GEE EL O R EYE AYE ( NAD)

[Ian]

It's raining again and my fingers are sore. New amp day here at chez Ian with the arrival yesterday of a cute wee Fender Champ 600. It's in sparkly minty cond, and I'm thoroughly enjoying giving it a good thrashing with the Gretsch (the Prestige sounds pretty good through it too....). There's lots of stuff on the net about mods to these: Anyone done any experimenting ? I was thinking of maybe a new 6v6 for starters (I've got loads of spare 12ax7's to try when I get round to it...), is it worthwhile replacing the speaker ?

Cheers, Ian

NB Ive got photo's of the gretsch as well, but they are all in photobucket limbo at the moment....

 

[coastie99]

On Trademe ?

You might not want to read this, and I think that you definitely shouldn't watch the Youtube clip.

http://www.mercurymagnetics.com/pages/c ... 600-01.htm

Congratulations anyway !!

 

[Ian]

Hi Coastie,

It was the one on TM gave me the idea, but I found one locally for the same price. Read the Mercury stuff, but the tranny mods are only for 120v not 240v, and I dont want to shag about with another step down transformer. Ideally I'd to get this sounding as good as possible for a practice amp, get some experience on board, then maybe have a crack at building one....(might start with an extension cab). So the question is: is it worthwhile replacing the stock speaker ? (I'll do the valves anyway, PS Do you have any spare 6v6's ?)

It's great fun though, man I've been thrashing it today......

Thanks for your help and advice over the last few days BTW

Cheers, Ian

 

[coastie99]

Hi Coastie,

It was the one on TM gave me the idea, but I found one locally for the same price. Read the Mercury stuff, but the tranny mods are only for 120v not 240v, and I dont want to shag about with another step down transformer. Ideally I'd to get this sounding as good as possible for a practice amp, get some experience on board, then maybe have a crack at building one....(might start with an extension cab). So the question is: is it worthwhile replacing the stock speaker ? (I'll do the valves anyway, PS Do you have any spare 6v6's ?)

It's great fun though, man I've been thrashing it today......

Thanks for your help and advice over the last few days BTW

Cheers, Ian

There seems to be a heap of advice out there as to how to mod. the Champ ! But, how much to spend ? A caps. replacement would certainly be a must-do for not a lot of money. And obviously, more betterer valves. Yes, I have a few 6V6's lying around !

Re trannies. If this was a keeper, I'd say mod the trannies or, at least the OT. But, how much money are you going to spend, only to move on ? And, I'll bet you will move on.

Speaker ? Certainly an improvement could be made. For me, a 10" unit. Celestion / Weber / Eminence. Doubtful however that it will fit in there. Your idea of running an extension cab. has merit. Bypass the stock speaker and then, when you discover how much gooder you've made this amp. sound with improvements, build one yourself utilizing the improved speaker, return the 6" original to the 600 and flog it to the pimply kid down the road.

 

[capnjuan]

Congratulations Ian and welcome to the land of single-ended bliss! If the speaker is only 6", I'd vote for a cab with not less than a 10". Because there are so few made in that size, if that Champ has a 6", it's probably already as good as can be had. All hail smokin' 6V6 power! 8) 8)

 

[Default]

Hey Gary, don't I owe you some money?

 

[Ian]

Hey Gary, don't I owe you some money?

Send it to me, I'll make sure he gets it :twisted: Thanks for the input guys, yes it's a 6 inch speaker in there and it's real tight, Dont think I'd fit anything bigger. So the stock speaker is about as good as it gets ? This isnt actually my first foray into SE stuff: I had a SE stereo amp running 807's that a guy in CHCH made me, unfortunately it was just too low powered to work with my speakers (I'm married to my speakers: Duntech Viscounts), so it moved on...

Cheers, Ian

 

[adorshki]

Hey Gary, don't I owe you some money?

Send it to me, I'll make sure he gets it :twisted: Thanks for the input guys, yes it's a 6 inch speaker in there and it's real tight, Dont think I'd fit anything bigger. So the stock speaker is about as good as it gets ? This isnt actually my first foray into SE stuff: I had a SE stereo amp running 807's that a guy in CHCH made me, unfortunately it was just too low powered to work with my speakers (I'm married to my speakers: Duntech Viscounts), so it moved on...
Cheers, Ian

I had a Champ once, given to me by a co-worker in '82. I passed it on to a "friend" who helped me move in '04. It was immaculate. I didn't have a lot of money and I figured it was worth about $70.00, and he wanted it.
He pawned it. :twisted:
I'm sure it was the same one I saw in a music store a couple of years later, for $275.00 :shock: (It was that same place that advertises the the 50th anniv. D50 for $8995.00)
Personally, I'm a "keep it stock", or at least "reversible" kind of guy, like Gary says. Ya just never know.

