Fender Super Twin.

[DrNomis_44]

They're not bad, those Fender Vibro Champs, you might be able to upgrade the speaker to a 10 inch one, although you might have to replace the stock front baffle to be able to do so, I've got a Guitar Classics magazine that has an article about upgrading the speaker in a Fender blackface Champ with a 10 inch speaker, so it is do-able, apparently the author of the article reckons the speaker upgrade made the amp sound a lot better.


The Super Twin is sounding pretty good with my pedal board setup, I'm really surprised at how well the amp takes pedals, it's got tonnes of headroom due to the six 6L6 power tubes being connected up in what's called the "Ultra Linear" configuration, this means that the six 6L6 tubes can put out quite a fair bit of power, 180 Watts R.M.S. (R.M.S. is short for Root Mean Squared), and a peak power output of 395 watts, all at low distortion, I don't really need to crank the preamp and master volumes up much, about three for both is loud enough for my loungeroom, having tonnes of headroom means that the sounds I get with the pedals are going to be pretty clear, the bright switch definitely has an audible effect, the amp sounds warm when the bright switch is turned off, but there is still plenty of highs in the tone so it doesn't sound muffled, I've been spending a bit of time familiarizing myself with the amp, getting to know it and how to get good tones out of it, the funny thing is, some Super Twin amp owners say that it's hard to get a good tone, but my experience has been the exact opposite, I've found it really easy to get good tones, I've done some experimenting with the 5-band EQ and you don't have to do much with it to get some good tones with that either.

The amp definitely sounds better with the footswitch plugged in though, I like what the volume-boost footswitch does, but I'm not a big fan of the amp's built-in distortion, fortunately I can easily use a distortion pedal instead, the red JD-F2 Fuzz Face sounds great through the amp, as does my TS-9 Tube Screamer and BD-2 Blues Driver, the other pedals broaden the tonal palette I've got to work with, and I can use them to doctor clean tones if I want.

[Simon Barden]

Yes, even a better 8" speaker would be a worthwhile upgrade over the awful cheap Eminence that it's got at the moment. At least that wouldn't devalue it if I kept the original. These things are going up in value. It's in good condition (I've cleaned most of the dirt off it since I took the photo) and would probably go for around £600, currently over Aus$1000. It's one with a multi-tap mains transformer and a rear voltage setting switch, so could be used anywhere.

[DrNomis_44]

Yes, even a better 8" speaker would be a worthwhile upgrade over the awful cheap Eminence that it's got at the moment. At least that wouldn't devalue it if I kept the original. These things are going up in value. It's in good condition (I've cleaned most of the dirt off it since I took the photo) and would probably go for around £600, currently over Aus$1000. It's one with a multi-tap mains transformer and a rear voltage setting switch, so could be used anywhere.

You could consider replacing the stock speaker with something like a Jensen, if you wanted to upgrade to a 10 inch speaker, maybe something like a Jensen C10Q might sound good, I've got one in my Legacy 5 watt amp and it did wonders for the amp, considering that the stock speaker sounded muddy and midrangey.


I'm still very surprised at how well the four Celestion G12E-50 Rocket 50 speakers, in the Ashton quad box, work with the Super Twin amp, it's as if there's a synergistic thing going on, where the speaker's frequency response compliments the frequency response of the amp, Fender amps are known to have a midrange notch in the frequency spectrum, and Celestions do have a bit of midrange in them, so they complement each other nicely, well that's my theory anyway.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


The Fender Super Twin is still working great, I had a chance to try my Fender Strat through it after swapping out the stock Fat 50's pickups for a set of Fender N4 Noiseless pickups, still sounds pretty good, but I might need to tweak the hum balance control on the back panel of the Super Twin a bit cause the amp does still have some background hum.

Might post another demo later on.

[Marcel]

How do the N4's compare to the Fat 50's ??

I have vintage noiseless in my Deluxe Strat. They sure have the clean tone that a Strat should be but by my reckoning they are noticeably lower in output level. I'd be guessing at about 1/4 to 1/3 of what the set of 490R/498T HB put out in my LP, and 2/3 the level of my MIM loaded ply Strat.... Maybe when they (Fender) say 'vintage' they mean underwound compared to today's offerings...

[DrNomis_44]

How do the N4's compare to the Fat 50's ??

I have vintage noiseless in my Deluxe Strat. They sure have the clean tone that a Strat should be but by my reckoning they are noticeably lower in output level. I'd be guessing at about 1/4 to 1/3 of what the set of 490R/498T HB put out in my LP, and 2/3 the level of my MIM loaded ply Strat.... Maybe when they (Fender) say 'vintage' they mean underwound compared to today's offerings...

Tonewise, the N4s in my Fender Strat are about the same as the Fat 50's, the real difference is that I'm no longer getting that annoying background hum with the N4s, like I did with the Fat 50's, the N4s seem to have a bit more output than the Fat 50's too, but then that might be because I've set the pickup heights so that both the low E and high E pole pieces on each pickup are about 3/32 Inch close to the E strings when they are fretted just behind the last fret.


I'll record a quick demo later on so you can hear what they sound like.


I just remembered trying some Fender Noiseless pickups on my old Mexican Strat that I used to have, I remember them sounding a bit thin and weedy, they might have been the vintage noiseless ones cause their output was a bit low.

I'll record a quick demo now so you can hear what the N4s sound like, I'll be recording directly into my laptop via a Scarlett 2i2 usb audio interface, and I'll be using an amp plugin called Emissary, and a speaker cab simulator plugin called Nadir, in FL Studio.


Here you go, hope this gives you some idea of what they sound like, notice that there's very little background hum noise:

https://soundcloud.com/drnomis_44/am...pickups-demo-1


Personally I think they're fine, you get that single-coil pickup tone without that annoying background hum noise that you get with conventional single-coil pickups, even though the N4s are technically humbuckers from what I've read.

[Marcel]

Thin and weedy....lol

I wouldn't say that, but 'a bit low' I would. My MIM Deluxe is still as per factory settings so maybe it's just me needing to adjust my expectations when swapping between it and my LP.

The demo sounds good...

[DrNomis_44]

Thin and weedy....lol

I wouldn't say that, but 'a bit low' I would. My MIM Deluxe is still as per factory settings so maybe it's just me needing to adjust my expectations when swapping between it and my LP.

The demo sounds good...

Cheers, I reckon it was definitely worth doing the upgrade to the N4s, it means I can record cleaner sounding demos without the hum noise, which used to put me off a bit.

I still have the set of three Fat 50's packed away in a plastic bag.


I also ended up swapping-out the original stock bridge of my Fender USA Strat for a new chrome SuperVee Bladerunner bridge, because the knife edges on the stock bridge had some wear on them, and the stock bridge wasn't returning to neutral like it was supposed to, and then the stock tuners wore out which forced me to install a set of vintage-style Klusons on the headstock.

[wazkelly]

Sounds very clean Doc.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

[DrNomis_44]

Sounds very clean Doc.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

Yep, no more annoying background humming in all the pickup-switch positions, I can use higher gain settings on my Marshall amp, and my TS-9 and Blues Driver pedals.