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Post subject: Super Champ XD - Voices
Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:27 am
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I am currently playing a 2006ish American Standard Strat all stock through a Super Champ XD, and find the "Voices" on this amp to be ... well, less than I'd hoped for. I rarely even go off channel 1, in fact, except to use the 2nd tweed voice.

My general opinion is that the models all sound like the same amp with varying levels equalization and types of gain, perhaps with the exception of the Tweeds and Acoustic settings. The metal settings sound like the built in overdrive on a Fender solid state amp - like a buzz saw. The Brit and Blackface settings are just lifeless. And the overall balance on this amp is so treble heavy that the bridge pickup on my strat is completely unusable on any setting other than the Jazz voice with treble < 3.

I've owned great tube amps (AC30, Classic 30, BF Deluxe Verb) and what I believe to be the best modelling amp ever made - the Yamaha DG80 - and to me, the SCXD doesn't give me even 75% the tube quality tone of the tube amps, and less than 50% the modelling quality of the Yamaha.




Does anyone else share this opinion? I've seen almost nothing but praise for the amp, with the exception of a few recommended mods. I do like the channel 1 sound a lot, but I bought the amp for versatile modelling + passable tube tone, not to be a 1 trick pony. Are upgrades to the amp so necessary to make this amp sound good? I'd just go buy a Spider Valve 112 but they have the opposite problem... the OD sounds are amazing but the cleans suck horribly.


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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:14 pm
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Some SCXD came with Chinese tubes which IMHO are junk. The SCXD I bought had Electro Harmonix. I had an issue with sound quality going downhill and it turned out to be a microphonic 12AX7. I swapped it out for a reissue Mullard, a neutral sounding tube, and the amp sound better than ever. It took about a week to get the stock speaker broken in. I'm waiting on a Ragin Cajun to install. The SCXD is probably one of my all time favorite amps.


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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:03 pm
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It's got EH tubes. I have no idea what you are referring to by the tube being microphonic, however. I'm not very well educated on the particulars of tubes.


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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:10 pm
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Here's a great site for info.
http://fenderforum.com/forum.html?db=&t ... ber=648268


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