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The Super-Sonic 22: a mid-power revelation.

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• Review

We all know about Fender guitars: the Telecaster is the seminal solid-body electric, while the Stratocaster remains the platform on which every solid-body double-cutaway boltneck guitar begins its life.

What fewer people know, however, is that at the other end of the cable, Fender's early amp schematics continue to breathe life into the world's top boutique brands to this very day. It's not overstating the case to say that Fender amps' role in the bedrock of amplified six-string history is every bit as important as that of its guitars.

Fender is as happy as anybody to build on that bedrock, of course, and for 2010 it introduces the updated Super-Sonic series - vintage Fender tone in one channel, high-gain drive in the other - aimed squarely at tone-hungry, pro-minded players.

The 22 is the new addition to the Super-Sonic family. It's a more portable, low-to-medium volume option for anyone who finds the 60-watter's roar a little too much. The power section is based loosely around the now-legendary mid-sixties Deluxe Reverb; two 6V6 output valves for around 22 gig-worthy watts, though there's no valve rectification here.

A single 12-inch Eminence speaker does the shouting, with enough room around it in the high-quality ply cabinet to sound big and airy. Build, fit and finish are typical Fender: efficient, high quality, well-designed and with a clear nod to the brand's heritage.

Unusually for an amp, there are two standard finish options: early sixties-style blonde Tolex and oxblood grille cloth, or the later black Tolex with silver grille - not everyone wants a black amp, right?

The preamp section features two channels. The first, Vintage, is a model of simplicity with just volume, treble and bass, plus a mode switch to go between normal and fat modes. Normal is designed to evoke the sixties Deluxe Reverb, while fat adds a more pronounced mid character.

The second channel, Burn, is where the Super-Sonic moves forward apace. The dual-gain controls are the first clue: Fender bills gain one as adding edgy break-up and distortion, while gain two adds compression, thickness and sustain - pointedly, an area in which Mesa/Boogie for one has excelled.

The post-gain EQ enables you dial-in a wide range of sounds and textures. Reverb just seems right when we're talking sixties-inspired Fender amps, and thus you get a long-tank Accutronics spring reverb in both combos.

There's absolutely tons of it on tap, so much that we had to turn it off completely to stop the inadvertent clangs on a slightly rickety function gig stage. On a more solid foundation, there's very little to beat that wonderfully rich yet bright ambience, be it subtly shimmertastic or completely engulfing.

We would have liked separate controls for the two channels, however. A nice ambient spring in the clean channel easily turns into a much bigger wash with the extra gain of channel two, so compromise is needed.

The Super-Sonic 22 is controlled with a four-button footswitch: three sounds - normal, fat and Burn - plus reverb on/off and the option of switching the series effects loop in and out. There are no level controls for the loop on this model.