Fender Super Champ XD

[WhoFan]

Re: Fender Super Champ XD

I've had one for the last several months. I've been playing around with it and like it a lot. My only complaint has been some buzzing from the cabinet -- I've got to get around to tightening up all the screws. I've compared it to my Silverface Princeton Reverb and stock the clean on the PR definitely sounds better to me compared to the SRXD on the first channel and on the champ setting (channel 2, position 1 on the selector knob). This week I replaced the Fender labled 12AX7 in the SCXD with a Sylvania and it seemed a little smoother -- its not a night and day difference for channel 1. Then I used the SCXD with the new tube as a head unit plugged into the speaker and cab of the PR and the difference between the two was narrowed quite a bit so a lot of the tonal difference was from the speaker and the cab. To my recollection, the PR cab and speaker seemed to have less mids and was more chimy. I've got to say I like the SRXD a lot and plan to use it out rather than the PR due to its versatility and to keep my PR in pristine shape.

a lot of different SS Fender's i've played and owned with Ten Inch speakers over the years i've had buzzing going on... most of the time i believe it's the cheap speaker craping out on the lows..... makes me wonder if it's the same issue here with the Super Champ XD... it would not surprise me... in my case i just want it for bedroom levels so i'm not too worried

i almost bought it tonight but talked myself into waiting until spring... i can't wait to try it as a head thru some of my 1x12 speaker cabs as well...

 

[rock_guitar]

Re: Fender Super Champ XD

My only complaint has been some buzzing from the cabinet -- I've got to get around to tightening up all the screws.

I finally got around to tightening up the screws and the buzzing is just about gone. I do wish the XD used a birch plywood for the cabinet like in the vintage Fender days. Birch plywood is very solid and also a musically pleasing material. They even use it (Baltic Birch especially) sometimes in high end home loudspeakers.

Another important caveat. The footswitch. The footswitch has been hard to get hold of at times. It's sold out right now and GC and none of my other local music stores seem to carry it in their stores, I've called several of them. However, I found that a footswitch from a Fender Performer 1000/Roc Pro 1000 works perfectly. The channel button controls the channels. The drive/more drive button controls the effects on/off. See the linky. http://www.fenderusa.com/store/enter.php?department=bitsnpieces_ampfootswitches&product=0994064000

I'm guessing that the other Fender two button footswitches with drive/more drive control such as for the Hot Rod series may work as well.

http://www.fenderusa.com/store/enter.php?department=bitsnpieces_ampfootswitches&product=0994062000

If you are on the fence about buying one, I just noticed that a lot of the on line retailers have raised their selling price dramatically and that the retail price went up with it. It's at this moment selling for $398.99 on MusiciansFriend and Music123. If you have a local GC or Music and Arts near you, the price probably hasn't gone up yet. I was on the fence about 4 months ago and saw one price increase back then, which spurred me to get it locally. This is Fender we are talking about, price increases are the norm. I remember when the Hot Rod series first came out, you could get them for under $400 for the deluxe. They are going for about twice that now.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Fender Super Champ XD

ya here in Canada the price went from $349 to $429

 

[rock_guitar]

Re: Fender Super Champ XD

However, I found that a footswitch from a Fender Performer 1000/Roc Pro 1000 works perfectly. The channel button controls the channels. The drive/more drive button controls the effects on/off. See the linky. http://www.fenderusa.com/store/enter.php?department=bitsnpieces_ampfootswitches&product=0994064000

I've got to make a correction. The above footswitch doesn't work perfectly, each of the buttons changes the drive, and the effects seem to go off too. I didn't notice before that the channel was changing each time because I was listening for the effect on the drive/more drive button. So it's not a perfect solution, but at least I can get control over the channel switching till the official footswitch is back in stock.