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Post subject: Superchamp Drive
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:01 am
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Roadie
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I got a Superchamp Xd recently which I'm very pleased with, However I have one question:-

According to the Fender 'Blurb', on this site, although it is a tube amp, the overdrive circuitry is NOT tube. Does this mean it uses a solid state preamp to overdrive the tubes 'downstream', or does it mean the overdrive sound is entirely solid-state generated??

If it's the latter, what on earth is the point of of having tubes in it?? After all, tubes are supposed to produce a better overdirve sound tha transistor (even MOSFET), right?

Also, if I wish to push the amp harder by using an overdrive pedal as a preamp- with the drive set low and the level set high, will that work properly if the amp's drive circuitry is transistor? Also could I damage it by attemting this?

I could simply try driving the clean channel harder, but there is so much headroom there, it might not do the job?

I'd be grateful for some guidance here!


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:19 am
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Roadie
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bump!


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 4:03 pm
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Hobbyist
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Ok, I'll bite; The SCXD is a modeling amp with a DSP preamp and tube output stage. All the distortion in the Chan 2 voices comes from the DSP. The reason that the amp sounds good, is that the tubes warm up the tone, and give a more dynamic 'feel' to the amp. Most cheaper modeling amps use SS output stages which give them a 'cold' feel compared to tube amps. I think Fender got it right with the circuitry in the SCXD.

As far as pedals go, if you keep the output level of the pedal low, you can get reasonable results. The DSP input seems to overload pretty easily compared to their tube counterparts. Putting the drive low and the output high would be the worst way to run your pedal because you'd probably get nasty digital distortion from your pedal overloading the input of the amp.

There are many cool voices in the SCXD. I personally don't feel the need to use pedals with it; that's one of the reasons I got the amp to begin with.


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Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 6:08 am
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Roadie
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Thanx gtrman! As you can tell, my technical understanding of these things is low!

I asked the question about using a OD pedal with output level high and drive low (i.e. producing a boosted, but essentially 'clean' signal), because, as I understand it, thats often how people get valve amps to overdrive themselves harder: producing a valve distortion from the amp rather than a -potentailly inferior- distortion from the pedal itself. I simply wanted to know whether this would work with the XD; you've answered my question - it won't! Thanks.

I'm very happy with the amp - especailly preset 8! I simply wanted to get more natural valve drive on this preset from my rather weak YJM strat PUs.


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Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 8:24 am
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Voice 8 is my favorite distortion on the SCXD too. I was hoping the Deluxe VM amp used that voice, but it didn't.

I know what you're trying to do with the boost pedal. Unfortunately because of the nature of digital processors, once you've reached the limit that they can handle, if you go past that limit, you get digital distortion, which sounds like nails on a blackboard, instead of the beautiful saturation you get with a tube input stage.

You might check out Voices 1,2 and 3 on Chan. 2 They have pretty good emulations of Tweed Fender amps and when you push the Gain knob a bit, you get some of the compression that you're looking for. The only way to get output tube juiciness is to crank the volume of the amp- is that a bad thing? lol!


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Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:45 am
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Roadie
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Unfortunately I live in a semi with thin walls! I'd love to crank up the XD. I agree, presets 1,2 &3 are good too, and with 3 there's lots of sustain; and I do use those presets sometimes, although I still prefer 8.

I guess I could use a compressor/sustain pedal to produce the sustain I'm loooking for; with the output level set at the same as the guitar output I should not adversely affect the amp I guess?

would I be correct in assuming that other amps such as the Blues Junior are all valve and can be boosted into overdrive using pedals as suggested above?

would I be correct in assuming the DSP is not involved in the clean channel on the XD? Although even if that is the case it seems there's plenty of headroom as you'd expect in a clean channel, so it would be difficult to boost into overdrive anyway?

Thanks for all your advise by the way, I've learnt a lot from the info you've supplied!


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:14 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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My understanding is that the clean channel (ch. #1) IS DSP.


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:47 pm
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Roadie
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Thanks, I think I'll suppliment the SD with something pure valve when I can afford it. It's a great amp, but I only really use preset 8 and clean!


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