Fender Super Champ XD A forgotten Classic?
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- Опубликовано: 6 янв 2023
- Fender Super Champ XD A forgotten Classic?
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I had to look after this amplifier recently so thought I would do a quick review of it. Now I assumed that it was fairly new, and it wasn't until AFTER I did the review that I learned that it was made between 2007 - 2011. So this is very much a Demo / Review with fresh ears.
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The secret of this amp, for the Fender voices #1 to #6, is to dime the volume and adjust loudness with the gain knob. THAT is where it shines with the tubes cooking. Similar for #6 (Vox) and #7 (Marshall).
I have one at the studio that is permanently plugged into a 2X10" cab. Another lives at the summer cottage 1200km away and is housed in a custom made cabinet for a 12".
If you can, look into biasing it, Fender suggests 40mvDC and it is usually biased colder than that. I've heard of some that were 23mvDC. I now also have a X2 that was badly glitching. Looked at the bias and it was at 46mvDC. Brought it back down and it now plays like a dream. Different voices on that one. I like the XD way more.
XD is much better than X2. Agree with you.
40mA the right idling current if you want to get nice sounds even at full maximum power up to 15 watts, but 30 or even 20mA is alright to extend the life of the 6v6 pair of tubes, if you never go over 10 or 5w of audio power.
Got one. Will never let it go.
This amplifier is so good that second hand cannot be too expensive, even if we have to pay as much as new in 2007 which was around 250 to 300 euros. I've got two of them and I will never sell any of them unless someone will offer some crazy big money. I bought one second hand a few years ago fir around 200. I bought my first one new the year they came our, because I immediately fell in love with it.
All sounds were great when I tested them at home, not only jjust the couple of sounds when I heard them at the store.
Size, weight, volume, features like the line output at the rear, price, and very specially the great sounds, make this amplifier irresistible. Defenetly a keeper, so I decided to get another one for a second guitar, to play stereo with a single guitar, or for the summer location.
Totally agree! Definitely a keeper!
I never knew it had vibrato with reverb. Gonna have to check out that setting. Completely missed. Great demo and nice playing.
Voice 1 is Fender Champ. 2 is Fender Bassman. 3 is an overdriven Fender Tweed amp. 4-6 are Vintage Fender Black Face. 7-9 Vintage British amps (sound like Vox AC30 and Marshall). 10-12 are Hi-Gain (Fender Hot Rod, Marshall). 13-14 are Super Hi-Gain (Fender Metal Head, Soldano). 15 is based on a Jazz Amp (Fender Jazz King). 16 is purely for clean tones (Fender Acoustasonic).
I mainly just use the first 6 voices (great for old school Rock n Roll and Blues). Channel 1 takes pedals really well and sounds awesome. Onboard FX are really usable - instant Mac Demarco guitar sound. 😂 Does a pretty tasty Nirvana impersonation too with the Chorus and Vibrato/Rotary settings.
It’s a great little amp. My Strat, Casino and especially my 1961 Fenton Weill/Burns Dallas all sound fantastic through it, even at low volume. Cost me about £150 in mint condition off Guntree a few years ago. See a decent one around that price then......buy it!!!
Excellent review of yours! Voice number 4 through channel two is equal to channel one with the option of adding more or less gain than the fixed gain set in channel one.
It's worth much more than those 150 bucks you paid. I would pay more than twice as much if it weren't for the fact that I already have two units of great sc xd, one for my Stratocaster and the other ine for the acoustic guitar.
@@josemariatrueba4568 150 pounds which is a little more but still a good deal. I wonder what I could get for mine? Mint condition from Sweetwater that came with a Celestion G10 speaker.
@@teleguy5699 You can get more than 150, but you better think about it twice. SCXD is a keeper!
@@josemariatrueba4568 For sure. Not even thinking about selling it now 👍
The XD is a fantastic amp. I've had one for 10+ years and love it. I also have an X2 but like the XD much better.
Hello. I’m considering which one I should buy. Can you tell me why you like XD rather than X2?
@@NBTB461voices and effects are better on xd model.
Looks like they sampled other brands sounds andhad to replace xd with x2 for legal reasons.
Can you tell me how much this amp weighs?
@@guestguide2544 11 kilos
This amplifier is defenetly a tour over the best voices of amplifiers and speakers of the history. The effects divided into 5 groups are a good example of the most used effects. Starting with Delay, Reverb and Chorus, each effect has various variants with the famous Spring Reverb included, including all three combinations taking two effects at the time, Rev plus Delay, Chorus plus Delay and Chorus plus Reverb. Next comes several Vibrato (emulation of a rotary speaker) and tremolo effects, completing the 16 positions in 5 groups.
