outlier52

First of all, I just bough this amp and have only had it for a few days, but right out of the box it sounds FUCKING FANTASTIC! You can just look at it the wrong way and it breaks up. The "classic" channel is nice and has that classic blackface Deluxe tone and is a bit cleaner and "Fendery" than the "custom" channel. But to me the real treat is the "custom" channel with the Bassman tone stack. It breaks up sooner and has a darker, angrier tone than the other channel. It is thick, creamy and just beautiful. I have a ton of dirt pedals, but why mess with perfection? If you're looking for clean headroom, look elsewhere. But at 22 watts,. it's perfect for what I do and just loud enough to play in practice settings with my band. However, I haven't tried it yet., but I don't suspect that it's loud enough to play clubs with and will require mic'ing. It doesn't channel switch, but I use a Morley ABY box to switch channels and also run both together with no phasing issues whatsoever. A lot of people have complained that this amp is noisy and hissy, but mine is dead quiet. It was manufactured in August 2015, so maybe Fender has fixed this problem I do have a noise that is either tube or cabinet rattle that I haven't located yet, but it's probably not going to be an issue when playing with the band. Also, the reverb to me just isn't that classic Fender sound. It has a very long decay time and is basically unusable past a very minimal level. I'm just turning mine off and going with either the spring or plate verb from my Hall of Fame. I still highly recommend this amp because the tone is so good that it outweighs the minor issue. If you are purchasing one I would make sure you try it first and make sure it doesn't have the noise issues others have had.

Sure you can use it as a clean boost, and it sounds great and transparent. But give it just a bit of gain and it produces a really full, compressed sounding tone that's not quite overdrive, but not quite clean. I have two overdrives and two distortions, but this little pedal surprised me. Now I'm using it as much as any of the other drives. It also does a fantastic job of goosing the overdrive and distortion pedals. Xotic is killing it with some awesome products!

Sounds great, three easy knobs. I simplified from a feature-laden digital delay. I miss the tap tempo. but I don't miss all the futzing with knobs to get the sound I want. Stupid easy to use and sounds great. A relatively short delay time and regen setting with the modulation adds a wonderfully subtle shimmer to chords and arpeggios. Always on.

Always on after overdrive and distortion pedals. Sounds fantastic, adds clarity and body. No reason to ever turn it off.