Author Topic: New Fender Champ 600 (Read 4606 times)

smudger123 · « **on:** September 19, 2007, 08:28:06 PM »

Just picked up one of these little Chinese made valve Champs. I'm having trouble getting a good dirty tone from it, obviously it doesn't get dirty with my tele unless I use a pedal in front of it. I have 3 dirty pedals, a hotcake, an Award Session JD10 MK2 and a USA Big Muff; they all sound like bees in a jar with this amp. Great clean tones fantastic when cranked for just breaking up tone but not great with any of these pedals.

Anyone else out there like to share there experiences of this amp? Cheers.

Elliot · « **Reply #1 on:** September 19, 2007, 09:04:42 PM »

Its a clean amp (a great clean tone at that) - it handles dirt better with a Jensen Mod 6-15 speaker and a higher gain 12AX7. But a tiny cabinet and a 6 inch speaker are never going to give you Marshall stack like tone.

If you want to do a drastic mod lift R19 on the circuit board - it disables the tone stack (which is built like Fender silver face era tone stacks) giving you about 20db more volume and more grunt. You can put the resistor on an on/off switch so that you can choose your option. Listen to my cr@ppy Mississippi Queen clip - this has the tone stack switched off and a grunt box put in front. I find the Award Session JD10 works really well in this mode.

A 1x12 speaker adds so much more, however.

indysmith · « **Reply #2 on:** September 20, 2007, 10:25:14 AM »

Quote from: Elliot

A 1x12 speaker adds so much more, however.

exactly what i was thinking. try a larger cab

HTH AMPS · « **Reply #3 on:** September 20, 2007, 11:00:06 AM »

Why they don't make these amps with 12" speakers already is a mystery to me. We've come a LONG way in amp design and a 6" or 8" speaker ain't cutting it really.

:twisted:

smudger123 · « **Reply #4 on:** September 23, 2007, 01:04:12 AM »

GOt the chance to crank it today for the first time and its awful, it just has a very farty sound when cranked. Shame, oh well it's gone back on Monday.

Elliot · « **Reply #5 on:** September 23, 2007, 01:29:30 AM »

As I said before - its not an amp to be cranked, Fenders rarely are - and this is pure Fender in tone. Its also a cheap toy and the stock speaker needs about a month to wear in.

smudger123 · « **Reply #6 on:** September 23, 2007, 11:43:32 AM »

Quote from: Elliot

As I said before - its not an amp to be cranked, Fenders rarely are - and this is pure Fender in tone. Its also a cheap toy and the stock speaker needs about a month to wear in.

Hang on surely the whole piont of a low powered valve amp is that you can crank it and get natural valve breakup at volumes you can use at home? The manual even recommends cranking the vol all the way on the amp and using the guitar vol to control things. I've used both Pro Junoirs and Vibro Champs in the past that sound great when cranked. It's not the speaker as such that gives a farty tone it's more the cabinet like the grill cloth or something is vibrating. It's anoying anyway. The clean tones not even that great. £140 is not a cheap toy either, it maybe small change to some but to others it is a new set of BKP's

ailean · « **Reply #7 on:** September 23, 2007, 12:01:39 PM »

I recently broke the bank to get a low power amp so I could crank it at home. I bought a Tiny Terror and an Orange 1x12 cab. Cost me £400 so not a cheap option (for me anyway).

This thing is insanely loud even on the 7 watt setting, I can crank up the gain but not the volume, or the other way around for a clean tone. It sounds great either way, but there is no way I could turn both up.

My point here is that a good quality amp that will withstand high gain will also be loud weather you like it or not. The only solution I can see is to spend yet another £200 on an attenuator to put between the head and the cab.

It's a lose / lose situation at home. Buy rubbish, sound rubbish. Buy good, can't use it.

Elliot · « **Reply #8 on:** September 23, 2007, 01:04:42 PM »

I fully sympathise with you for being disappointed - the problem is three fold - 1) it is the speaker that's farty - it is a very tight speaker that needs to be heavily broken in - playing an stereo throug it for a week or two with max bass engaged will do this. 2) The tone stack is set to sound give a stereotypical Blackface/Silverface sound.- It will simply not go into OD like the Epi VJ or the Pro Junior (whcih has a tone circuit similar to the more agressive tweed Bassman) 3) It is a tiny amp - the size of a Squier practice amp - its never going to have oomph and volume like a 1x10 or 1x12 cab.

To get there with this amp you need to cut out or mod the tone stack - something that of course ruins the warranty - i.e. you are probably better taking it back if you don't like - especially if you paid the heavy whack of £140 for it.

PhilKing · « **Reply #9 on:** September 23, 2007, 01:31:39 PM »

I have quite a lot of low power amps, because I used to live in an apartment where I needed to get a good sound for recording at a low volume. In my quest for this, John McIntyre made me 4 different amps, one of which turned into the Lexicon Signature 284 (though mine has quite a lot of differences). The key things to remember are:

2x10 Sweettooth cab with a matching head. I have Eminence Lil Buddy and Ramrod speakers in it. I was using it last night and my ears were ringing afterwards (even though I was not in front of the speakers and didn't have it on full power). When I run the same amp through a Celestion Tube 10, my ears are much better off because the Tube 10 is a 94db efficiency and the Eminences are 100db. The 6db difference makes a big difference in the output (10db doubles the volume!).

All of this is why it is so hard to get an amp that sounds good at a low volume. I also think that there are some sounds that need volume before they work (feedback being a great example, you need a certain amount of sound in the loop between the strings and the speaker to get feedback).