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A Californian boutique amp with mystical powers to unlock the secrets of the universe. Oh, and triangular knobs as well Budda is perhaps best known in the UK for its excellent wah-wah pedals. But the Superdrive 30 is what these US tonehounds are really about; top notch hand-wired valve amps with funky retro styling, and quirky touches like switchable loudspeaker outputs.
Fan
in a suitcase
They're
practical too; the suitcase-style castors and side grab handle make it
easy to tow single-handed. And I just love the look of this amp, the purple
anodised front and rear panels are complemented by a purple footswitch,
purple lead and even purple anodised screen caps on the preamp valves.
The chassis is something else altogether. A real tour de force of point-to-point
wiring combined with three PCBs, every detail perfectly executed by someone
who really takes pride in their job. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't
find even the tiniest fault which is indeed a rare occurrence. The front
panel layout is straightforward; master volume, bass, mid and treble,
and a pair of gain controls for the rhythm and drive channels. There are
two push-pull switches, one on the master volume to switch channels, and
a bright switch on the rhythm gain to add a little extra sparkle to that
channel.
The rear panel is interesting with a pair of send and return jacks for the series effects loop, a slave output with level control and two pairs of speaker jacks, each with an impedance control. This is where the Superdrive 30's cabinet switching feature comes into play - you can connect another cab and redirect the output to the extension as the need arises. You can also do this via the footswitch, changing to the extension whenever the drive channel is selected. The footswitch lead plugs into the front panel underneath the guitar input, and Budda has included an extra pair of jacks on the rear panel to facilitate channel and speaker switching from a MIDI controller.
Complexi? Setting this amp up is very easy. Start with the rhythm channel,
dialing in gain and EQ as required, then feed in the drive channel gain
to suit. The rhythm channel nails that Vox sparkle, with enough gain
available to really punch out power chords. Blues rockers will find
wallop aplenty in the Superdrive's plexi-inspired drive channel; a rich
tone with great touch sensitivity that manages to sound sweet and aggressive
at the same time - go from Mayall-era Clapton to vintage Van Halen with
ease, and winding up the master reveals startling headroom for the valve-rectified
power stage. Budda has obviously put a huge amount of effort into getting
the voicing and response just right, and as such it's near impossible
to get a bad sound out of this amp. The cabinet switching feature works
well too, a Greenback-loaded 4x12 added a nice edge and extra volume
to the drive channel, but not all combo owners will want to lug an extra
box around to utilise this feature full time. Fat, no chips In this
digital age, many guitarists are prodding buttons on an effects box
to get this or that amp sound, and with some 'valve' amps relying heavily
on solid-state, it's hardly surprising. However, the transparency and
response of a well-tuned simple circuit like the Budda Superdrive 30
is beyond duplication - no box of chips will ever come close to what
this amp can do. The staggering quality of the chassis assembly more
than justifies this amp's price tag, and the tone is superlative. Some
may find the cabinet-switching feature a little superfluous on a combo;
nevertheless, the Budda is guaranteed to put a serene smile on your
face - definitely a new star in the US amp camp!
All
reviews reprinted with permission.
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