Super Champ

[riverastoasters]

I just bought tga-3's Super Champ. Most fun little amp I've come across in a while. Seriously nice sound. I was around back when these first came out (but not playing guitar). Makes me wonder what the guitar players were thinking that Fender didn't clean up selling these.

The Super Champ has a really nice clean. Not miles of headroom obviously, but the breakup is real sweet and smooth.

The question of the Pubster/Clubster '25 comes up. And we do have a Clubster '25 but it's out on loan the past month or so. Going from memory, the Clubster '25 has a more classic clean and a little more in the feature department. But not a whole lot more. Different tone for sure though - and that surprised me a little since they're both Paul Rivera amps.

Between the two amps it seems to me it comes down to the tonal flavor. I like both, but if you want a smooth lead tone with a little grind pushing the Super Champ would seem to be the idea. I was frankly surprised at how much juice was in the Super Champ and at the popular conversational volume.

I didn't check the line out or run it through a 212 yet but this amp is a gas.

Fender should consider reissuing this, possibly with a slight update to the tube complement. Don't want to suck the world dry of 6C10s.

I'm going to A/B the Super Champ with some of the other similar amps around here but while I'm at it someone who lives nearby ought to visit tga-3 to help him find his lost marbles...

 

[tiltrite]

love my superchamp's clean channel. replaced the spkr with a rajun cajun and it made a huge improvement, too. To my ear I don't find the dirty channel to be very useful, tho'. Just not my kind of distortion. I hear there are mods for it that help smooth it out.

 

[tga-3]

Originally posted by riverastoasters
I just bought tga-3's Super Champ. Most fun little amp I've come across in a while. Seriously nice sound. I was around back when these first came out (but not playing guitar). Makes me wonder what the guitar players were thinking that Fender didn't clean up selling these.

The Super Champ has a really nice clean. Not miles of headroom obviously, but the breakup is real sweet and smooth.

The question of the Pubster/Clubster '25 comes up. And we do have a Clubster '25 but it's out on loan the past month or so. Going from memory, the Clubster '25 has a more classic clean and a little more in the feature department. But not a whole lot more. Different tone for sure though - and that surprised me a little since they're both Paul Rivera amps.

Between the two amps it seems to me it comes down to the tonal flavor. I like both, but if you want a smooth lead tone with a little grind pushing the Super Champ would seem to be the idea. I was frankly surprised at how much juice was in the Super Champ and at the popular conversational volume.

I didn't check the line out or run it through a 212 yet but this amp is a gas.

Fender should consider reissuing this, possibly with a slight update to the tube complement. Don't want to suck the world dry of 6C10s.

I'm going to A/B the Super Champ with some of the other similar amps around here but while I'm at it someone who lives nearby ought to visit tga-3 to help him find his lost marbles...

Glad it got there safely and you're enjoying it. Truly a great amp. As far as my marbles, my Demeter and Route 66 take care of my needs pretty well, and there's another Super Champ in the family, so I can dial up my brother when the desire/need arises.
Happy Trails,
Rick

 

[riverastoasters]

Originally posted by John Phillips
There is no amp I can think of today that combines the build quality, power, tone and portability of the Super Champ at anything like the price real ones sell for, and still people complain about them being overpriced!

I agree about the 6C10 being a problem

I honestly think the world has changed too - the Super Champ's Lead mode is not very modern-sounding, and I doubt it would be a huge selling point in its original state.

A cool amp for sure though... I must get mine back from the guy I lent it to a couple of years ago .

Yeah I was sort of surprised at how well built the Super Champ was. Not that surprised since Rivera was the driving force, but surprised that Fender did that.

The 6C10 will keep the Super Champ marginal though, but it's good news about the conversion possibility.

The world has changed, but Fender is doing things like reissuing the '57 Twin - not that modern sound either. I don't know what the economics of production are, but seems to me that if Rivera can sell those '25 amps at $700 then Fender can build an SC reissue down around there too. Yeah if you did handwired point-to-point then it would cost a lot more, but a good circuit board version should be do-able.

 

[riverastoasters]

Originally posted by tga-3
Glad it got there safely and you're enjoying it. Truly a great amp. As far as my marbles, my Demeter and Route 66 take care of my needs pretty well, and there's another Super Champ in the family, so I can dial up my brother when the desire/need arises./B]

Well if you have access to another one that's a different story. And obviously the Demeter is a desert island amp. I was listening to _Grant Street_ yesterday thinking about that high resonance stuff he does in "Congo Square".

But still, the Super Champ is way cooler than I expected.

 

[Deaj]

The Fender Super Champ is a smokin' little amp! I sold mine last year and, while I do miss it, it helped fund other gear that I'm making daily use of. If I go looking for another I'll most likely look for a Champ II as I never really used the 'second channel' or the reverb. Subtract them from the Super Champ aqnd you have the Champ II. I do miss showing up at a jam with that tiny little amp and then blowin' doors with it. That was fun!

