New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

[JumpMarine]

I'm already spending Christmas $$ and it's not even Christmas yet. Went into my local store today to check out the Line 6 Valve 1x12, nice amp BTW......too loud for my intended purposes unfortunately. I saw that they also had one of the new Super Champ XD's in as well and plugged in with a John Mayer strat(Killer Strat!!!!!!)......very impressive indeed. Impressive enough that it came home with me and will most likely be taking over the Valvetronix's spot.

Specs: 2 channel, 15w, 2-6v6 1-12ax7, SS Rectifier (both EH's) 10" speaker. Channel 1 is normal BF champ circuit with volume only and Channel 2 is the modeling channel.



Voiceings: (paraphrased)

1-Tweed Champ
2-Tweed Bassman
3- Heavily Driven Tweed
4- Bright Blackface
5- Slightly OD Blackface
6- Heavily OD BF
7- "British Combo" lol
8- "British high gain stack"
9_ High gain modern "British Stack"
10- Hi-gain "Hot Rod"
11- Hi-gain of "specialized boutique amp"
12- more gain, more sustain!
13- darker super hi-gain metal amp
14- "Metalhead" (Fender amp)
15-Jazz King
16 Acoustasonic amp

FX:

1-Rotating baffle-slow
2-Rotating Baffle-fast
3-130ms delay
4-300ms delay
5-450ms delay
6-large room verb
7-Concert Hall verb
8-Classic Fender Spring verb
9- Verb+ Delay
10- Fast sweep chorus
11- Deep Sweep
12- Chorus+Delay
13-Chorus+Verb
14- Low Speed Trem
15-Med speed Trm
16- High Speed Trem

 

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

Congrats!! Sounds like a very versatile little amp. I just got my Marshall JMP tonight!

 

[JumpMarine]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

The verdict so far:

Pro's-Speaker jack to plug into your favorite cab(sounds awsome with my greenback/G12h30). Loud, tight, not as boxy soinding as I figured it would....but that will get better and better as the speaker breaks in. I won't even consider changing the speaker for at least 30 or 40 hours of hard playing. Fender models are VERY good. Plugged into a cab, it will easily keep up with a loud drummer. Very touch sensitive to your playing dynamics. Line out, foot switchable channel/fx. Looks cool and is easy to pack around just like the 80's models. Sounds great with single coils as well as HB's. Took to my OCD and Barber LTD VERY well unlike the HRDx that I had.

Con's-No such thing as a preset on the modeling channel. No standby. Wish it had more control over the FX, but they do sound pretty good. Volume control on the line out would have been nice.


I will post a more indepth review in a few days after I really wring it out.

 

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

Wait, this thing is all tube?!?! Is it new? Cool!! I like that they are putting tubes in modelers now to warm them up and make them more responsive.

 

[mediumpimpin]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

So how are the cleans? I've been pondering getting a dedicated clean amp next yr, and I like that price, especially for an all tube amp. Oranges, like mine, aren't exactly known for their cleans, lol. I'm thinking something like that with a nice board and a/b switch would be (Borat voice) very nice!

 

[JumpMarine]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

The cleans are beautiful at lower to mid volume, but as with all 6v6's they have lower headroom and tend to break up and compress after about 5 on the volume. It's very chimey and sweet up to that point. But I woudn't recommend this amp for a dedicated "Clean" amp duties unless you are going to mic it.

 

[JumpMarine]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

Wait, this thing is all tube?!?! Is it new? Cool!! I like that they are putting tubes in modelers now to warm them up and make them more responsive.

Yep, all tube plus additional digital preamp/modeling. It's quite new.....

 

[mediumpimpin]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

The cleans are beautiful at lower to mid volume, but as with all 6v6's they have lower headroom and tend to break up and compress after about 5 on the volume. It's very chimey and sweet up to that point. But I woudn't recommend this amp for a dedicated "Clean" amp duties unless you are going to mic it.

Well actually, that is perfect for my needs. I'm not in a band, nor do I plan on it. I'm an arc major working 30 hrs a wk, so guitar is simply a hobby (albeit a very expensive one) for me so I play for fun by myself. My orange never gets turned up over 3 or 4, it pisses off the neighbors and everyone in my house. Who woulda thought a little 30 watter with one 12 could be that loud? lol.

 

[JumpMarine]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

 

[JumpMarine]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

It is NOT all tube...the preamp is Digital...it has a single preamp tube in it which is more than likely a driver and a tube power section but the front end is digital...someone correct me if I am wrong.

 

[JumpMarine]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

You are more than likely right. But what is amazing me at the moment is the touch sensativity that you would get with an all tube amp.

 

[JumpMarine]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

I found some really interesting info over on FDP from the Blues Jr. guru, BillM.

BillM:
I opened up a Super Champ XD this morning and I was very pleasantly surprised at the overall quality. I've posted a pic of the board in my profile if you're interested.

The board is well made, dual-sided, with plated-through holes, commercial grade thickness. One large board has the power supply, control interfaces, and tube circuits. A small board holds the DSP and a read-only memory chip that contains the SCXD personality.

