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Post subject: An Actual In-the-Field SCXD Road Test!
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:30 am
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2007 10:46 am
Posts: 634
(PART I)

Got my Super Champ XD today (Manchester U.K.)
The rich Valve sound of the various voices is superb. And the main thing I notice. This amp is LOUD ! and it is rated at 20 Watts not 15.
The details in the manual are:
TWEED
(1) A vintage tone based on early Fender® Tweed Champ® amps.
(2) A fat vintage tone based on early Fender® Tweed Bassman® amps.
(3) Heavenly Overdriven Tweed Tone.
BLACKFACE
(4) A bright, vintage tone based on early Fender® Blackface amplifiers.
(5) A bright, slightly overdriven vintage tone based on early Fender® Blackface amplifiers.
(6) A bright, heavily overdriven vintage tone based on early Fender® Blackface amplifiers.
BRITISH
(7) A bright jangly tone reminiscent of early British combo amplifiers.
(8) An overdriven vintage tone based on early high-gain British stack amplifiers.
(9) A high-gain distorted tone based on modern British stack amplifiers.
HOT ROD
(10) A high-gain overdriven tone based on the Fender® Hod Rod® series of amplifiers.
(11) A high-gain distorted tone based on specialized boutique amplifiers.
(12) More gain, more sustain!
METAL
(13) A darker super high-gain scooped metal tone.
(14) A sustained super high-gain scooped metal tone based on modern heavy metal amplifiers like the Fender® Metalhead™.
JAZZ
(15) A clean amplifier tone optimized for jazz styles with the character of the Fender® Jazz King™ amplifier.
ACOUSTIC
(16) A super clean amplifier tone with the character of an Acoustasonic™ amplifier good for acoustic finger-picking.

FX SELECT
VIBRATONE
(1) Rotating Baffle, Slow
(2) Rotating Baffle, Fast
DELAY
(1) ~130ms Slapback
(2) ~300ms
(3) ~450ms
REVERB
(1) Large Room
(2) Concert Hall
(3) Classic Fender Spring Reverb
(4) Reverb + Delay
CHORUS
(1) Fast Sweep
(2) Deep Sweep
(3) Chorus + Delay
(4) Chorus + Reverb
TREMELO
(1) Low Speed
(2) Medium Speed
(3) High Speed

Specification 20 Watts
Weight: 10.9kg
Height: 38cm
Width: 45cm
Depth 22.9cm


Last edited by Maruuk on Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:31 am
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2007 10:46 am
Posts: 634
(PART II)

You can get great sounds at low volumes , but not as low as a modelling amp if you see what I mean. This is a Tube / Valve amp and reacts to increases in Gain and Volume accordingly. The Vibro has a smaller speaker, so it may be the option for really quiet practise, but I'm not sure what is lost in tone for the smaller cabinet and amp. The Super Champ has a good deep bass to it. Hope that helps.

To answer the above after spending 24 hours with it: My previous amps have been a Marshall Valvestate 8240, Fender Cyber Deluxe, Line 6 Spider III and a Vox AD30VT.
In comparison I would say that this is the first real full tube sounding amp that I have had. It responds much greater to changes in your picking action and Volume controls on your guitar than any of the above.
Even after this short time I can say that this is the best amp I have ever had. The effects add to instead of destroying the amp sounds.
The real oustanding aspect of this amp is that the various Voices are really distinct and are all great to tweak with the Gain Treble and Bass controls to get a wide variety of sounds within each of them.
Let us know how it sounds as compared to some traditional amps (twin, DRRI, marshall, bogner, polytone).
- Are the sounds organic/natural? Most dynamic sounding and responding amp I have had.
- Does it have loud clean headroom? This amp (to me anyway) is LOUD. I have got to a point where I keep Volume 2 on 1.5 and alter the Gain for warmth in each setting.
- What does the distortion sound like (warm, thick, full bodied)? Oops already used warm, but to me it is thick warm and almost spring like in that you can feel like it is bouncing as you hit a chord. This may be because it is more tube sounding than any of the amps above that I have used before.
- When switching channels can you go from natural clean to great distortion? Channel One is pure clean. The voices go from a real clean blackface to a some great flavours of distortion. The British 2 is like a classic Marshall, British 3 is like a modern Marshall. The Metal sounds are very heavy distortion, almost like an amp driven by a stomp OD.
- Do you think you would get richer tones if you plugged into a 12" speaker? I have no complaints about the tones with the stock speaker. As I say , for me, a bedroom guitar specialist !

Forgot to mention. My favourite Voice is the Fender Hot Rod. One key aspect of all the Voices is that they can are very responsive to changes in the Gain and Volume controls. This amp also sustains notes better than any amp I have had in the past.
To answer another point from above, my amp is quiet in terms of background noise. Certainly a lot quieter than the Cyber Deluxe I had. Not as quiet as a Line 6 Spider III but then these are probably the quietest amps you can get (and no tubes or Valves as we say). There is no pop when it is switched on and I haven't heard any pops whilst playing.
The real Fender Spring Reverb effect is my favourite effect setting. All the effects are controlled by a level knob so you can add a little or a lot.
Apologies if this is "one day old purchase" gushing, but I'm really chuffed with it ! I think it is a bargain at £225.


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:48 am
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2007 10:46 am
Posts: 634
Well he's certainly saying all the right stuff. Is it possible the UK version has 5 more watts than the US version??? That sounds crazy, but they do have a whole different electrical mains deal over there. But far as I know, no previous Fender amp has ever had a different output wattage in different locales. Somebuddy flash the BillM signal in the sky...Gotham needs an amp tech hero at once!


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