 

[Deaj]

Originally posted by Deaj
The Fender Super Champ is a smokin' little amp! I sold mine last year and, while I do miss it, it helped fund other gear that I'm making daily use of. If I go looking for another I'll most likely look for a Champ II as I never really used the 'second channel' or the reverb. Subtract them from the Super Champ aqnd you have the Champ II. I do miss showing up at a jam with that tiny little amp and then blowin' doors with it. That was fun!

I played my Super Champ for more than ten years. It was the go-to amp for daily playing at home and as a grab-n-go. I eventually sold off all of my amps except the SC and remained happy with it for years. As I became more actively involved in music projects again I had need of an amp with more clean headroom and more flexibility. Because of my overwealming satisfaction with the Super Champ my attention was drawn to the Rivera amps and eventually to my now much beloved Rivera Jake.
Lotsa love here for the Super Champ!! Enjoy!

 

[Cheebatone]

Excuse my ignorance, but what did the 6C10 do?

 

[riverastoasters]

Originally posted by Cheebatone
Excuse my ignorance, but what did the 6C10 do?

The 6C10 is a triple triode, so it's like one and a half 12AX7s.

In the Super Champ, it provides the phase splitter, reverb recovery, and a gain stage.

 

[drbob1]

The Superchamp and Princeton Reverb II (my preference because of the mids knob and the 12" speaker) are both killer amps. The Deluxe Reverb II and on up just aren't in the same league to my ears. One of the coolest things about them is that they actually have 4 sounds! If you pull/don't pull the channel switching knob, it actually changes the sound you get with the footswitch. My favorite is all the knobs wide open, pull channel pushed in and footswitch clicked on the gain channel. This gives a moderate gain sound with killer sustain and harmonics. One of the few amps that'll hold a note on almost any string up at the 12th fret and gradually transition into the octave...

 

[bendix]

I have had a Super Champ for many years and up until recently it was my main amp for a church gig that I have been doing for about 9 years. We did a concert at the church where we got to cut loose and I thought I might have to borrow something bigger, but it really held its own, and then some, with the rest of the band. (about a 350 to 400 seat venue) Those 6v6s can sound really, really sweet when pushed. I don't have the footswitch so it was a little impractical to use the lead feature in a live situation. But in general, I find I almost always have the mid boost pulled to balance out the treble somewhat. It is a very cool little amp. Of late, it has been sounding thin and the bass doesn't seem as full, so it may need some cap work to get it back to normal. Has anyone compared them against the Pubster 25? The Rivera site says they are the update of the SC.

Tim

 

[riffmeister]

what's under the hood of a Super Champ? single ended 6V6?

 

[flatfinger]

I liked superchamps "breakfast in america".......


Dreama , you know you are a dreama!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[BPlexico]

Originally posted by riffmeister
what's under the hood of a Super Champ? single ended 6V6?

(2) 6V6

(1) 7025

(1) 6C10

(1) 12 AT7

Solid State rectifier...

18 watts.

-- Barr

 

[riverastoasters]

Originally posted by bendix
Has anyone compared them against the Pubster 25? The Rivera site says they are the update of the SC.

I have a Clubster '25 as well as Pubster '45 along with the Super Champ. I think the Clubster '25 is definitely related to the Super Champ.

Sounds like to me that Clubster '25 has a cleaner clean and a gainier gain than the Super Champ, which sort of covers the middle.

The Clubster '25 clean is a full on Rivera style clean. I'm not that surprised. The drive on the Clubster '25 has a good deal of gain - it sounds a lot like recent Rivera drive channels except in the little cab of the Clubster '25 it sounds kind of small. Clubster '25 gain side might have too much gain for it's own good. It's an opaque kind of drive.

The Super Champ on the other hand has a thicker, less "blackface" clean. It is real nice and smooth though. This depends on whether you pull the treble knob which says "pull for mid". The lead effect (added gain) on the Super Champ is not as much gain as the Clubster '25. But it is a really nice smooth edge that gets a bit of grind. Not a ton of gain but a very agreeable tone with a bit of structure.

I can think of reasons to prefer either amp. The Clubster '25 covers a wider range of sound, the Super Champ has some sweet variations on a narrower theme. The Clubster '25 is louder.

I haven't messed with Pubster '25. We have Pubster '45 instead. The EL34s make a pretty big difference.

 

[Lamont]

Have had a few of these and still have the runt of the bunch and as the story goes from a main guy at Fender ,the super champ cost MORE money to build then they could sell them for (or then the market would bear).truly one of the Best amps of all time and still one of the best bargins out there.Rumore has it that the band Ratt recorded w/ a SC through a 4/12 Marshall cab ---HUGE SOUND.Ce dist has the 6c10 tubes --stock up!!
Rivera was a mainstay in my town of San Diego for yrs. and he is brilliant,too bad he put too many master vol mods in the frt of blackface amps at the time,but who would have known that they would be worth sumpin just like $125 60s strats and teles.