All of the resistors in the tube circuits are half-watt or better, heavier than they need to be. All of the off-circuit ribbon cables and wires have a bead of hot-melt glue where they meet the board, so that they won't break from flexing or vibration. All of the screws have a dab of sealant; they won't vibrate loose either.

Half a dozen small switching and interface integrated circuits translate front panel controls into tone and volume actions. They're all bypassed to eliminate noise or glitches. The controls themselves are round pots with angled frames, similar to those on the Hot Rod Deluxe and Blues Deluxe, soldered to a circuit board, but attached to the front panel with nuts, not like the shaky knobs on the BJr and PJ.

All of the controls are digital. There's no tone stack or even a real analog volume control--all of the knob settings are translated into instructions for the DSP chip to look up the appropriate response for the chosen voice.

I was hoping that the analog/tube portion and/or power supply would be on a different board, but it's all on one.

Amazingly enough, the SCXD has adjustable bias! There's a big, blue, single-turn trimpot on the circuit board, up by the output jack. Mine was set fairly cold. Warming it up, however. didn't audibly affect the tone.

The amount of sawtooth on the plates is entirely normal, but more than I like. I'll probably add more filtering if I can find room for it. The 6V6s are running at 400V and Fender is using 450V caps. I'd like a little more margin there, but they should hold up OK.

The power transformer never gets more than moderately warm. Plenty of headroom there.

Overall, I'd say that the analog and digital engineers did a fine job with the SCXD. I think they could do a little more work on some of the voices, especially the clean jazz voice. It's way too bass-heavy; I play it with the treble on 10 and the bass no more than halfway. And it hardly responds to the gain control at all. Wouldn't it be cooler if it did some of that Wes Montgomery-style throaty breakup as you cranked it?

Meanwhile, other voices, like the Marshall, sound like they're supposed to, and even clean up to Bassman-like tones when you dial back the gain.

Well, the output section is all tube!

Another interesting feature of the circuit is that the phase inverter is the old one-triode concertina-style PI found in the Princeton Reverb and the tweed Deluxe. The concertina PI can't drive the tubes as hard as a long-tailed PI that uses both halves of a 12AX7.

So what did they do with the other half of the 12AX7 in the SCXD? It's a classic Fender gain stage with the usual 100K plate resistor, 1.5K cathode resistor, and 22uF bypass cap. The signal from the digital preamp dumps right into it, so everything gets "warmed" by that traditional gain stage before it goes to the PI.

 

[ModestCargo]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

I got one coming for christmas. It was the only little amp in the store that I liked - the Cube came close.

I didn't care much for the "modeling" but the clean channel is great.

 

[JumpMarine]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

I got one coming for christmas. It was the only little amp in the store that I liked - the Cube came close.

I didn't care much for the "modeling" but the clean channel is great.

Cool, looking forward to reading your take on it when you get it.

 

[Jimbojsr]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

More to the point - is it worthwhile keeping a clean channel selected and using a pedal to get drive / distortion sounds with? I'd think so if it really was "all tube", but would the digital component be a problem???

 

[JumpMarine]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

More to the point - is it worthwhile keeping a clean channel selected and using a pedal to get drive / distortion sounds with? I'd think so if it really was "all tube", but would the digital component be a problem???

Quick and dirty, you could do just that. But you could also setup channel 2 with one of the gainier models and do the same thing. It's all up to your ears as to what you want. First thing, channel 1 is a dedicated digital, very clean, Blackface DR. Though it will break up nicely when maxed on volume. With my pedals (Barber LTD and OCD) they work nicely. Though this is a hybrid 1/2 of the 12ax7 is used for the gain stage and 1/2 for the phase inverter to the 6v6's. So in theory and in practice pushing the front end with an od pedal will have the same result as a full tube circuit.

 

[Kac]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

I'm curious about this:

9_ High gain modern "British Stack"

How does that compare to valvatronix Modern British High Gain?

 

[ModestCargo]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

Though it will break up nicely when maxed on volume.

Hm, I didn't find the breakup on the clean channel nice at all. It was kind of like the way my Jazz Chorus breaks up when it's set too loud.

I found the only really good sounds from the amp were the clean sounds - although I never did get the chance to try my Tube Screamer through it.

Just me, though - I am very picky about my "dirty" sound, the only one that's really perfect to me is my Deluxe Reverb cranked.

 

[JumpMarine]

Re: New Amp Day!!! Super Champ XD

I'm curious about this:

How does that compare to valvatronix Modern British High Gain?

Here you go, quick and VERY sloppy playing.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6082892

First is the AD15VT then the SC. I wasn't watching my mic levels and the vox is a bit high and the sc low, sorry. Neither were tweaked for the best tone, but just to show max gain. The Vox and Marshall models are not the strong suit for the SC, but are sort of useable for practice. I still think that the best tones on the Vox are from the JCM 800 model(UK 80's).

Played with my LP(Brobucker, max volume, tone rolled back to about 8)

Settings:
Vox-Gain-Max, Vol-10o'clock, T-2, M-11, B11, Master Vol-9
Fender-Channel 2, Gain-Maxed, Vol-#4, Voice-#9, T-#1, B-#10