I worked in a music store in the 80s, played and sold a lot of these and have loved them ever since. It was the first thing I bought on ebay (when ebay was pretty new). One of my favorite amps of all time.
Great fan of yours, Mr. Rivera! For what you did for fender AND your own mods and amps. Owned a Rivera R55 myself. I now have two of your Fender solid state amps. The SS version of this SuperChamp, called the “Harvard Reverb II” (WITH the original upgrade speaker EV Force 10!) And the 100 watt 1x12 Stage Lead. AMAZING cleans. My Rickenbacker loves it. Collectors seem to forget that you redid the ENTIRE Fender amp line. And really upgraded/overbuilt the solid states. Pity they aren’t as appreciated/collectible.
Bought mine in 1987 and have moved with me around the country - Nebraska, Austin, Kansas City, Phoenix, back to Kansas City. Love it! And still record with it to this day
I had one of your original Super Champs and the hotrodded little Princeton Reverb II amps back in the 1980s and loved 'em. The Super Champ had an incredible full, rich sound in a tiny package. Only problem I had was it had been a bit abused and there was one peculiar tube (rectifier, IIRC) that was harder to find by the 1990s. The Princeton Reverb II could be a bit shrill without careful EQ or just rolling back the tone knob, but the Super Champ sounded best with everything cranked to 11. Alas, work, family and life stuff came along and I think both those amps and a silver face Twin Reverb went to collectors in Japan. Fun while it lasted though. Thanks, Paul!
Well I did the same, the output tubes were shot and same with the reverb tank. I added an adjustable bias and replaced all the internal silver caps and added a real speaker jack.
@@shckltnebay cool that you fixed the deficiencies. great upgrade opportunity. mine arrived in playable condition along with a letter that Slash had played the little amp. LOL. i don't believe one word of it. all i care about is that the amp sounds great!
I bought one of these last fall and it's an awesome amp, I put a speaker switch so I can plug in an external cab and use a 1-12 cabinet with a Celestion Vintage 30 for playing with a group. You can pretty much dial in any tone you want with this amp. The only downside is the preamp tube 6C10 triple triode are scarce and only available NOS ,so I found and bought 2 spares. The footswitch is also rare and expensive, so I made my own for about $60
Thanks , Paul .. First time actually seeing you.. Great to finally make your acquaintance.. Need is for a better speaker.. Most of the new crop of Fender practice amps have a dud for a speaker .. It goes "THUD" when you play a chord loudly through it .. Some folks have done better with a speaker replacement .. Some still needed more quality sound from these amps , and decided to part with them -- disgusted over the dead sound of the amp .. I hope this one will help both the players , as well as Fender in the future .. Need to hear some more about this little wonder.. My 50 year old Acoustic 134 , is tired and needs to be replaced , Pal .. Thanks for the vid ..
I got my solo career started after music school with a vintage 1964 Fender Deluxe and one of these, a Rivera Super Champ with reverb. So one cleaner one filthy dirty. Everyone was bugging me as to how I got my tone. When I got my first "deal" I had to move up to a much louder amp. Good tone but I never surpassed this original pairing. My Super Champ was an absolutely fantastic sounding and tremendously versatile amp that reminded me of my teacher, Tommy Tedesco's, Rivera modded Princeton Reverb.
He is an absolute genius of tone. What he did with Fender is monumental. Rivera era Champs are worth their weight in gold, and his own line of amps are beyond amazing.
I've owned one since it was new in '83. The first thing I did was wire an extension jack/toggle switch that throws the power to either the 10-inch speaker in the amp, or to my tl- 806 EVM 12L cabinet... which makes it sound unbelievably awesome!! I play my les Paul through it 5-6 nights a week, and even in larger rooms it's all the volume and presence I've ever needed. It mics up great if I ever need to keep up with a full band outdoors at festivals and larger venues.
I have a Super Champ X2, and it is maybe the best bang for your buck in the Fender line up. With pre-amp tube goodness and digital effects, classic amp modeling plus a usb connection for import from your PC, what's not to like? It is a real bonus to now learn that Paul Rivera himself, had a hand in the original design and build. Knowing this, I am craving the chance to grab a vintage '80s model for stereo playing.
