Grateful Dead Music Forum

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!

fwiw, I had a SF Champ and it sounded ALOT better when connected to a 12" or 15" speaker cab.

You didn't mention if this was for home or performing, but I wouldn't put any money into this amp.

I don't own one, but played on at a jam two weeks ago.

The 10" inch speaker doesn't cut it on a stage, but I'm not sure if you can connect to a cab.

It was dimed for about 2 hours and blew up with that nice chemical/burning plastic smell.

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.

Grateful Ed - this is definitely for home use. I don't play out...mostly because I suck

I've been surprised so far by the $300 I spent on this thing. My ears aren't great but it seems like it gives a pretty good clean Fenderish sound so I was hopeful that it can be worked with to get closer to Jerryish...mostly just wondering if there was anything practical I could do (or that others have had success with), whether settings or basic mods, that might be able to take it just a step further.

Thanks for comments so far. And for those like me snowed in this morning, enjoy!

Best,

Vince

I have one . I use a 12 inch cab with My Ibanez musician with EMG PUs The best jer sound i get is using the blackface1/2 dirty #5 model. I set the volume on 8 and the gain just enough to break up when I pick hard . I drilled a whole and installed a speaker stand mount to the bottom to get it off the floor.

beyond further wrote:I have one . I use a 12 inch cab with My Ibanez musician with EMG PUs The best jer sound i get is using the blackface1/2 dirty #5 model. I set the volume on 8 and the gain just enough to break up when I pick hard . I drilled a whole and installed a speaker stand mount to the bottom to get it off the floor.

I've got one and use the same blackface setting. I also line out to a Bogen amp into a 1x12. It's been an effective setup. Affordable too. Gonna switch the Bogen out for something else soon though.

It's one of those amps you just enjoy for what it is - a decent sounding, low-budget amp that will be perfect one day as you progress as the amp you have as a back-up

Thanks for the tips. On vacation after work tomorrow so Blackface #5 will get another run with the gain up higher.

Beyond Further - decent results with the Musician with the SCXD? I've been considering buying a musician and selling my Strat ('89 Am. Std., all stock). I've never played the Ibanez so it scares me a little bit to plunk down the cash for one of these badboys, but I may forge ahead...

I have an SCXD and it's a good little amp. I replaced the stock speaker with an Eminence Ragin' Cajun and find that I can push it harder. I usually play the clean channel and use the footswitch to change to the Blackface voice when I want a little dirt. I may take a look at replacing the tubes, but need to do some research on that. The only effect I use on it is a little spring reverb set at about 3.

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

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

Ditto what?

lunasparks wrote:
Beyond Further - decent results with the Musician with the SCXD? I've been considering buying a musician and selling my Strat ('89 Am. Std., all stock). I've never played the Ibanez so it scares me a little bit to plunk down the cash for one of these badboys, but I may forge ahead...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ibanez-Musician-MC- ... QptZGuitar
You might try it and like it ....
Nice little gits

Don't waste your money on new tubes. Not being a know-it-all but it's not the answer unless you love the amp already and want to experiment to sweeten it up some.

Rationale - It does not have tubes in the preamp.

The first tube hit is the PI. That is part of the poweramp section. The PI, oversimplified, splits the signal for the poweramp tubes.

You could throw a lower tube like an AT but that is not what the amp was designed for and the poweramp tubes are not expected that low of a signal. There are others here who can help better explain levels and voltages but basically you are sending a lower signal to your poweramp than spec. It may give you some headroom.

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.