question about my cherry sunburst strat

[jruss]

yea im about to upgrade my pots soon also. I would also like to upgrade my amp haha. Right now im using a line 6 30 watt ... been looking at a blues jr. But that will be later on when funds allow haha. This guitar is my first electric and the line 6 is my first amp. I do like the line 6 but it just doesnt have that ...warmth? i would like it to have. The strat though is awesome I only payed 100$ for it and i think that was an amazing deal. I play with the praise team at my church and also in a worship band and we play at diffirent youth events and such.

[Spudman***]

A Benjamin is indeed a good deal on that guitar. It's kind of criminal what you can find these used for lately. I almost feel like buying every one I run across that is less than $150.

[Duff]

I might put some gfs pickups in my cherryburst, just thinking about it today, maybe gfs little killers in cream for 59 dollars for the calibrated set. I might decide to go for some neovins or hot single coil gfs pickups though.

As far as the amp goes, Fender has an awesome amp that probably is as good as the blues jr. and it is a tube amp with a 6L6 power tube and a 12ax7 upstream from the power tube with a chip that has digital effects and about eleven fender amp models and eleven other obligatory amp models. Who, they say at the Fender Forum, would better know how to model Fender amps than Fender? Even the 1200 dollar plus Fender Supersonic has a digital modelling section that models a vibrolux and a bassman I believe but could be wrong about the vibrolux, could be a vibroking or other vibro-x.

This amp is called a Fender Super Champ XD known as an SCXD. You should be able to find one on the net maybe even MF for 299 new. That's what I paid for mine before the price went up but I think the price went back down with some vendors. It has an incredible clean channel and lots of different drive models. Lots of people replace the stock Fender ten inch speaker with a 65 dollar Eminence Ragin' Cajun ten inch awesome speaker that weighs about ten or fifteen times as much as the Fender stock speaker and is very loud because it has like a 100 - 102 dB sensitivity rating compared to the Fender at about 95dB. Only a few dB, like four or so, doubles the apparent volume of the speaker. This speaker makes the SCXD capable of jamming and some giging. I drowned out a LOUD drummer with mine set at about three on the volume. He was frantically waving me down; I love that, way better than having a drummer scoff at you and tell you to GET A REAL AMP. Totally opposite feeling.

Check the Fender Forum discussion group for the Super Champ XD threads. One of the threads is huge and Bill M., the guru of the Blues Jr., has taken the SCXD under his wing, done testing and actually recommended putting in the Ragin' Cajun. It is a very, very well respected tube amp for half the price of a Blues Jr.

The Blues Jr. is a great amp though, absolutely. I'd like to have one myself and might get a used one some day.

[jruss]

Thanks for the suggestion! ill be shure to check it out! that price sounds a whole lot better than the blues jr haha

[Duff]

Still thinking about the pickups for the Cherryburst.

Yeah, that SCXD is a bargain for sure. Check out the Fender Forum. Also, a lot of guys here have and like them.

[jruss]

ive also been looking at this amp seems pretty nice
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Vox-Valv...58-i1428847.gc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lHYD0yKOf4

[Duff]

I have a little Vox DA5 that is awesome and a old school Pathfinder15R.

My Vox has not caused any problems other than the input jack having broken the solder trace on the circuit board. The input jack goes straight onto the printed circuit board. It is not a jack with wires going to the circuit board.

I took it apart and examined it closely because it would not produce any sound.

I found a very small crack in the solder trace by the jack input plastic case; it was almost invisibly small. I used my pencil soldering iron and a timy bit of solder of about a half mm diameter to patch the crack without touching solder to anything else like other traces, etc. Problem solved and it works fine now. Great portable amp ac or battery operated with super great tones for such a small amp.

The valvetronix amps have been known to have numerous very difficult to fix problems because they are extremely complicated design amps with all sorts of electronics. All stuff that can go wrong. Very costly often times to get repaired.

The Blues Jr. is a great amp that will last a lifetime and will be repairable for as long as you live most likely.

The Fender SCXD is way less complicated than the Valvetronix and does a lot of the same things in a different approach and has a real power tube section, using a real power tube, not a preamp tube and is not far off the valvetronix price. You might want to test out an SCXD. Almost all the Fender dealers have them in stock. Compare it to the valvetronix. I am positive you will hear a definite difference in sound and usability.

I doubt that getting the SCXD fixed will be a major problem after the warranty expires; at least according to my checking around and asking the Fender customer service rep at the main office. Also a pro tech told me it should be fixable for a very long time and that Fender will stock replacement parts and other parts can be made if not available.

Also, remember: one tube watt is equal to three solid state watts. The SCXD is fifteen tube watts and equates to fourty five solid state watts in terms of volume and is very loud with the Ragin' Cajun, gigable. The Vox is basically a solid state amp with a preamp tube in it to help make it sound like a real tube amp and probably is equivalent to thirty watts in terms of volume.

You might want to try out one of those new solid state Marshall thirty watt amps as well, solid state but awesome sounding, relatively sp0eaking. I have a fifteen watt MG15CDR with a real mini reverb tank and a closed back, well built and does what it does really well. Only effect is reverb and the overdrive channel. It has a button that supposedly emulates a tube marshall, probably a good attempt at a good idea, but you know the story.

A plain amp with an inherent great tone is a beautiful thing. You can try pedals with it but it always sounds good by itself and if it is a tube amp it probably will sound real good, like the Blues Jr.

Right now I'm playing my Crate V32 Palamino with two celestion speakers in it. New old stock. All tube amp with a two button pedal for overdrive channel and boost. The overdrive is incredible with this amp. I never use an overdrive pedal. The reverb is great. But I don't play metal. If you play metal then you should make sure your amp has the qualities that are needed for metal.

The vox valvetronix probably has the ultra gain channels on it that you might need. If you are going to play in a band you may want to get a bigger valvetronix to hang with the drummer and other people because they will probably have loud equipment, very loud equipment, especially if they are metal. Normally 100 watts of solid state would be a minimum I'm thinking. People use anywhere from twenty to fifty watt tube amps for playing in a band, minimum.

For bedroom use you only need five watts or less. Then you can crank it and get some good overdrive with a tube amp or even a solid state with a pedal.

Of course that valvetronics would probably be a super great bedroom amp and okay for some low volume jamming with friends.

[jruss]

Yea, I dont play much metal. Im going for more of a john mayer, srv, bluesish sound, like the blues jr with a boss blues driver..but im just going to have to make a trip to guitar center and mess around with the amps and see what I like best. I dont need anything extremely loud if I do any gigs it will usually be church events or hopefully im going to start playing some coffee shops soon.

[Duff]

GC probably won't have a SCXD, some of them don't.

A good question to ask is: do you want an amp that does one or two things really well or an amp that does a hundred things half way decent?

I like the simple amps and then add a multi pedal or pedal, but lately I have been playing good tube amps with just the onboard overdrive, boost, and presence and adjusting the eq. It's just a phase, but the amp tone sounds better without the digital or analog
modification of the amps inherently excellent tone.

[jruss]

that s really why ive had my eye on the blues jr. i have a feeling that id dislike another modeling amp for some of the same reasons i dislike the line 6. I do just want an amp that has its own sound im just not fond of the 400-500$ price tag on the blues jr

[oldguy]

Spudman's really enjoying his Bugera, another not-so-expensive amph.
I'm diggin' my Jet City 20H, 20w head ($299), no effects, just EL84 signal path w. tonestack, gain, volume, presence.
There are lots of options, you just need to try some out when you get a chance. The SCXD is a good little amph, I don't think you'd dislike the modelling side of it if you were to try one.

[jruss]

hmm ill have to look around the only place close i have is guitar center and a place called bailey bros they are about an hour away so i dont go often but next time o go ill have to check on things.

[Duff]

Just picked up a really nice aged amber pearl white pickguard, three single coil type for my Cherry Burst and the back plate with same color at
Grizzly; eleven for the beautiful pickguard and four for the trem cavity cover.

I also picked up a "Samba" super thick gig bag in beautiful orange and green cordura. Best gig bag I own and have my Lake Placid Blue amber pickup pearl guard and Fender Custom Shop Texas Special single coils in it. Nice cozy place for this awesome CV fifties, brand new.

Going to pick up my new Fender American Standard Stratocaster in a couple days with the new case. Its Blizzard Pearl with a maple fretboard and quarter sawn neck and low action, no buzz, great tone and is a beautiful guitar to play with great tone and the Delta tone circuit. This guitar feels great to me and sounds great.

Next goal might be a Gibson LP Studio or a Fender American Standard Deluxe with the Samarium Cobalt pickups in it. Not sure. Hot humbuckers sound so good to me and I'd like to get another Gibson to replace the stolen one. I might break weak and get an SG instead of the LP, maybe even with P nineties.

These aside, I REALLY like the Jim Adkins JA90, semi hollow red quilted maple Fender telecaster with real Seymour Duncan P nineties in it. This thing is a thing of beauty, feel, sound, and playability. Problem is it might have to wait because I just checked out a 1200 dollar Nikon D90 SLR digital camera that I might need to get - twelve megapixels to replace my aging Olympus point and shoot two megapixel one.

I'm eager to put the amber pearl aged white pickguard on my Cherry Burst and then I'm going to get some new pickups, probably GFS but Samarium Cobalts would be nice but a lot of work. I think I can handle the Samarium Cobalt job but it should have different pots, one gigabyte I think and probably some capacitors or resistors. The gfs Neovins sound like an option worth exploring however. Anyone try the gfs Neovins yet in a strat?

[jruss]

Got around to trying some amps today. epi-valve standard, the blues jr, vox vt30, and the scxd, loved the epi, blues, and scxd, the vox was too... thin? for me and the epi was warm and a little darker but its discontinued now..so im iffy on that .. i was going to look at a bugera but didnt find one, but ill keep looking for one of those to try. Overall i was very impressed with the scxd but ill check out the bugera first before i decide.