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Fender Super ChampXD Amp Review! & Old Super Champ Info
Both can be found at reasonable prices on eBay With the Super Champ name, Fender changed horses in mid-stream. As Fender’s amp sales slumped in 1983, they brought in famous amp innovator Paul Rivera to breathe new life into the company’s failing amp line. One model the company introduced was the Super Champ, a two channel box with a single 10-inch speaker offering about 18 watts of sound. It also featured then-new circuitry, a mid-boost switch and a master volume control. The model made efficient use of its tubes and circuits to make several sound choices available and to get higher gain from its limited internal workings. It didn’t offer the best sound Fender could muster, but it was a versatile and acceptable choice for value-conscious buyers who needed options. In 2007, the Super Champ name was given to a new amp, the Super Champ XD. The new model isn’t based on the old one, but it’s slightly inspired by it. Part of Fender’s Vintage Modified series, this is a blackface amp -- but it’s a hybrid, unlike others in the series. While the Super Champ XD has a 12AX7 tube and two 6V6 output tubes, it also features a digital signal processor that models 16 distinct amplifiers. One of its two channels is clean -- and reasonably good sounding -- but the second channel is dirtier and more complicated. That second channel can sing cleanly, growl with distortion or use its digital processor to mimic the sound quality of 15 other amps. Available online for around $300 The Fender Super Champ XD gives you real tube amp sound with all the effects and extras that your friends have on their more modern amps. In other words, you can hang with cutting-edge buddies and almost fit in. Or you can go visit your vintage-obsessed friends and not be completely out of place either. A vintage name and real tubes join modern digital circuits and effects to make an amp that will try to do everything for you. You may be surprised how much volume you get out this little package, too. A vintage Fender Super Champ may not seem interesting enough to bother looking up in today’s world of better choices, but don’t let that turn you off the Super Champ XD, a horse of a different color. 
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