Fender Super-Sonic Head and 4×12 Cabinet – Review

Written by Happy NGD on June 9th, 2010

After getting the Fender Super-Sonic head and 412 speaker enclosure home, I quickly unpacked the boxes, set the head on top of the cab and basked in it’s glory. Blond amps definitely will have more fun!

Just like every other head and cabinet combination, you are going to get a workout whenever you have to move it. Luckily, I have a dedicated space where I keeps it 90% of the time so it doesn’t have to move much. Also luckily, it has some smooth casters on the bottom of the cab making it easy to transport.

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Let’s look at the specs first:

Super-Sonic Head

Series: Fender Protube Series.

Type: tube amplifier.

Output: 60 watts.

Ohms: selectable at 4, 8 or 16 ohms.

Number of channels: 2 – vintage and burn.

Features: Made from 3/4″ birch plywood, two speaker outputs, effects loop, jacks for pre amp out and power amp in, 3 button footswitch, dual cascading gain preamp overdrive.

Accessories: Padded cover.

Weight: 32 pounds.

Tubes: 5 12AX7, 2 12AT7 and 2 6L6GC.

MSRP: $1699

412 Super-Sonic Speaker Enclosure

Series: Fender Protube Series.

Type: Speaker enclosure.

Ohms: 16 ohms.

Speakers: 4-12″ Celestion® “Vintage 30″, 16 ohm, 75 watt Speakers p/n 0041233000

Construction: 13 ply birch plywood, closed back.

Weight: 88 pounds.

Power Handling: 240 watts.

Accessories: Cover.

MSRP: $1099

Over the last couple years, I have had a chance to give this head and cabinet combo a good going over in the recording studio, on stage and at band practices. It always held up it’s end of the bargain.

Take a look at the front and back panels and all the controls that you have available to you. The front panel has separate bass and treble controls for each channel. There are two gain controls in the burn channel as well. My only complaint with the front panel is the lack of the on/off and standby switches. I like my switches to be at the front– but it is really not that big of a deal.

Now the back panel has all the usual back panel stuff that you would find — footswitch input, speaker jacks, effects loop, etc. You’ll notice very access to the tubes when the time comes to change them as well.

So that’s the amp at first glance.

Sound and Tone

Since the time that I have had this amp, I have used three very different guitars with it and each of them gave very different results.

1. Fender American Stratocaster.
2. Ernie Ball Axis Super Sport.
3. Paul Reed Smith CE-22.

By far, the Strat paired with the Super-Sonic was the best combination. Something about the two together just clicked and I found myself loving the tone more and more with every day that I played it. I play mainly rock and this was a perfect set up for our band’s music. Something about Fenders plugged into Fenders I guess.

Next came my Ernie Ball Axis Super Sport. While it didn’t sound as good, not by the fault of this amazing guitar, it was still good. I never was able to get a “perfect tone” from this guitar through the amp no matter how much time I spent tweaking. However, it was usuable and the Axis is the guitar that I used the most because it is such a fantastic guitar.

Finally the Paul Reed Smith CE-22. For the life of me, I could not get a decent tone out of that thing. Sure, it had tone but nothing that would work for me. Seemed always too dark and just kind of blah. That PRS through a Marshall JCM-800 sounds absolutely amazing. That PRS through a Mesa Lonestar sounds incredible. However, paired with this Super-Sonic set up – it just sounds like a wet fart. Disappointing there but it is true that some guitars just don’t play well with some amps. I’m all about pairing the right amo with the guitar and this pair wasn’t having any of it.

Is the amp loud?

I play with a very loud drummer who bashes drum skins like a madman. If any amp can keep up with his antics, we have a winner. This amp has no problems at all and 60 watts of tube goodness is more than enough.

What about dialing in a tone?

All the amp’s tone controls make it simple to hone in on a decent tone — well more than decent tone actually! The other thing is that this thing can manage a huge variety of different tones — from country twang, jazz, classic rock and metal. It can do it all!

The Bottom Line

Now, what is my bottom line opinion on this amp?

First of all, I am not a big fan of a head/cabinet combo. Just too much lugging. I’m not a big guy and a prefer to just have a smaller 112 combo. But this isn’t what this review is about. However, the amount of air that a 412 can push is insane compared to a 112 — two different worlds.

Over the past two years of owning this amp, it had one problem as well. The footswitch. During my second or third jam session with this amp, the footswitch just decided to quit working. Two of the three switches just stopped switching. Cheap toggles? Not sure. It was still under warranty but I really didn’t want to send it back, wait for god knows how long for a replacement or fix and then have the possibilty of it happening again. I opted to take it to my local music shop instead and have the owner/electronics whiz have a go at it. He pulled out the three switches out and replaced them with three more heavy duty footswitches. It works like a dream now! It was an $80 fix but well worth it!

Pros:
- Loud!
- Easy to dial in excellent tones.
- versitile

Cons:
- broken footswitch
- doesn’t sound good with all guitars