Shoutbox

sysmalakian: Birthday month starts now!
362 days ago

diceophonic: Vampiro Classics 2024 reissue
343 days ago

SabedLeepski: Sunburn Surf Fest for some scorching hot surf music: https://sunb...
300 days ago

skeeter: I know a Polish sound guy.
228 days ago

skeeter: I know a Czech one too!
228 days ago

PatGall: Surfybear metal settings
148 days ago

Pyronauts: Happy Tanks-Kicking!
126 days ago

midwestsurfguy: Merry Christmas!
95 days ago

sysmalakian: HAPPY NEW YEAR!
88 days ago

SabedLeepski: Surfin‘ Europe, for surf (related) gigs and events in Europe Big Razz https://sunb...
49 days ago

Please login or register to shout.

Current Polls

No polls at this time. Check out our past polls.

Current Contests

No contests at this time. Check out our past contests.

Donations

Help us meet our monthly goal:

100%

100%

Donate Now

Cake March Birthdays Cake
SG101 Banner

SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink NAD: Supro Thunderbolt+

New Topic
Page 1 of 1

A couple of weeks ago I went to a rehearsal studio with my band, and in the room there was a Supro amp. So I plugged in and was immediately blown away with the sound, and spent the next week or so looking for one, only to find it'd been discontinued and replaced with a new version.

Luckily enough I managed to find one for sale on this side of the Atlantic and it arrived today.

It sounds amazing. It's a very simple amp, Hi and Lo input, master volume and master tone control. It's also switchable from 35 to 45 to 60 watts, which is nice. I've been playing it mostly on the 45 watt mode, and it sound immense. 1x15, so it projects really nicely.

Very pleased with it, looking forward to breaking it out live! I'll try and record some audio for tomorrow, but 'til then just take my word that it sounds great haha!

image

Earth. Atomizer. Let's go.

The Atom Jacks

I play a coronado and a supro supreme. And have a bit of a little be/hate experience. Good to know someone finds a use for them beyond 'rock'. Do hope you post some samples, would love to hear them.

Vince_Ray wrote:

I play a coronado and a supro supreme. And have a bit of a love /hate experience. Good to know someone finds a use for them beyond 'rock'. Do hope you post some samples, would love to hear them.

I wonder why they updated the Thunderbolt? The power rating seems to be the only difference as 35 or 60w

Vince_Ray wrote:

I wonder why they updated the Thunderbolt? The power rating seems to be the only difference as 35 or 60w

I'm not sure why they made the change. They did the Thunderbolt, which was 35 watts, and the Thunderbolt+ which is switchable 35/45/60 watts. Now they only make the Thunderbolt II which is switchable 35/60 watts. I'm sure it's just as good to be fair, but I already knew I liked the sound of this model in particular and didn't want to take a chance haha!

Vince_Ray wrote:

I play a coronado and a supro supreme. And have a bit of a little be/hate experience. Good to know someone finds a use for them beyond 'rock'. Do hope you post some samples, would love to hear them.

I'll be trying to record some samples after work tomorrow, so watch this space!

Earth. Atomizer. Let's go.

The Atom Jacks

Very cool and congrats! I’d like to get a Supro Rhythm Master some day, although finding a Thunderbolt Plus is probably the way for me to go since I've got an outboard reverb unit as well. Gotta love the 1x15 speaker! Congrats again and I bet it sounds killer with your Jag. Cool

The doofus formerly known as Snorre
Surfysonic on YouTube
World Famous Philistines: 2014 - 2015
K39: 2013 - 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv9JADQ4ukw

Last edited: May 20, 2018 09:54:18

Snorre wrote:

Very cool and congrats! I like to get a Supro Rhythm Master some day, although finding a Thunderbolt Plus is probably the way for me to go since I've got an outboard reverb unit as well. Gotta love the 1x15 speaker! Congrats again and I bet it sounds killer with your Jag. Cool

Cheers! Yeah, it's a fantastic sound as long as you don't need any onboard effects, haha! The Jag sounds very beefy through it, still with a nice clear high end though, nice and balanced.

Earth. Atomizer. Let's go.

