NAD - Fender Machete

[MadAsAHatter]

I posted this on another forum yesterday evening and they guessed the amp. The way I did the hint gave it away a little too easily so I'm gonna change that up a little here.
If you saw the answer on the other forum don't spoil it for others trying to guess.

Here we go...

This amp caught my eye a few years ago, but was put on the backburner since there were none for sale. It's one that people seem to forget about and doesn't come up for sale overly often. One popped up on GC's website about 3-4 months back. I was behaving myself and resisting the urge to buy. After sitting on it, the temptation became too much. Called the GC store and worked a decent enough price that I was willing to pay. Hopefully it'll be here by the end of next week and arrive safely.

What is the amp you may be asking. Not going to reveal it until it gets delivered or if someone figures it out. I'll give you some basic info, specs and a hint. Maybe you can guess what it is.
2 channels, 50 watt, 6L6 power tubes. Sort of considered a sleeper amp. Great reviews from those who played/bought one, but poor product launch and it didn't sell very well because of poor marketing. Only produced for 2 years from 2012 to 2013. Company isn't known for high gain amps but this one is in that realm. Came in both 1x12 combo & head form. I got the head. My understanding is a bunch of combos were made, but only a couple hundred heads. Both the head and combo had a somewhat unique tolex wrap.

Hint:
Danny Trejo

 

[greatmutah]

I’d have been stumped if you hadn’t put Trejo in there at the end.

Fender Machete (kills)

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I’d have been stumped if you hadn’t put Trejo in there at the end.

Fender Machete (kills)

Well that didn't take long for someone to guess
The Danny Trejo hint kinda makes it obvious when you get the reference.

 

[gearJunkie]

Fender Machete combo amp

**** doh! @greatmutah beat me to it. †**

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Well now that the cat's out the bag...

Does anyone own or have played Fender Machete? I only have old youtube clips to go by and haven't heard in it person. Obviously those clips sounded good enough for me to buy one. Still interested in current opinions and what I can expect.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Looking forward to your thoughts on this one big time! Always wanted to play one but never seen it in person anywhere.

 

[sleewell]

 

[EOengineer]

Cool amp!

Didn’t the Fender Prosonic also get pretty aggressive? I think they’ve had a couple sleepers in that regard.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Cool amp!

Didn’t the Fender Prosonic also get pretty aggressive? I think they’ve had a couple sleepers in that regard.

Yeah, the prosonic was fairly aggressive. Bruce Zinky supposedly designed the gain channel.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Amp arrived late yesterday afternoon safe and sound. Maybe Guitar Center is upping their game on packing. The last couple amps I got from them were packed well. Several layers of bubble wrap around the entire amp and in an appropriate sized box. Or maybe I just got lucky.

Anyway, The head is in near perfect condition. No major scuffs or tears. I spent about 20-30 minutes getting to know it. I'm not giving any right out the box initial impressions on tone because frankly I don't know what to make of it yet. The Machete doesn't sound bad by any means. It's just on the opposite end of the spectrum of my normal sound and not really like any Fender amp I've played before. I need a a little extra time with it to figure it out.

That said I did manage a respectable Dimebag, scooped mids type tone. I can tell it's capable of more than that and should sound pretty good. I just need some time to find it's strengths & weaknesses. I don't see the Machete kicking anything off my top favorites; however, I do foresee this one being a keeper. If anything it's one that'll push me out my comfort zone.

I can offer a few tidbits. The damping knob does have a large effect on how the amp feels. Loose it's aggressive with a little bit of bounce. Tight it's smoother and more focused. Notch has a large affect on tone. The tone stack is active and small adjustments can have a bigger impact on boosting/cutting frequencies.

One thing I didn't realize is how few of these amps were made. When looking for suggested settings to start with, I came across some production info. Apparently only 100 heads and 300 combos were made in total between 2012-2014. My head is stamped 09 of 25 First Production Run.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Maybe Guitar Center is upping their game on packing.

 

[Allexi]

I'm actually looking at few amps at GC and chatted with their rep about the shipping. So he confirmed that their goal is to safely ship stuff from shop to shop with proper packaging aiming "the amp should arrive to new location in the same state it was" assuring me they will pack it well.

@MadAsAHatter congrats on the new amp. Looks very clean and mint!

 

[JiveTurkey]

Looks great. I always thought the tones in the Choptones video sounded really good!


