Grateful Dead Music Forum

willmusic wrote:

tigerstrat wrote:

willmusic wrote:Oh and ditto that on the 12at7 tubes. Muuuuch cleaner.

Ditto what?

I must be getting threads mixed up, I swore I saw somebody mention 12at7's, but I guess that was somewhere else. What I shoulda said was.... "I use 12at7 tubes in my champ and it's pretty clean." Thanks for pointing that out.

That 12at7 will do the trick in the preamp.

Definitely willing to try a different preamp tube. Not much dough lost there. Ragin' Cajun also seems a popular mod out on the web (though some appear to swear by the Celestion G10).

For those with the SCXD, does anyone else get a rattle from the amp with certain notes on certain parts of the fretboard? For me it's worst on 8,9,10 frets on G string (around the E note). It's a weird, resonant rattle sound and I can't figure out what's causing it. Something related to the tubes, perhaps?

I've heard about some scxd's that have had tube rattle but I haven't really used the power section since the day I got it. I'm gonna have to play mine straight stock tomorrow and see if I have any rattles, honks, beeps, etc. Also check your speaker baffle as it may be rattling against the bottom of the amp.

lunasparks wrote:Definitely willing to try a different preamp tube. Not much dough lost there. Ragin' Cajun also seems a popular mod out on the web (though some appear to swear by the Celestion G10).

Why? It has ZERO tubes in the preamp section. The only "preamp tube" is the phase inverter which you don't wanna mess with.

Interesting info, SS! My buddy Nat changed out the 12ax7 for an 12at7. If it wasn't supposed to be messed with and doesn't effect my preamp like he said it would, could it be detrimental to the overall life/performance of the amp? Also, does the line out bypass the power section like I was thinking? Like I said, I've been using it strictly as a head; line out > power amp > 1x12. Could it be that I know less about my amp than I thought?

willmusic wrote:Interesting info, SS! My buddy Nat changed out the 12ax7 for an 12at7. If it wasn't supposed to be messed with and doesn't effect my preamp like he said it would, could it be detrimental to the overall life/performance of the amp? Also, does the line out bypass the power section like I was thinking? Like I said, I've been using it strictly as a head; line out > power amp > 1x12. Could it be that I know less about my amp than I thought?

Nut sure., I think it works like that. Kinda hard to read the spec since it's so low quality.

What did you buddy Nat think about the change? I'm guess the amp just got quieter and it had the same headroom as before - he could turn up but he had to in order to get the same volume.

Emoto wrote:

lunasparks wrote:Just wondering if anyone out there has the Fender Super Champ XD amp and has tried to dial in a Jerry-like tone with any success? I have this amp and have been fooling around with it on both clean and mod channel (mostly Blackface options). So far I've been able to get a nice crackling tone with my AS Strat, but it's definitely a "budget" solution, I recognize...just trying to do my best with what I have.

Anyway, I was considering perhaps new tubes and/or speaker, but not sure if it's worth the effort or will make much of a difference. If anyone has used the amp, do you have preferred settings or any useful tips? Thanks!

I have one of these amps and use it as a spare, or if someone comes over to jam and doesn't want to drag an amp over, I let them use it.

I think it gets a decent clean Fender twin-ish kind of sound. IMO, much better a sound than it should for the money. Had mine for a couple of years and it has spent many hours hanging in there with drums, bass, keys and another electric guitar without any problems. I tend to use the clean channel.

RiverRat has heard it and his ears are better than mine, so he may have a comment.

I will say that it's a damn fine amp... but the quality of my hearing is subject to debate.

Strummin is right... This amp has a solid state preamp and a tube phase inverter... stay with the 12ax7.

Resonant vibration could be any number of loose things... just have to go through the chassis while it rattling until you find what causing it.

For those interested, I cured the resonant rattle problem. After going through the chassis and driving myself and my wife crazy, I finally decided it must be the stock GrooveTubes. I bought new Tungsol 6V6 tubes, installed, and the rattle was gone. I know very little about tubes but it seems to me that it even sounds better now, with some of the icepick highs actually softened out a bit and the overall sound somehow warmer or more balanced. Possible? It could be that I'm hallucinating or that the stock tubes were flawed somehow? In any event, I'm digging the sounds out of this little guy (and the absence of the tube rattle).

Anyone know what causes that rattle? Did I maybe blow them up or damage them somehow?

Different tubes have a different sound. Some people go to great lengths to get certain ones.

so I plugged in my SCXD and it started to make noise w/out any thing plugged into the input . I checked the tubes to see if they were in the socket proprely and BEHOLD they were 6l6 not 6v6 wich is ont the sticker on the inside of the amp and in the manual . WT FUCK did this do to it