It seems to me that Fender had to replace this amplifier with the user configurable X2, because some of the sounds found on XD belonged to what Vox, Plexy, Marshall and Mesa Boogie had been developing for many years.
Most Fender famous sounds are ready to be used of course, including Junior, Baseman, Hotrod, Acoustasonic at position 16th and Jazzking at 15th.
Those 16 voices by variable 16 effects make 256 combinations that can develop the sounds of most famous amplifiers in the world with unlimited different sounds.
It's a great little amplifier with only 15w into a 10 inch speaker but prividing an line out connector, and speaker connector easily compatible with a 2x12 ot 4x12 cabinet.
15 watts is plenty of power for most occasions thanks to the unique tube type punch.
I bought it new with the optional pedal switch around 2008 and 10 years later I got another one, after looking for a second hand unit because I didn't like the new X2 version of this amplifier.
One is used with my Stratocaster using the clean channel, spring reverb and just one of the distortion voices, and the other one with my Tanglewood acoustic guitar using just voice 16 and some amount of Chorus plus Delay effect.
I was torn between the x2 and a Pro-junior(which I already had in the 90s) I got the SuperChampx2 and ripped out the speaker and replaced it with a Jensen P10R, ecc81 instead of ecc83(not planned, just experimenting) which made it sound bigger for some reason and warmer. It is now 5 years later and still it manages to surprise other musicians who insist on dragging Bigger boxs to work. Prop it on a chair or amp stand. I can't see me parting with it, the built in FX are excellent and the amp presets can be tweeked . Easy lug about and even has line out for PA or recording DI. A happy ending to an impulse purchase. I just wanted a small combo like a Princeton for 500 bucks or less. I had'nt bought a new amp since 2002(Orange ad1510) so was out of touch with the new stuff...all I knew was that it had 2 6v6s and a ecc83. Nice viddy , I think these are going to get harder to find than they ready are.
Love mine. It’s in the living room and gets more play time than my Princeton,Deluxe etc that’s in the studio. I don’t need pedals for this amp and it’s great. I use 7 voice for Marshall and it cleans up so nice with just the volume on the guitar. I also use either delay or reverb and it’s awesome that it has an effect level. Can really dial just about anything from warm JAZZ,Country to Metal and foot switch is essential.
Yhank you so much for such a great review. You have sold me on buying this amp. Great job.
Great video. This little beast is now totally on my radar!
I've had one since 2009 or 2010. At first I had one in a custom chassis to make it a head-only amp that I wish I kept, but back in 2011-2012 I was pairing down gear and sold it and got the standard cab. Did some speaker swaps (ragin cajun, and something else I forget) but eventually went back to stock since that retained the sparkle better at low volumes compared to the two i tried, may try another swap in the future. Its been my only amp for nearly a decade now and am happy with it, though definitely eyeing others lately as I get out of my gear slump, just hard to justify since I don't gig or play in a band these days.
This is a very satisfying amplifier
Your damn right , the super champ xd and x2 are absolutely epic amps. I was blown away by the sound when I first played one.
Great video, and thanks for telling me things I didn’t know about my amp!
Haha glad you liked it :)
I had the smaller brother the Vibro Champ XD some 20 years ago. I've never found any amp since where a Strat sounded so good and was so well matched. Unfortunately there was a tube rattle or resonance I simply could not resolve so I foolishly sold it
They are excellent amps but unfortunately discontinued. A Fender rep told my local music store that while they still were selling well they could not continue to produce them without a substantial price increase. They left the lineup about the time the new Vibro Champ Reverb was added. Still some great buys on the used market. The head version tends to sell for a little more than the combo. Excellent playing and great tone.
My first and only amp, so far. But this thing does so much from an inexpensive little box
These are very useful amps. I’ve gotten a ton of use out of my Super Champ X2. It’s perfect for rehearsals and small gig situations. I use the clean channel with my pedals, and the American voices-especially the 59 Bassman at #4 and deluxe reverb at #7.
The only negative to these amps is that the digital effects boards eventually stop working and replacements are no longer being manufactured, making this amp non repairable. Fortunately, there are still plenty of XD’s and X2’s in the wild for now that can be bought fairly cheaply at $250-$500 as of Jan 2023.