The Super Champ X2 is not a rivera design at all, I had one but unfortunately it started getting noise problems and It would cost more to fix than replace
I bought mine when it came out, and still have it. When I have time I need to debug it to see why I can’t get that high gain compressed sound anymore. Thanks!
I bought this amp in 1983. It’s gone through a lot. It’s now blonde with a black grill (all original just painted). It looks factory and not painted. It has a different speaker as well. I honestly don’t know what speaker it is. It looks like a brake caliper (black steel). I wired an output jack and mounted it in the back panel that I connected to a custom made talkbox. Still works great after 37 years. I still have the same tubes in it from the late 80’s.
I've had one of these since the 80's. Found out you can make it big sounding for a stage gig running the line out to a non lead channel Fender or other combo. Miles ahead of any stomp box in tone. I used to have it set on top of a Roland JC-120 with an analog echo in between. Just wish I'd have gotten one with the EV. Are there any speakers comparable to the force 10? Anyways thank you Mr. Rivera for such a wonderful little amp.
Earl R. I bought my Superchamp in ‘83 and a year later I bought a Roland JC-120 off a friend and was running them together for years! What a great sound! I still have Superchamp, but sadly sold the Jazz Chorus to buy a guitar.
With all the talk about these amps I'm surprised to see so few views considering that you are the designer of the amp! It would be cool if you had one of the more famous users demo it. On your channel of course.
Loved my Superchamp and wished Id never sold it! I've had a few Rivera amps since [Clubster Doce, Chubster and Quiana] but nothing sounds like the Superchamp
not a really effective one. look around, 6c10s can be found not so super expensive & it should last a LONG time. v2's the one that gets slammed in this circuit. OR . . . if you feel really adventurous, you can try inserting another 12xx7 socket in the chassis & use another 12ax7
This is really nice amp, but, since it has a master volume I don't understand why does't have an effects loop. I have a princeton II from the same era and I love it.. the only down is that I can't put a reverb or a delay after the overdriven preamp... is there any reason for this or was it just a commercial choice?
@Eric Filsinger checking Google, the first ones were developed in the 70's but were crude compared to what we know them as today. That happened in the 90's.
I have one of these, I love it, but I’m sure it’s started to make a fizzy sound when you let a chord or note ring out…. Can’t quite tell whether I’m imagining it or not!
It would be easier to say that the only things the XD shares would be the name. I am sure there are some components and such that are similar, however this is an all tube amp vs the XD which is a digital preamp into a tube power amp. Both can be used to get some great sounds, but they aren't related other than by Fender's recycled naming convention which is confusing at best.
Have never played one of these amps or even seen one, but if they were like the only Fender amp models that I had ever bcught new like a 1977 Princeton Amp with 2 10" speakers and two Super Champ XD's with one 10" speaker they all suffered from the crapy quality stock speakers that sucked if you cranked up the amp. The amps are good, but the speakers truly sucked. If you want your amp to sound like 10 times better then check this out : The X2 is about the same amp as the Super Champ XD, but with the added USB option so you can actually downloand and store other voicings of one's choice off the web from Fender. One problem withe XD and the X2 is that the stock speakers only sound decent at low volumes to to being very cheap wimpy speakers. I finally found out that better quality 10" speakers can indeed make this amp actually sound SUPER at not only high volume, but all across the sound spectrum. Now at a nominal cost my 2 Fender Super Champ XD's sound like $1000 amps. I have 2 Super Champ XD amps. Great amps except for the wimpy 10" speaker that they come with so that Fender can cut costs, but at the expense of not producing a truly quality product. I also had picked up a used Fender Bassman 25 amp for $60 some time back. So the speaker in that Fender Bassman 25 amp had great lows and highs. So I removed it and replaced the Fender Super Champ XD speaker with the Fender Bassman 25 amps speaker which has a much larger magnet. It made a world of difference and now the amp is truly SUPER even when dimed. Next I will replace my other Super Champ XD with a Hartke Aluminum Cone 10" speaker from a Hartke 210 cab I have. Will move the other 10" in the cab to the Fender Bassman 25 Amp. The Hartke speakers turned out to be 16 ohm each. I had read that using a 16 ohm speaker instead of the 8 ohm ones would make the amp run cooler, but that the speaker would have less volume by about 3db. WRONG !!!. It acutally produces more volume than the identcal amp with the 8 ohm speaker installed. If you want a great amp upgrade your Super Champs speaker. You won't regret it.
