By low volume, I mean like just above typical tv volume. Would've thought Marshall 18w would be too loud. What wattage is that ceriatone? Sound Control here dont seem to have that Vibro Champ XD (or the Champ 600), hopefully the shop at home do.
btw, will a good od pedal into a good clean amp actually get good overdrive sounds or will it sound just as bad as low volume valve overdrive (attenuators etc)?
edit - found a good video of the Champ 600 with a pedal in front, it sounds great when he turns down the gain on it and then turns off the pedal, really nice clean http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jt6AaKVFn4
It looks like the ceriatone champ version, check ceriatone,com for more info.
I personally, now using the blackstart HT-dist think tube od pedals work best on clean amps and the usual analog stomboxes work better on an allready dirty tube amp. Messing with the preamp stage of a tube amp can get you the cranked tube saturation and dynamics but its quite difficult to get just right. Some guitarist i know, including myself, have elevated pestering tube preamps to an artform :lol:
I am wondering what your main amp is actually, i seem to remember you had a Laney with 2x12 cab? I can understand you would like to add a fenderish clean amp, however why dont you play the laney if you want gain sounds. Ive played the champ 600 but i cant imagine anyone preferring it for anything other then some clean ultra thin sounds, like country and western or something like that, or as a portable compromise for hollydays and such.
Obviously i can get a much better overdriven sound on the clean channel of my JCM800 with the use of a stompbox then i would get out of a 6 watter or even 15 watter. Its a simple equation, big preamp with lots of tubes = lots of gain. Now you can pile od pedals onto the little champ but youll just overflow the power stage and it will clip, which is fun but hardly very usefull. Kind off self evident that high gain guitarists use high wattage amps.....
In the clip you put up, the champ definately does not sound stock, it sounds like its wired to a cab at least. The tiny speaker cant ever put out that much lowend.
You can expect this sound from it, offcourse you can tweak it a bit but basically this is it:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9jlPGYSJDn4&feature=relatedI also found a decent demo from the super champ XD, if you keep listening youll hear the amp clipping at higher gain stages and allmost overloading the power tubes, which reders an amp totally useless ("the WHAT did the little piggy say?" sensation). Check out the cleans though.......
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-aGMTrL0pGgNow ok, my opinion on the greatest versatility range from great cleans to hard drive is, take a good amp with about 50 watts powerstage at a clean setting or channel and take a blackstar HT to use as a preamp stage. The voicing on the blackstar HT-dist (isf) are mindblowing, there is just no end to all the sounds you can get and you poweramp has enough headroom to make it happen, even at low volumes. It would not recomment a too bright amp, nor would i recomend the HT-distx, either would be too much i think. When you set the isf knob to the USA side there are alot of clean fendery sounds there, flip towards the UK side and hello Marshall, just too good man!. Quite bright though.....
Exeption though is clipping an amp deliberately to get that chunky ballsy bottom end sound. Ive used this alot in live situation, still with a very large amp though, great but very very poorly at lower volumes because it simply does not work then, well unless you have a smaller amp obviously, but ok, you will be pretty much playing one sound all the time that way.
Ok, ill leave it at this for now, its pretty complex stuff really, or at least i think so.
Adding to this, i only need a small practice amp for when i go on hollidays and dont want to risk taking my large rig abroad, if im home the king and queen rule again :lol:
