Fender Super Champ XD

I sold my two electric guitar amps, a Roland Jazz Chorus 50 to a kid in Tucson and a Fender G-Dec 30 to a man with kids. I was trying to clear out space. I figured I could just play my pod through my acoustic guitar amp and I had a pedal, Line 6 JM-4, that would allow me to "practice with the band" so I didn't need the G-Dec anymore. I was proud that I clear out the space the amps were taking up as my music room/office was a bit crowded.

My acoustic amp, Fishman Loudbox 100, started acting up. Fishman fixed it, but before that occured I went back to thinking I needed a regular guitar amp. I started looking and had decided I wanted something small like a 1x12, a tube amp and something that had great clean tone. I need a good clean channel for playing with the pod. After doing research EVERYONE said Fender amps have the best clean tone. The funny thing is that for solid state the Roland Jazz Chorus was reported to be the best clean and so I felt stupid for having sold it. You live and learn.

So now I'd narrowed it down to Fender and I was looking at the Blues Junior. I found Billm's website on customizations to the Blue Junior and was excited to get one. BUT THEN... I found the Super Champ XD. It is a tube amp, with modeling AND is a 1x10 which means it was going to be easy to carry. The Blue Junior didn't have modeling but did have reverb and chorus, but I figured the Super Champ would be the best choice for me. I could use it easily without pedals and it was small enough to carry and big enough to give good sound.

I also read that the stock speaker which is 8 Ohm, 35watts wasn't that good. I probably wouldn't have known the difference, but everyone was saying that at high volumes the stock speaker just wasn't going to cut it. So I did replace the stock speaker with an Eminence Ragin Cajun. It is louder and is a bit my harsh, but I heard that will smooth out after the speaker is broken in. There is talk about good results when changing the tubes, but I'm not going to do that until I have to.

I am very pleased with the features and size of this amp. I'm glad I got it. I got it for a good price too. I bought it from Guitar Center, but found a better price on Musicians Buy for $329 with free shipping. Fender went up on their prices in September of last year and then again at the beginning of this year and while the discount didn't get me back to the original price of the amp it came close.

I've been playing electric guitar more since getting this amp. This is my first tube amp and it sounds great!!