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Post subject: My Thoughts on the Super Champ X2 Stack after 5 months
Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 2:29 pm
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Location: Marysville, WA
I purchased my SuperChamp X2 head and matching 1x12 cabinet at the end of January, and after playing with it for almost 5 months, I have some further thoughts about it.

Let me first of all say that I really love this amp. I am getting the best guitar tones that I have ever gotten from this. I am pretty surprised that Fender is not marketing these with more fervor. $300 for a 2 channel combo with the great champ tone + 16 digital channels with endless possibilities. That deal is unreal. Not to mention the stack, which I own being awesome as well.

1x12 vs the 10 inch combo
A few people have asked if I would advise them to buy the stack or the combo. I have played both and my thoughts are that if you play a lot with the voices that have more gain, (ie the Marshall tones or the modern rock stuff) you would probably benefit from having the ability to attach the 1x12 or another larger external cab. The 10 inch lacks some of the low end and presence on the louder gain stuff. However, some of the tweed tones sound really cool through the smaller speaker. It kind of gets that tele "honk" a little better than the 12 inch cab.
Also the Champ clean channel sounds amazing with both options but it sounds more like a champ through the smaller speaker. The clean channel takes pedals really well too. My OCD into the stack might be one of the best straight forward rock tones that I have ever produced through any amp that I have owned.

Now that I have Used the Fender Fuse to Tweak My Tones
After tweaking my tones through the Fender Fuse software for the past few months I can also say that this amp has a pretty endless array of tonal possibilities. I have had a lot of fun matching the different amps with different modeled cabs. The modeled cabs make a big difference. I am a King's X fan and over the years have tried to match some of Ty Tabor's tones. I can not believe that after tweaking it around a few times I have found a great tone that sounds much like his recorded tone on the Dogman CD as well as a tone that matches some of his tones from earlier cd's. I was playing my dogman cd next to my amp while a friend (who is a much better guitarist than I) walked by my office, his first comment was: "holy cow. howd you get your guitar to sound exactly like the recording?" He walked in and paused the recording to listen to them right next to each other. I was so excited that he thought they were so alike.

I love the fact that I can re-program all 16 digital voices and pick and choose which I want and in which order. The fact that all 16 voices are my creations with my own titles on them is really cool to me.

Who is This Amp For?
I personally think that this amp will perfectly appeal to people who like to have a really great tone for recording and practicing, tweaking and learning. I'm not sure that I see a lot of gigging musicians choosing to use this amp live. Not because you can't get great tones, but your 16 voices are only changeable on the actual amp itself, not through a pedal. You can switch between your channel 1 tone with your pedals and one of your digital voices, but if you are one of those guys who likes to really hop between tones during a song or performance, you might find it a tad cumbersome. I also assume that performers who play the heavier and gainier stuff are probably getting bigger amps with more wattage. (although one of my pet peeves are all of the guitarists with huge high wattage stacks in smaller clubs and shows with small crowds. most of these guys would be better served by taking an amp like this and putting a mic on it. they would get better balance with the vocals that the soundman can control himself.) Taking the X2 combo to a blues jam is a pretty perfect application from this amp and you will wow people with some of the tones that you can generate.

Drawbacks
There are only a few drawbacks to this amp. The number 1 drawback though is the lack of a Mid knob. The complaint of the XD combo was the lack of the mid knob. Of course when you plug in the Fuse, they give you a mid knob in the Fuse software. So as long as you don't have the need to adjust the mids when you are not connected to the computer you'll be fine.

Also, this amp seems to be begging for a footswitch with more features. It would be great to be able to switch voices with a pedal. Right now with a 2 button switch you can switch between the Non Digital Champ tone and the Digital Channel where all of your 16 voices live.

Part of me wonders if Fender has only put this amp out in an early limited distribution to determine if there is a market for it. I kind of wonder if we will see some sort of Mustang Valve amp that combines the Mustang Interface along with the Tube power. (btw, the digital tones in channel 2 are all using the same 'processing' brain as the Mustang Amps.) It will be interesting to see where the future goes. Perhaps there will be a whole line of Hybrid amps and combos.

All I know right now is that I am totally satisfied with the tones that I am getting and the fun that I am having with this stack. I have kept a few of my favorite pedals to run through Channel 1 (the Fulltone OCD and Zvex Fuzz Factory) they sound great through the Champ. I also have 16 really great voices all of which I have tweaked at least a little, they span from gorgeous fender cleans, to twangy blues, heavy blues, classic rock, and hard rock.

I'm having a blast with this amp and would love to see it distributed more and marketed with some energy.


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Post subject: Re: My Thoughts on the Super Champ X2 Stack after 5 months
Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:39 am
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very cool paztormike. it's nice that you have an amp you really like. 8)


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Post subject: Re: My Thoughts on the Super Champ X2 Stack after 5 months
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 10:53 am
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I'm thinking about buying the combo.
But a quick question- if you plug an X2 in to Fender Fuse, can you modify the 16 preset "Voices"? And if so, is there any way to save them, so that you can use them after you disconnect the amp from your PC?
Just wondering, because I can't seem to find a direct answer anywhere, and it seems as though I cannot find a salesman who can answer my question.
Thanks!


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Post subject: Re: My Thoughts on the Super Champ X2 Stack after 5 months
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 1:16 pm
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Location: Marysville, WA
RevRaftboy wrote:
I'm thinking about buying the combo.
But a quick question- if you plug an X2 in to Fender Fuse, can you modify the 16 preset "Voices"? And if so, is there any way to save them, so that you can use them after you disconnect the amp from your PC?
Just wondering, because I can't seem to find a direct answer anywhere, and it seems as though I cannot find a salesman who can answer my question.
Thanks!

Yes and Yes.

When you plug into Fuse, you can edit any of those voices to your hearts content. If you don't like one of the voices you can save one that you like over the top of it. You can overwrite any of the voices to make all 16 of the voices custom for you. On my X2, I overwrote a few voices and then used the Supersonic amp as a basis for 4 or 5 of my custom voices. Some of those voices have different pedals that I have placed in front of them and different emulated speaker cabinets.

Once you save the tone to your amp, you can unplug and still have all of your custom voices saved in the order that you want them.

The possibilities are pretty limitless. it is really cool to feel like all 16 of those voices are your custom personal created voices. When you flip it on, you can be totally assured that you are playing your own one of a kind amp.


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Post subject: Re: My Thoughts on the Super Champ X2 Stack after 5 months
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 1:29 pm
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Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2012 10:45 am
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Freakin' awesome!!!! (And thanks for the quick response!)
I had a Vox VT20+, but got rid of it because it sounded too thin. I'm now using an Epiphone Valve Jr, but I'm tired of lugging around a pedal board, and not being able to achieve the exact sound that I've been looking for.
At any rate, thanks again for your input!


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Post subject: Re: My Thoughts on the Super Champ X2 Stack after 5 months
Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:30 am
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I'm glad that I could be helpful.


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Post subject: Re: My Thoughts on the Super Champ X2 Stack after 5 months
Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 12:20 pm
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Glad to know those are good amps! I have an XD that I got for a steal! It's a very nice amp as well... I sure would have liked to have the editing capability that the new one does tho! I expect the onboard effects are much better than the XD's too!


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