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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink Fender SuperSonic & Kustom Coupe: A Review

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Hello Folks!

As promised, here's my review of the Fender Super Sonic. I also checked out the new Kustom Coupe 72, as I was interested in that one also. Before I begin, here's the disclaimer:

Everybody's ears are different. (I have Spock-like ears, but I have long hair that covers them Laughing ) So what sounds good to me might not sound great to you. Just keep that in mind as you read on...

First up: The Super Sonic!

I went into the local music store with the direct intention of checking this amp out, and to probably buy it. I've been using a vintage Twin Reverb for years, but she's gettin old, and the repair costs are getting a little high. Plus she can't handle the rigors of the road like she used to. So, I had plenty of time, and didn't rush anything. I took 4 guitars: DiPinto Galaxie, '62 Strat, Reissue Jag and a Dano Hodad. And awaaaaay we go!

The Super Sonic has 2 channels, but "technically" 4 channels: 2 cleans, and 2 gains. In the Clean channel there's a push button to choose "Vibrolux" or "Bassman", and on the Gain side, "Vintage"(distortion) or "Burn" (hi gain distortion).

Without getting into nuances of how each guitar sounded through each channel, etc, I'll give ya the overview. The Vibrolux setting sounded fantastic: lush, crystal clear, almost liquid...everything you'd expect from a Vibro. The Bassman setting, a little deeper and beefier, nice and full.

The gain channels: Channel 1, nice overdrive, especially with the Jag. Gain 2: VERY heavy...there's no need for any pedals in front of it at all.
Size-wise, it was almost as wide as my vintage Twin Reverb, but only had one 12" speaker in it. All the channels are footswitchable. Reverb could be dialed in nice and heavy, but surprisingly, no "drip" to be found.

But, here's why I didn't jump on the purchase: Although ALL the channels sounded fantastic, the amp as a whole was lacking some serious low end, even dialed all the way up. It has a Celestion Vintage 30 in it, which is a nice, buttery speaker that should have given it plenty of low end. But, it wasn't there. And the louder I got the amp, the more tinny it got. Sure, you could put an EQ in there, swap the speaker, etc, but for slightly over $1,000 for the combo, I don't want to have to put more money into it. I want it right out of the box.

Now, they did have the head/2x12 cabinet setup there, and that had nice low end, BUT that was clocking in around $1500 plus, and that was more than I wanted to go.

Next up was the Kustom Coupe 72.

Nice cool look, all tube, 72 watts, 4 6L6s, 2 12AX7s, and a 12AXT for the 'verb. 2 12" Eminence speakers. Two channels, "Rhythm" and "Lead", tremolo, vibrato, reverb. EQ-Bass Mid, and Treble. About the width of my Twin, but a little shorter height-wise.

This amp had a lot of features, and useful ones at that. Each channel has it's own Master volume, so I wasn't stuck with just "Clean/Lead" channels..I could dirty it up a bit on the Clean channel if I wanted. Each channel also had a push/pull Bright switch on the Master volume, that I liked: I dialed the treble back to about 12 o'clock, and pulled the bright switch on the Clean channel. The result was a LOT of low end, but still very clear, sparkly and clean. Interesting.

The EQ was VERY touchy..small changes made drastic tone changes. It took me awhile to find a sweet spot, but once I did, I was diggin it.

The Clean channel was nice and sparkly, and not harsh or piercing. It certainly wasn't "Fender" clean, but it was close enough that the difference wasn't tremendous.

The Lead channel could be dialed in for heavy gain which sounded smooth, not fizzy or fuzzy. Not quite as much gain as the SuperSonic on it's "Burn" setting, but still more than I would need for my uses.

The tremolo and vibrato were cool, and the onboard reverb had a "Tone" knob. What the Tone knob seemed to do was down, it was a basic Hall reverb-type sound, and turned up, it added "drip"! It wasn't a Bass/Treble kind of Tone knob...somehow it let me dial in the amount of drip. VERY cool. (doesn't really matter though, as I use a reissue tank. Cool )

Now, here's where the nitty gritty came down for me: Live shows.

