Whenever I practice my guitar with my son in the house, it seems that HE wants to practice. Of course he always wants to use the Line 6 Spider III modeling amp to play on as well. My solution was to pick up a second amp, and I found the Fender Frontman 25R in a pawn shop for only $50.00. I am glad that I did.

Basic Description

The Fender Frontman 25R is a 25 watt guitar amplifier with one 10 inch speaker. It is a "combo" amp, meaning that both the speaker and the power supply are in one unit. It is small and light enough to carry with one hand with the handle. The unit is heavy black plastic with a silver grill and the Fender logo on the front. This is a transistor amp, not a tube amp.

Controls

One thing I love about the Fender Frontman is that it is easy to plug in and start playing. I love my modeling amp, but with hundreds of settings sometimes it takes too long to get a sound I want. With the Frontman, plug in the guitar to your single input, flip on the power switch and it warms up quickly. The first knob is volume, the second is gain and the third is drive volume. (a small button turns on the second "distorted drive" between the gain and drive volume knobs) With a few twists and turns of these three, you can get a nice clean sound or a pretty good distorted sound. Next to those knobs are the three knobs for treble, midrange and bass. Finally, since this is the 25R, you should know that the R stands for Reverb, the final knob. For a small amp, this has a pretty nice sounding reverb, not like its bigger way more expensive siblings, but pretty good for the price.

Inputs

In addition to the obvious guitar input, you can plug in a CD player or something to the auxillary in. It provides stereo inputs, but of course you only get mono output. There is a foot switch input so you can adjust your tone via foot instead of the knobs and a head phone jack so you can practice without disturbing the neighbors.

Sound

Clean Well, it's clear that this isn't a tube amp,the clean sound is rather boring, it just doesn't have that golden tone of the more expensive Fender amps. The amp also has that mild 60 cycle hum to it.

Distorted I like the distorted sound on this, it is a great fuzzy sound. I also like that I don't have to crank up the volume to get the distorted sound you can play at low volumes and still get that crunch.

Reverb The reverb adds a bit of concert hall spaciousness and more sustain to the notes. It sounds good, if not great.

Basically the sound here is enough so you can hear yourself play your guitar. You get a few different sounds quickly and easily. Moreover, it is an amp you should be able to find used for $50 to $75 bucks. I doubt this is an amp you'd want to bring to a performance, it just doesn't have the presence. However, sitting in my room with my Telecaster plugged in practicing a song, it does just the trick.

Durability

The Fender 25R seems like quite a durable amp, it's been knocked over a few times with no ill effects. It's small size also makes it easy to carry.

Summary

For what it is, a reliable affordable practice amp, the Fender Frontman 25R is a good amp. If you are looking for your golden tones, this probably isn't the amp you want, but the basic sounds provided are great for practice. I gave it three stars.

Recommended: Yes