[funkStrat_97]

I would like to hear from some of you out there who have had any experience with this amp. I have been using a borrowed SCXD for some time now and have not been completely satisfied with it. At church, we run through the board and this amp has a convenient line out feature which takes the pressure off of me to have to play loud. It's light and portable, but I don't see much use for it beyond being a practice amp.

The main problem that I've experienced is that when I play clean, I disappear in the stage mix which negates using the amp as a monitor. We try to keep our stage volume to a comfortable level so that we don't become an unbearable montage of noise, but I think that the amps speaker (a 10" Fender Special Design) is likely the culprit here. When I use overdrive/distortion, however, it works fine. But the thing is that I like to play clean a lot and I find that the tone of the amp itself is limited which is probably due to the fact that there is no mid control. But with regards to the speaker; what would you recommend as an upgrade?

The owner of this amp (he owns two of them) has offered to sell it to me, but I think that I'd be better off with something else. IMO, the SCXD is an example of an overrated tube amp. Yes, it has tubes, but I am not feeling it. One of the other guitarists has a solid state Trademark 10 (Tech21) and it sounds fantastic.....and it can get loud too. The SCXD is great for practicing and recording and seems like it could do a passable job for a smaller gig with PA support, but I find it too limiting for me. Anyone else have any thoughts that they'd like to share?

[Stratopastor]

BillM (he of the Blues Junior page) knows a thing or three about the SCXD.

But it sounds like you're just not getting on with the SCXD and there's no law which says you have to. If ten folks come on this thread and say "well, I LOVE mine" that still isn't enough to make it right for you...

[LC7rock]

I own a Vibro Champ XD and I've been fairly okay with it, but then again, I normally run my Blackstar HT Dual for any sort of gain because I think the distortions on the Champ are a bit lacking. It is kinda cool when you use the cleans and crank the volume... but if you want more flexibility... look elsewhere.

[rcfromaz]

I own a Super-Champ XD. Tone and sound is very relative to the ear. Me, I like the Fender sound and I don't necessarily like the beautiful crunch of a Marshall for what I play. I bought the XD as a practice amp in a small room and mainly so I could crank it up to the 5-8 range and "use the tubes" as opposed to my other practice amp Hot Rod Deluxe which I cannot get past a 2 or 3 without causing ear pain in the same room.

I chose the Super Champ mainly due to the price point of $175....I was looking at used Blues Junior for $400-450. Decided on the Super Champ after discussing it with a friend who also owns a guitar store...who happened to sell it to me.(they are no longer made I believe due to the XL version...I think)

I recently replaced the speaker in the amp with a Jensen CR10 speaker (about $30 and a a DIY job...very easy to replace) and I'm really pleased with it. For live sessions I would probably take my HR Deluxe but if Mic'd up I think the Super Champ could work......I play in a Worship and Praise band and next time I think I will take my Super Champ with me...it sure is much lighter to carry.

All in all I like it as a practice amp...and for the price point you cant go wrong IMHO......but I do still have an eye out for a Blues Junior.....

ps. Changing the Speaker will make a huge differences....The Eminence Ragin Cajun is also recommended as a replacement but I think it takes away the Fender sound and makes it darker and more muddy... which could be what you are looking for.

[funkStrat_97]

I'll try a speaker upgrade. The bass response on the clean channel is abysmal, but the voicings in channel 2, but I seem to get too much compression with a distortion pedal through the front end.

[HairyScaryMark]

I own a Super Champ XD and have been using it for the last few years. I replaced my stock speaker with an Eminence Rajin Cajun, which is a huge improvement. The guitar now has a much fuller sound but still nice and sparkly. The bass response improves a lot with this replacement, although I'd caution that some guitar players want more bass response than is useful in a band mix. I warn however that the amp will weigh more if you opt for this speaker, although still easy to carry for short distances.

The lack of mid control has not been much of a problem for me, I tend to set bass around 5 and treble around 4-4.5. I use pedals for drive nearly all the time into the clean channel and I believe this is a notable improvement, although the sounds from channel 2 are still pretty good (especially with the speaker replacement).

A few things that will improve the sound in terms of useage;
Avoiding placing the rear of the amp right next to a wall, back of a chair or anything like that. It's open back and when covered, it's tended to sound really harsh. Allow a decent amount of space behind the speaker for air to move etc.
I also reckon it sounds better for worship music when I started using the clean channel and running pedals into the front of the amp.
Raise the amp to be higher and nearer to your ear level, but still try to avoid blocking the rear of the amp while doing this.
Mic the speaker rather than use a line out. I have never tried the line out but I wouldn't want to as I like the way it sounds out of the speaker. If you don't like the way it sounds out of the speaker, then you need to address that problem.
For my useage, I have tended to set the EQ fairly neutral, just to get rid of a little bit of treble and use the tone controls on the guitar and dirt pedals. All distortions and overdrives I've tried with the Super Champ, I have found the need to cut quite a lot of treble with, although not with my fuzz.

My last suggestion is perhaps more difficult but possibly one of the most important. Stick up for yourself in the church situation and turn your amp up slightly louder if you can't hear yourself. Other members of the worship team are unlikely to understand what you need to be able to worship the Lord effectively in this environment. The singers quite possibly don't fully appreciate what your amp is for or even what overdrive is. I know in church you are often under pressure to not 'disturb' anyone else in the worship group but you cannot let people bully you into doing something with your gear that doesn't let you play properly.
Can you confirm how you have your controls set at church? When I play at church I have my volume somewhere just after 2, when I've played with a loud band (sort of, as there was 4 vocals a bass player and a DJ with loud stage monitors) in a venue, I turned my volume up to around 6-6.5 and began to get a little bit of crunch. I think the super champ sounded the best it ever has then.

It is also possible that you hear the overdrive sounds more clearly as they are on average slightly louder than your clean sounds. An overdriven sound will be more compressed than clean but your pick attack will still alter the overall volume level to an extent, regardless of whether you are playing on clean or drive.