No Rivera era Fender sounds like a Fender in any way. I bought a Super Champ right when they were released and sold it about a month later because the clean sound just barely passed and the reverb dropped out with the truly ugly quality boost/distortion; the amp was useless in a real playing situation. I also had a Rivera Concert and I never could get any kind of functional sound out of it. I actually gave it away just to relieve myself of the frustration. Go figure...c'est la vie, to each his own; one guy's trash is another guy's treasure - que sera sera... ✨🌈👋🥴👍✨
Had the ev speaker version, don’t regret having sold it, the clean was ok, the distortion sucked, I hated the reverb disappearing when engaging distortion. The band didn’t like it at all. Don’t understand the hype about it.
Hey there Schlumpf! ✨👋🥴👍✨ You're not the only one who didn't have a use for the Super Champ! I bought one right when they were released and got rid of it about a month later for each of the exact same reasons that you've so succinctly stated. I also had a Rivera Concert and I never could get any kind of functional sound that I could use out of it. Go figure...c'est la vie, to each his own and que sera sera... ✨🌈👋🥴👍✨
@@Schlumpf.Meister You've got a terrific perseverance quotient! I remember going nuts trying to make both the Super Champ and the Rivera Concert work for me. And, it's still crystal clear how I was so extremely relieved to get them outta my life (it was actually worthwhile losing money!). ⚡🤣💥🔨💥🔨💥🔨⚡ One guy's treasure is another guy's trash; it's really weird how that is. ✨🌈👋🥴👍✨
Absolutely love my 84 Super Champ!!!
I own a 1982 Super Champ, I have never played an amp where every knob position did something different and useful. Thank you Sir!
I worked in a music store in the 80s, played and sold a lot of these and have loved them ever since. It was the first thing I bought on ebay (when ebay was pretty new). One of my favorite amps of all time.
Great fan of yours, Mr. Rivera!
For what you did for fender AND your own mods and amps. Owned a Rivera R55 myself.
I now have two of your Fender solid state amps. The SS version of this SuperChamp, called the “Harvard Reverb II” (WITH the original upgrade speaker EV Force 10!)
And the 100 watt 1x12 Stage Lead.
AMAZING cleans. My Rickenbacker loves it.
Collectors seem to forget that you redid the ENTIRE Fender amp line. And really upgraded/overbuilt the solid states. Pity they aren’t as appreciated/collectible.
I also have a Havard 2 and I love it
Thanks Paul....you’re a classic as well as the Fender amps you designed! Cheers
Bought mine in 1987 and have moved with me around the country - Nebraska, Austin, Kansas City, Phoenix, back to Kansas City. Love it! And still record with it to this day
Thank you for the video, I LOVE my Super Champ!!! (1983)
Thank you Mr. Rivera ! One of the finest amplifiers I had ever owned !!!!!!! Miss mine soooooo much...….
My '81 has been my main combo since I bought it. Now have the X2 head and 112 sc cab. Great design Mr. Rivera!
I had one of your original Super Champs and the hotrodded little Princeton Reverb II amps back in the 1980s and loved 'em. The Super Champ had an incredible full, rich sound in a tiny package. Only problem I had was it had been a bit abused and there was one peculiar tube (rectifier, IIRC) that was harder to find by the 1990s. The Princeton Reverb II could be a bit shrill without careful EQ or just rolling back the tone knob, but the Super Champ sounded best with everything cranked to 11. Alas, work, family and life stuff came along and I think both those amps and a silver face Twin Reverb went to collectors in Japan. Fun while it lasted though. Thanks, Paul!
