- 42 minutes ago
Get a close-up look and listen to the Fender '62 Super Amp. This demo covers its features, including the solid pine cabinet, custom 10-inch Celestion speakers, and the differences between the Normal and Vibrato channels.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:22Hi, I'm Richard Barrett for Guitarist Magazine and I'm here to show you the new Fender Super Amp.
00:28Now you'll notice it's not a super reverb, the amp doesn't have reverb, so let's get that out of the
00:33way straight away.
00:34This is the brown panel. Now in the hierarchy of Fender Amps, they started with the Tweed Amps,
00:41which became really well known for breaking up in a really musical way, rich mids.
00:47It's hard to imagine now, but at that time that was not what they were looking for out of the
00:52amp.
00:52So the next iteration of Fender Amps was the brown panels, which were much higher clean headroom and then they
01:03went on further to refine it by going to the black panel amps where you've got your super reverb and
01:09your twin reverb, those kind of things.
01:11Now that was considered to be the ultimate because they were the highest clean headroom, slightly scooped mids.
01:17So to many, these brown panel amps occupy something of a sweet spot.
01:23They are very well mannered indeed in front of a microphone.
01:28They'll have a really good amount of clean headroom without being harsh.
01:32Most people seem to describe these as having a woody quality.
01:36I'd agree with that as well.
01:38And then as you push on the dial, depending on the guitar, of course, up above halfway, you start to
01:44get a really musical, quite smooth breakup that you can kind of, as we will discover later in this video,
01:52you can just about stand to be in the room with.
01:55And it's considered a bit of a secret weapon in guitar circles because there are quite a few albums with
02:02this sound on.
02:03One of the most interesting to me personally is the first ZZ Top Tres Hombres.
02:09That's got Fender Super all over it.
02:12So to discuss the spec a bit more, it's a 2x10 combo and 12 inches speakers are associated most with
02:26the guitar, I would say.
02:2810 inches slightly less so, though they do have their fans and Pete Townsend uses the 10 inch speakers with
02:36his Fender amps.
02:37The Fender bass memory issues are 4x10 and they are very fast and focused.
02:43They're not super bright by their nature, they're just quicker.
02:49The speakers in this amp are custom Celestians, which are made for this amp and unavailable anywhere else.
02:58The original speakers with one of these would have been the Oxford 10K5.
03:04And that speaker is not available new anymore.
03:07You'd be looking around the second hand and taking all those chances.
03:11But these speakers actually really suit the amp and they sound great.
03:16The open back or semi open back construction gives a really good spread around the room.
03:21And so I miss the reverb, but this is a faithful reconstruction of those original amps, which were only made
03:31for four years between about 1960 and 64.
03:36So you really are getting something that is not as ubiquitous as the tweeds or the black panels.
03:43They're made in the US, they are, well, there's a very premium vibe to these.
03:50You've got sockets on the back for an extension speaker and a foot switch, which does come with the amp.
03:56That's a one button foot switch.
03:58And it allows you to switch between the normal channel and the vibrato channel.
04:03The vibrato channel itself is worth mentioning because the type of circuit here is not that commonly found, especially not
04:14these days.
04:15I'm not an electronics expert, but what I have read about it tells me that the signal is split into
04:22high and low frequencies and that the bias of the power amp tubes is modulated.
04:30And so this, as well as creating the volume up and down effect that we all associate with vibrato or
04:35tremolo or whatever you want to call it,
04:37it does add a kind of phase shifty quality to it as well.
04:40So it's more bubbly and chewy, which is really nice.
04:44And I'll demonstrate that in a minute.
04:46Construction wise, we have an all solid pine cabinet and there are a few benefits to this.
04:51It's not just a selling point.
04:52The pine is lighter than plywood or chipboard, MDF, whatever you want to call it.
04:58It also has a sound benefit.
05:00It's more musical.
05:02It does sound a bit sweeter.
05:03You can hear the difference.
05:05So that's another premium feature, if you like.
05:09Right, well, I think it's time to have a listen to some sounds.
05:14I'm going to start plugged into input one of the vibrato channel.
