Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

[UberMetalDood]

I played the new Super Sonic 22, then the Super Sonic 60 combo and got hooked. I liked the old series a lot but there were a few things that always kept me from hooking in.

The old one has like 1/2 a Vibrolux channel because the top end was all there nice and sparkly but all the low end was missing. Then you switch over to the Bassman channel and there's a huge volume gap which makes it impractical to use in a live situation. You can't play the old ones at home because the volume taper is so bad it goes from nothing to eardrum splitting.

I played the new Super Sonic 60 and was satisfied that Fender listened to the people. The sound is beefier so it lives up to the hype. The two gain stages are great for creating different sounds. One gain knob gives it a vintage tube screamer kind of gain and the other is modern. The store didn't have an old model to compare with but I could swear even the blending of the gain stages works better on the new model.

Having a great Fender amp has always been a dream of mine but the only Fender amps I liked were the combos. Now they have this great head and it's better than the old one. It's supposed to be here by Thursday, can't wait.

 

[Laughing Kookaburra]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

Looking forward to the review!

 

[UberMetalDood]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

Looking forward to the review!

You got it. I am going to give it a thorough beating and make sure it's road worthy.

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

Forgive me, but isn't the SS 60 just the original SS? I thought they just added the "60" to differentiate it from the new 22.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

I haven't heard the new ones, but I believe you're right about the changes being for the better. I do like the new look and logo.

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

I played the new Super Sonic 22, then the Super Sonic 60 combo and got hooked. I liked the old series a lot but there were a few things that always kept me from hooking in.

The old one has like 1/2 a Vibrolux channel because the top end was all there nice and sparkly but all the low end was missing. Then you switch over to the Bassman channel and there's a huge volume gap which makes it impractical to use in a live situation. You can't play the old ones at home because the volume taper is so bad it goes from nothing to eardrum splitting.

I played the new Super Sonic 60 and was satisfied that Fender listened to the people. The sound is beefier so it lives up to the hype. The two gain stages are great for creating different sounds. One gain knob gives it a vintage tube screamer kind of gain and the other is modern. The store didn't have an old model to compare with but I could swear even the blending of the gain stages works better on the new model.

Having a great Fender amp has always been a dream of mine but the only Fender amps I liked were the combos. Now they have this great head and it's better than the old one. It's supposed to be here by Thursday, can't wait.

Thanx for the info.
I always felt the Super Sonic's lacked soem low end thump.

Did ou get to crank the Bassman channel ?

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

looking forward to the review!

amen !!!

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

I haven't heard the new ones, but I believe you're right about the changes being for the better.
I do like the new look and logo.

They look the same to me, as last years model

 

[UberMetalDood]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

Thanx for the info.
I always felt the Super Sonic's lacked soem low end thump.

Did ou get to crank the Bassman channel ?

Not extremely loud but I got it up to about 3 1/2. The Bassman channel has a lot of grunt. I wish I had an old Super-Sonic to compare it side by side but they didn't have any of the old models and they didn't have the head. I had to order it.

Now that I have played with it for a couple of days I would have to say the tone is not a departure from the original except maybe some added bass and low mids. The volume taper doesn't seem as sensitive as before but it still gets crazy loud fast. I was able to get some bedroom volume sounds out of the combo so I hope the head won't be a problem.

I'll be running my Line6 M9 through it for effects since the head doesn't have reverb. The salesman mentioned something about patching a cable on the effects loop to create like a master volume or something so that it sounds better at low volume. It sounded like he was talking about using the effects loop volume as a master volume somehow. I don't know if that even works. I wonder if it's a feature of Fender amps or something.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

those SSs are KILLER

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

yeah i love me some supersonics...

i would love to get the head and 4x12 and run it simultaneously with my vintage Bassman head and 2x12 cab...the 68 2x12 is a LOT bigger than the modern 4x12 :smokin:

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

Not extremely loud but I got it up to about 3 1/2. The Bassman channel has a lot of grunt. I wish I had an old Super-Sonic to compare it side by side but they didn't have any of the old models and they didn't have the head. I had to order it.

Now that I have played with it for a couple of days I would have to say the tone is not a departure from the original except maybe some added bass and low mids. The volume taper doesn't seem as sensitive as before but it still gets crazy loud fast. I was able to get some bedroom volume sounds out of the combo so I hope the head won't be a problem.

I'll be running my Line6 M9 through it for effects since the head doesn't have reverb. The salesman mentioned something about patching a cable on the effects loop to create like a master volume or something so that it sounds better at low volume. It sounded like he was talking about using the effects loop volume as a master volume somehow. I don't know if that even works. I wonder if it's a feature of Fender amps or something.

Thanx

So, how would i know if it is an older model, or the newer 2011 (w more low end) Super Sonic standing on the guitar shop floor ?
Any visual diffs ?

 

[UberMetalDood]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

Thanx

So, how would i know if it is an older model, or the newer 2011 (w more low end) Super Sonic standing on the guitar shop floor ?
Any visual diffs ?

Yeah the new ones have a more retro logo. The old ones are Super-Sonic the new ones are Super Sonic.

"The Super-Sonic 60 delivers increased bass response and fatter tone, and its heavily saturated tube overdrive and sustain can be fine-tuned without masking the tonal character of your guitar. And by popular demand, the new Super-Sonic 60 models are available in two classic cosmetic treatments - Black/Silver and 1961-style Blonde/Oxblood, both with ivory “radio” knobs and flowing 1960s script logo."

You can read about it on the Fender website:

www.fender.com

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

. . . ^ ^ ^ thanks for the info

 

[ken361]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

hey i just bought the 22! took the deluxe back, I like the warmer, thicker distortion. Still gotta mess with it to see what its got

 

[UberMetalDood]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

hey i just bought the 22! took the deluxe back, I like the warmer, thicker distortion. Still gotta mess with it to see what its got

It took about 2 weeks for my speaker to break in. Once it did it started sounding really good. Check out the sample tone settings because it's really neat how you can EQ that amp. Some settings look extreme, like completely turning off the treble and raising the bass and mids way up. EQ settings that would normally be unuseable give it a whole different character.

The reverb was kind of washy to me but I ran my M9 through the FX loop and got great reverb effects.

 

[ken361]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

mess with any of the preamp tubes yet?

 

[UberMetalDood]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

mess with any of the preamp tubes yet?

They come with Groove Tubes which may not be premium NOS or anything but tested for quality at least. I tried some Mullards just for fun and the improvement was marginal. At best there was a little more clarity throughout and a little more transparency in the cleans. I think there's nothing that can really be improved on the 22 short of a speaker swap. It's a great amp.

 

[ken361]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

the grooves are the R tubes with a little less gain, sovteks arent really that great, going to try a groove tube mullard to spark it up some. It cool this amp has a mix of tubes.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Incoming Fender Super Sonic 60 head

Cool, we are waiting for the 60's at the store as well....
I am close to getting a 22 for home usage.....
They are great amps....