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Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:53 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Shane--we know the VC uses the 12AX7 as a pre-amp gain element since single-ended class-A's need no phase inverter. So are you implying the SC DOES use the 12AX7 as a phase inverter only, not as a preamp gain stage element?


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Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:45 pm
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I tried a Jensen C8R and liked the Weber 8S much better. The Jensen seemed louder, and brittle. Granted the Weber is a week old and partially broken in but it did sound better. I have an alnico Weber on the way and can't wait to hear it. I plan on trying other tube combinations besides the Tung Sols. Any thoughts on upgrading transformers? This is a great amp!


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Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:50 pm
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Rock Star
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It's been a long time since I've had a tube amp. It's fun to see the bottles glowing in the back. Here are my first impressions of the new Vibro-Champ:

As we suspected, you cannot bypass the preamp "Voices", you must choose one. The voices are Tweed (3), Blackface (3), British (3), Hot Rod (3), Metal (2) and Jazz and Acoustic, one each. When there are 3 choices, you can usually choose clean, slightly OD, or heavily OD.

I first used my '02 Hwy1 Strat to run through the voices. The Strat's vol control was at 10. I set the VC's Volume, Gain, Bass, and Treble at 5. At 5w, the VC isn't that loud. That works well for me living in a condo and because its main uses will be rehearsal and recording. With that said, the high gain choices ARE loud especially Metal and Brit. The Jazz setting was very quiet (almost too quiet) and the Acoustic setting was bright and almost jangly.

The FX are much like those in my Cyber Champ, in fact, the controls are similar. The reverbs are lush. The modulation effects are preset so you cannot vary the rate, sweep, delay, etc. It would be great if it had a separate Reverb control so you could have reverb combined with the other FX. For instance, there is a Chorus+Reverb and Reverb+Delay but you cannot have reverb with tremolo (of course, the original VC didn't have a reverb anyway). And I have to remember why the price is so low.

Then I plugged in my '07 Les Paul Studio. The VC tended to tame the LP (except at hi-gain settings), just the opposite of what I expected because the p/u's are so much hotter than the Strat's. I mostly use the neck pickup since I play Blues and the LP sounded muddy. Had to make adjustments to the amp and LP before I got a good sound out of it.

Also, I hooked up my Dyna-Comp compressor and its effect on the sound was incredible whereas when I used it with a digital or SS amp the effect was much less apparent. This weekend I'll test the line out to see how it records. Sorry for rambling. Hope this helps.


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Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:04 am
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The manual is just two pages. It explains what the controls do and what the settings are. That's it.


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Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:20 am
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I agree that the manual is lame. The Vox AD30VT manual was much better explaining some of the semi technical details. I would have prefered some insight into what the 12AX7 does with the VCXD. At least we get the two pages in multiple languages. I should have the Weber Alnico 8S Monday. I'm thinking about purchasing a second VCXD to run in stereo. A Weber Ceramic 8S in the one and a Weber Alnico 8S in the other.


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Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 2:16 pm
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Finally received it!

As with any new amp I get, I put all controls on 5, plug in my Voodoocaster and play some Clean Jimi (Wait Until Tomorrow, Little Wing), Semi-dirty Jimi (Voodoo Child), and Dirty Jimi (Purple Haze).

Usually I adjust the knobs until I get a tone I'm happy with. But this time I kept all the knobs on 5 and just varied the voicing.

Clean sounded great on voice settings 1, 4.

Semi-dirty on 7

Dirty on 13

I'll have to put on my CD and try to match the tones more closely. But I thought I'd give you a quick review.

Excellent amp. Bravo Fender.


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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 11:03 am
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I think Fender should give us extra posting points if we post sound or video clips for their products.

What do you think?


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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 2:13 pm
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Sorry, I don't think it's going to happen.

Fender should put some clips on the sites of some of the retailers like MF and zZ. The 16 voices do give you a lot of tonal options.


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Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 9:59 am
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I've spent some time with the VCXD and have mixed reviews thus far. First off, it arrived with a damaged cabinet, so it's going to get returned, but other than that, I believe it was functionally ok.

I'm disappointed in the Blackface settings. Just not enough volume on any of them, including the highest gain. However, at low volume they sound excellent. Very responsive, lots of dimension. Cleans are nice, and you can get a slight break-up tone going.

I also liked the Tweed and English settings. These have sufficient volume. Tweed can get nice and crunchy. English is I think a pretty good Marshall tone, and you can get some nice thickness and sustain for lead playing.

Reverb was good. Delay was better at louder volumes, at low volumes the delay made a kind of "clicking" effect. Did not like the chorus so much. Tremolo and vibratone are done well.

In general, regardless of voice, it seems on the bright side. I find myself switching the Strat to the neck pick-up and dialing down my tone controls way more often than usual.

Bottom line: I'm going to replace my broken version for a new one. So it's a keeper. It has good tube dimension at low volumes, which is what I was after.


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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:36 pm
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Swapped out the Weber ceramic for a Jensen P8R. The Jensen is much smoother and warmer than the Weber, it has less volume though. That speaker with the gold pin Tung Sol 12AX7 and a Tung Sol 6V6 have made this an incredible amp. This is exactly the amp I was looking for.


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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 3:11 pm
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As promised, here's a quickie review of the VCXD as a recording amp. I didn't mike it, I recorded direct using the Line Out as follows:

Guitar > VCXD > Lexicon Lambda > HP Pavilion > Sony ACID Pro 6

I used the Hwy1 Strat and a Gibson Les Paul VM Studio and tried all 16 preamp Voices. Actually, there isn't much to tell other than it sounds great. The Blackface settings were my favorite. As you would expect, the hiss or hum is audible at high playback levels especially on the high gain settings. Had to play the LP at very low volume to keep my meters from bouncing into the red zone. The Jazz setting was muddy with the LP. Overall, the amp sounded better using the Strat. I'm very happy with the Vibro-Champ XD.


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Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:27 pm
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Anyone else annoyed that Fender isn't saying how the 12Ax7 tube is being used in these amps?

Okay Fender, we bought the amp. Now tell us how the tube is being used.


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Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:12 pm
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I think most people aren't "annoyed" because they bought a fun, great sounding amp at an affordable price.

Here's the story, for those of you who need to know.

In the Super-Champ, the 12AX7 is the phase inverter, because you have two output tubes. In the Vibro-Champ, it’s simply an output tube driver stage for the class A single 6V6 power amp. The fact that the two models sound very different from each other should tell you that the power amp and speaker are crucial.

The preamp distortion voices are created by digital modeling, but if you dial up a Blackface #1 or #2 voicing and crank the amp up, the output driver and the output tube(s) will distort naturally, and react to your picking strength, the same as an old Vibro-Champ or Super-Champ. I've had the luxury of doing extensive AB tests with a 1960s Vibro-Champ next to my Vibro-Champ XD, and I can get them to sound near identical.

To my ears, the XDs sound much more like an all tube amp than an all solid-state or digital amp. And let’s not forget, most people who play "all-tube" plug their guitar into a solid-state overdrive box first! Of course, if you insist on an all tube amp, we still make LOTS of them.

Gotta go, thanks for your interest!

Shane


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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:59 am
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Thanks Shane. For sure no one is annoyed now!


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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:00 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Bill M said something interesting--that even a 12AX7 used as a phase inverter can add some tube-sound to the signal. Not sure if he means compression, distortion or even harmonics, but he says it does contribute to the sound, it's not just a mechanical phase switcher. Perhaps that's why Fender chose to use it, rather than a solid-state circuit to achieve the PI process.


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