A few days ago, I was in a small mom and pop guitar store and I spotted a new Super Reverb amp. The owner told me that they had had the amp for a year. It's a small store and they mostly sell guitars. It's not the kind of store, like Guitar Center, where kids abuse the amps. The amp sounded fantastic in the store, with tons of tone. The reverb and "vibrato" are also good, better than most of the new Fender amps I've played recently. So, I offered them $450 less than what the amp currently sells for and the owner accepted my offer.

When I got the amp home and played it, I realized that, although leads sound really good, some chords sound extremely brittle. I don't know if it would be worth my while replacing the tubes? Would this be enough to get rid of the brittle sound? I don't want to replace the speakers, because I've already spent near the max that I want to spend on this amp. Like I said, the tone is generally really good. It's just that chords, when I strike them hard, have a brittle sound that's sharp as glass and actually hurts my ears. This is true at low volume and at a higher volume.

By the way, the store doesn't do returns. I mentioned Guitar Center and the one good thing I can say about GC is that their 30 day, no questions asked return policy would have been appreciated. Perhaps this is why mom and pop stores are suffering.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your help!

Tom

Turn it up!

Seriously...what volume did you play at the store and what volume did you play at home? I don't think that amp will sound good on 1 or 2...although you've said it doesn't sound good at higher volume so I assume you've turned it up to 4 or 5.

Now if you're cranking it and it still doesn't sound good there are the other variables...what guitar did you use there, what one at home?

Truth is, what you describe is sort-of like the blackface Fender sound. I know this is another obvious question but what do you have the treble set at?

Tubes will make a difference but not a huge one...speakers and guitars make a big difference.

www.apollo4.com

PhatTele
It could be that the power tubes are underbiased. The amp will seem stiff, brittle, or sterile if the tubes are biased too cold.

That makes a lot of sense. I played the amp for two hours at home and the tubes were still cool. That surprised me and I did wonder if that wasn't a factor. I didn't know that tubes biased too cool will make the amp sound brittle.

By the way, I went home and got my Mosrite to try with the amp before I bought the amp. I also played it at different volumes in the store. I only played at a loud volume in the store for a minute, though. Like I said, this brittle-ness is at all volumes. I just didn't pick up on it when I was playing in the store. Sigh.

Regarding a speaker cab, the Super Reverb is a 2 ohm amp. The manual says not to use cabs, even though there's an extra speaker output jack. I don't want to use a cab. If I can't fix the brittle sound, I'd rather sell the amp than do anything with the speakers.

Regarding the tone controls. I've tried every usable combination with no success.

From the comments so far, it sounds like I should try getting a set of JJ tubes and having the amp re-biased. That's certainly going to cost, but, if it works, it will be worth it.

Thanks again!

Tom,
I've had a '70 Super Reverb for years. I've used it with different tubes, caps, speakers, guitars, cabinets, etc. It sounds outstanding at times...and then sometimes I really don't like it. The amp definitely has a huge sound, it's always full and rich, with plenty of bottom....But, from my experience, a certain amount of "brittleness" seems to be in the nature of the amp.

I'm not really familiar with the reissue but it sounds like you got a pretty good price. Still, I can understand if you don't want to start changing tubes, speakers, bias, etc. just to see if you bought the right amp.

It might sound better in the mix with a band...or if your head isn't right next to the cabinet listening to every little nuance.

Good Luck!

These guys are right on about the OEM tubes being junk. That would be the first thing to try (JJ's made a huge difference in my Vibrolux). Like you said yourself, the amp is brand new and probably hasn't been played much in the store.

You will probably be a lot happier with the speakers once you've broken them in and played through them for awhile. Don't be afraid of turning the treble down a bit. Single coils can be pretty shrill through a SR if the treble is up to high. If you have another guitar with humbuckers in it, see how that sounds.

It is a great amp, don't give up on it just yet.

Good luck!

Cool! Glad to hear it worked out! Now that you say it i do remeber that fender allways bias amps WAY to cold from the factory. That would def help. I forget cuz i dont deal in newer amps so much....im getting rusty!

Love the suicide smilley

Give me reverb or give me death!
facebook.com/onenightstandards
https://www.youtube.com/scotstandard
scotstandard@yahoo.com

So, Tom, didn't you 'upgrade' a Deluxe Reverb to have a portable amp for smaller gigs instead of your Showman? Did even the hot-rodded DR not prove up to the task?

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
So, Tom, didn't you 'upgrade' a Deluxe Reverb to have a portable amp for smaller gigs instead of your Showman? Did even the hot-rodded DR not prove up to the task?

Hi Ivan, yes, I upgraded my Deluxe Reverb by replacing the stock speaker with an old Eminence speaker from a 1970s Twin Reverb, installing a Weber WS1 solid-state capacitor, replacing the two 6V6 tubes with 6L6 tubes and replacing the existing transformer with a slightly bigger transformer. The amp tech also installed another small transformer just to power the two 6L6 tubes independently.

At first, the increased volume seemed to be just what I wanted; however, when I took it with me to practice, I realized how much the tone had suffered from the mods. Not only that, but the Deluxe Reverb still wouldn't stand up to our one guitar player's Vibroluxe without distorting too much.

So, I un-modded the Deluxe Reverb and sold it, using the money to buy the Super Reverb. It was definitely a trade up, although I sort of miss the Deluxe Reverb in its un-modded form. Like I said, I'll get to really test the Super Reverb this Sunday. We're playing a car show. On July 4, we're playing at the Cleveland Captains baseball stadium (a double "AA" team) for a fireworks display. For that gig, I'll definitely be using the Showman for the songs that I play guitar on! Big fun!