The Atom Jacks

These supros do make for a fat sound, maybe beneficial to single coils. My gretsch guitars with T Armonds get a bit woody with so much mid range... currently getting a 1 meg volume pot installed to brighten things up. My Jag and Tele are nice n raunchy sounding but the tone control needs to be quite high around 10 o'clock. Dunno, can't make my mind up. I keep thinking...Deluxe...Reverb...maybe it's true that we 'all go back to Fender's

Just a quick sound demo recorded on my phone. Nothing fancy but gets the point across!

Earth. Atomizer. Let's go.

The Atom Jacks

Vince_Ray wrote:

These supros do make for a fat sound, maybe beneficial to single coils. My gretsch guitars with T Armonds get a bit woody with so much mid range... currently getting a 1 meg volume pot installed to brighten things up. My Jag and Tele are nice n raunchy sounding but the tone control needs to be quite high around 10 o'clock. Dunno, can't make my mind up. I keep thinking...Deluxe...Reverb...maybe it's true that we 'all go back to Fender's

That's what I noticed immediately when I used one at rehearsal, that I could use the bridge pickup and it was no where near as ice-pick shrill as I was used to. It's a bit tamer in the very high trebles.

Earth. Atomizer. Let's go.

The Atom Jacks

Smart_Patrol wrote:

Just a quick sound demo recorded on my phone. Nothing fancy but gets the point across!

Sounds MIGHTY fine sir! But I think some f that is down to your playing which is really good. How do you find the tone control works for you, is it set around the middle? I find I have it quite high to get some bite. Great sound there though, glad you like it

Vince_Ray wrote:

Smart_Patrol wrote:

Just a quick sound demo recorded on my phone. Nothing fancy but gets the point across!

Sounds MIGHTY fine sir! But I think some f that is down to your playing which is really good. How do you find the tone control works for you, is it set around the middle? I find I have it quite high to get some bite. Great sound there though, glad you like it

Cheers! Tone control is good, I find it works well for me at around halfway, though I always have the tone on my guitar on full and tend to have the tone on the reverb unit fairly high too.

Earth. Atomizer. Let's go.

The Atom Jacks

It's dead thread revival time! That's a tidy rendition of Taco Wagon there, Smart_Patrol! We used to play that in Mantawrays. I used to love playing it.
That Thunderbolt sounds great. Do you still have it?
I just scored a Supro 1675RT Rhythm Master amp but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm eagerly waiting to try it out. I bought the revised 35w/60w version which apparently has a much cleaner tone compared to the original design. Hopefully it will work well for surf guitar and take pedals well.
I'll do a review on a fresh thread once I've had a bit of time with the amp.
In the meantime, keep twangin', folks!

Last edited: Feb 03, 2023 15:22:39

Cool!!

I had NAD last week, a Thunderbolt MkII I bought off a dude right here on SG101. It sounds positively AMAZING with my Fender Reverb unit in front of it and I'm in the process of rebuilding my pedalboard, so I'll see soon what it sounds like with some distortion pedals and what-not.

I wanted something with a 15" speaker and even got an empty 2x12 cab to convert to a 1x15, but I couldn't pass up this amp. It even sounds great with the archtop Harmony conversion I use for "acoustic" gigs, was a really great purchase on my part!

I reached out to Supro through their website and got a copy of the owner's manual, it was nice of them to send it. IIRC the differences between the generations are related to power (switching) and the rectifier, though I could be mistaken about these things.

Thunderbolt S6420: 5U4 tube rectifier, 35W
Thunderbolt+ S6420+: 5U4 tube (35-45W) and solid state (silicon) (60W) rectifiers, power chosen by knob
Thunderbolt MkII S6422: solid state rectifier, 35-60W chosen by switch

Knowing what I know about amps - though this is my first Supro - I'd bet the + version was simply too complex for them to continue making it at their price point, plus having both tube and solid state rectifiers side-by-side in the circuit is really unnecessarily complex, even if it's cool. Eliminating the 5U4 from the circuit for the MkII version likely simplified the circuit and reduced manufacturing costs, while maintaining the original 35W feel (or close to it, anyway) and providing the beefier 60W pedal platform characteristics.

image

--
Project: MAYHEM by Hypersonic Secret now available!

Page 1 of 1
Top