I have two SCX2. The DSP board does not always "go bad". Simply un-seat the board and re-seat it into the mother board. I have a PC that needs the ram re-seated from time when it fails to boot.
I already threw mine in a swamp
Not sure about the X2 but with the XD, the poweramp section is, at least, totally salvageable. You can hook up a poweramp input into it fairly easily and you can just use an external preamp. Fortunately, there are literally hundreds of good preamp options these days, both analog and digital.
I've got two XD units for 15 years, both biased to 40mA and one of them modified with a stand by switch, and have never replaced tubes yet. Never failed.
@@josemariatrueba4568 I’ve never replaced the tubes in my unit either and it’s been in service a comparable number of years. I think they’re solid amps, and I’ve gotten a ton of use out of mine.
This video helped me decide to buy this amp and its such a little beast. one of my most instantly satisfying purchases. i have a fender champion 100 solid state and the difference between that and the SCx2 is insane. Even despite not being a full tube amp, it was night and day. SC sounds like a crystal clear fender tube amp. Major step up. It takes pedals amazingly. Each pickup position on my guitar has so much more character and definition. the split coil tones are so strat like, im having a freakin blast playing those classic fender tones. its just so satisfying. this amp, at this price, is by far the most impressive amp ive played. it just has no business sounding so good, hence fenders decision to discontinue and redirect people to the Mustang which is nowhere near as impressive.
SCxd or X2 give you amazing fender tube tones, decent volume, decent fx, software for deep editing tones (still available)
and the major kicker is the amazing line out which sends a flawless signal to your pa or recording interface.
theres a video that demonstrates the sound quality of the line out and its indistinguishable from the sound quality of being fully mic'd with a high quality microphone. The tones sound amazing, it connects through usb or line out. that video also helped me pull the trigger. and now i have the opposite of buyers remorse. i couldn't be more stoked. snatch these up while you can! i cant imagine any other amp in its range with more to offer.
The way it reacts to gain and cleans up when you turn down the guitars volume knob is perfect. The sounds on channel 2 were a pleasant surprise. Didnt expect much from all the digital amp modeling stuff but its just as usable and pleasent as the clean channel 1. some sound absolutely steller. Tell me an amp that delivers more than this and ill buy you a pizza.
Thanks
Your comments makes me wanna try this amp
I'm semi beginner and i love the blues
But all that you said are happened either with single coils or hums?
I mean this amp pairs better with a strat tele? Or with a humbucker guitar?
Or an amp ir good whatever guitar?
Sorry
@@dimitris70 I have this amp for 12 years amongst a few others...lt is my absolute favorite!!! You re just starting out makes this amp even more ideal. It gives you all different elements of sound/ effects to explore with the flick of the switch and not having to purchase pedals etc..... As for your ax/ coils/ humbuckers, the amp is going to do what its built do no matter your stick. If you can find one, get it and have fun!!!You won't regret it!!!😎
I put a Lorantz 75w PA speaker in mine. The change in character was phenomenal. It now has vastly more bass and such a warm tone. The speaker was about 3x the weight of the original.
Love my SC X2. The amp models make it very versatile and the tube warmth beats tones from my Helix. Like your tweed version!
Nb it's not my amp wish It was haha
@@MatthewNorthMusicXD sounds are much better than X2, imho.
There's a N.O.S. one sittint at tje guitar shop in my small town. I completely wrote it off while browing the other day. But decided to look up a review of it. After watching this, I'm definitely stopping on my way home to give it a try!
Great video, and a great amp! Just a note: the amp you are using in the video appears to be a re-housed 12" mod. This was a common adaptation about 10 years ago; premade 12" amp housing kits could be found on ebay, etc. The original had standard black tolex and a custom designed 10" speaker. It is fine in that configuration, but the 12" speaker really makes it shine, imho.
The original comes with a Fender branded speaker. If you look closely at the speaker he shows it’s a Jensen Special design. If it’s a 12” could be in the P series. Maybe a P12Q? That would definitely be an upgrade. Speaker cost about as much as a used amp.
I’d like to find one of those kits! I guess everyone loves their modified XD’s because you can’t find one. Even going back on Reverb sold History.
Voicings 1, 4, 8 and 16 are my favs
I have the Sweetwater modified one with the Celestion G10 speaker . I haven't used it much. After this demo, I should start.
awesone review! Man I would love someone to EQ this against a Cybertwin SE of the same vintage?
The only Fender amp models that I had ever bcught NEW like a 1977 Princeton Amp with 2 10" speakers and two Super Champ XD's with one 10" speaker they all suffered from the crapy quality stock speakers that sucked if you cranked up the amp. The amps are good, but the speakers truly sucked. If you want your amp to sound like 10 times better then check this out : The X2 is about the same amp as the Super Champ XD, but with the added USB option so you can actually downloand and store other voicings of one's choice off the web from Fender. One problem withe XD and the X2 is that the stock speakers only sound decent at low volumes to to being very cheap wimpy speakers. I finally found out that better quality 10" speakers can indeed make this amp actually sound SUPER at not only high volume, but all across the sound spectrum. Now at a nominal cost my 2 Fender Super Champ XD's sound like $1000 amps. I have 2 Super Champ XD amps. Great amps except for the wimpy 10" speaker that they come with so that Fender can cut costs, but at the expense of not producing a truly quality product. I also had picked up a used Fender Bassman 25 amp for $60 some time back. So the speaker in that Fender Bassman 25 amp had great lows and highs. So I removed it and replaced the Fender Super Champ XD speaker with the Fender Bassman 25 amps speaker which has a much larger magnet. It made a world of difference and now the amp is truly SUPER even when dimed. Next I will replace my other Super Champ XD with a Hartke Aluminum Cone 10" speaker from a Hartke 210 cab I have. Will move the other 10" in the cab to the Fender Bassman 25 Amp. The Hartke speakers turned out to be 16 ohm each. I had read that using a 16 ohm speaker instead of the 8 ohm ones would make the amp run cooler, but that the speaker would have less volume by about 3db. WRONG !!!. It acutally produces more volume than the identcal amp with the 8 ohm speaker installed. If you want a great amp upgrade your Super Champs speaker. You won't regret it.
A 16 ohm speaker is alright for any tube amplifier. In fact Fender scxd manual says so.
It's better to have a load that is higher than lower then the output impedance but really the speaker should be the correct impedance for the output transformer concerned.
@@MatthewNorthMusic of course the right impedance is the best way to transfer full power from the tubes. Maybe the output transformer was designed to match not exactly 8 but 10 or 12 ohms, since the high impedance goes up from the tubes at those very high DC voltage of almost 500 volts when unit is plugged at my home, where mains are a little over 230 ac volts.
I love mine.
Me too, voice 7,,gain5 vol 5, treble 51/2, bass 3, spring reverb effect. I actually hooked up the Fuze software to add a compressor as a clean boost and adjust the mid. New Jensen p10r and it sounds better for recording than a deluxe 1x12 combo I also use. I put 2 pieces of 2x4 wooden beams as feet to raise it and make it more robust, like they did on the old Orange combos, this also makes it resonate better with wooden floors etc. What a corker!
@@giulioluzzardi7632 I've thought about a Jensen but the stock speaker sounds pretty awesome.
Just setting people's expectations here: The typical Super Champ XD stock 10" speaker are OK but they won't sound as nice in the room as this example's 12" Jensen. Sending the speaker out to a nice cab really opens up the possibilities. In particular, the metal-oriented voices sound much more legit through a closed cab with v30s.
Yep I play mine through a 2X10" cab. Another world opens up.
Oh yes the speaker is 80% of everything you hear.
@@MatthewNorthMusic Of course different speakers change the sounds we hear, but the stock speaker is probably one of the best ways to be able to get good sounds from those 16 voices annd 16 effects. Bigger speaker systems would increase the sound pressure as much as 10dB or 16dB into the pointing direction, sounding like if we had an amplifier 10 to 40 times more powerful of 150 to 600 watts instead of 15, but we will need a bunch of quite different 4x12 cabinets for different music styles.
Stock speakers are alright until you start needing more sound pressure.
V30 are very efficient speakers, that's their main advantage. I guess that this 10 inch stock speaker SPL may be 84dB at most while 12 inch V30 might be 100dB or 4 times more efficient, resulting like the 15 watt amplifier sound pressure would sound as loud as 60 watt with the 10 inch speaker. Apart from sound efficiency different speakers are better for certain types of music at the expense of sounding worse for other music styles.
@@josemariatrueba4568Yes, I put a Jenson C10Q into a Vox modelling Amp, ironically to improve the 'Fender' voices! It did help...but made most of the other amp voices worse. I then bought an additional SCXD, and at one point patched it's output to the Jensen speaker. That did no favours, I preferred the stock (Fender Special Design) speaker for a pristine clean Fender tone. Sometimes, the stock speaker is best suited for the variety of tones expected of the amp. Individual speakers do vary, I have a second SCXD, it's speaker is a little brighter/harsher, maybe because it had not played in enough.