 

[Ian]

Hi Al,

yep I'm going the reversable route, I figure some new valves for a kick off and we'll go from there...

Cheers, Ian

 

[capnjuan]

... yes it's a 6 inch speaker in there and it's real tight, Dont think I'd fit anything bigger. So the stock speaker is about as good as it gets ?

Hi Ian; I'm not completely certain but I think Fender buys a lot of speakers from Eminence; since there are so few mfrs who make a 6" speaker, finding another make and finding one that's "better" ... as if anybody knew for sure what that meant ... I think those are long odds.

This isnt actually my first foray into SE stuff: I had a SE stereo amp running 807's that a guy in CHCH made me, unfortunately it was just too low powered to work with my speakers (I'm married to my speakers: Duntech Viscounts), so it moved on...

Low-power amps require highly efficient speakers and I don't think it's a fact that all good-sounding speakers are necessarily highly efficient. My brother is a 'golden ears' type of guy ... he view is that if you only have a few watts, you need to have speakers capable of being driven by a relatively modest signal. Cheers!

 

[Bill Ashton]

Ian, I have the one of those little ones, a birthday gift from my son actually.

I have found that it loves my Telecaster and Jaguar, but doesn't work especially well with my Strat. (All made in Mexico, BTW)

Right off the bat I decided to change out the 6V6 and the 12AX7...let the games begin...6V6 no problem, but after removing the 12AX7 with some difficulty, not only could I not get another in, I could not get the original back in! Disassembly of the amp followed and I found the the pins in the base for the preamp tube were so tight, that was the problem. With the chassis on my bench I was able to insert a NOS Amphenol 7025, got her back together and the process is a bad memory only, she sings nicely.

Change out of the grille cloth is universally advised, and at some point I will disassemble again and do that. As much as I think the little acoustic suspesion speaker should be changed out, she sounds good enough that perhaps only the grill cloth needs changing.

There are several mods available, one disables the negative feedback loop and one drops out the phantom treble and bass circuit that is hard wired internally. Both make it much more gainy, but frankly I find it an amazingly clean sounding amp, perfect for front porch or bedroom, and I shall be leaving mine unmolested as far as those mods go.

Enjoy her!

 

[Ian]

Hi Bill,

Already had the 12 AX7 out so no issues there: whats a 7025 ? What brand of 6v6 did you replace the original with ? Read about replacing the grill cloth last night, but at this stage I'll keep it pretty original. I'm enjoying it a lot, it's loud enough for my skill level of guitar playing, though I can see that the temptation will be to upgrade in future (AAS ??)

Cheers, Ian

 

[Bill Ashton]

I believe mine came with a Chinese 6V6 and a Sovtek 12AX7.

A 7025 was a low-noise industrial version of the 12AX7; you'll note that old Fenders call for them usually as the first stage preamp tube of each channel. I understand that today's 12AX7's are as low noise as the old 7025's.

Glad you had no trouble with the tube socket, mine was tighter than... :wink:

I had a pair of old 50's Delco 6V6's, so one went into the Champion. I had a sleeve of old Amperex (Mullard or Phillips made I think) 7025's, so one of those went in as well.

You are aware, of course, that the speaker output is a 1/4" phone jack, so it is not hard to sub in a cab or whatever to try with the little amp, it was made that way by design.

Order up the Fender slipcover for it and you'll be stylin' :lol:

 

[Bill Ashton]

The title of this thread is not lost on me, by the way...my first back-porch-band in 1966, was powered by two tweed Champs and a solid-state Bradford amp...one of the first three songs we played was "Gloria"...done here by the one-hit-wonders The Shadows of Knight, clearly a cop of Them's hit overseas...

I guess you Kiwi's spell it differently...sort of like "colour" for color? :lol:

 

[capnjuan]

... clearly a cop of Them's hit overseas...

Speaking of the Thems ... Mystic Eyes w/ Van the Man 8)

 

[Ian]

Well done Bill, top of the class: Twas the name of the Shadows of Knight compilation released mid eighties I think... ( No I dont have any original Shadows of Knight LP's ). Song sounds great cranked through the wee fender...

Cheers, Ian

 

[Ian]

To Confirm: Changing the grill cloth makes a huge difference !! The original suede one really kills the HF....

Cheers, Ian