2011 Fender Super-Sonic 100

Overview

I remember having really good impressions of Super-Sonic 60’s when playing them a few times in stores, so I was casually looking for a deal on a Super-Sonic when this popped up on Guitar Center’s used site. I didn’t know much about the 100w model, but after reading about it, I figured I’d give it a shot.

It’s a 100 watt head and quite hefty compared to others in the range. They were only made from 2011-2014, so it was a short lived model, and considering even the 60w version is now discontinued, it looks like people just aren’t that interested in high wattage Fenders (at least with this name plate). I’m glad it’s the blonde/oxblood appearance, which matches my ‘96 Tonemaster 4x12 cabinet, so the first thing I did when I got it was put it up on that cab and start jamming.

It’s similar to others in the super-sonic series, but the 100w version has a few unique features. The most obvious, on the front panel, instead of a “Vibrolux/Bassman” switch, the 100 watter has a “Showman/Bassman” switch. The Showman is essentially a Fender Twin, but in a head, so those are some big shoes to fill. As for the Bassman setting, most of the famous Bassman amps used a pair of 6L6’s for 50-60w, but a Bassman 100 does technically exist. I’m probably overthinking it, this setting is not intended to copy a specific amp and instead give a generally thicker, slightly more overdriven type of tone than the Showman setting which should be more clean.

The clean channel also has separate gain and volume controls, plus a mid control in the EQ section. This gives a lot of flexibility to this channel and while I’m not a connoisseur of clean tones, I think this is one of the best clean channels in my collection. Of course, even with the volume control separated, it’s a little loud to get much drive out of the Bassman mode, but an external attenuator could fix that.

The drive, or “Burn,” channel also has some differences. All models in the range have two gain controls, but this 100w has a “notch tune” control. This adjusts the sweep of the mids control, so using those two controls together can vary the tone quite a bit. I do feel like this amp has less gain than the Super-Sonic 60’s I’ve played in the past, but I could be wrong there - it can get quite gainy and saturated, but it doesn’t really have the low end clarity or attack to do “metal.” At least, not modern detuned chugging metal, but then again it’s a Fender so I never expected that. I think the Burn channel does excel in one way - you can EQ it to get pretty close to the core tone of the clean channel, but with more push. In short, I mean you can make the transition from a clean rhythm to a slightly overdriven lead feel very natural for the styles of music that benefit from that. Think of it as having a tube-powered overdrive pedal pushing a Fender Twin, but you can tweak it a bit more. If used like that, I think it’s an impressive amp and a real blast to play.

Of course I have to mention the tube driven spring reverb, which has its own control on the front which effects both channels. In true Fender fashion, it’s deep and lush and absolutely incredible sounding. There are also two other features to talk about on the back panel. The easy one first, this amp has a power amp damping control, which can be set to normal, loose, or tight. This affects the volume but especially the “feel” of the amp in the lower registers, but doesn’t do much to affect your core tone. This is nice for adjusting to different rooms, speaker cabinets, or if you just like a little different feel on your low string when chording away. The next feature is an automatic bias control device, which is a tiny LCD panel on the back of the amp with some push button up and down arrows. This allows you to bias the power tubes to be hotter or colder on the fly! The changes are pretty subtle until very high volumes, but it’s a feature I haven’t seen on other amps and it’s pretty cool to be able to bias an amp with a control like that instead of having to break out the multimeter. That said, it does just show a “colder” or “hotter” light, so it doesn’t give precise Mv readings (which I would’ve loved), but I understand they are just going for usability here, not necessarily a replacement for a technical tool.