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Post subject: Fender SuperChamp X2 Head My Review after the First Day
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:10 pm
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Roadie
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Location: Marysville, WA
I picked up my Superchamp X2 Head yesterday, and was asked by a few friends for a review... so here are my first impressions...

(FYI, I also own the Superchamp XD, recently owned and sold a Blues Jr. III, I also have owned a Mustang III (I mention this because the X2's software is based on the Mustang software.))

I was excited to hear a few bits of news about this amp over the past few weeks. I have LOVED the Superchamp XD, but there are a few drawbacks to that particular amp that many are aware of, namely only having a small enclosure and a 10 inch speaker, and for me, I felt that the harder rock (higher gain) tones were almost useless.

I certainly am really loving the X2, so far. I'll talk mainly about the sounds and the Fuse connectivity. I have been plugging this into a Vox 1x12 inch cabinet that was made to match up with a 4 watt vox head that a friend has. I'm planning to buy the Superchamp X2 matching cab that fender is selling too, and I'll have that withing a week or two.

Channel 1
This is the actual Champ Channel. You can tell that it is the same channel design as the XD, but a Champ circuit through a 12 inch cab is interesting. It takes some of the classic champ charm away from the amp. I really think that the Champ circuit was designed to drive a smaller speaker in a tight enclosure because of the honking type of classic blues sound that this gives. A Tele playing through a Champ is a pretty iconic sound if you ask me.
None of that is to say that the Channel 1 is bad on the X2, just different. I personally think that it takes pedals a lot better than the XD did with the 10 inch speaker. I tried my favorite fuzz and od pedals and I got a bigger and more full sound with a lot more bass response than the XD would give. (For me, this means that I will use pedals with this amp more, on the XD, I would only really use a transparent drive through channel 1, and I hated the sound of my fuzz pedal though it.) So, already, this amp is more useful for me than the XD.

Channel 2
Channel 2 is the channel with 16 voices with separate volume and gain knobs.
This channel is very different from Channel 2 on the XD. The X2 models different amps than the XD which is important to note.
here is the list:
1 Tweed Champ
2 Tweed Deluxe clean
3 Tweed Deluxe dirty/compressed
4 tweed baseman
5 65 Princeton clean
6 65 Princeton clean dirty/compressed
7 65 deluxe
8 65 Twin Amp
9 60's British clean
10 60's British dirty/compressed
11 70's British
12 80's British
13 Super-sonic
14 90's Metal
15 2000 Metal
16 Jazzmaster

I'll comment on a few of these. (Hopefully I have them straight in my mind.)

The Tweed Champ through the 12 inch cab sounds quite a bit like the XD Champ tone to me, that honk is very present in this setting. This is a fun amp model for blues.

The tweed amps all sound good to me, but the Tweed Bassman sounds AMAZING to me. I will use this amp model a lot for heavier blues type stuff.

I'm pretty impressed with the Princeton tones, the dirty/compressed tone is funky in a really good way.

The 65 Deluxe is an amazing all purpose tone. I will use this tone for a lot of purposes and will probably delete a couple of other tones to make a clean Deluxe channel and a dirty one too. (I will do that with the Fuse software.)

I am actually most shocked with the British and High Gain sounds on this amp. Voice 10, is a really cool AC30 kind of tone.
The 70's British model sounds like a really cool bluesy british amp, and the 80's has a huge and full tone. Surprisingly huge.

The Supersonic sounds great, however I do wish that they gave me a couple of supersonic choices here. I'd love to have the Bassman type of Supersonic tone as well as the "Burn" channel. Tone 13 is based on the burn channel off of the supersonic amps.

90's Metal is not a cheap metal tone, it's heavy in all of the right ways for me. Mesa Boogie style.

The 2000 Metal voice is my least favorite on this amp. Just kind of a big wall of distortion. I'll probably never use it.

The Effects
The effects sound a TON better than they did on the XD. The addition of the tap tempo feature really enhanced the usability too.

