FENDER
MACHETE
BY JORDAN WAGNER
to hear audio clips of the amp at
premierguitar.com/may2012
CLICKHere…
For players used to really big sounds, compact high-gain tube combo amps
sometimes seem to demand too many trad-eoffs to make the convenience and portability
worth it. If you’re used to pushing air with a
4x12, the relative lack of clarity and punch at
high volumes and low headroom that you get
from a 1x12 can feeling like you’re missing an
arm—even if it’s still really dang loud.
With the Machete—Fender’s newest addi-
tion to their Pro Tube series of amps—the
aim is to dish blisteringly aggressive tones
from a 50-watt, dual-channel combo without
sacrificing the range players get from big
cabinets. And Fender achieves a lot of this
versatility by making it one of the most tun-
able amps the company has ever built.
Bullitt-Head
The Machete is styled like a ’60s muscle
car, with a sleek, black vinyl covering and
a grey vinyl racing stripe that looks like it
was fashioned from a steering wheel grip.
50 watts of dual-6L6GC power are pumped
through a single 12" Celestion Vintage 30
speaker, which is mounted in the combo’s
semi-open back cabinet. Instead of using a
back panel that extends halfway down the
back of the cabinet, Fender opted for a gap
that’s only about four inches tall, which
seems to serve primarily as ventilation for the
amp’s dual power tubes. The preamp is driv-
en via five 12AX7 tubes and a 12AT7 that
Clean and High Gain channels
Digital reverb
6dB input
attenuation switch
Speaker Damping control