Thanks for this video Paul. Great to hear you explaining the motivation behind your designs. And thanks for your contribution to the music scene.....
I just picked up a 1982 Super Champ. pretty stoked about trying it out.
Well I did the same, the output tubes were shot and same with the reverb tank. I added an adjustable bias and replaced all the internal silver caps and added a real speaker jack.
@@shckltnebay cool that you fixed the deficiencies. great upgrade opportunity. mine arrived in playable condition along with a letter that Slash had played the little amp. LOL. i don't believe one word of it. all i care about is that the amp sounds great!
@@rommelrivera1186 I forgot I found a nice eminence fender labeled replacement speaker that blows away the original speaker
Yay! More Rivera videos! I was starting to worry about y’all.
I have an 83 in perfect condition. It is my FAV amp and has moved across the country with me. This is one great amp!
I advise you to buy a 6C10 preamp tube as a spare, the price keeps going up and these are getting very scarce
I bought one of these last fall and it's an awesome amp, I put a speaker switch so I can plug in an external cab and use a 1-12 cabinet with a Celestion Vintage 30 for playing with a group. You can pretty much dial in any tone you want with this amp. The only downside is the preamp tube 6C10 triple triode are scarce and only available NOS ,so I found and bought 2 spares. The footswitch is also rare and expensive, so I made my own for about $60
How did you make the switch?
Been wanting one of these for a long time.
Best sounding amp I’ve ever played through.
Thanks , Paul .. First time actually seeing you.. Great to finally make your acquaintance.. Need is for a better speaker.. Most of the new crop of Fender practice amps have a dud for a speaker .. It goes "THUD" when you play a chord loudly through it .. Some folks have done better with a speaker replacement .. Some still needed more quality sound from these amps , and decided to part with them -- disgusted over the dead sound of the amp .. I hope this one will help both the players , as well as Fender in the future .. Need to hear some more about this little wonder.. My 50 year old Acoustic 134 , is tired and needs to be replaced , Pal .. Thanks for the vid ..
Very interesting. Now I want to get one.
Oh man. Loved this amp. ✌🏻
I would love to try this amp!
I have a Rivera Clubster 25 1X10.
Same size as the Super Champ, those two amps together would be awesome!
I bought mine in '83 to pair with my Gibson Victory MVX, the sound and tone have never disappointed me. I hope to find one with the EV in it someday.
I got my solo career started after music school with a vintage 1964 Fender Deluxe and one of these, a Rivera Super Champ with reverb. So one cleaner one filthy dirty. Everyone was bugging me as to how I got my tone. When I got my first "deal" I had to move up to a much louder amp. Good tone but I never surpassed this original pairing. My Super Champ was an absolutely fantastic sounding and tremendously versatile amp that reminded me of my teacher, Tommy Tedesco's, Rivera modded Princeton Reverb.
PS.. I got lots of work in the studio and these two amps were always requested.
I have one, and really love it! Amazing sound, flexibel, great clean sound and incredible with a little break up! If you come across one, buy it!
I have a mint early one. Paul is a friend and he is as nice a guy as he seems in this video.
He is an absolute genius of tone. What he did with Fender is monumental. Rivera era Champs are worth their weight in gold, and his own line of amps are beyond amazing.
i don't miss mine because i never sold it. its a beautiful growly stormy amp, good job :) much love :)
Loving my Super Champ.
I just picked up a Champ II in a custom made 1x12 cab for $80 off of Facebook marketplace. Fantastic amp.
Omg that’s amazing price
Congratulated with this deal.Champ 2's were only build for one year(82-83),much rarer and sought after,than the Superchamp.
@@jochemjonker3362 I own two and now a Super Champ
I've owned one since it was new in '83. The first thing I did was wire an extension jack/toggle switch that throws the power to either the 10-inch speaker in the amp, or to my tl- 806 EVM 12L cabinet... which makes it sound unbelievably awesome!! I play my les Paul through it 5-6 nights a week, and even in larger rooms it's all the volume and presence I've ever needed. It mics up great if I ever need to keep up with a full band outdoors at festivals and larger venues.
