THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY

FENDER ACOUSTASONIC DSP 30

 Here's one that I recently let "get away" that I am pretty ambivalent about. It's a Fender Acoustasonic DSP 30 acoustic guitar amplifier. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing exciting or stand-out about it either. Works just fine for what it's supposed to do, though I would say the sound quality was just marginal and it wasn't very loud for a 30-watt solid state amp. These have one input for an instrument and one input for a microphone, with the thought being that they would be great for small acoustic coffee house gigs or for band practice. To be honest, I don't think it would get loud enough for band practice if you have a drummer in the band. And the sound quality isn't going to make any true acoustic musician too excited. They look kind of cool with that vintage Fender brown tolex and the wheat colored grill. They have sort of an angled backside, like a floor monitor, so that you can set it down next to you and the sound will project out to your coffeehouse audience. Or I suppose you could use the amp as a personal acoustic guitar monitor on-stage. Again, not sure about the volume. It has some effects built-in...the standard reverbs and delays and chorus. They were fine. Everything about this amp is just "fine."

I've been playing a lot of acoustic gigs lately, and I have an Acoustic brand amp/PA that I use for the main sound source. I think Guitar Center bought the brand name Acoustic and put out some pretty useful little acoustic amps. One day they had some sort of crazy deal of the day for the 120-watt unit for $199 shipped. That's seriously insane in the membrane. I bought it...I wish I had bought two. Works perfectly, lots of power, clean and clear and I'm really happy. I think it's the AG-120 model. Well, the only thing that it lacks is more inputs...it only has four. So, if you are playing with an acoustic trio, you probably run out of inputs. That's what happened to me. So, even though you'd think maybe someone else in our trio would get another amp for themselves or something, that never seems to be the case. So I found this Fender Acoustasonic on Craigslist and talked the guy down to $185. One of the guys in our trio only plays guitar...no vocals...so I figured he could plug into this and it would solve our problems. Unfortunately, it just never sounded that great.

So, I've got a kid who plays soccer and he wants to go on this big trip with his soccer club to England. Not a cheap trip. I started figuring out if I had any gear I could do without and this made the list. It would have been fine to keep it, but it's just not that amazing a piece of gear. I'm sure there are those of you out there who have one and like it and that's cool. Nothing wrong with them. Then again, just not that amazing either. I put mine back on Craigslist and tried to get what I paid for it. I'm usually pretty good at flipping gear for a profit, but I knew this one might be tough. Even at $185 I got no interest for quite awhile. I had offers for $100 and $125, but I just couldn't do it. Finally I told someone I'd meet them halfway at $150. They said take it or leave it at $135 and I figured I'd better take it. Take it in the shorts. Oh well, you can't win 'em all. So, if you are looking for a thumbs up or thumbs down on this piece of gear, I'd have to go "thumbs sideways." You're welcome.

Originally posted: Monday, May 2, 2016