used market for around $400. 


As I recall Music Man amps and some Peavy amps were designed with a tube power amp and a solid-state preamps. This caused those amplifiers to have a little more headroom. 






The next Pawn Shop Prize amplifier is the Fender Ramparte. (That is the way Fender spelled it) 






Ramparte Controls

This was a class A amplifier utilizing a single 6L6 power tube and a pair of 12AX7 preamp tubes producing 9 watts of power. This amp had a Fender special design 12-inch speaker. 

The Ramparte was a two channel amp that had a "Cool" section and a "Hot" section with chicken head knobs. Minimal controls were a just a volume knob for each channel and inputs for each channel. 

The Cool section was voiced to produce a clean tone that went from warm and clean to mildly gritty, while the Hot section delivered killer overdrive tones. There were no tone or EQ controls. 

On the used market these amps are selling for  $300 to $380 USD.



The Greta by Fender
The last Pawn Shop Prize amplifier is the Greta. This tiny amp looks more like a retro Japanese radio than a guitar amplifier. It produces a mere 2 watts of class A power driven by a single 12AT7 tube for the power section and a single 12AX7 preamp tube into a tiny 4-inch speaker. 

The Greta amplifier was designed as a practice amp, but can be mic'd for recording purposes. It has one channel with a volume and tone control on the amps front with an old school VU meter. 

The Greta (back)

On the back side there is a guitar input, a 1/8" auxiliary input, a line out and  an external speaker output plus the on/off switch.  Despite its size some player like this little amplifier.  


I am seeing The Greta being offered for $220 to slightly over $330 on the used market.  If you are looking for an inexpensive and unique tube amplifier the Fender Pawn Shop series might just be for you.   

To be fair, I looked on Reverb to see if there are any used tube amplifiers that are available for under $400. 




There are currently six Fender Blues Junior amps priced below $400 and three selling for $400. 






There are also three Pro Junior amplifiers selling for less than $400. 




There are also several Fender Vibro Champ XD amps for sale for $325 and below. 





Another option is the Fender Super Champ XD which can be purchased for around $250 USD. 






The Fender Pawn Shop Prize series of amplifiers were truly unique creations from a time when the Fender Musical Instrument Company was willing to think outside of the box. 

While the Blues Junior and Pro Junior were manufactured in Mexico, all of the aforementioned amplifiers are of Chinese origin.   

©UniqueGuitar Publications (Text Only) 2025
   Click on link below the pictures for sources    









                                                           
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Monday, March 24, 2025

Jennifer Armstrong - Guitar Artist

 

Jennifer Armstrong

On Facebook I have met the most wonderful guitar artist. She is perhaps the only person I have ever encountered putting unique designs on guitars. Of course George Harrison, painted his Stratocaster (Rocky) and Eric Clapton had a Dutch design firm create the artwork on his 1964 Gibson SG  (The Fool). However Jennifer's guitar artwork is unique, extraordinary and one of a kind.

Jennifer Armstrong resides in Glasgow Scotland. She puts her unusual artwork on mainly electric stringed instruments that she acquires and then sells them for a most reasonable price. 

As far as I can tell, Jenn is perhaps the only artist currently doing this. There are other people that have added their art to guitars, but Armstrong's  guitars are individually done and her output is amazing. Jenn's designs are generally based on symmetrical shapes, although some of her work includes abstract shapes. She takes her time on each instrument. In my opinion she is brilliant. 





Jennifer refers to herself as JPAX and signs this on her works. 








Jennifer started out as an artist painting abstract portraits but within the last four years has found a real niche in painting electric guitars and basses. Most of the instruments she offers are Telecaster, Flying Vee, Les Pauls, and Strat knockoffs that she collects from her contacts at trunk shows, or through word of mouth.  She does such a lovely job of redesigning the finish on these instruments.

Flying Vees

According to her, she generally paints over the existing finish using spray paint and markers and then has a friend rewire the guitar or bass. Although she says if the existing lacquer is bad, she uses an orbital sander to get down to bare wood. 

She does not do custom orders or commissions, but only offers her own creations. 


Elwood Francis, the current ZZ Top bass player, owns one of her creations. This was done as a Christmas present from Elwood's wife. She sent a Japanese Strat body to Armstrong. 






She says most of her creations are sold in the USA, although she will ship anywhere. Some of her creations have been shipped as far away as Australia.


Jenn’s work brings to mind a couple of guitar finishes that Fender used in the past. The first unusual Fender guitars was done in the late 1970’s. 

At this time Fender/CBS had drastically modified it’s existing Stratocaster. Sales were down. This was about the time when Eddie Van Halen attracted attention with his home built Strat style guitar with its unique finish. 

Bowling Ball Strats
An artist named Darren Johnson had developed an unusual finish for drum sets that resembled the swirled multi-colored bowling balls that became popular in the 1960’s. Mr. Johnson sent a picture of a mockup he did of a Stratocaster body to Fender. His response was an invitation from Fender to the NAMM show. Fender was so impressed that they sent him 75 bodies with a coat of white primer and asked him to finish them. 


Fender referred to them as “Marbled Finish”, but to most of the guitar community these were known as Bowling Ball Stratocasters. Bowling Ball Strats were highly sought after, so in 1987 a second run was offered.





In 1997 Eric Clapton appeared at a Grammy Award concert playing a Stratocaster with an unusually designed finish. Clapton had become interested in street art and ask John “Crash” Matos to design a guitar for him. Eventually Crash designed 3 different bodies for Eric. 


In 2004 when Fender opened its custom shop they sent 50 bodies to the artist to put his touch on them. The guitar playing public referred to these as Crashocasters. 








Then in 2003 Fender came out with an unusual body finish for the Stratocaster. When I was a kid most traveling carnivals had a booth where you could create your own art by placing a square piece of white cardboard on spinning wheel and drizzling different colored paint on the board. 


This was the premise for the Splattercaster. These were all Mexican built Stratocasters so they sold at the time for only around $300. The bodies were placed on spinning wheels and the paint colors; Violet, Daphne, Lake Placid, and Midnight Blue Swirl over Olympic White and Spun to perfection. Fender had a limited run of 500 guitars in 2003 and 2004.  

Perhaps Ms. Armstrong might consider sending Fender (or another company) some samples of her work.  You never know? 


I have to say that Jennifer Armstrong is the the most unique and perhaps the only artist currently putting her custom artwork on guitars. For anyone wanting a truly unique instrument that stands out I encourage you to check out her site and get in touch with this remarkable lady.


Jennifer also specializes in creating beautiful custom pickguards. You can add the JPAX touch to your existing instrument.  

Contact Jennifer Armstrong on Facebook or Instagram to get her price list and available stock.

© Uniqueguitar publications (text only)\
Click on the links under the picture for sources. (Most are from
Jennifer Armstrong's photo collection)

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