TODAY, the 31st of Jan, Fender released the updated Fuse Software that supports the X2. If you know Fuse, you know what to do. I was kind of wishing that they might include a couple of other amp models that you could install that were not included in the amp, but what you have is what you get. You can put stomp boxes on the voices, and you can save whatever sounds you create straight to your amp so they are accessible among the 16 voices. I will move the sounds around a bit in order to customize my amp to me.


The ONLY Bummer's on this amp so far...
I can't imagine that in the redesign of this amp they didn't offer a Mid EQ knob. (When you use Fuse, you can adjust your Mid settings and save them to your amp. On each amp model in Fuse there is a actual Mid knob that appears. It just seems weird to me that there is not an actual knob on my actual amp. Of course, The XD didn't have one either.)
Some of the presets could use a little more headroom and less gain. The Supersonic voice on this amp is super cool, I just wish that I had a cleaner Supersonic tone too.


My Overall Assessment
It's a bigger, better sounding all-purpose amp than the XD. BUT, some of the XD super-fans are going to like their XD better because some of those channel voices are beloved. (I am guessing that through some deep editing, you could tune in some of those tones on the X2, there were a couple of the hot rod, and silverface tones on the XD that will always sound super cool.)

I am going to love this amp though. I play blues rock, hard rock, blues, classic and grunge, and I would purchase this head if it only had the 65 Deluxe voice and the Supersonic Voice, both of those are really great sounding on this amp.

I can't wait to get the cab that is built for it too, and I will update my review when it arrives.


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Post subject: Re: Fender SuperChamp X2 Head My Review after the First Day
Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 7:26 am
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Hobbyist
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Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:35 am
Posts: 95
Thanks for the good review. I just purchased a SuperChamp XD right before the X2 came out. When I saw that the new X2 came in a head/cab option I was a little bummed. While I love my SCXD, having a larger enclosure and 12" speaker would really be nice. Oh well, I guess with GAS we are never really satisfied.

Cheers!
Ryan


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Post subject: Re: Fender SuperChamp X2 Head My Review after the First Day
Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 4:41 pm
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Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:43 pm
Posts: 173
I have an XD myself. I really like the clean channel and a couple of settings on channel 2...ie: the fender ones. Not too bummed about hearing of a new Super Champ...I mean I only paid 200 bucks for mine and it looks like the new one is considerably more expensive.


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Post subject: Re: Fender SuperChamp X2 Head My Review after the First Day
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 7:24 am
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Roadie
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Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:09 pm
Posts: 253
Location: PA, USA
Thanks for the review. OK, so is it possible to add a reverb "stomp" to an amp on channel two, and then also have say "chorus/delay" as an "effect" on that same amp preset? I need to have the reverb and amp go together and not have reverb count as a separate effect. Thanks!

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Guitars: Fender A.D.E Strat - Schecter PT with Duncans - Martin OOOC16RGTE
PA Gear: Alesis MultiMix 10 Mixer - Carvin FX2 - EV ZLX12P Powered Speakers
Amps: Fender Mustang III v2 - Alto Kick 12
Effects: Line 6 M13


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Post subject: Re: Fender SuperChamp X2 Head My Review after the First Day
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:37 am
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2010 9:40 am
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Thanks for the review...

I'm looking to get an X2 head to match up with the cabinet I'm building... I'm leaning towards loading it with a Eminence Cannabis Rex... anyhow. It'll be interesting to see how the amp sounds running through a cabinet of this sort... I'll probably close the back up to keep the bass tighter.

One question about the x2's EQ...is it pretty flexible? I had a Frontman 65 and the EQ on that amp was garbage. I also have a Mustang III and really like the EQ on that amp.... very useable.

So from what I understand, I can load a reverb/delay/etc to an amp model just as with the MIII? And I can get rid of amp models and replace them with more of the same models that are stock on the X2? Like ditching the jazzmaster to have two supersonic settings?

Anyhow... thanks for taking the time to review. Here's the cab I'm working on. :)
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