05:19Now, there are two inputs for each channel and apparently input one is a slightly higher gain.
05:24I mean, we're talking subtle here and slightly brighter.
05:28I plan to compare the two as we go on.
05:32Each of the channels is pretty much identical.
05:35It seems to me, you've got three 12ax7s for the preamp section of each, a total of six.
05:43Output wise, I should mention that we're looking at two 6L6s.
05:48So very much traditional Fender.
05:51I'm going to show you the tremolo vibrato effect.
05:54I never know which to call it, and you'll hear that it's got that slightly chewy phaser effect on it.
06:13I have to admit, that's a bit bone dry for my ears.
06:17So I think what we need is a tiny splash of reverb on a pedal.
06:23Let's hear it with that.
06:41That just sweetens things up a little bit and probably gives a better idea of what the amp would sound
06:47like in a real gigging situation.
06:49Because these rooms are rarely studio dry, as it is in here, that's why it's a good studio.
06:54Okay, now let's hear that without the vibrato.
06:57So I'll take that off here.
07:00Let's see what we got.
07:12Okay, now I'm going to hop over to the normal channel, which I've set as far as I can identically.
07:31Maybe I'm hearing a tiny little bit of extra snap on the top there.
07:35It's hard to tell.
07:37I reckon that you could make them sound identical very easily.
07:42And with the foot switch, you could set each channel differently as well.
07:46One brighter, one louder, one dirtier.
07:49You could even go so far as to have an A-B box sending different lines of pedals if you
07:54wanted to go that way.
07:55The amp will have the power to deal with that in most gigging situations.
08:00What I propose to do is to play a little bit more on this channel to give us a reference
08:05point.
08:05And then I'm going to go straight for input two on this channel to see what we're, see what we
08:11get.
08:23Okay.
08:37I don't know how much difference I'm hearing in the core tone, but clearly we've got slightly less gain going
08:45on.
08:45And the reason for that really is if you are using a higher output guitar or perhaps running some kind
08:52of preamp to warm things up, not that you'd really need that, then that might optimize your gain staging as
08:59you go along.
09:00I should point out that, yes, I'm using EMGs on the Strat.
09:03I'm not using any boosts.
09:05They're not super high output pickups.
09:07They're based on a vintage single coil from a 60s Strat.
09:10So, yeah, maybe they've got a lower magnet pull.
09:14So you're not hearing quite so much of that warbling.
09:17But I think it's a pretty true representation.
09:20Okay, so let's go back to the vibrato channel.
09:24And I think we've established that those inputs do give us, they've got a different kind of function to them.
09:33I'd like to show you the way the controls are voiced, really.
09:37Bass, treble and presence.
09:39There's no mid.
09:40So, effectively, if you're running the amp with the bass and treble set lower, it's a little bit like turning
09:46up the mid.
09:46But you won't be dirtying things up if you were to run a Marshall and run the mids higher.
09:51It's quite a good way to push them into overdrive.
09:53As we will discover, we don't really need that on here.
09:57We can just turn the amp up.
09:58It has its own mids.
10:00So, let's have a look at where the treble control is voiced in the frequency spectrum.
10:06Around about five here.
10:14That's the middle pickup here.
10:15I'm going to just pull that up.
10:17I don't know.
10:18Let's not be too subtle about it.
10:20We want to hear the difference.
10:28That's seriously bright in the room.
10:31It's going to have its uses.
10:32I don't personally want to use it like that.
10:36Let's take it down a bit and see what happens there.
10:46That's very versatile, actually.
10:48With it down there, I can almost get a humbucker sound.
10:50What about here at about four?
10:57That's nice because it allows a bit of openness and takes away the potential for that really super bright tone
11:04that you can sometimes get from a bridge single coil.
11:08Okay, I've found, actually, maybe it's because I'm sat to the side slightly, that it sounds really good at about
11:14halfway.
11:15So, I'm going to put it back there and leave it.
11:17The bass control.
11:18Okay, let's start with it off.
11:27That does thin out the sound a great deal.
11:30It's still useful.