I have a Super Champ X2, and it is maybe the best bang for your buck in the Fender line up. With pre-amp tube goodness and digital effects, classic amp modeling plus a usb connection for import from your PC, what's not to like?
It is a real bonus to now learn that Paul Rivera himself, had a hand in the original design and build. Knowing this, I am craving the chance to grab a vintage '80s model for stereo playing.
The Super Champ X2 is not a rivera design at all, I had one but unfortunately it started getting noise problems and It would cost more to fix than replace
Would you please discuss the Champ ll ?
I play harmonica with a Shure PE54 microphone. Serial number says 1984/85.
Love the sound and amp!
I bought mine when it came out, and still have it. When I have time I need to debug it to see why I can’t get that high gain compressed sound anymore. Thanks!
I bought this amp in 1983. It’s gone through a lot. It’s now blonde with a black grill (all original just painted). It looks factory and not painted. It has a different speaker as well. I honestly don’t know what speaker it is. It looks like a brake caliper (black steel). I wired an output jack and mounted it in the back panel that I connected to a custom made talkbox. Still works great after 37 years. I still have the same tubes in it from the late 80’s.
I would buy a spare 6C10 tube if you can find one, they aren't made any more and they are getting very scarce
I've had one of these since the 80's. Found out you can make it big sounding for a stage gig running the line out to a non lead channel Fender or other combo. Miles ahead of any stomp box in tone. I used to have it set on top of a Roland JC-120 with an analog echo in between. Just wish I'd have gotten one with the EV. Are there any speakers comparable to the force 10? Anyways thank you Mr. Rivera for such a wonderful little amp.
Earl R. I bought my Superchamp in ‘83 and a year later I bought a Roland JC-120 off a friend and was running them together for years! What a great sound! I still have Superchamp, but sadly sold the Jazz Chorus to buy a guitar.
With all the talk about these amps I'm surprised to see so few views considering that you are the designer of the amp! It would be cool if you had one of the more famous users demo it. On your channel of course.
Paul, I have the Princeton reverb ii and love it. Does it share a lot of the same pedigree as the super champ?
Anyone have an issue with losing the clean tone with the footswitch plugged in?
Loved my Superchamp and wished Id never sold it! I've had a few Rivera amps since [Clubster Doce, Chubster and Quiana] but nothing sounds like the Superchamp
Anyone know where I can find a foot switch for one of these amps?
Paul, can you please tell us if there is a tube that we can use as a substitute to the 6C10? Thanks
not a really effective one. look around, 6c10s can be found not so super expensive & it should last a LONG time. v2's the one that gets slammed in this circuit. OR . . . if you feel really adventurous, you can try inserting another 12xx7 socket in the chassis & use another 12ax7
I have a couple for sale. Make offer.
I wish someone would clone and update this amp.
This is really nice amp, but, since it has a master volume I don't understand why does't have an effects loop. I have a princeton II from the same era and I love it.. the only down is that I can't put a reverb or a delay after the overdriven preamp... is there any reason for this or was it just a commercial choice?
Because effects loops weren't invented yet? *shrug*
@@sassycat WRONG lol Sassy where did you come up with that BS?
@Eric Filsinger eh, it's been a couple of years. I need to go back and watch the video again.
@@sassycat Effect loops surely had been invented and were in use by many Fender amps at this point
@Eric Filsinger checking Google, the first ones were developed in the 70's but were crude compared to what we know them as today. That happened in the 90's.
I have one of these, I love it, but I’m sure it’s started to make a fizzy sound when you let a chord or note ring out…. Can’t quite tell whether I’m imagining it or not!
Figure it out?
@@shckltnebay yeah I haven’t noticed it recently, I think it was one of my guitars
@@silvertongues2 Just got one the output tubes were toast
Whats the difference between this and the XD that came out after it?
It would be easier to say that the only things the XD shares would be the name. I am sure there are some components and such that are similar, however this is an all tube amp vs the XD which is a digital preamp into a tube power amp. Both can be used to get some great sounds, but they aren't related other than by Fender's recycled naming convention which is confusing at best.
