Fender Supersonic 60w head

shaunm

Are these any good? Are they well made amps? How do they compare to twins or HRD's?

Any advice would be great.

ICBM

They seem a bit overpriced (to me) and have reports of reliability problems and issues with the footswitch, although I have no personal experience.

Twins are a classic, well-made and reliable, but if you mean the reissue ones are a much simpler amp really - no channel switching, FX loop etc.

HRDs are also a classic modern amp, great value for money and now well above average reliability - they've been in production a long time (longer than any other Fender amp model in fact) and have had all the early faults ironed out.

If you're after the absolutely classic Blackface tone, the HRD won't do it though. They do have a great clean tone, but it's somewhere between BF and Tweed in terms of voicing, and the reverb isn't quite as good.

Fortheloveofguitar

I sold my Supersonic 60 head.

Clean was good but the OD is very hifi sounding with no punch whatsoever.

MattFGBI

The super sonic 60 is one of the most reliable amps we have. Can't remember the last time I saw one back to be honest.

You just need to decide what tone you want.

At the moment I don't think there's anything better than the 68 Vibrolux, but it's nothing like a super sonic.

Deijavoo

Ratching through the presets on Bias, I'm in love with a patch someone has loaded up of his Supersonic. Always fancied one but heard various reliability reports.

Plus for used the prices vary massively.

ICBM

MattFGBI said:

The super sonic 60 is one of the most reliable amps we have. Can't remember the last time I saw one back to be honest.

Is it the 22 that's had the problems?

MattFGBI

the amps are all generally very good. I find that we're sometimes let down by the bits we don't make, like valves. The vast majority of what I see is back for new valves. The 22's have a higher level of background noise but it's rather subjective. You'll probably notice it more if you're a bedroom player but in reality these amps are for gigs and not for low level home use.

monquixote

My 22 had quite a few niggles and since it's gone to Travisthedog it's had a few more. 

The DIN footswitch cable was the main annoyance as the cable fails very easily, takes a fuse with it when it does and is difficult and expensive to replace. 

The 22 also pops on channel change which annoys some more than others.

No idea if the 60 has any of these problems.

57Deluxe

I have had my ss60 combo for about 5 years and is OK still...

Don't rely on the Burn chn to make your drive pedals redundant as so much was muted in its promotional flurry... I use moderate drive on the Bassman chn and it is thick and warm. You can get good blues drive off the Burn chn at lower settings. Yes the cleans are superb and offer some nice tones away from the standard Fender Reverb/Twin camp etc...

Be aware too - the Bassman is not Tweed Bassman circuit, is the 60s era piggy back

MattFGBI

Did you send it back for us to take a look? If the cable fails we can replace it under warranty. Does it bang or just give a pop when changing channels?

bingefeller

What is the "Burn" channel based on?  

I've heard Jeff Kollman and Greg Koch using these amps and they sounded incredible.  Kollman uses them quite a lot live.

fastboy

Me and a tech mate were discussing these the other day and we're both of the same opinion.

The two clean modes of the vibrolux and bassman sound nothing like either of the originals. We both thought they sounded harsh and didn't have a great deal of headroom..

The drive channel was so so. Personally I'd buy another twin and a drive pedal if I was aiming for that type of setup

monquixote

MattFGBI said:

Did you send it back for us to take a look? If the cable fails we can replace it under warranty. Does it bang or just give a pop when changing channels?

It was under warranty, but I needed it for a gig in two days so I got my local bloke to have a look at it. 

He didn't think the cable was especially good quality so he made me up a really chunky one which I used instead. 

It popped on channel change sometimes more than others, but always enough to be annoying and on the advice of other owners I spoke to they all do it so I didn't bother to send it in for repair.

I got fed up with the niggles and traded it in the end.

57Deluxe

Mine can POP when turning the main power off... (not into standby)

MattFGBI

They do give a pop but it shouldn't be a bang.  If it is a bang we should have probably taken a look. 

the_jaffa

Just as a counterpoint, I've never had any issues with a pop when changing channels on my 22 combo.  There is no noise at all so maybe it is not all the 22s that do it.

Only issue I have with mine is a slight rattle when played at low volume in the house.  Never notice it once turned up at all.

I'm super happy with mine

jpfamps

I've seen 3 Supersonic amps where heat from zener diode regulating the LT supply has caused arcing over from the high voltage screen supply.

This is caused by the screen grid supply running close to the LT supply and the zener generating heat (not helped by the amp being wired to 230 VAC) causing the solder mask insulation to breakdown.