window shopping

tried something interesting today. Maybe not that interesting.

I've been toying with the idea of selling my laney amp and shopping for a fender (maybe) tube (definately) amp.

All I can reasonably afford is the Super Champ XD. If badcat's are the be all and end all of awesome amps, that's great, but I'll never have enough cash to spend on a purchase like that. I know I could save and all that ... but realistically I have about AU$7-800 to spend. We recently had out first daughter and we're down to one income ... gotta cover rent, food and bills first!

Anyway ... one of my concerns about a smaller amp like the Super Champ xd was the small speaker breaking up too early in a large-ish room like my church hall. I asked about running the speaker out to a quadbox, as we have a spare Hartke 4x10 (i think) quadbox sitting in the cupboard (un-used) at church. Looks like it's also got a smaller tweeter in the middle of the four speakers.

We plugged the super champ into a quadbox in the shop, cranked up the volume on the clean channel, and basically, it was AWESOME! Even better, the shop is having a 30% off sale as they approach the end of financial year.

Anyway, the setup had heaps of volume, and a really responsive tube sound. If I played soft or picked sort of lightly, it was clean, even at a deafening volume. But as I increased my attack, that tubey bite kicked in. Then there's a whole other 16 amp voices to play with ... I think setting 13 gave a nice 'more distorted/rocky' sort of sound. I'm not that good with descriptive language.

Coinciding with this, a guy who plays guitar at our morning service told me that he'd be interested in buying my laney from me and he agreed to a pretty decent price.

So hopefully...

Good luck what that. Hey man, nobody will ever fault you for choosing supporting your family over any piece of gear (music or otherwise). Although my wife constantly reminds me that the gear I keep buying eats into my son's college fund....I respond: "When I get that platinum record....He won't need to worry about college." She snickers.

I'm doing some recording this week...and my amp of choice (out of the 3 tube amps and 2 solid state amps I have available to me)....is the Fender Champion 600. That little thing just keeps on giving and doesn't force me to mic it in the bathroom to keep the volume down. I actually did a bit of an A/B test, and the Champ sounded more "real" that my $1000 Mesa Boogie. With a bit of Tube Scream emulation (via Line6), the Champ sounds incredible for leads and heavy distortion. Next month I'm doing some recording in a big studio.... The other guitarist will have his Badcat...I'm looking forward to doing a comparison. I'll try to post some MP3s of guitar parts.

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The annoying thing down here in Aus is that the Champ 600 is still fairly expensive. For an extra $200, I get more tubes, a bigger speaker, more tonal control, two footswitchable channels, a few foot-switchable effects (reverb, delay, tremolo, chorus etc), 16 different 'voices' and I can't think of what else right now. I should eat breakfast and go to work!

I'd love to hear some more of your stuff when it's recorded!

I don't blame you for opting for the Super Champ XD....it's basically like combining some DSP effects from a Pod in combination with the warm tube "amp" stage. I'm sure it will sound good...perhaps warmer than the Line6 or Vox amps in the same price range and will have a lot more versatility than the Champion 600.

I don't know if you've ever plugged an output volume adjustable CD player into a "separate" power amp (back in the days before everything was on an iPod)? But that's the kind of magic the Champion 600 is all about. It's pure tone right from the source, without going through additional circuitry that degrades the original signal. High output single coils give this amp a nice warm overdrive when its cranked, perfect for shimmering chords or gritty twang....switch to a humbucker, and its a nice even sustaining lead tone. The point is all of the tone modification is done from the guitar....That's the magic.

That said...when I want a heavier tone or some pre-amp effects (like a wah, tube screamer, or octaver), I'm basically doing the same thing with my Pod....and it sounds awesome. My purpose is to get the best authentic sounding recorded guitar tone without having to have everyone leave the house because the amp is super loud. If I were playing a gig every week, my priorities would be much different (especially depending on the type of material). I played in an R&B/Jazz band for years with just a JC-120 and an external distortion pedal (used sparingly)....

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Is the champion a little bit ... one dimensional?

I realised last time I was playing that I must come from the Nirvana school of guitar playing; quiet, cleanish in the verse, stomp on the distortion pedal for the chorus. But the bands I'm listening to now have a more consistent sound throughout the song. I guess maybe switching between bridge and neck pickups to fatten or thin out the tone where necessary.

Well...depends on what kind of dimensions you are talking about. Fully cranking the volume on the amp produces everything from clean and shimmery (low-mid volume on the guitar) to dirty and sustaining (3/4 to full volume).....the volume on the guitar effectively becomes the "Gain" control, and the tone controls the high cut.

The external tube screamer will give this amp the Nirvana quality. It's hard to describe why I love this amp so much without giving a live demo.

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As you wind the guitar volume down, is the tone affected at all?

I think I need to move on from the nirvana on/off style of playing.

At a low guitar volume setting the Champion is just really clean, and loud enough to fill a cafe with sound. As you turn up the guitar's volume, the overtones get richer, and finally at full volume it's fully over driven....and interestingly enough the amp isn't much "louder" than when it was clean.

One other thing to consider....the speaker is small, and in a live setting you are not going to get much bass response (no chugga-chugga like a 12 inch speaker)....but close mic'ing in the studio will allow enough bass to be recorded without addition post amp eq.

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Some of the reviews on Harmony Central and Musician's Friend for the Super Champ XD say they've compared it to the Vox and Line6 equivalently priced models and the Champ came out on top.

Personally, I would not spend much more than this on an amp (using my get the very best amp possible logic).

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I had a play of another Sheraton II today, a brand new one.

The new vintage sunburst looks crap. Really yellowy, and the back of the guitar is a yellow sunburst as well. Mine is a nice clear finish, showing the wood. They've even bursted the neck and painted the back of the headstock black. I like mine better. And the rosewood fretboard looks very light and dry ... mine looks nice and dark. Is it that they haven't oiled the wood?

Anyway, I played it through an Epiphone Valve Junior head and 12" speaker cabinet. The shop has that combo on sale for $400, which is what my Laney will be sold for ... very tempting!

I found a Fender Champion 600, which is $416 here in aus.

My concern is that it'd be too limited to one sound, though I'm guessing it does that one sound well. If you were to go down this path, would you pair it with a few pedals (EQ, compression, additional overdrive and/or distortion and maybe delay ... makes it a pricey option when the SCXD has all that built in). The $400 price tag is really attractive to me, and much more viable than $700 for the SCXD. Remember, this is aussie dollars, so everything costs more down here.

I'm wanting to plug an acoustic into the SCXD to hear the acoustasonic voice that it has, as occassionally at church we're drummer and keyboard-less, so it's just me, and I think acoustic sounds better in that situation. I've DI'd straight into the PA before but have been frustrated by the sound and have preferred it through a mic'd amp.