I've been playing at least 25 years, (I'm 38 ) and gigging consistently for a good 18 years. So how a piece of gear...guitar, amp, pedal, etc is judged by me is how it will do in a live situation. Both amps had footswitchable channels. Both sounded great to me. The SuperSonic had a nicer clean and more gain, but it got shrill the louder it got. The Kustom had lots of low end sounded better as it got cranked up. Both amps had an effects loop..the Kustom effects loop was tube driven.

But the coup de' grace': The Kustom had a Boost feature, and a Direct Out: On the back, there was a volume knob that allowed you to boost up to 10bd to either channel for a Lead boost, and it was footswitchable. Kick it on for solos and cut through the mix! It had an XLR direct out, which, if you gig alot, is a Godsend. As it stands now, I run my Twin Reverb through a D.I. box...it's a necessity when you're setting up in a different places all the time and want a consistent sound. I ran the Kustom Direct into the store's mackie PA, and it sounded just like the amp..no weird SS bite, no coloration.

So the short version: The Super Sonic had a nicer tone, but got shrill, and was expensive.

The Kustom didn't sound as good as the S. Sonic, but it was damn close, had more low end, 2 12"s instead of the one, had more usable features, and was $300 cheaper.

So my opinion would be if you're a home player, or a studio guy, get the Super Sonic. You'll have great Fender tone and you'll be very, very happy with the purchase. But if you're a working musician and need great tone as well as functional features, get the Kustom. I did, and I had every intention of buying the Super Sonic when I walked into the store!

Hope this helps some folks. Thanks for listening! Very Happy

"Beer: The cause of--and solution to--all of life's problems" Homer J. Simpson

The Gremmies on Apple Music

Thanks for an in-depth review, Turnip. I'd just like to comment on the speaker situation. My Fender Dual Professional came with 2 Celestion Vintage 30 speakers. It wasn't until I switched those with Weber California Alnicos that the amp truly started sounding GOOD. I don't know why Fender has been installing these Celestions in their amps lately, cause they will NOT give you the classic Fender tone. Vintage 30s are designed to complement vintage Marshall amps, and break up easily. They're also designed to be installed in 4x12" cabs which are very bassy, and therefore the speakers themselves don't need to be as bassy. And Marshalls are not supposed to be terribly bassy, anyway - much more midrangey. It's clear that Fender designed the Supersonic primarily as a distortion amp, and thus it made sense to fit the Celestions into it - with the clear tones getting the short end of the stick in this compromise. (Though I have NO IDEA why they would have installed these speakers in a Dual Professional, an amp that barely gets the slightest distortion when turned all the way up! Very stupid.)

Here's the thing: if you like the sound of the Supersonic, it might be worth swapping the Vintage 30 with a Weber California (Weber's version of the classic JBLs) or even original JBL D120F. The ceramic magnet version of the Weber will cost you pretty much the same as what you could get by selling the Vintage 30 on eBay, so it would be an even trade, more or less. If you want the alnico, which I'd recommend (though there isn't a huge difference in sound), you'd have to cough up an extra $100 or so.

Finally, I think those new Kustom amps have a speaker in there that has an aluminum dust cap, just like good old JBLs! I wonder if they actually tried to design the speakers to sound like JBLs? That may account for the greater bottom end on the Kustom compared to the Supersonic.

Ivan

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

To paraphrase Will Rogers: "I've never met a Celestion speaker that I liked."

They have always built speakers for salability on their name alone, not on the quality of their tone. I believe Fender is using them for just that reason, although there could be some wholesale price considerations in the equation, too.

And yes to Ivan's question about the aluminum dust cap. Those are the new Eminence line of speakers that are indeed intended to emulate the JBL's of yesteryear. How close they come to that goal is anyone's guess at this moment, but early reports are all positive, so far.

Turnip, what Ivan said. The Kustom may be cool, but using a DI box on a Fender is better than settling for the second best tone just because it has a built-in XLR connector. No one has ever returned a Weber speaker because he or she didn't like the tone!

unlunf

MY RIGHT HAND IS FASTER THAN YOURS!
(copyright 2003, Bruce Welch)

unlunf
To paraphrase Will Rogers: "I've never met a Celestion speaker that I liked." They have always built speakers for salability on their name alone, not on the quality of their tone. I believe Fender is using them for just that reason, although there could be some wholesale price considerations in the equation, too.

