Superchamp XD: Anyone else have one?

[ohmslaw]

I picked up one of these about six months ago because I'd had the original eighties version and loved it. It's not the same amp by any means but it sounded good in the store and I like the idea of the tube design.

I was pretty impressed at first; putting it through a Hot Plate got some real nice power tube breakup and the amp modeling is very good. But after a while I realized I just wasn't getting the tone I wanted. Compared to a real tube amp with no input processing, it felt a little "dead". My ears were telling me it sounded good, but the way it was responding to my fingers didn't jibe with what I was hearing. Wierd thing but true.

I pulled it out of the corner of the room and figured I'd give it another chance as I wanted to work on some real serious metal tones and these are done so well with solid state help on the front end. I tried it, it sounded pretty good through a Marshall 212 cabinet loaded with Celestion Greenbacks (I compared it to the Rebel 20 and Supersonic with max overdrive as well as the Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde through the clean setting on the Rebel 20) but it still wasn't quite there. I figured, I'll try one last thing and I went ahead and put all new tubes in it (a matched pair of JJ 6V6S's and a JJ ECC83) and set the bias point per the factor specs.

The results were amazing. The thing just flat sings now. The harmonic content of the distortion is excellent. I won't use for too much other than very serious levels of overdrive, that metal "chunk and crunch", but the thing just rocks. It has built-in compression, voicing, and noise gates for the heavily overdriven channels so it's really quiet even with these voicings which is also a huge plus since I don't have to use pedals or external processors. It's got excellent tweed and blackface voicings as well as overdriven versions of several amps.

I would rather play through a pure tube amp without the voicing and whatnot for most stuff but this Superchamp XD is worth every penny when you're trying to find that one unusual sound, or if you just want to plug in and practice.

Anyone else have one of these?

[teleman1]

So you were not a student or beleiver in tube upgrades until now? Try a Mullard 12ax7 in the v1 slot, wear diapers when you plug it in and try it.

[ohmslaw]

So you were not a student or beleiver in tube upgrades until now? Try a Mullard 12ax7 in the v1 slot, wear diapers when you plug it in and try it.

It really wasn't a big deal back when I was playing music as a profession. Most players I knew were too busy gigging to worry about using designer tubes. In fact I never heard of a designer amp until I started playing again five years ago. It's a whole new world out there of boutique amps and tubes and pedals and to be honest, the playing is no better than it was in 1970. When I listen to Hendrix, Fogerty, Gilmour, Buckingham, or Campbell, they didn't have boutique amps and I seriously doubt whether any of them bothered to check what kind of tubes were in their amp. Also all of the tubes we were using back then were very high quality, made in USA stuff; there was no NOS...we were using NOS before it became NOS! And the amps were made either in the USA or Great Britain. Frankly I get one heck of a chuckle out of what people are paying for some of this stuff. Tubes make a difference, of course, but the main reason we see so much variation is because so many of the tubes now are just plain crap, made in China or Russia to the lowest possible price point. That did not exist when I was a pro.

What do I use now? Svetlana power tubes for the 6L6GC and JJ 6V6S. JJ makes a pretty darn good preamp tube, the ECC83's and 803's are real nice. Neither is as good as what came in my Marshall and Fender amps when they were new in 1982 but they are quite good. I'll be dipped if I am going to spend a fortune on tubes or on a boutique amp. But hey, that's just me.

[teleman1]

Ohmslaw,

Come one mow. All those amps back then didn't use JJ's or any other modern tube. They were all Mullard, Telefunken, RCA, Sylvania, Amperex, Brimar, etc. They were all NOS. People didn't shop for the best cause they already had the best. Most all of modern day tubes pale in comparison. The Superchamp xd is no boutique, but sure gets some boutique voices. All I am saying is I have seen and heard the difference in amps, a number of them. My friend has a Peavey Classic 30, he never stops thanking me for the suggestion.

[ohmslaw]

Ohmslaw,

Come one mow. All those amps back then didn't use JJ's or any other modern tube. They were all Mullard, Telefunken, RCA, Sylvania, Amperex, Brimar, etc. They were all NOS. People didn't shop for the best cause they already had the best. Most all of modern day tubes pale in comparison. The Superchamp xd is no boutique, but sure gets some boutique voices. All I am saying is I have seen and heard the difference in amps, a number of them. My friend has a Peavey Classic 30, he never stops thanking me for the suggestion.

That's what I'm saying...when I bought an amp in 1970, or 1975, or 1982, or whenever, it already had the good stuff in it. These amps sounded great right out of the box. I played through these amps for years so I know what a great amp should sound like. What I refuse to do is to pay a fortune for a "NOS" tube to try to recapture that sound. I still consider myself a working musician and that sort of expense is more for a collector or audiophile, and you aren't going to find many collectors or audiophiles playing for their supper.

The amps I used as workhorses back in the day were point-to-point wired with excellent components and sounded terrific. Those amps are now worth at least four times what I paid for them if you could find one. The amps I'm using now all have PC boards, some have digital or solid-state processing, and none are of the "boutique" category. When I get the sound I'm looking for, I quit while I'm ahead. No doubt NOS tubes sound very good; as I said, I grew up on them so I think I know; my first amp, 1970, was an Ampeg 112 combo with reverb and tremolo, and the sound is imprinted in my brain. Fat, sweet, round.

Problem is, if you put the NOS tubes into a modern, PCB-constructed amp with modern capacitors and tone circuitry, it is not going to have the same effect as when that tube was used in an amp for which it was designed. And even if you have a vintage amp, those original capacitors and other components have aged and it just will not sound like it did when new.

Tubes are a part of the puzzle but just slapping a NOS tube in a new Peavey, Fender, Egnater, or whatever amp is not going to get you that vintage sound.:BEER

[teleman1]

Come one mow- So Ohms, what did I mean by that???? I had meant Come on now!!HA

I hear what you are saying Ohm. But my friend is a designer engineer at Fender. He did the PRRI. I had the prototype to check against my SFPR, The tone was very vintage, just more of a blackface throatier sound. PC's are very close now.
And you are corect, tubes are wildly expensive. But I hunt for used stuff and a Mullard pull for $25-$35 is worth it. BUt I get them used and they still sound phenominal.

[ohmslaw]

Come one mow- So Ohms, what did I mean by that???? I had meant Come on now!!HA

I hear what you are saying Ohm. But my friend is a designer engineer at Fender. He did the PRRI. I had the prototype to check against my SFPR, The tone was very vintage, just more of a blackface throatier sound. PC's are very close now.
And you are corect, tubes are wildly expensive. But I hunt for used stuff and a Mullard pull for $25-$35 is worth it. BUt I get them used and they still sound phenominal.

If you can find the good stuff for that kind of price it is well worth it. I think 20-30 bucks per tube is about as high as I'm willing to go. I find the JJ and Svetlana are in that range, they sound very good with the new amps, and I can get a good setup which is then repeatable by sticking with those brands. Problem with NOS is that you don't ever have a reliable supply, and changing tube types can wreck your whole tone setup. It's the outrageous "collector" prices that I'm seeing that have my jaw on the floor!:BEER

[BPSUL]

Im just glad eurotubes and JJ's exist because for players like me who have extremely limited funds I still fee like I can put good enough glass in my amp.

Of course, If I was rich I would do the nos stuff. But im not rich, so God Bless euro/JJ.