11:31I think that as we turn the amp up, which I'll be doing soon to demonstrate the natural breakup, it's
11:38good to run the bass a little bit lower because things can flub out somewhat.
11:43Let's try it with the bass right up to about eight and see what we get.
11:47This is going to be a bit thumpy, I think.
11:56I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised by that because with a 12-inch speaker or pair of 12-inch
12:03speakers, things can start to get really boomy.
12:06And the 10-inch speakers are great for focusing that low end.
12:10You still get the thump, but you just don't get so much flub.
12:16That is a technical term.
12:17So, I'm going to take that back to just between four and five is where I had it.
12:22Now, finally, we have a master presence, which actually works on the power amp.
12:28And as I've mentioned, that's two 6L6s.
12:30So, they're known for having a good, healthy high end and low end.
12:35And the focus is not so much on the higher mids, but a little bit lower in the frequency spectrum.
12:40So, I'm interested to see what happens if we zero that.
12:45As you can see, I've got it where I have the treble, between four and five.
12:49So, let's get rid of it.
12:55And then, quickly turn it right up.
13:11That, to me, seems like a really usable travel.
13:15And one of the things that I notice as you turn the control, you can afford to say, well, I
13:21think we'll move it to about halfway or maybe a little below.
13:23It doesn't feel like an amp where you've got to go, no, it needs to be precisely four and a
13:28half or it sounds terrible.
13:29I've seen amps with these little chinagraph markings on them.
13:33You know, yeah, it's good to be precise if you know what sounds good.
13:36But this feels a lot like a situation where you can turn up to the gig, have a listen to
13:43how the room is and just go, yeah, about there.
13:45All right, maybe a little more, a little less.
13:46But you don't have to agonize over it.
13:48So, it tends to sound good with everything facing up, really.
13:54Pretty much halfway sounds good to me.
13:57Right, so I think we should have a better look at this vibrato circuit.
14:01As you can see, it's off at the moment.
14:03But why don't I start at a fairly low setting, very subtle here, and see what we get.
14:20It's almost more like a phaser than a tremolo circuit.
14:24Let's go a little bit extreme with the depth.
14:36I think there's only one other Fender amp in production at the moment, which has this circuit, and the name
14:40does escape me at the moment.
14:42Maybe someone can drop it in the comments.
14:43But, all right, let's take it back to somewhere around halfway.
14:52Let's see what we get in terms of speed.
14:54Let's go extreme.
15:02So, things get more phaser-ish with the intensity up, it seems.
15:14Let's go extreme.
15:45And everything up.
15:58It's interesting. I mean personally I'm not a great user of tremolo effects but what I appreciate about this is
16:05it does bring something very different to the table and that it gives that chewy phasey effect.
16:11This is more than just that auto volume up and down effect that you can get from many circuits or
16:17amps.
16:18Well liking that a lot but I think it's time to turn things up.
16:23So there's going to be a little break in continuity here because we're going to need to reset the microphone
16:28preamps and stuff so that you don't get absolutely blasted at your end and so that we don't destroy this
16:33very nice studio.
16:37I'm going to start where I am at just below two and then we're going to go up to about
16:42halfway and then we're going to try absolutely diming it.
16:45I'm explaining now because I'm not going to be able to talk at all while this is going on it's
16:51going to be way too loud.
16:52One other thing I should say before we get into this is I've taken off the reverb pedal because that
16:58won't sound good going into a distorted amp.
17:02I'm going to start where I am at just below two and then we're going to try to get into
17:30this.
19:35I think it sounds really sweet.
19:37It's quite an exciting amp to play.
19:40It's raucous as hell, but without being harsh.
19:43I think it will make someone a great studio amp perhaps as well, but it's, I don't know, it's a
19:48live amp too.
19:49Essentially, there's a reason why these things became so legendary.
19:54So I've very much enjoyed my time with it today and I hope that this video has been useful to
20:00you.
20:01If you enjoyed it, please do like and subscribe and I'll see you soon with another amp demo.
20:32I'll see you soon.
20:33I'll see you soon.
20:37I'll see you soon.