Allow me to respectfully disagree, unlunf, at least somewhat. I think Celestions do great in Marshalls, if that's the kind of tone you're going for. They work much better than JBLs there!! And one of the all-time ultimate speakers is the Celestion Blue 15W Alnico that has usually come standard in Vox AC30s. An amazing speaker!!! I just love it, love it, love it, in my AC30. But they're just NOT a good match with Fenders. That's all that I was trying to say.

And yes to Ivan's question about the aluminum dust cap. Those are the new Eminence line of speakers that are indeed intended to emulate the JBL's of yesteryear. How close they come to that goal is anyone's guess at this moment, but early reports are all positive, so far.

Ah! Very cool. I've heard that Eminence was coming out with these, but haven't had a chance to try them out yet. My gut feeling is that Webers are always going to be better than Eminence, but it's nice to see that Eminence has a clue!

No one has ever returned a Weber speaker because he or she didn't like the tone!

Excellent point! I've never heard of it, either. It would be interesting to see how often they pop up on eBay...

Ivan

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Ivan,

Tag, you're it! Very Happy

I agree, some folks will always like Celestions, maybe in certain circumstances, maybe with freewheeling abandon. But the point I made was, I have never liked Celestions. Come to that, I don't care at all for the alleged Marshall/Vox/British tone, or in my view, the lack thereof. No bottom end, no sparkle, all mud, that's how I hear them.

unlunf

MY RIGHT HAND IS FASTER THAN YOURS!
(copyright 2003, Bruce Welch)

unlunf
I agree, some folks will always like Celestions, maybe in certain circumstances, maybe with freewheeling abandon. But the point I made was, I have never liked Celestions. Come to that, I don't care at all for the alleged Marshall/Vox/British tone, or in my view, the lack thereof. No bottom end, no sparkle, all mud, that's how I hear them.

Vox AC30 no sparkle, all mud??? I've NEVER heard that! The AC30 is the very definition of sparkle! (I agree about no low end, though...)

Ivan

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Ivan: I hear ya about the Celestions buddy! I was shocked to look in the back and see that in there. Not exactly a Fender-friendly speaker. Laughing
I did think about getting it anyway and replacing the speaker, and I probably would have it if was a 2x12 combo instead of a single 12, but the single 12 was a strike against it for me, and then having to also replace the speaker, well.... Confused I did like the S. Sonic, but it wasn't doing anything the Kustom wasn't doing. And I don't have to replace anything on the Kustom. Cool

Unlunf: It wasn't just the DI that did it for me on the Kustom, it was basically a better package. The tone differences were very minimal, and the Kustom was basically more bang for less buck. If it would have been a drastic difference in tone, I would have gone for the S.Sonic with the cabinet and bit the bulet on the extra money. But from an "on the floor" comparison without replacing things, the Kustom was definitely the way to go. I've been cranking it all day and the more I play, the more I likes! Very Happy

"Beer: The cause of--and solution to--all of life's problems" Homer J. Simpson

The Gremmies on Apple Music

Actually, I had a chance to play a Supersonic a couple of hours ago! I rarely go to music stores anymore, mostly because of where I live. But I had to go to the well-known store Elderly Instruments in Lansing, MI this afternoon. They had a Supersonic there, the piggyback version. I plugged in, and played for a minute or so, only on the clean channel. There was some jerk test-driving a modeling amp really loud and wouldn't stop (and kept playing really sloppy, open strings unintenionally ringing all over the place - but yet was playing these complicated scales and lines - why if you can't play it clean?), so I didn't get a great idea of how it sounded, but what I heard wasn't very impressive. The Vibrolux setting was very bright and thin, even at low volume, too bright actually, and the Bassman setting showed more promise for surf, but somehow seemed too flabby without enough punch and focus. That was just a quick impression, nothing scientific. I was left pretty cold. The piggyback version also doesn't have onboard reverb.

Then I picked an AV Jazzmaster, and plugged into a Bad Cat amp. Man, the sound of those amps!!!! Amazing! And the onboard reverb was REALLY close to a reverb unit. Major drip. I was blown away, just as I was the last time I checked out that amp, some nine months ago. Mucho dinero, but you get what you pay for.

