We Love Fender!

Fender guitars are amongst the most iconic instruments in music, with over 70 years of experience manufacturing guitars – with a Fender you are guaranteed great build quality and a classic tone. There is a generous variety throughout Fender guitars, there is the famous Stratocaster which is usually the first choice for many guitarists and many famous legenfs, it has a wide selection of tones due to its three pickups. There is also the Telecaster that has increased reliability and resonance. Not only do Fender have a fantastic range of guitars, they also create iconic amps that produce some of the cleanest sounds on the market. Fender amps have become synonymous with all things rock ‘n’ roll and are very impressive amps for gigging.

Below we have reviews of Fender equipment from our staff over at Blackburn:

Fender Newporter BLK

Straight out the box this guitar plays absolutely brilliantly as it has a nice even set up so is great to play. This guitar features a satin Mahogany neck that feels gorgeous in your hands, due to the satin finish the neck feels super smooth so that you can manoeuvre up and down the neck with ease.

The guitar also features a Walnut fretboard and this gives a very distinct feel and tone to it that really sets it apart from your classic Rosewood boards. With Walnut being slightly less dense than Rosewood you will find it is very soft and comfortable under your fingers.

The guitar has a Solid Sitka spruce top that gives it a nice bright tone that cuts through the mix well but the Mahogany back and sides add a slight mellow texture so it does not sound overly bright, of course if you are plugged in you can control the EQ through the Fishman electronics. The fishman EQ is absolutely brilliant and is super responsive and great for controlling your over all tone in the mix.

The Newporter looks absolutely brilliant with a few unique touches such as the Stratocaster style headstock that looks back to the Fender Kingman Famously used by Elvis Presley. The cutaway and 15^th fret neck join gives you easy access to the higher frets and the body shape is really comfortable to use both sat down and standing up. This guitar is available in 4 gorgeous finishes that you can check out on our website.

Jimi, Blackburn store

Fender FA-235E

Right off the bat this guitar is stunning!

Replacing the popular Fender T-bucket series, the FA-235E  boasts an absolutely gorgeous laminated Flame maple top, which gives the guitar a lovely ‘sparkly’ tone, offset by the warmth of the mahogany neck and Lacewood back and sides.

The concert size body and the small neck width makes this instrument a dream to sit and play, especially for those looking for something a little smaller than the standard Dreadnoughts.

When plugged into an amp, it’s instantly apparent that this guitar would be perfect for any singer/songwriter, or the slow acoustic number in your set! The Fishman system features truly dynamic EQ and built in tuner, meaning that you can rest assured you sound great and remain in tune!

In summary, you get stand-out style, great tones and a guitar for life at an absolutely jaw-dropping budget price!

Sam, Blackburn Store

Fender Rumble 40

When one first picks up any of the Fender Rumble series,  they may think that these are simply ‘dummy’ display models due to the massively reduced weight. However these lightweight Bass amps really pack a serious punch as you soon discover when you plug it in and turn it on!

The controls of the Rumble 40 are refined, simple and elegant in design.

You have the usual suspects; Gain, Volume, Bass, Low/High mid and Treble controls, but what is really noteworthy is the addition of the Bright, Contour and Vintage buttons; Bright- gives you a bit more top end bite, Contour, which scoops your mids, and the Vintage button that adds a hell of a lot of 60’s style warmth to your tone.

A stand out feature for me, is the Overdrive Channel, activated by a similar button or optional footswitch. The drive channel has 2 controls, volume and amount of drive. I’ve found that cranking the drive to max and bolstering it with the Contour feature can give you a fuzzy overdriven roar without being too muddy, allowing you to craft dirty bass tones akin to the late, great Lemmy of Motorhead!

A lightweight amp suitable for small venues and home practice, I cannot recommend this bass amp highly enough!

Sam, Blackburn Store.

As you can see our staff are very passionate about Fender, they have personal experience with the products and also are highly trained so if you require any help why not pop down and see what we have in store over at Blackburn. Why not have a play and see how you like the feel of the guitars and how amazing they sound.