Fender Supersonic Club

Got a deal on a vibro king 212. Sold the vintage 30s and loaded an Eminence Private Jack and Cannabis Rex. Put a Jensen Electric Lightning in the amp. I'm not a fan of vintage 30s and this sounds much better to me now. The closed cab really adds some lows and its sounds more balanced than just the amp with the Celestion. Even without the cab, the Jensen sounds way better.

 

Just bought a used Supersonic 60 Combo and very excited. Can't tell how old it is. The Fender website says there should be a two letter code on the QA sticker to tell you the date, but this one has what looks like a hand written "W" on it and that's it. The serial is CR-319,xxx. Cant remember it all. Anyone know what I'm missing?

 

i wouldnt really worry about how old it is, i think they just came out a few years ago.

 

I read someone saying something about they worked on some kind of issue with the models that they fix with them around 2008, unless there was a Supersonic model before this and I'm getting them confused. Mine is blonde tolex with ox blood grill.

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I think the earlier ones had a different font or script than the recent vintage flowing script supersonic.
See rguys pic up there, it's got the earlier "supersonic" script.

 

Mine has the straighter font. I like the curvier font better, but oh well. If that is the only difference.

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Emailed Fender and they said it was made in 2008. I finally got a chance to open it up a little and boy is it loud! I might replace the speaker. The V30 is a little to biting for my taste. I wish I could find something light weight that sounds like an EVM12L even if not in the same power handling range, but doubt that is out there. Might try a Jensen Neo12-100. Hear good things about them once they are broken in.

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Jensen neos are great.
I pulled a heavy EV 12 out of my 50 w musicman and dropped one in.
I dig it.
It will also retain the deluxe vibe of the amp IMO.

I like the out of the box speaker that came with my ss22.

 

I agree with replacing the vintage 30, I like the Jensen I put in a lot more.

 

I'm going to let the vintage 30 ride for a bit and see if it doesn't grow on me. At least for a few gigs. Really love the tone range of the amp for sure. It might be the loudest amp I've owned including an 85 watt late 60's twin reverb and a mesa mkIIb. I was practicing halfway between 0 and 1 last night and it wasn't quiet y any means. Haven't been out of the house yet, but only got it slightly past 1 so far and it was loud at that already!

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I've just put a cannabis rex in mine. So far it seems to have tamed to ice pick a bit.

Next up are the tubes. If someone could suggest some tube types and brands that might help me accomplish the following:

Lower overall volume (so I don't have to attenuate so much to push the power tubes)
Less gain on the burn channel (the amount of gain I want is right between the clean and burn channel! Actually I could do with a LOT less gain)
Smoother overdrive on the burn channel
Less noise on the reverb

I have a couple of mullard nos 12AX7 left over from another amp that I could use. But if I'm looking for less gain then maybe 12AX7 isn't the best to use.

Any suggestions?

 

if i had $500 i'd have another super sonic 60w....

http://york.craigslist.org/msg/4094985417.html

 

SS 60 Watt volume

My SS 60W has always had that volume difference between the Vibro/Bassman settings. And If you used identicle settings on an actual Vibro set next to a Bassman, you will still hear a difference. The Bassman was originally a bass amp and the tone as such was ment to bring the low end through. With a guitar it just sounds fatter/punchier than a Vibrolux. If it bothers you try working more with the volume control. The same can be said for both the Normal/Burn channel relationship. OD always requires more output to equal a clean output. Its what the OD (saturation) does to the tone and volume.

 

Have any of you upgraded from the 60w to the 100w twin version? i'm considering the upgrade but curious about a few things

does the 25w club setting seem to kill the tone?

is there much of a difference in volume comparing the 60w 1x12 vs 25w 2x12?

would you do it all over again? as in do you feel it was worth upgrading or did it seem like spending a nice chunk of cash for very little difference?

how does it compare tone wise to the 60w vibro/bassman clean?


im mainly considering the change for the added controls of the clean channel and damping controls. the bias feature seems like a nice upgrade too. my issue is that i think i'd have a hard time moving the 60w and have to take a couple hundred $$ loss to move it faster and then i'd have to throw a couple more hundred in also to get the 100w.

 

also curious, has anyone else with the SS 60w noticed that the clean channel sounds great with the vol around 9-10 o'clock but starts to sound harsh/squawky (not in a good way) beyond that? im wondering if my speaker just isnt fully broken in or if its something else. i've got tons of hours on the speaker but most with lower volumes.

the burn channel does sound great cranked though so i dunno.

 

I have a ss22 that had the same issue. Nothing usable in the clean channel past about 4 on the vol knob. I had my amp tech add a couple resistors to the input signal path and it made a huge difference. I can run the clean channel vol up to 8 now and it's still clean. It's much easier to dial in the volume now.

 

that sucks. wonder how hard that would be to do myself? i live in the middle of nowhere and there are no local amp techs

 

I'm sure it's simple if you have the skills. I don't. I'm much better at breaking things than fixing them. I think he only charged me 25 bucks. Good luck.

 

i dont have any skill with amp guts yet, hoping to build a kit or 2 soon maybe i'll try after that or find a tech by then. was hoping it was something tubes or speaker would fix.

 

i wonder if it has separate pre amp tubes for the clean and burn channel or if the burn channel uses them too and adds a couple for more gain? as in i wonder if simply changing a pre amp tube could make the clean channel a little better for me without effecting the burn channel that i really like. i guess i could always just use the burn channel on a nice lower gain setting and then punch it in the face with the bad monkey when i want a bit more drive untill i figure it out.

this worry's me in the sense that i've always wanted a bassman and vlux but the clean channel had me worried that i wouldnt like either.