I also plugged into a vintage Ampeg Reverborocket. Wow!! What a great freakin' amp! The reverb (labeled 'echo') was very wet, and the tone was fat and full and juicy. Not very loud at all, though. Couldn't cut it for gigging, but a great home amp. It was something like $450, if I remember correctly, which seemed too much.

My adventures in a guitar store... Tons of cool Fender guitars, lots of custom shop Strats, all sporting 9- or 10-gauge strings and action so low it's barely playable - by me, anyway! It's hard to judge under those circumstances, but none of them felt better than my two US-made '62 reissues which cost considerably less than the custom shop models. And then there are the new Charvel EVH models - I'd love to show up for the California tour playing one of THOSE! It'd be almost worth paying $2K+ to see all the faces... Laughing

Ivan

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

IvanP
...And then there are the new Charvel EVH models - I'd love to show up for the California tour playing one of THOSE! It'd be almost worth paying $2K+ to see all the faces...

hey! i went all the way over to Charvel's website to check out the EVH...

and then when I arrived...I realised it was one of Ivan's sick little joke's...

edddie van halen...jeez louise!

as d boon once said so eloquently: "I must look like a dork!"

-d (dork) p

IvanP
And then there are the new Charvel EVH models - I'd love to show up for the California tour playing one of THOSE! It'd be almost worth paying $2K+ to see all the faces...

If you don't feel like shelling out $2,000 there's the shock alternative for those on a budget--the B.C. Rich KKV. Similar effect, fraction of the cost.

-Warren

That was excessively violent and completely unnecessary. I loved it.

IvanP
And then there are the new Charvel EVH models - I'd love to show up for the California tour playing one of THOSE! It'd be almost worth paying $2K+ to see all the faces... Laughing

Ivan

be careful Ivan, you might just see backs and no faces at all.

thanks for the reviews guys, very cool. that first post should be up in the reviews section, why don 't you submit it?

I know it's maybe not the most relevant, but I love the look of that Kustom - better not a fender at all, than something that 'almost' looks like a Fender, like the Super Sonic.

WR

Rules to live by #314:
"When in Italy, if the menu says something's grilled, don't assume it is."

https://www.facebook.com/The-Malbehavers-286429584796173/

Hey WR,

Thanks for the tip! I submitted it for the Reviews section. Cool

On a side note, this Kustom just keeps gettin' better and better. I'm VERY glad I made the purchase over the S. Sonic!

"Beer: The cause of--and solution to--all of life's problems" Homer J. Simpson

The Gremmies on Apple Music

Turnip
Thanks for the tip! I submitted it for the Reviews section. Cool

Thanks for the submission! Here is a permanent link to your review. Thanks for contributing to the site!

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

good info guys. This is kind of a bummer though, I am hoping Fender can start producing a high quality clean channel amp at a fair price. It seems like since most players play with heavy disortion, production on new amps that are focused on clean sounds are going the way of the doto bird.

you should check out this amp: http://visualsound.net/Amps_wh.htm
i dont know if they have been released yet, but they look like they could be potentially great surf amps

stigger108
This is kind of a bummer though, I am hoping Fender can start producing a high quality clean channel amp at a fair price.

Stig-man, you gotta be kidding! Smile There are many quality
Fender amps with quality clean tone available at reasonable
prices. If you want Showman-quality clean tone for $300.00,
it's not gonna happen, but there are many good quality clean-
toned Fender amps for what I consider reasonable prices. If
you want REALLY clean-headroom, check out the "Jazz King"
150w, 15" speaker, and a limiter to keep it from distorting.
It's solid state, though... IMHO, there's absolutely nothing
wrong with the clean tones of the RI Twins, Deluxe Reverbs,
and Supers, or for that matter, Hot Rod Series.

Bob S.

Bob

Robbie, I have a hotrod, im looking for a cabinet. thats why I inquired about the sonic. If I shell out 1,500 for an amp it better be damn well worth it. To me 1,500 for a cabinet is reasnoable, but too bad its not up for the challange.

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