I know a couple of the Aqualads have (had?) the 22 watt SuperSonic amps and I'd seen them perform live with them a time or two. Sounded great and I personally know that Jeremy really liked his. Not too long after getting them though, he got his hands on a fantastic blackface Showman and never looked back. Well, sometimes he plays a Sovetek 50 (think Bassman), but I don't think he ever went back to the SuperSonic 22.

Regarding current or modern large scale production amps in general, I wouldn't worry too much about surface mount PCB if it weren't for input jacks being directly mounted to the boards. One janky yank or heaven forbid someone step on the guitar cable too close to the amp and it tugs just enough to damage it, seems like there aren't many 'fix it' options from there.

Add to that consideration the point that your experience isn't that uncommon, compounded by probably at least a 10+ year trend for smaller size and powered amps for playing live and recording, plus the prevelance (and quality!) of modelers, digital, hybrid amps etc... it seems like big powerful tube amps are just less and less in demand nowadays. That's Great news for YOU! Provided you have reasonable access to decent amp tech, in your shoes today with an eye towards the stuff you already mention, I would be looking for a vintage Twin Reverb - Blackface or Silverface. If you found one within driving distance, it seems good condition ones can be had for sub-$1,000 all day long, some even under $800. If size, power and relative weight aren't of concern (your post makes it seem not), you'd be hard pressed to beat that, methinks.

Good Luck and yeah, definitely get some big iron & tubes at least once in your life!

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

I'd start with deciding what power level you need. If you are mostly jamming in your bedroom, you are not likely to ever crank a Twin Reverb up to a sweet spot. I built a single-channel Deluxe Reverb AB763, and at 22W, I seldom can turn it past 2 or 3 when playing at home - it gets loud and sounds great. If you're aiming for black panel Fender sounds, you might even consider the Princeton Reverb, which is quite suitable for home playing.

Hey AgentClaret,
Regarding the Supersonics:
Yeah, there have been two versions:
The first series came out in 2006 as part of the Protube series and featured 60W heads and combos - the Blonde/Oxblood ones with a pretty dark faceplate - I think close to the ~62 Brown Panel models and Black ones (with Black knobs and more of a salt&pepper grill cloth) both had a more modern - almost futuristic font.

I have the Blonde head of that series and it‘s my main amp since 2009.
The Bassman voicing is amazing - the Vibrolux too (but there is a volume drop. The Bassman is way louder, at least mine is). The 60W head version does not have Reverb, the combo does - but it eats pedals like you‘d expect from a Fender.
The „Burn“ channel is pretty usable - but gets kinda extreme if you feed the Spring Reverb to the front end input. It has an effect loop - which I primarily use as a booster or negative booster, mostly just patched without the footswitch. I don‘t know if all the combos have the FX Loop too.

And I also exchanged the V1 from an AX7 to an AY7 - which allows me to move the volume knob between 0 and 4 and not just between 0 and 0.5.

You could get 2x12 cabs in both colours - and a kinda small 4x12 in black only (I had one for a very short period of time but sold it to a befriended guitarist who needed a cab for touring).

The second series featured three sizes: the 22 (Deluxe? Which also has Spring Reverb both as a head and combo - and the switch says normal/fat) the 60 - which stayed pretty much the same (Bassman/Vibrolux) I believe and the 100 (Twin/Bassman - it is also switchable from 100 to 25W.
Biggest aesthetical differences: a more „classic Fender“ looking font, the blonde faceplate is a different kind of brown (way lighter, like some repro faceplates) and the black ones featured a Blackface look (also in grillcloth) but with the same cream knobs as the blondes (thinking transition era) - and both colours now had big, straight and slanted 4x12 cabs available. I had the slanted blonde one which I gave to my Bassist as he bought himself a Fender Tonemaster head (no, not the modeling amp… the full tube thing).

Sorry for the long read. I hope it helps.

Sadly I never had the chance to fully compare mine to a newer one - I think I only ever played one in a music store and heard the 100 once from a rehearsal room neighbour.
Both sounded decent. The combos are often available for 600-800€ - same goes for the heads. Funnily the cabs may be best in keeping their value and are crazy expensive when bought new.

I really don‘t know how good (or surfy) the onboard Reverb is - but the amps themselves sound great!
You might miss the Tremolo but if you can live with that (and with having some Gain instead)they‘re definitely worth considering!

I figured you are looking more at the Combo variants, right? I‘m team piggyback here (or better said 1x15+2x12 stack)

edit: amp wise there should be no difference between the Blonde or Black Variants (of each series) except their individual aesthetics.

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Last edited: Mar 09, 2025 06:36:54

I actually worked at Guitar Center for a year about 20 years ago, I KNOW the Fender tube amps are terribly heavy but I'm not gigging or anything, just jamming at my house with my girlfriend who is learning bass. It wouldn't be moving much!

Fuzz, thanks for the long description! Why do you prefer a stack to a combo? The lack of reverb on the head doesn't bother me as I've got a Surfy Bear and an Oceans 11 on my board, I actually didn't even know there was a 60w head, I thought they only came in 22w and 100w!

Last edited: Mar 13, 2025 12:49:48

I could see how that flexibility could be appealing. I guess I'm just trying to keep the whole thing under US$1000 and I don't think i could score a head and cab for that much. I dunno, but im not dead set on a combo...

Yeah
I only use Twin for recording

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