VibroChamp XD

[mrface2112]

Anyone out there play through one of these yet?

I gave one a run at my local axe shop and was completely blown away by both the tone out of this little amp and the sheer versatility of it. I think this could be a great recording amp. And at $250, it's practically disposable.

I've got one on loan from them for a couple days to give it a go. I'm not one for modeling and digital nonsense, but that stuff in this amp seems to be an afterthought to a nicely designed 12ax7/6v6 circuit.......and I don't think it's gonna be going back.

Anyone else?


cheers,
wade

[mrface2112]

update: well, I bought it.

I played with it for 3 hours last night. I found that a few of the "voicings" were largely unusable for my tastes (the "numetal" and hot rod deluxe based ones), but i was completely floored by the Blackface clean (#4) and the Marshall overdriven (#9) ones.

the way i figure it, that's $250 for 2 great sounds......and $125 each is the price of a decent pedal. there are a number of "quite good" voicings as well--the tweed and blackface voicings are all very usable.

the built-in reverb, while digital, is stunning--easily as good as a Holy Grail pedal (and without the hiss). the other effects are pretty good, too. but i can't see myself using em much.

i can't wait to get this thing in front of some mics. it's also got a line out, so i'm curious to hear how that sounds too.


cheers,
wade

[dewey decibel]

Cool. I heard about the new Super Champ, but not about this one. That's a pretty good price- although you can still get a '70s Champ/Vibro Champ for about that much.

Can you bypass the DSP voicings or is that essentially the preamp?

[mrface2112]

Originally Posted by dewey decibel

Cool. I heard about the new Super Champ, but not about this one. That's a pretty good price- although you can still get a '70s Champ/Vibro Champ for about that much.

very true. i've got a '76 silverface Champ that i've outfitted with JJ's and a Weber 8A125, and it sounds fantastic. but as it's 30 years old and has more than doubled in value from what i paid for it just a couple years ago, i've been starting to get a little sketchy about taking it out of the house to gigs and practices and such. i'd hate for anything to happen to it.

.....which is largely why i liked this thing. for the price, it's almost disposable if something were to happen to it.

tonally, it's about 85-90% of the way there to my champ, and if i were to replace the speaker and tubes i'm sure it would be more like 95% of the way there. it's really that surprisingly good.

given the flexibility this thing's got, i can take 90% of the way there. plus, in the context of a mix, that last 5% is largely negligible. and truth be told, in some contexts it actually sounds better than my silverface champ. the highs are nicer and it's "tighter" sounding, whereas the champ is a little "sluggish" sounding at times, if that makes any sense. the champ is, no doubt, deeper sounding.

Originally Posted by dewey decibel

Can you bypass the DSP voicings or is that essentially the preamp?

you got it--that's essentially the preamp and you can't bypass em. unfortunately. i think it'd be a lot nicer if you could. it'd also cost more.


cheers,
wade

[Jonboy79]

I wanted to add to this thread even though it's a little old. The Super Champ XD's first channel can be overdriven by cranking the volume knob and since the first channel has no dsp processing you're getting all tube tone which is the reason I'm going for the Super Champ.