Super Champ X2

[morningstar]

Uh I meant to say X2 oh well.

Anybody given one of these a real workout?

Whaddja think?

Thanks

morningstar

[hamerhead]

If you search the board, you'll find tons o' stuff about them. Mostly by me, because I raved on and on about their awesomeness.

I have the XD combo and the X2 head. The X2 - with the ability to save tweaked patches - is what I gig with. The models are great, but I landed on one I liked, tweaked it, and barely used the rest.The problem I found was when boosting a solo, channel 2 (the amp modeling/OD channel) just got fuzzier instead of louder. My guess is it didn't like the extra grunt being pushed through the modeling section of the board. I cured that by putting an OCD and a Sparkle Drive in front of channel 1 (the clean channel). Works great.

The other thing is - in a gig setting - you have to physically turn the dial to change between patches (the footswitch only turns them on and off). Not bad between songs, but a bit clusterf*ckish on the fly. Instead of stomping a pedal, you have to whirl around, spin the knob between 16(?) patches, and hope you get the right one straight off. I added a long/short delay pedal back on to my board to eliminate some of that. I don't use phaser/flanger/chorus/etc very often, so I have patches with those for the 3 or 4 times a night when I need 'em. AND you can dial in a pretty good Robin Trower (I just can't remember how I did it.....).

Editing and saving is pretty easy with the Fender software - just like turning knobs a on pedal or rack unit - but can't be done on the fly (unless you're connected to a computer). But once it's dialed in, it works great. And the effects are pretty darn good considering how cheap the amp is.

Could you plug straight in and gig with it? Yes indeedareeno. With all the possible combinations of models and effects, plus tweaking and saving your own, plus it sounds really good, plus it's really light, etc etc etc........it works good. I recommend the head with a 1x12 or 2x12 cab, because even with the Ragin' Cajun upgrade, the combo (with the 10" speaker) doesn't sound as big and full. It's good, just not as good.

[Uncle Thor's Hamer]

I'm another regular SCXD fanboy here. I did the Ragin' Cajun speaker upgrade, and it is well worth it. I haven't played the X2 head through a separate cab. I am a hobbyist and occasional gigger.

Ch1 is the clean channel, and is essentially an all-tube amp. The preamp is just a buffer really, and is solid state. The effects and tone controls are part of the preamp solid state module, and those controls do affect both channels. So to be strictly correct, the tone and effects are solid state circuitry. The work of getting loud is done by the full tube amp which consists of a 12AX7 preamp and the 6V6 power amp sections. Basically, if you want a normal tube amp, CH1 is your place to be. Up above about 1 o'clock on the volume knob you will get tube distortion out of it.

Ch2 is the amp emulation channel. The emulations are very good. They are digital solid state emulations. Nothing is going to sound exactly like the real thing except the real thing, but for emulations I find them to be excellent. But I am not a cork sniffer, and I don't aim to exactly duplicate a particular sound (I have enough trouble playing the right notes!). You will find that the amp does a great job of sounding like the amps it is trying to emulate.

In real life, I only use 2 or 3 of the amp emulations for 99% of my playing. There are a number of the emulations which are sequential, with one being low gain, the next being mid gain, and the last being high gain. I like this because it is easy to get close to a sound quickly without having to tweak the gain knob much at all. That does make me a lazy non-cork sniffer, but it also shows that this amp is designed to be easy to use. Same thing with the effects. You can click through the settings to get progressively more delay or deeper reverb, and you can tweak it with the knobs. So this amp may not get you precisely the reverb and delay you want, but it does a very good job. And in reality only the tone police will ever know the difference between the reverb on the SCXD and what was used on some recording in the 1960's.

Loud? Yes. I played a packed room last fall, literally an overflowing room with 250 people in it and a bunch more in the lobby. The amp was turned to about 3 on the dial out of 10. Clean channel, Newport Pro guitar. I've played with a bar band and kept up no problem.

Gripes? Nothing major at all. The biggest would be the tone difference between CH1 and CH2. When I have CH2 dialed in with one of the emulations and then switch to CH1, it takes a treble & bass tweak. Not big, but there is a difference. I usually use the Blackface emulation and run it pretty clean. I would have expected not to tweak the tone knobs when switching between this emulation and the clean channel. Another gripe is the protective cage around the tubes. When swapping tubes the cage has to be removed. I've never blown a tube in a rehearsal or show, but it would definitely cause a 5 minute delay to make the swap.

As an old guy, I love the small lightweight combo. How did I ever haul around a half stack 30 yrs ago? Maybe that's why my back hurts now!

The feature upgrades of the X2 look interesting. You can get a used XD pretty cheap these days, but I would consider paying the cost of a new X2 for the new features.

I've swapped around the tubes, and like whatever is in there now. The factory 12ax7 was a slightly harsh Chinese unit. Replacing it definitely improved the sound. I've tried several different brands of power tubes and find the originals to be pretty ok, though there is something different in there now. So you may want to experiment with preamp tubes before experimenting with power amp tubes.

[morningstar]

I have an XD and love the lil thing (but my go-to amp is still the 15 watt Tweaker).

Sounds like it is still in the software bedroom, even though the tone cries for the stage. Ahhhh a room full of drunks. Scwhing.!

morningstar