Fender Champion 600 - Thoughts?

[.50 Caliber Bob]

Hi there educated, well informed, and most helpful forum dewellers on the whole of the worldy widey web,

None of the shops around my location are getting these in for another 6 weeks or so, but I'm almost considering taking a punt on it since its so cheap. What just wondering if anyone had any experience with these at all?

From reading reviews elsewhere, seemingly with a bad monkey and a holy grail infront of it, its a fairly decent set up for around the £200 mark. Although, as ever, I know that you get what you pay for, so I'm slightly sceptical, hence this thread!

If anyone has any experience with either the amp, or the bad monkey or the holy grail, any at all, I'll be very grateful.

(If its relavent, I have a '62 reissue jap strat, and play mainly classic rock stuff, with a bit of modern indie stuff as well, nothing massively heavy)

Slightly off topic as well, I have a Spider II 75watt amp that I really want to get rid off, any ideas of where to do so? (Other than the local tip!) I have looked at auctions on Ebay, and no-one wants them. Would a music shop give me anything part exchange do you think? Or will my best bet be the dodgy "cash converters" style pawn shops?

[Elliot]

The most informative thing at the moment (including clips) is the FDP forum - I honestly don't think Fender has released it in the UK yet.

But the upshot of these reviews is:

Its a great sounding amp - great blues sound
Change the tubes - and they are epoxied in
The speaker gets farty at full whack - just like a 50s Champion 600
Weber's 6 inch is an improvement  - and they have an ALNICO coming
Its better sounding than an Epi because of the 6V6
A cab makes it sound bigger and fuller
Its tone stack is a 'fixed value' Blackface - therefore it can be moded.

http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html?db=&topic_number=607848&lastpost=2007-05-2414:19:03

As to the Bad Monkey - in my view its a great cheap TS style pedal that has the tone but suffers from low output.  Anything you can get from a TS9 is in the Bad Monkey and a bit more.

I also like the Ibanez TS7 - same price as the BM, also made of metal, more versatility because of the TS9 setting and the 'hot' distortion setting.  Also easily modded to sound EXACTLY like a TS808.

Never heard a Holy Grail.

[FELINEGUITARS]

It does seem to be a potentially good little amp
Wish it had a bigger speaker

There are a few websites detailing modifications to Epi Valve Juniors and Fender Champs and other small single ended valve amps

Another I rather liked in its day was the Peavey classic 20 and classic 30
The old Laney LC15 was good but needed a better speaker (and maybe a better output transformer)

Another one definately worth looking out for is an old trace Elliot Velocette.
the last 3 are admittedly all EL84 rather than 6V6 driven

I've just bought a Cornell amp through ebay (from a BKP forum member)
It was the old Stinger amp which later became the Romany
It is kind of like a champ but runs a 6l6 through a 10 Jensen - that should be fun.

[dave_mc]

^ i tried the romany plus a while back (reverb/bigger speaker) and it kicked ass, jonathan! very nice buy!

anyway, just to let you know, bob, thomann has them for £118. you'd need to get another power lead somewhere, but other than that...

also, the soundclips i've heard have been nice, but i haven't tried it... i'd like to, though.

elliot: by the valves being epoxied in, do you mean glued? what's the sense in that?

[Elliot]

From what I can gather - its because its made in China and the valves need to protected during shipping.  You can replace the valves but you need to cut aways the epoxy with a stanley knife and wiggle them out.

[dave_mc]

^ ah, ok. so it's relatively simple, then? as long as it is, fair enough.

:drink: