Lets talk Fender Amps

[duesentrieb]

Got me (curiosity) a Prosonic Combo and a Supersonic Head (22 Watts).

The Prosonic has gain for ages and a nice (but not outstanding) clean sound. Seems that the loop is ok. It still needs the "pop" mod (some minor resistor mods to the relay circuitry) and some work on the reverb (too much hum). It is an early custom shop model. I like it so far - need to see if I can fix the two issues.

The Supersonic has a super sweet clean (blackface) and a nice overdriven channel. More on the crunchy side of things. Reverb is ok, nothing special though.
Problem with this amp (I was aware of both amp's weaknesses before) is that the whole preamp/loop is running in full mode into the PI after the channel volumes, so there's too much hiss when idle. Also a fix needed, probably a Master Volume or at least another way to control the noise = signal level. Adding an fx unit with in/out pots fixes that nicely. I will see . . .

Do we have more Fender players here? I'm mostly interested in users of these two amps for obvious reasons . . .
I also have a Deluxe Reverb Clone and a Princeton Clone (both DIY). Both heads.

Olaf

Pic of the Prosonic, SuperSonic to follow. It is at home (I'm living elesewhere during the week)

 

[duesentrieb]

No love for the Prosonic?

 

[Manxmusicman]

It's not a Marshall or Marshall variant so you want get many answers here. I had the supersonic twin for a while. Lovely clean sound and as you said the second channel is crunch all the way, it was a very noisy beast and with the huge transformers it picked up a lot of interference, especially in the dodgy pubs I played and the effects loop was quite noisy. In addition to that the thing weighed an absolute ton!! I liked it, looked great, sounded good despite the hiss and hums but I needed more from that second channel. I ended up swapping out the speakers for an evm and a creamback, sounded much better than the v30's.

 

[Jdub]

No love for the Prosonic?

Hi . Long time. It s Olaf yes? Jason here? I have been going through some fender amps lately. I did have a SS 22 and also a deluxe reverb custom 68 and a blues deville..

It was I've and take on all of them for

Supersonic would probably be the one I would choose over those three.
it had lots of cool tones and features and sound plenty good although maybe not "special " or anything but totally worthy.

I wanted something cleaner and more True Fender so I got the 68 Custom super cool and it does the fender thing right. unforunaley, with that goes a lot of midrange which I like. It took pedals ok but was hard to ever get to right to me the fender vpocing was so dominant. even with GTO,BEOD and tons of Bogner pedals it still sounded like a fender and a pedal and i struggled to for more midrange

blues deville
loud and good features (dedicated midrange control)
but the tone was kinda boxy or cheap sounding. no 3d swirl. more one dimensional sounding. meh..

sorry for shit typing etc but its late.. cheers

 

[brianiac5150]

After YEARS of almost determined defiant ignorance to Fender amps; I just recently purchased a '68 RI Deluxe Reverb and cannot - for the life of me - figure out what took so long. I've never plugged into a Deluxe before and didn't play it before I bought it...purchased it from Sweetwater knowing I could take it back if needed...plugged in and was in immediate love. Then I put OD's in front of it and big step up. Then I put an FX8 in front of it and HOLY-FRICKIN'-MOLY!!! TTTTone for days!!!

I've seen a John Mayer Periscope where he mentions the often repeated (I've found since looking into Deluxe's) knowledge that around 3 on the volume dial is where these amps sit best and I've found that to be spot on.

The '68 RI also has a Celestion V-Type - my favorite new speaker - in it and the amp just sings, growls and grunts.

A few player friends have been over and experienced the same thing. I tell them they should check it out, they kinda incredulously question me, then BAM: blown away.

I know I could take this rig to any gig and have no issues. Larger would require stage monitoring, however, I've always been fortunate enough to never have to play a stage without 'em. Now...I'm not a drop Z player, therefore, have no position on how it would hold up in that arena; however, standard and half step down (drop D either) and I could cover jazz to country to hard rock to any form of metal I'd be playing. Was crankin' some Priest on it the other day and it was awesome.

I've never experienced the OP's "-sonic" versions, however, feel no need to venture elsewhere into Fender amp land, at this point.

 

[duesentrieb]

Thanks guys (Hi Jason). IMO their non-clean sounds are pretty underrated. And a good Fender clean is to die for - lol.
I will report back when I fixed the issues.

 

[Little B]

Sometimes when I want to change the game up a bit and put the modern firebreathers away, I'll run two 66' blackface Princeton reverbs in stereo,or my 68' bandmaster reverb w/ some good pedals. Not much experience w/ the pro sonic stuff though wouldn't mind trying them out sometime.