Did you also design the CHAMP II?
Have never played one of these amps or even seen one, but if they were like the only Fender amp models that I had ever bcught new like a 1977 Princeton Amp with 2 10" speakers and two Super Champ XD's with one 10" speaker they all suffered from the crapy quality stock speakers that sucked if you cranked up the amp. The amps are good, but the speakers truly sucked. If you want your amp to sound like 10 times better then check this out : The X2 is about the same amp as the Super Champ XD, but with the added USB option so you can actually downloand and store other voicings of one's choice off the web from Fender. One problem withe XD and the X2 is that the stock speakers only sound decent at low volumes to to being very cheap wimpy speakers. I finally found out that better quality 10" speakers can indeed make this amp actually sound SUPER at not only high volume, but all across the sound spectrum. Now at a nominal cost my 2 Fender Super Champ XD's sound like $1000 amps. I have 2 Super Champ XD amps. Great amps except for the wimpy 10" speaker that they come with so that Fender can cut costs, but at the expense of not producing a truly quality product. I also had picked up a used Fender Bassman 25 amp for $60 some time back. So the speaker in that Fender Bassman 25 amp had great lows and highs. So I removed it and replaced the Fender Super Champ XD speaker with the Fender Bassman 25 amps speaker which has a much larger magnet. It made a world of difference and now the amp is truly SUPER even when dimed. Next I will replace my other Super Champ XD with a Hartke Aluminum Cone 10" speaker from a Hartke 210 cab I have. Will move the other 10" in the cab to the Fender Bassman 25 Amp. The Hartke speakers turned out to be 16 ohm each. I had read that using a 16 ohm speaker instead of the 8 ohm ones would make the amp run cooler, but that the speaker would have less volume by about 3db. WRONG !!!. It acutally produces more volume than the identcal amp with the 8 ohm speaker installed. If you want a great amp upgrade your Super Champs speaker. You won't regret it.
I have a couple 6C10 tubes from when I had my super champ. Make me an offer.
$100 For both.
Paul, I've got a Super Reverb you modded
I have one of these and it screams. I take it everywhere and leave the Super Reverb and Marshall home.
You muffed the concert amps 2nd channel
Hi Tom! ✨👋✨
I had a Rivera Concert as well that I never could get any kind of functional sound from and finally gave it away for free.
✨🤣⚡😵💫⚡🤣✨
No Rivera era Fender sounds like a Fender in any way. I bought a Super Champ right when they were released and sold it about a month later because the clean sound just barely passed and the reverb dropped out with the truly ugly quality boost/distortion; the amp was useless in a real playing situation.
I also had a Rivera Concert and I never could get any kind of functional sound out of it. I actually gave it away just to relieve myself of the frustration.
Go figure...c'est la vie, to each his own; one guy's trash is another guy's treasure - que sera sera...
✨🌈👋🥴👍✨
Had the ev speaker version, don’t regret having sold it, the clean was ok, the distortion sucked, I hated the reverb disappearing when engaging distortion. The band didn’t like it at all. Don’t understand the hype about it.
Hey there Schlumpf!
✨👋🥴👍✨
You're not the only one who didn't have a use for the Super Champ!
I bought one right when they were released and got rid of it about a month later for each of the exact same reasons that you've so succinctly stated.
I also had a Rivera Concert and I never could get any kind of functional sound that I could use out of it.
Go figure...c'est la vie, to each his own and que sera sera...
✨🌈👋🥴👍✨
@@Da_Xman I tried it once more last year, applied the reverb fix, still didn't like it an soldnit again quickly.
@@Schlumpf.Meister
You've got a terrific perseverance quotient!
I remember going nuts trying to make both the Super Champ and the Rivera Concert work for me. And, it's still crystal clear how I was so extremely relieved to get them outta my life (it was actually worthwhile losing money!).
⚡🤣💥🔨💥🔨💥🔨⚡
One guy's treasure is another guy's trash; it's really weird how that is.
✨🌈👋🥴👍✨