Bad news and a potential choice, DRRI or Supersonic 22?

Richardj

OK, bad news this morning. My usual confidence in UPS has taken a bit of a knock as it seems they may well have totaled my DRRI on it's way back to Fender to be fixed.  Because Fender France arranged all of this they have immediately offered, if the amp is damaged, to replace it with a brand new one.  I could have the option to have a Supersonic instead and it does appeal as it has the more modern 'Burn' drive channel.  I haven't tried one, opinions?

thomasw88

I'd go for the deluxe reverb. I've owned both, and ultimately sold the supersonic as after a while it just didn't float my boat. But obviously you do get a two channel amp with the supersonc. But the deluxe reverb does sound great with drive pedals..

plus the resale value on the drri tends to be better.

monquixote

I've had an SS22 and I'd go for the DRRI. 

Mainly because of the trem, but also because I found that I never used the burn channel and the footswitch was too big and badly designed and "popped" slightly on channel change.

Travis has mine now and loves it however.

DrBob

monquixote said:

I've had an SS22 and I'd go for the DRRI. 

Mainly because of the trem, but also because I found that I never used the burn channel and the footswitch was too big and badly designed and "popped" slightly on channel change.

Travis has mine now and loves it however.

Yeah and funnily enough after years of being a 'clean amp with drive from pedals' kind of guy I think he is really digging the Burn channel on it.

Skipped

Don't these 2 have different speakers? How close could the Supersonic get to the DRRI signature sound if it had a Jensen speaker?

monquixote

Yes the SS22 is a Lightning like an HRDIII 

Fender claim the clean is the same amp so should be very similar. They are slightly different shapes (SS22 is shallower and wider)

Drew_TNBD

DRRI.

strtdv

If you want the cleans and pushed cleans of a DRRI, get a DRRI. If you need a channel switcher, get the SS22.

There's a pretty useful comparison video HERE

And the same guy has a comparison video with drive.

I know which of the two I prefer..

See if Fender will change your 65 DRRI for a new 68 DRRI though, IMO it could be even more useful

equalsql

I prefer the Supersonic sound-wise. I'm mainly a Tele/Strat player and having AB'd both amps I preferred the SS but given the choice of having either one to rely on as my main amp I would go for the DDRI as the SSs have a bad track record in terms of reliability, switch popping and background hiss and I'm not sure if Fender have yet addressed these issues.

ThePrettyDamned

Not tried a supersonic but a mate sold his drri because it took drive pedals pretty badly. It worked fine with some, but was really trebly and nasty with others.

Not sure if it's a one off bad one?

ICBM

No, the Deluxe Reverb has two bright caps in the circuit which do that with some pedals. BF/SF reverb amps all have these caps, and in the models larger than the Deluxe one of them is switchable (Bright switch on each channel), but the other one is part of the reverb mixer circuit and isn't.

You can get around the issue to some extent by using the Normal channel, and jumpering to the Vibrato channel (with the treble off, volume low and reverb high - essentially a reverb sidechain) if you need reverb on it.

I would probably ask for a '68 Deluxe Reverb too. I've heard of quite a few problems with the Super Sonics, although not come across any personally.

Richardj

Cheers guys.  A consideration to this is that I hadn't actually really wanted a DRRI, it came in a trade and I quite liked it as it has the classic Fender tone I like so much.  I had based my pedal board around what suited it too.  I genuinely don't find it a 'better' amp than my Roadhouse 30.  It is a bit vain but I'm not too keen on the looks of the silver face amps.  If the Supersonic combines a bit of the DRRI's clean tone and a more modern, useful drive channel it has some appeal.  I guess I'll see how far I can push my luck with what Fender can offer.

EdGrip

I was about to point out that the DR '68 is the prettier of the two, but then I read your last post. ^_^

57Deluxe

youtube it and go down your local shops for a play... only you know what you want from your amp...

noisepolluter

ThePrettyDamned said:

Not tried a supersonic but a mate sold his drri because it took drive pedals pretty badly. It worked fine with some, but was really trebly and nasty with others.

Not sure if it's a one off bad one?

I went through a similar experience - it's much less of an issue now - either I'm subconsciously dialling in differently and/or playing differently to work around it, or I'm just not noticing/not bothered by it any more.

I only ever noticed it at home (playing quietly and unaccompanied) anyway. 

 

 

Richardj

An update, of sorts.  It turns out the amp was returned to the dealer and according to them it wasn't damaged.  Good news! 

So now it goes direct to Fender France in Paris to be fixed and was given to UPS last Thursday to be returned direct to me.  It arrives very late today and upon unboxing it is indeed smashed (!)  Woeful standard of packaging and protection and there is a split in the rail holding the baffle on one side and a big split in the bottom of the cab on one side.  It is very broken.   

Of course too late to call Fender here but a call to the US apparently flags it to head of Customer Service for Europe.

Now we see how well they deal with it.

sweepy

The Supersonic 100 is awesome for taking pedals  maybe it was a rubbish OD pedal, Tubescreamer perhaps ?

richardhomer

Richardj;219643" said:

An update, of sorts.  It turns out the amp was returned to the dealer and according to them it wasn't damaged.  Good news! 

So now it goes direct to Fender France in Paris to be fixed and was given to UPS last Thursday to be returned direct to me.  It arrives very late today and upon unboxing it is indeed smashed (!)  Woeful standard of packaging and protection and there is a split in the rail holding the baffle on one side and a big split in the bottom of the cab on one side.  It is very broken.  :( 

Of course too late to call Fender here but a call to the US apparently flags it to head of Customer Service for Europe.

Now we see how well they deal with it.

Forgive my language but this is piss-poor.

A new amp must be a formality....

Gagaryn

I reckon it will be exactly that. My experience with Fender when I had a faulty amp was first class - new amp and a box of goodies. :-)

Richardj

UPS man arrives out of the blue late yesterday afternoon to collect the amp, I think expecting me to be Mr Angry (I wasn't, it doesn't help). So the amp is off to UPS in Toulouse to inspect the amp, packaging, box etc and then off to Fender in Paris.  I now await the finger pointing and arguing between UPS and Fender!

Loobs

DRRI any day of the week.