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pdecirce
Publié le 29/07/08 à 03:24
(contenu en anglais)
(contenu en anglais)
The Fender Super 60 is an all-tube 12'' speaker amplifier, manufactured in the US "Rivera" era of Fender amps, which means the early 90s and also sporting their fiery red knobs. 2 ax7 Pre-amp tubes, 26L6GC post tubes. Rivera went on to form his own amplifier company, but the one's he designed for Fender are well known. This amp is a hybrid, sort of a more powerful Blues amp, with two channels of tone, one clean and one driven. The clean tone boasts a bass, mid and treble setting; the drive channel has volume and tone. Both channels have a sweet dial reverb and a dial presence knob. The pedals I've found for it pass the signal back and forth between channels only; the reverb has to be dialed in. This is a fundamental weakness in the design of the reverb, as it sounds really lush and full (and sensitive; 3 is like 'church-room' reverb) but you can't cut it off for a solo or something. It has 1/4'' ins on the front and the usual direct outs and effect loop 1/4''s on the back. It has the solid grey grille with one 12'' speaker, red knobs and the "Super 60" in cool cursive. Oh by the way the thing weighs in at a hefty 55 pounds, so do what I haven't and invest in an anvil road case.
UTILIZATION
The set up is as easy as any combo, plug in and you're ready. You can fool with the split effects patch in the back but I just use my pedal board in the line. I've been using this as my stage amp for all of 2007 and 2008 and at any coffee-house or bar level this amplifier it's sufficient. The two channels have a shared eq which can be limiting. I've been able to stay on the clean channel all night, using volume + tube drive pedal to get a kind of rich bluesy distortion, however if you do use the overdrive channel, be prepared for bone-crushing volume and distortion. It's almost unheard of to use 60 watts into one speaker nowadays. I just tapped the knobs on the O/D channel and ran my guitar through an '81 MXR Distortion+ and a mild setting on an Ibanez Tube Screamer and came out with the most amazing "Sabbath" meets "Deep Purple" tone, it split my drummer's face! However, all is never perfect in using a vintage amp like this...read on.
SOUNDS
The bottom and top of the amplifier are relatively thin, meaning the bassy tone and the trebly. The fender speaker has a slight muddy feel at high volumes in general and this amp is no exception. The treble can take more before it 'thins out' and starts to sound cheap. The amp is extremely versatile. It can play picky country twang (try a Tele with a good chorus pedal), clean channel on 5 and crank the presence. It can handle heavy metal (try a Les Paul with bridge pickup and a tube screamer), distortion channel on 3 and that's enough for most bars in your town. It can even handle midrangey jazz; the "Fender" tone is really excellent on this amp, it can often sound like some of their best lines, but requires a lot of adjustment to make really clear. I've found that by 1) killing the bass volume, 2) cranking the tone and 3) chiefing the mids around here and there you can cut through everything from horns to loud drums. But like I said, I found myself wanting when I finally got her to a festival stage. The open air swallowed up my tone and I found myself raising the volume to the point where my pedals became muddy. If you use it outside make sure it's miked AND/or the sound man knows what he/she is doing.
OVERALL OPINION
For the money you will pay in finding and buying one, it can't be beat. The amount of power in the little amp will not disappoint. Most money today will get you much less power. The amp can be used with other cabinets from the outputs in the back, it can handle massive amounts of drive; it may be worth upgrading the speaker to Celestion or newer Fender perhaps; and while it may not be the first choice for super loud or heavy heavy groups, it is an absolute workhorse for the loudest of blues, funk, reggae, rock and jazz. Its most interesting feature is how 'modern' the distortion still sounds today.
UTILIZATION
The set up is as easy as any combo, plug in and you're ready. You can fool with the split effects patch in the back but I just use my pedal board in the line. I've been using this as my stage amp for all of 2007 and 2008 and at any coffee-house or bar level this amplifier it's sufficient. The two channels have a shared eq which can be limiting. I've been able to stay on the clean channel all night, using volume + tube drive pedal to get a kind of rich bluesy distortion, however if you do use the overdrive channel, be prepared for bone-crushing volume and distortion. It's almost unheard of to use 60 watts into one speaker nowadays. I just tapped the knobs on the O/D channel and ran my guitar through an '81 MXR Distortion+ and a mild setting on an Ibanez Tube Screamer and came out with the most amazing "Sabbath" meets "Deep Purple" tone, it split my drummer's face! However, all is never perfect in using a vintage amp like this...read on.
SOUNDS
The bottom and top of the amplifier are relatively thin, meaning the bassy tone and the trebly. The fender speaker has a slight muddy feel at high volumes in general and this amp is no exception. The treble can take more before it 'thins out' and starts to sound cheap. The amp is extremely versatile. It can play picky country twang (try a Tele with a good chorus pedal), clean channel on 5 and crank the presence. It can handle heavy metal (try a Les Paul with bridge pickup and a tube screamer), distortion channel on 3 and that's enough for most bars in your town. It can even handle midrangey jazz; the "Fender" tone is really excellent on this amp, it can often sound like some of their best lines, but requires a lot of adjustment to make really clear. I've found that by 1) killing the bass volume, 2) cranking the tone and 3) chiefing the mids around here and there you can cut through everything from horns to loud drums. But like I said, I found myself wanting when I finally got her to a festival stage. The open air swallowed up my tone and I found myself raising the volume to the point where my pedals became muddy. If you use it outside make sure it's miked AND/or the sound man knows what he/she is doing.
OVERALL OPINION
For the money you will pay in finding and buying one, it can't be beat. The amount of power in the little amp will not disappoint. Most money today will get you much less power. The amp can be used with other cabinets from the outputs in the back, it can handle massive amounts of drive; it may be worth upgrading the speaker to Celestion or newer Fender perhaps; and while it may not be the first choice for super loud or heavy heavy groups, it is an absolute workhorse for the loudest of blues, funk, reggae, rock and jazz. Its most interesting feature is how 'modern' the distortion still sounds today.