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kyleohare « Like having two Vintage Fender Amps in one!! »
Published on 05/08/12 at 17:24This amp is a 60 W (all tube) with a solid state rectifier . The channels for clean are Vibrolux, and Bassman - with another channel called 'Burn' for distortion / overdrive. The Burn channel has 'cascading gain' , or two gain pots to dial in your distortion sound. This amp sounds better than my Fender Twin Reissue on it's clean channel, which is just amazing to me - because the Twin has 2x12's, the SS only 1x12 -- and I just had new tubes put in it and Bias'ed so I know WTF I am talking about. Not that the Twin sounds bad! Don't take me the wrong way. I just prefer the tone, response of this amp - and playing through the bassman channel of my SS now, and I had the Twin for 5 years... Twins' are great amps, and go for more $ used because I think that more people know what they are thus they are in more demand at this point in time. With 10-15 years behind us I believe that this amp will go UP in value, because it really does sound fantastic and will be very sought after once musicians realize what they missed out on.
Remember that you have to break in that Celestion V30 though, it took some time for it to sound good after working the speaker for a while - they loosen up or something, and sound better. I almost replaced the V30 in the beginning, so just stomp on that bad boy for a while (play some bass rich stuff through it) and it will be broken in enough to sound like it should. Seriously. Look it up if you don't believe me, i'm not the first person to comment on the unbroken-in V30 speaker aspect of this amplifier.
UTILIZATION
I rarely take the amp off of the Bassman channel, because it sounds so good and has more of a mid-scoop (bass rich) tone, which is why Guitar players in the late 60's-70's ditched their amps for the bass player's bassman rig. I think this amp sounds better than the Fender Twin Reissue I have in the same studio on the bassman channel, but not so much on the Vibrolux, though it probably works for clean / telecaster / country blues type of stuff. I'm more of a Pink Floyd head, so I run a Digitech 2120 for my 'Chandler Tube Driver' distortion tone into the clean Bassman channel of this amp.
It sounds FANTASTIC at both bedroom levels / studio sessions and on stage -- and to boot I get praises all of the time for the tone coming out of it, and of course it's 'vintage' looks. I think people get confused, and often think that it's a vintage fender, which of course I like! Instead of opting for the Black Tolex, I got blonde -- which I sort of regret now. There is a reason why so many amps are Black Tolex'ed. It doesn't show ever little scrape, mark, etc... but the blonde tolex --- well, it does. So you get the idea.
SOUNDS
I use a digitech 2112, upgraded e-prom chip to make it the 2120. The digitech out through the bassman channel does everything I need - Sounds great for cleans, blues, overdriven stuff and even a mesa boogie-esq / metal rhythm tone with it - though I am not a metal player.
When bypassed, the amp sounds fantastic too with the clean channels. I'm not a huge fan of the 'Burn' channel , as volume is decreased (though there is a mod for this) ; and the distortion tone though it does have cascading gain doesn't sound as good as my Fender Twin. I still like it though, and I could see it as being a useful channel for blues, and classic rock .
The cleans are what REALLY make this amp shine. It's like having two really nice vintage fender cleans in one, which I just love. Fender did their homework, and gave a blues / classic rock guitar player exactly what the doctor ordered on this one. I've even played this amp next to (a real Vibrolux) on the clean channel, and they nailed it. Really. The Bassman channel also sounds like the original amp as well. Fender remained true to what they built their name on -- great sounding tube amps. LOVE IT.
OVERALL OPINION
Volume knob (like on almost all Fender tube amps) gets really loud at '2', which i've heard there is a mod to fix. It's kind of annoying though, because it gets REALLY loud with just a minor adjustment of the Volume knob. That could be an advantage for some, but not myself. I leave it on 2-3 and adjust volume now through the Digitech unit.
I tried TONS of amps before I settled on the Fender SS 60 watt. Played almost all of the Fender tube amps, mainly because of the clean channel which I knew would be excellent for running my FX through.
Sounds wonderful with Analog pedals too. I've been playing for years, and I have a Tube Screamer, a Chandler Tube Driver, and some other stuff I use sometimes with it. All of em sound like they should.
'Knowing what I know now' makes me want to buy every one I see used for under $1,000. I paid $1,400 for this amp + tax, and I don't regret it one bit - it was worth every damn penny & money well spent - so I could never see parting with it for anything less than $1K.
Remember that you have to break in that Celestion V30 though, it took some time for it to sound good after working the speaker for a while - they loosen up or something, and sound better. I almost replaced the V30 in the beginning, so just stomp on that bad boy for a while (play some bass rich stuff through it) and it will be broken in enough to sound like it should. Seriously. Look it up if you don't believe me, i'm not the first person to comment on the unbroken-in V30 speaker aspect of this amplifier.
UTILIZATION
I rarely take the amp off of the Bassman channel, because it sounds so good and has more of a mid-scoop (bass rich) tone, which is why Guitar players in the late 60's-70's ditched their amps for the bass player's bassman rig. I think this amp sounds better than the Fender Twin Reissue I have in the same studio on the bassman channel, but not so much on the Vibrolux, though it probably works for clean / telecaster / country blues type of stuff. I'm more of a Pink Floyd head, so I run a Digitech 2120 for my 'Chandler Tube Driver' distortion tone into the clean Bassman channel of this amp.
It sounds FANTASTIC at both bedroom levels / studio sessions and on stage -- and to boot I get praises all of the time for the tone coming out of it, and of course it's 'vintage' looks. I think people get confused, and often think that it's a vintage fender, which of course I like! Instead of opting for the Black Tolex, I got blonde -- which I sort of regret now. There is a reason why so many amps are Black Tolex'ed. It doesn't show ever little scrape, mark, etc... but the blonde tolex --- well, it does. So you get the idea.
SOUNDS
I use a digitech 2112, upgraded e-prom chip to make it the 2120. The digitech out through the bassman channel does everything I need - Sounds great for cleans, blues, overdriven stuff and even a mesa boogie-esq / metal rhythm tone with it - though I am not a metal player.
When bypassed, the amp sounds fantastic too with the clean channels. I'm not a huge fan of the 'Burn' channel , as volume is decreased (though there is a mod for this) ; and the distortion tone though it does have cascading gain doesn't sound as good as my Fender Twin. I still like it though, and I could see it as being a useful channel for blues, and classic rock .
The cleans are what REALLY make this amp shine. It's like having two really nice vintage fender cleans in one, which I just love. Fender did their homework, and gave a blues / classic rock guitar player exactly what the doctor ordered on this one. I've even played this amp next to (a real Vibrolux) on the clean channel, and they nailed it. Really. The Bassman channel also sounds like the original amp as well. Fender remained true to what they built their name on -- great sounding tube amps. LOVE IT.
OVERALL OPINION
Volume knob (like on almost all Fender tube amps) gets really loud at '2', which i've heard there is a mod to fix. It's kind of annoying though, because it gets REALLY loud with just a minor adjustment of the Volume knob. That could be an advantage for some, but not myself. I leave it on 2-3 and adjust volume now through the Digitech unit.
I tried TONS of amps before I settled on the Fender SS 60 watt. Played almost all of the Fender tube amps, mainly because of the clean channel which I knew would be excellent for running my FX through.
Sounds wonderful with Analog pedals too. I've been playing for years, and I have a Tube Screamer, a Chandler Tube Driver, and some other stuff I use sometimes with it. All of em sound like they should.
'Knowing what I know now' makes me want to buy every one I see used for under $1,000. I paid $1,400 for this amp + tax, and I don't regret it one bit - it was worth every damn penny & money well spent - so I could never see parting with it for anything less than $1K.