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I just got a Fender G-DEC A.K.A., "Guitar Digital Entertainment Center" for Christmas, and I thought I'd post my first impressions. For those who don't know, this is a little practice amp with built-in amp/effects modeling and backing tracks. Fender has coordinating backing tracks and amp/effects setups saved together into presets (kinda like Garanimals [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ). It can also play back a snippet of music from many sources (e.g., your guitar, a CD player, or an iPod, etc.) in a loop - at half-speed if you wish. I haven't used that feature yet.
I have been playing with the presets, and some are great fun. Some are also embarrassingly bad, but with 50 to choose from, that's not a big deal. I'd say there are about 4 great ones out of the box, and I haven't started tweaking yet. It was good enough to get me to play until my fingers hurt, which is something that has not happened in a LONG time.
I suspect that there will be many more amps like this (I hope so), which will improve upon this first effort. For example, it should have a USB port instead of MIDI, and a slot for a memory card, so you can get MIDI files off the web and load them into your amp, replacing some of the terrible ones. Fender could host a forum for people to trade patches of songs/tones, and it would be huge.
Bottom line: At $269, this is a bit pricey, but it is a great bedroom amp. It gives you a band to jam with in a simple, one-box approach (I have backing tracks on my computer, but it's a pain in the ass to turn on my laptop and computer speakers and sit near my desk to play guitar, so I don't do it as much as I should), and it makes you want to play. I love it.
I have been playing with the presets, and some are great fun. Some are also embarrassingly bad, but with 50 to choose from, that's not a big deal. I'd say there are about 4 great ones out of the box, and I haven't started tweaking yet. It was good enough to get me to play until my fingers hurt, which is something that has not happened in a LONG time.
I suspect that there will be many more amps like this (I hope so), which will improve upon this first effort. For example, it should have a USB port instead of MIDI, and a slot for a memory card, so you can get MIDI files off the web and load them into your amp, replacing some of the terrible ones. Fender could host a forum for people to trade patches of songs/tones, and it would be huge.
Bottom line: At $269, this is a bit pricey, but it is a great bedroom amp. It gives you a band to jam with in a simple, one-box approach (I have backing tracks on my computer, but it's a pain in the ass to turn on my laptop and computer speakers and sit near my desk to play guitar, so I don't do it as much as I should), and it makes you want to play. I love it.
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