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My first ever amp was a Super Champ back in 1984 or so. I sold it a decade later, but grew nostalgic and bought another one (mint!) a few years later on Ebay. So although I've owned a giant list of amps during the last quarter century, a Super Champ has almost always been nearby.

I'm curious if anyone has played a new Tramp that has played a Super Champ too. How do they compare? Pros and cons? Clean tones? Dirty tones? Ability to dial in dirty tones at low volume, etc.?

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Go Buckeyes!

The early eighties "Rivera" Super Champs are push/pull and have two 6V6 power tubes. I own an '83 that is very nice sounding (I use a Trinity 2x12 ext with Wbr Blue Dogs). I also have a Champ (not a Tramp) which is single ended, with one 6V6, and, as you'd expect, it's just got a differnt flavor of distortion - grittier - not a smooth as the PP amps, but nice in its own way. I beleive you'll find the two of them VERY differnt sounding. And, I wouldn't look to a single ended amp for much clean head room, if that's important. The Super Champ does clean very nicely. Maybe check out some of the Tramp clips; I've haven't listen to them all.

Either way, you can't go wrong buying an amp from Stephen. You can never have enough amps.

Hope that helps.

Using the bigger power tube options, such as 6L6GC, EL34 or KT66, you can get plenty of cleans from the Tramp if you want. The combination of Gain and MV controls, plus the VRM, allow you to get almost any degree of clean or dirt sound at any volume level within reason. You can also adjust the proportions of preamp to power amp distortion. For vintage amp purists, the Tramp's Tweed mode turns the amp into a classic Tweed Champ/Princeton (not Super Champ). Basically you just leave the MV control turned all the way up, and use the Gain pot to control the volume. IMHO this has got to be one of the most versatile SE amps around.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Thanks for the responses. I had a bit of a brain freeze. For some reason, I forgot that the clean mode of the Tramp was the "Tweed" mode. Duh! I guess, even with similar tubes, it would be a bit of a different flavor than the Blackface based Super Champ clean.

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Go Buckeyes!

Actually it's not quite as simple as that either. If you crank the amp in Tweed mode, it gets pretty dirty, just like a regular 5F1/5F2 weed Champ or Princeton, with the darkish, compressed vibe you would expect it to have. In 'Tude mode it's more open, and also gives a wide range of transparent clean and dirt tones, although it gets more crunchy at maximum gain settings than in Tweed mode. HTH

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Great tones come in small glass jars!