Budda Superdrive!

Yngwiestein

New member
These are my absolut favorite amps! I swear by them. A lot of amps claim to have Fender cleans, touch sensitivity and Marshall crunch but this amp actually delivers and then some!

I typically play a Superdrive 18 but recently came to love the Superdrive 45. Something about the KT66 tubes and even more touch sensitivity!

So over the months I have been A/B ing these amps with Marshall JVM, Koch Twintone, Dr.Z MAZ 38, Fender Twin and Mesa Roadster, comparing the different qualities from clean to distorted. There are times when the Marshall and Mesa both sound kind of solid state but never the Superdrive. Always a warm tube like sound with perfect presence.

Some amps I tried sound better w humbuckers. This one is great with single coils as with humbucker.

With the Marshall it was hard to dial in the right amount of presence and same thing with Mesa except on clean. One awesome thing about the Superdrive is when using the master vol. With the clean vol all the way up to control gain and the master for controling vol there is a very vintage tone very reminiscent of a VOX AC30. Kind of fat and fuzzy. Not like the distortion on channel 2.

Easy to dial up the mild clean breakup like on Fenders. I love that! The amp has a bright pull switch. It's amazing how versatile this amp is just by looking at the simple controls. You can get so many different sounds.

Then comes the drive channel! Loads of quality gain. All the way up is short of nu-metal but ur not getting the fizzy buzzy kind of sound normally associated with that. The gain does get very heavy though. Plenty for most kinds of metal. Dialed back at about 10:00 is right in the territory for hard rock and 80s hard metal. About 8:30 for dirty blues leads. 1:00 goes into Metallica territory.

One of my favorite sounds is to set gain 12:00 and plug in my Les Paul. Slash would be jealous of my sound but he can keep his Vintage Modern!

With pedals forget about it. On some amps the delay and flanger sound kind of dull. On the Budda it sounds very lush. Very resonant.

The amps are light too! Not big amps but the weight it deceptive. Very easy to carry. Comes with simple footswitch, heavy duty extra long power cable and a very nice guitar input cable.

If you haven't played a Budda yet you owe it to yerself to try one! They are fantastic!
 
Re: Budda Superdrive!

Buddas are cool. I've heard they blow up though. I didn't mind their sound, I'm not much of an EL84 guy (I played the 18 watter). I still prefer Fuchs - that's gotta be my favorite amp brand yo
 
Re: Budda Superdrive!

I am gassing for a Superdrive 45!!! I heard them on Youtube and man... sounds like what I am after! I am going to go to my local shop and try one... kinda scared to though! I like my 5150II, but....
 
Re: Budda Superdrive!

Buddas are cool. I've heard they blow up though. I didn't mind their sound, I'm not much of an EL84 guy (I played the 18 watter). I still prefer Fuchs - that's gotta be my favorite amp brand yo

Blow up? That's crazy. Whoever told you that please ask him for some of what he's been smoking :crazy:

I am gassing for a Superdrive 45!!! I heard them on Youtube and man... sounds like what I am after! I am going to go to my local shop and try one... kinda scared to though! I like my 5150II, but....

The 5150 has its place but you will get hooked on the Superdrive! It's not a metal beast like the Peavey. It's touch sensitive so expect your mistakes to show. You get used to it quickly but you will have to adjust to the dynamics. The KT66 tubes sound so good. Try using it as a master vol on clean to break up the clean channel and get a taste of that vintage overdrive. Then do the same with the bright input. After that you're ready to open up the gain on channel 2!
 
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Re: Budda Superdrive!

Ah man, you make me miss my SD80........talk about a beast!! What a smokin' amp. I loved it but man was it ever loud/powerful. Couldn't justify keeping it around, but I sure loved it and would own another Budda in a heartbeat. Of course I loved it when it wasn't "blowing up" on me!! Classic. Whoever told you that is a moron.
 
Re: Budda Superdrive!

My 5150II is pretty touch sensitive... I don't run the gain that high so I can hear my mistakes... makes a huge difference. I gotta save my coin to get one! I was going to go for the 18 watt, but I have never been a fan of el84s... so I think the 45 is more my flavor! Thanks for the advice....and I ordered some magnets from your site to SSS!
 
Re: Budda Superdrive!

I've really liked most of the ones I've tried, although most were combos. The one I'd want is the Superdrive 45 head.
 
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