Fender Supersonic 60 Watt Amplifier

[Liam1963]

Just picked this amp up (amplifier only, not the combo) over the weekend, love the Burn channel, nicest "organic" overdrive I've heard coming out of an amp in quite a while. The "Vibrolux / Bassman" channel has it's shortcomings, the circuit voices the treble so high on this channel that the Vibrolux circuit is unusable (I currently have the treble on that channel set to zero, and still have to back the tone control on my guitar 2/3 of the way down). The Bassman circuit is a little better, but there's a volume imbalance when you switch from Vibrolux to Bassman, which is annoying.
Anyone on this forum have any experience with this amp, are there any mods available to render the cleans usable?

 

[Arwin]

Re: Fender Supersonic 60 Watt Amplifier

I've always heard that the supersonic and prosonic fender amps are some of the only Fenders with a dedicated dirty channel that's usable, and really fantastic at that.

I know that Bruce Zinsky in the fender custom shop had a hand in the design of the ProSonic and also the custom shop Tone Master model which had an abnormally great high gain channel as well. I bet these three amps have a lot in common under the hood.

I know Johnny Hickman from Cracker tends to use a supersonic, and his tone is always great

If yours is an older model and you are looking to tinker and bring it up to more modern specs or just...well...tinker....here's a cool article that lays out 7 different mods you can do on these amps. Also a lot of great info on the tone stack and the relay based channel switching used, which actually selects unique circuit paths and component values for each channel

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/21298-ask-amp-man-modifying-an-early-fender-super-sonic-60

I don't know if it will be the case on this amp, but I've experienced the volume imbalance across channels on my Mesa Mark III before (R2 overpowering clean channel) and on those amplifiers you can actually change one component in the circuit and gain a dedicate volume control. Basically you are changing the fixed resistor that determines the volume of that channel with a variable resistor (potentiometer), then you set the volume to taste.

Enjoy the new amp! I would definitely live with it for a while and letting yours ears and hands adjust to the new amp before doing mods, but there are definitely options!

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Fender Supersonic 60 Watt Amplifier

Supersonic has a beautiful crunch, but never run into your challenges. Hope it works out, I miss mine!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

 

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: Fender Supersonic 60 Watt Amplifier

I have the opposite problem. I like the cleans and don't like the distortion. I did notice that it is picky about speakers. When I tried it in the store, they had it going through an Orange 2x12 with G12k100s. Sounded beautiful. I get it home and through my stuff, not as good.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Fender Supersonic 60 Watt Amplifier

Then run it clean and use a pedal for dirt.

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[Liam1963]

Re: Fender Supersonic 60 Watt Amplifier

Then run it clean and use a pedal for dirt.

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That's part of the problem, the Vibrolux circuit does not take pedals well, the Bassman circuit only works with certain types of overdrive, (my Tumnus is actually the best sounding choice for that circuit). All I need to do is minimize the treble on the Vibrolux / Bassman channel, and it would be a fantastic amp...

 

[Farkus]

Re: Fender Supersonic 60 Watt Amplifier

I have the Supersonic 60 combo. I have noticed the same issues as the OP. If I'm using a tele or strat with standard single coils I stick with the Bassman clean channel. Where I found an outstanding use of the Vibro voicing was with my Strats with stacked singles, like the YJM Fury pickups. They have some top end roll off but through the Vibro voicing sound absolutely fantastic. Now they have some highs but are not glassy. Since I use the Fury pickups for gain, I finally have a amp that is balanced for clean and dirty this way. This amp is also really dependent on speakers...I like it with the vintage 30 this combo came with stock.

 

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: Fender Supersonic 60 Watt Amplifier

Then run it clean and use a pedal for dirt.

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Tried that. Bogner Ecstasy Red, Bogner Überschall, AMT P1, ect. None sound good through the front end of this amp.

 

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: Fender Supersonic 60 Watt Amplifier

Take it to a tech & have them go through it. Super Sonic's often have to be re-biased on account of the overpowered 6V6's inside of them. They are pushed to their limits in that platform when biased perfectly so if it's running hot this will be exasperated & could lead to problems down the road as well as ice picky cleans....


I bought a NOS 22W combination version a while ago from a local music store. It worked fine when I played it at the store & it sounded alright, not my favorite tone but cool for certain things & something different! Plus it had a really great price tag so I figured why not???

I got it home, plugged it in, & NOTHING!!! It was completely dead & the problem surpassed the tubes so I brought it back to the store & got a refund. When I returned it to the store the owner (who was as confused as I was about what had actually happened to it) did tell me that it wasn't the first one he'd gotten back due to functionality issues.

On the other hand I do know someone who's had one for years & it's his only amp! He's played through it every day since he bought it, makes it sound absolutely fantastic, & he's never even had to change a preamp valve yet!!! After hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours, as well as dozens of gigs, its still 100% stock!

He's one of them "It's better to know your gear than have lots of it" guys. What he can do with old Fat Strat plugged straight into that amp is nothing short of amazing!!! He uses different channels for different songs so playing live he'll move his lead around the four jacks quite a bit & re-EQ each time he does. Of course because he "Knows his gear" so well he does it almost seamlessly & very, very, quickly!!!

 

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: Fender Supersonic 60 Watt Amplifier

Uh, the 60s have 6L6s in them.

 

[jerrym]

Re: Fender Supersonic 60 Watt Amplifier

The "Vibrolux / Bassman" channel has it's shortcomings, the circuit voices the treble so high on this channel that the Vibrolux circuit is unusable (I currently have the treble on that channel set to zero, and still have to back the tone control on my guitar 2/3 of the way down).

Little late to the party, but wanted to add my experience with the Super Sonic 60. I've got the newer 'script' head and had experienced the same brightness for years that the OP mentions -- UNTIL -- I finally got the bias adjusted (30mV) and replaced the two preamp tubes (closest to the input jack) with new Tung Sol 5751. The power tubes are Groove Tubes #8.
Now, I actually need to add treble to the "Tremolux" signal and the "Bassman" channel is even nicer than before. Love this amp! The sounds great at low volume, but I can't wait to gig with these changes.