Would love to see a comparison video between this and the newer Champion 50XL. The control/effects layout is identical, which will provide as clear a tube-vs-solid state comparison as we'll ever get. I have the X2 which I love, but Fender discontinued in favor of the solid state 50XL. Good or bad, I don't know.
I love this amp… any advice on how to keep it going… the comment about “rare” parts scared the carp outta me.
It’s been an absolute wonderful “at home” amp for me.
I have two of them. They get played with high volume all the time and after 6 years, they still perform.
I’ve seen mods online to bypass/disable the digital components turning it all tube exclusively as an option for DSP’s that have gone bad. No idea how difficult to do this would be though.
Paid $220 for one used in the U.S. . Made 2 changes. Swapped the stock 12AX7 for a 1965 Mullard 'blackburn'. And changed the stock 10" speaker to a RolA alnico magnet speaker. Big difference . Only drawback is the gain chanel #2. Does not take effect pedals very well.
The speaker will make a difference changing the 12ax7 won't make any difference
I’ve had me of these since about 2010. Killer little amp and plenty loud. I might put a higher-end speaker in it. Not because the original is bad, just because I can’t leave things be.
Yes, it´s a little Beast.
I have one of these and added a Celestion Gold. It’s a great little amp. I’ve never seen a tweed version though?
I think this amp was customised.
@@MatthewNorthMusicThe stock speaker is needed to work with so many different sounds, Don't replace it, please.
@@josemariatrueba4568 It was all 'as is' if you heard the intro it wasn't my amplifier I was just looking after it!
@@MatthewNorthMusic Yes, I understood it wasn't yours. I guess you'll find an XD second hand with stock Fender speaker better yet. There's a smaller 5 watt version named vibrochamp that is great because it sounds exactly the same not taking into account the 7dB difference in maximum output level.
I LOVED my SuperChamp XD. Started making some noise through the speaker when playing lower notes recently. It was annoying and ruined the tone. Just heard back from the amp shop and they checked everything. The DSP board is failing. Pretty bummed out about it. It probably had less than 20 hours on it since new.
Its the power tubes rattling. For me that goes away using an external cab
I have two SCX2. The DSP board does not always "go bad". Simply un-seat the DSP board and re-seat it into the mother board. I have a PC that needs the ram re-seated from time when it fails to boot.
I've got two 15 year old XD units that sound great and have never failed.
@@josemariatrueba4568 I took it to a different shop. It was just a bad speaker. Replaced it and it sounds badass again. Long live the XD!
@@rogergreene2272 Congratulations!
SCXD is a keeper. I think that from the chosen 16 voices we get a great collection of the most famous sounds from most rock music amplifiers and cabinets in history, even better sounds than the ones built in SCX2.
Is it loud enough to play in a band ?
Oh yes
Do yourself a favor take out the cheap speaker and put in a high quality unit and youll really hear what this amp can do. Impressive. 10 year owner. Also turn the volume up to ten and add an attenuator and you wont believe how good it sounds! 😊
I wouldn't say it was a cheap speaker and also by demoing it with how it came when it was new gives you a more honest appreciation. Plus if you watch the whole video you will realize it wasn't my amplifier anyway I was just looking after it.
I wonder why they used a cathodyne phase inverter in that amp, since it provides no gain? Maybe the 6V6's give enough volume for the single speaker.
Gotta make it look tube
Yeah, it's a concertina PI. The driver stage is attenuated to the point where it's operating pretty much at unity or even at a loss of gain. I can understand why they wouldn't want the output section to be clipping because it would mess with the digital modeling/FX sound quality but at that point, why even bother with the tube output section at all? Contrary to popular belief, tubes aren't the ideal platform to play modelers through. The wide frequency ranges put out by digital effects processors are often too much for a typical guitar amp (or tube effects loop return stage) to handle causing unpleasant distortion artifacts. The way to do it if you're insistent on using tubes is to play it through a hi-fi amp that can better handle the extended frequency ranges. Hi-fi tube amps though are designed to not distort, often by using massive amounts of negative feedback throughout the amp which when broken down will clip abruptly siimilar to that of a solidstate amp.
Phase inverter is needed with any push pull amplifier.
This just seems like the vibro champ xd.
Mine struggles with its operator………😮
Can u busk with this?
No needs mains