Report back once you get more time with it \m/

 

[paisleywookiee]

I'm actually looking at few amps at GC and chatted with their rep about the shipping. So he confirmed that their goal is to safely ship stuff from shop to shop with proper packaging aiming "the amp should arrive to new location in the same state it was" assuring me they will pack it well.

@MadAsAHatter congrats on the new amp. Looks very clean and mint!

I've had countless shit damaged by GC shipping. Their staff is highly consistent in one way: they're fucking imbeciles all over the country.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I spent some more time with the Machete yesterday afternoon. I haven’t fully figured out my preferred settings, but I think I have a pretty good grasp on things now. This will mostly pertain to the gain channel 2 as it’s where I spent the majority of my time so far. Some things may translate to the clean channel, but I don’t want to comment too much on that side right now.

Damping, Notch, and High are the most important and influential controls on the Machete. Damping influences the feel and aggression. Notch has a big impact on the voicing. High compensates for any darkness/brightness from the Damping setting.

Starting with a quick overview…

It’s a high gain amp, though not really high gain by today’s over the top standards. Compared to a Typical Fender, JCM800 or even DSL I’d call it high gain. Putting it up against a modern Diezel, Bogner, Friedman, or ENGL, high gain doesn’t quite make it to those standards without a boost of some sort. So squarely in a Hard Rock/Heavy Metal category, but not quite Modern Metal without some help.

The great news on the gain front is Ch2, even with the gain maxed, will take boosts extremely well. A Tube Screamer, SD1, or Klon type overdrive pushes it enough into more modern territory. My overdrive pedals of that kind all worked equally well. No oversaturation squealing, no this sounds like complete ass. It was basically pick your flavor and let it rip.

Next thing is volume. I can get some okay tones at conversation/bedroom levels, but it’s not really a bedroom amp. You do need to open up the volume to really get the best out of it. You don’t have to fire it up to full band 100+ dB levels, but at least enough to where it could get disturbing to others in the house. Mouse fart volume isn’t gonna do it. Extra loud TV is kinda the minimum threshold where it starts to lose that low volume congestion and open up.

For the tone stack, it’s active. I don’t know the EQ curve so I won’t say flat; noon is no boost or cut. Low and Middle are pretty straight forward. These two are mainly set to taste. Extreme settings can be gnarly, but as long as you keep them within reason you’ll be fine. High would be the more powerful one as I mentioned earlier. To some extent its set to taste, but its real forte is balancing out with the Damping knob. I’ll go more into that next.

Now to discuss what I consider the main 3 knobs; Damping, Notch and High.

Damping is the knob to set first. It has a big influence on feel and tone. On the loose side the amp has a bit more bounce, brightness, and aggression. On the tight side it’s more focused/smooth, dark, and quicker attack. So far, my preference is all the way loose. I like the aggressive nature at this setting and can tighten things up with a boost. The tight side does sharpen it up to my liking, but is too smooth for my taste.

Here’s where the High knob comes in. Once you get the damping set, use the High to compensate for the brightness/darkness. If you’re on the loose side you’d want to back off the High to keep things from being ice-picky. If you’re on the tight side, up the High to keep it from sounding too dark and congested. It’s not difficult to balance out, but something you should know will need balancing. If you move the Damping knob, you’ll most certainly want to adjust the High.

Last is the Notch. This moves the amp from an American voicing to a British voicing; mainly affecting the frequency and prominence of the mids with some influence on highs & lows. You can keep the tone stack in place and just adjust the Notch for a big change in tone. For instance, if you have the tone stack set for scooped mids… To the left on Notch you have an American scooped mids tone, to the right on Notch you have British scooped mids tone. No other adjustments needed and both sound good. I find the sweet spot to be between 10 and 2 o’clock. You can go a little past that, but any further you start to hit the too thin or too wooly area.

So far I think this is a pretty unique amp in that it’s one you wouldn’t expect to come from Fender. It’s not at all like any of their typical models. Too bad it fell into a weird marketing category and never really caught on. It wasn’t traditional enough for Fender guys and “Fender doesn’t do high gain” with the metalheads. If you removed all branding and told me it was a Mesa/Boogie I’d probably believe you. It does come across as something they’d be more likely to develop. I think if it did have Mesa branding there’s a good chance it would have been a hit.