Hello Frenzel!!! I love my 5E1SS Super Sportster! It defines what a single ended amp will do for your tone. It is simply amazing and must be heard to be believed!  It is my opinion single ended amps like this 5E1SS simply have the best tone available anywhere at any price. It's the 2cd order harmonics. They RAWK!!! Leo Fender had a great idea with the tweed Champs & Princeton's. But Frenzel has taken what was designed as a practice amp and turned it into a professional machine! 

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A word of warning... this amp is so touch sensitive . . . when I first unpacked it and plugged it in I was not happy. No overdrive! I sent emails, couldn't figure it out. Until I realized my pickups on my Les Paul std were adjusted too low. By a mere 1/16" !! One and a half turns on the pickup adjustment screws and I had the gain, the Tone, all the overdrive I could want!! It was fabulous. It is so, so sensitive. That is what makes it great. Don't make my mistake. Make sure your pickup heights are adjusted properly.  Frankly the touch sensitivity this amp has is incredible. I go from screaming overdrive, pinch harmonics to nice clean sustain for days with just my pick and palm. I always hoped it could be like this, but know I KNOW it really IS like this. And it doesn't cost a fortune for one of these great amps. 

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Tubes!  I was able to get a Mullard NOS 1950's 12AT7 that had gains of 90 & 85 on the triodes for only $39 from TubeDepot. A 12AX7 would have cost $550 (with gains at 100) !!! and with all the magic tone those great tubes have. Check it out. Putting that tube in position 1 was truly amazing. The harmonics, the tone, the feel is incredible! They don't make 'em like that anymore!! It cost $3 bucks to test the gains. I knew I could get close to a 12AX7 with a good Mullard 12AT7 and not have to pay the extra $500. I am over the moon with the way this amp sounds with that tube in it. 

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Now I've also got a Tung-Sol KT66 in the power tube position. I get great headroom, but anytime I want I just max the volumes and I get the absolute best power tube overdrive with that terrific 2cd order harmonic. It must be heard to be believed!! Those of you that haven't yet purchased a single ended amp, you are truly missing out. Get a 5E1SS Super Sportster. It takes pedals great. same in the effects loop. Switches from Triode to pentode power mode. I'm running a 5Y3 rectifier cause I like the sag. Could easily run a 5U4GB or a 5AR4 too. Even a solid state rectifier if I wanted too. 

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One of the greatest features of this amp is the bias switch I have on the back so I can run just about any Octal power tube I want. 6V6, no prob. EL34, no prob, 5881, KT88, 6550, whatever. I like the KT66 best, although I do run the 6V6 in the house at night cause it's half the watts of the KT66. and much quieter! I can run them all. They all sound different. They all clip different. Oh man!!! Endless!!! 

These are great, great amps. I don't know why anyone would buy and play anything but a Frenzel. I have searched 40 years for this. Other than a tweed Princeton which really only came close and could not be taken to a gig, these Frenzel amps are THE solution. Get yourself a single ended Frenzel. You have not heard what an amp can truly do for you tone till you've heard single-ended amp power tube overdrive. It's like being a virgin!    Will K. (Oregon)

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FOLLOWUP REVIEW - 4 YEARS LATER.  -  Hi Jim, Since the first review 4 years ago, besides just playing my Champ Super Sportster, I have done lot's of experimenting with it. Like re-tubing it, completely, with NOS tubes and I also tried modern manufacture tubes using different tubes in different positions (keeping to the recommendations you outlined on the web page and in the manual), Using different types of fx pedals, in front at the input, and through the effects loop. The amp has had nearly constant use either on the road, in the studio, or just at home to practice, or for rehearsals  for the last 4 years or so. Since the day I received it from you, it has just been really amazing. Of course now I can't use any other amp anymore. Except for a backup amp that I've never used, I've even sold off all my other guitar amps. I just stopped using them. They didn't sound anywhere near as good as my Champ Super Sportster. It's all I need, all I want. It's that good.  I've had some nice amps. The usual stuff. Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Randall, modern and vintage Fenders and Supro. Also Peavey and Carvin, It's kind of shameful really, going through all those amps.  

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I'll be 59 in a couple of weeks and have been a working musician since I was 17, so I've seen lot's of changes and fads in music come and go throughout these years. I'm not famous, I haven't had any hit records or anything like that, but I have been successful in my own way in that I've worked, worked with some fantastic musicians and singers, none of which were famous or rich,  just very talented and good at what they do. I also managed to raise 4 kids and pay the bills all the while working as a musician. What I'm trying to say is that while being a full time lead guitarist and fiddler, and also having to cover keyboard parts half of the time too, LOL, for a hell of a lot of years, I've used a lot of gear, a lot. and that's no boast, it's a complaint actually. Like a lot of us, searching for "the right tone" seemed to always end as an endless unfulfilled frustration. So, I'm not some fanboy. The point I'm trying to make is that it is really, really unusual how very, very good the product you make and offer to your customers is. AND how the service you provide your customers, is just simply first class. In fact it is very hard to put it into words because it can sound ridiculous or even fake when describing truthfully what you get from Frenzel. It almost sounds too good to be true, too good to be real !! 

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What company puts out a first class tube guitar amp for a few hundred dollars? Jim Frenzel's does. What company's CEO or President answers emails from customers and then follows up on those requests and orders, and whatever else is in those emails? And will actually correspond with his customers? Well .... Jim Frenzel does.  What company, building and selling hand-made. made in America guitar amps, hell, made in America anything, sends you emails keeping you posted as to the progress of your amp, estimating in those emails when it will be finished and when it will arrive at your door ....... Frenzel Tube Amps does .......

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Thank you,

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Will Kenworthy
Eastern Oregon

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FOLLOWUP REVIEW - 5 YEARS LATER    -  Hello Frenzel Team, Having a blast with my Frenzel Champ Super Sportster amp and Hot Box ! preamp. Couldn't be happier with my purchase. You guys are terrific. The value of the amps you sell is second to none. I own a 1953 Tweed Fender Princeton and it just cannot hold a candle to my Super Sportster. Yes, that's right. My modern amp (loaded with NOS tubes), built by you, actually sounds better, has better tone, and is far more versatile, than my vintage amp. That is no exaggeration. It's just fact. With the HB-1 Hot Box patched into the Super Sportster I now have a 4-channel monster amp. Every place I play, every gig I play, I'm always quizzed about my "Little" amps. It's amazing how many guitarists just find it very difficult to believe that I'm playing through an amp they themselves could purchase for $600 to $700, and just over $1K with the preamp. I have so many musicians ask me about my amps that I've had to print up little cards with you email address on them to hand out because otherwise I would be spending way too much time after any gig just writing out the info on where they can get one for themselves. I've stopped taking the bottom off the Super Sportster to prove to my fellow musicians that it is indeed point to point wired. I've even stopped bringing it up. No one believes me. For Blues, Classic Rock, and Country Rock ... Frenzel Amps rule!!!  Will Kenworthy (Oregon)