Fender Champ 12

I think it's made around 1990. Made in USA model, red knobs. It's not very versatile but ok for me. I play pop, hardrock, rhythm 'n blues, jazzy styles, countryrock, South American flavoured tunes. Clean channel and OD gain stage. One 6l6 powertube two ecc83 preamp tubes. Footswitch for OD. Hi and lo outputs. 12 " speaker. About 10 watt. I use it at home and during practise with the band, when I don't want to take my heavy and loud Laney VC30 with me. Clean channel isn't very loud but sounds very Fenderish, a bit like a Twin in pocket size. OD stage will get quite loud for it's size and wattage. Couldn't find a line out. It has tape and headphone outputs. The reverb is worthless.

I play an old Yamaha Lord Player (very good looking, sounding and playing Japanese LP copy with set neck, built around 1980), a '84 Squier jv strat with maple neck and a heavily modified Fernandes te2 tele copy. All of these guitars sound ok with the Champ 12, although Fender type guitars sound best with this amp. When I got it, it had a badly installed Torres mod and was even dangerous to use, my guitar tech told me. He took out the Torres mod and restored the amp. I put in a JJ 6l6 and changed the original speaker for a Jensen ceramic 12" c12r. The original speaker sounded ok but a a little dull. With the Jensen this amp sounds much better, more lively, jangly and clear, without losing the low end. The clean channel sounds really good, typical Fender, but is'n very loud and won't distort. The OD channel is only useable with the drive below 1. Beyond 1 it tends to sound shrill and can be very loud in a small room. Maybe the OD could also be used at higher gain levels with the controls on the guitars down. Haven't tried this so far.

Have got it for only a month or two. It's a circuit board amp and made quite cheap. The controls are mounted directly to the circuit board. OD switch is connected directly to the amp's circuit, without a jack. Seems like a bad idea to me. But the amp is about 20 years old and it still works.

Fender asks customers to pay for old schemes, I think. Although the Fender tube amps have certainly their own character and quality, you'll pay a lot for the name.

I have been playing for almost 25 years now. My Laney vc30 seems to be constructed better, although these amps are more affordable than (Chinese!) Vox amps and (Mexican) Fender amps. I've had a Fender BJ, a blues deluxe, two Fender 75's, a Musicman 112rp. I never really liked Marshall tube amps. The Fenders went often too loud to make them sound okay. The Laney isn't perfect but for it's prize (and beyond) I can't think of anything I like better.
I choose the Champ 12 because it's portable and it produces the typical Fender tube sound. Maybe I should've waited and buy a Ampeg j12t or Fender BJ. But by now the Champ 12 is okay.

This amp was given to me by a friend who didnt use it any more. The Fender Champ 12 was made from 1987 to 1992 and had either red or black knobs. This is a great little tube amp that even came with a 12 inch Fender blue label speaker. It is light weight, and can be used for practice, small gigs and is especially good for recording. It has a cardbord reverb box,and features,two inputs, treble/mid boost, bass, volume, gain, drive, and reverb. There is also an over drive foot switch. It has 10-12 watts, 2 12AX7 tubes and a 6L6 GC. I immediately changed the 12AX7C tubes to new Groove Tubes and got a Tung Sol 6L6 power tube. I also ordered a Celestion Rocket 50, 12" inch guitar speaker for that Celestion sound.
When I first used it it had a bad input and the same problems others have described with the overdrive pots. It sounded pretty nice but I went ahead and did some of the Torres modifications including the pots, inputs and the RED KNOB HOT Kit that changes the "bias point" of two of the tube stages so the stage has higher gain and a more Classic Fender tone. This greatly improved the tone and power. It is cleaner and has more top and bottom end. It is noy my every day gigging amp but it serves its purpose well.

I play Classic Rock, Blues and some Country Rock and it is a Fender so it sounds great with all styles.
I like the overdrive/distortion now that Ive done the mods and it sounds amazing. I used it to record with my Les Paul Standard and you would sware it is a Marshall Stack. My American Strat sounds great through it also and it cranks with or without stomp boxes. The clean channel is nice for jazz and begins to break up at just the sweetest spot for blues. There is a slight hum when the OD is on and the volume is up but nothing too annoying.

I own 3 guitar amps including a 1972 Twin Reverb, a 2008 Blues Deluxe Reissue with the extension cabinet and now the Champ 12. I have never had a problem with any of them. I have changed speakers and done tube and cap changes, but all these amps are just indestructable. The mods I did on the Champ 12 were pretty easy although time consuming (4 hrs). Torres had some decent directions and hopefully the mods will hold up well given the circuit board soldering that had to be done.

Never needed to deal dirctly with Fender Customer Support.

Been playing guitar foe over 40 years and own more gear than I can list. I love the Champ 12 for several reasons. Try buying a new low wattage tube amp with a 12 inch Celestion and see what you pay. This one sounds really great so the others who bad mouth it have no idea what they are talking about and just dont know how to set up correctly. I play and record professionally and have done so for a long time. Yes it was a circuit board amp from a cost cutting production line but with the modifications it is real nice and is worth much more. I will keep it forever and use it with most recording sessions. An amazing little piece.

As an addition to my review below I have changed the speaker firstly to a Webber alcino, too bright, and now to a Celestion G12H 30W which is just great with much more projection than the stock speaker and just better in every respect. All of you out there with one of these Champs this is a great Mod.

I did the Torres bias mod and you have to be careful which tubes you use the KT66 works great but I thought I would try a KT77 which is like an EL34 but with a base that fits.

It worked for a short while and then went dead. The Transformer had got REALY hot and an internal fuse had blown which took a lot of finding eventually by an amp tech. Something to do with the current draw at the valve plate or something, if the transformer had gone that would have been it dead amp so be careful I spoke to Torres and they just said that as the transformers get older they are less capable.

Don't know what year the amp was made. Late-80s/early 90s.

I always liked the clean channel and now with a couple of Torres mods installed I like the OD channel too. One feature, the foot pedal, is now useable because of the mods. I like the line out jack which sometimes is less dicey than micing the amp live. Also the mid-range boost is a nice feature.

The reverb sucks.

I play mostly in bars, community festivals, house parties. It's got plenty of power because I'm either micing or running directly into via the line out.

Pre-mods, I'd give this a 5 or 6, but now I'm happy with most features, except the cheesy reverb.

I play fingerstyle guitar and slide on electric-acoustic guitars, mostly swing, folk, blues and some pop/rock covers. Guitars are a Seagull Artist Cameo CW with onboard Quantum II electronics kept in standard tuning and drop-D and a Simon & Patrick parlor guitar with a DiMarzio single-wound soundhole pickup that's kept in either open D or G. The amp makes my live sound warmer and fuller, and for rock tunes gives me some distortion.

Like others I'd given up on the OD channel. I used a Boss Blues Driver through the clean channel for slide or lead. But after doing the original Torres mod for tube staging both channels are a little richer & warmer, and another mod, which recalibrated the pots on the 2nd channel, I now have control over the OD's volume and gain. I paid a tech to install the mods; I have zero talent in this area.

For live sound I like this sequence: Guitar>>Blues Driver>>Fishman ProEQII with Brilliance maxed>>Champ 12.

The clean channel even with the mods doesn't break up. This works fine for me for a more acoustic sound. For slide or lead I hit the foot switch for a bit more volume and modest crunch. Am very happy with the OD channel now.

I can always skip the amp and go straight into the board, so break down is not a concern.

This amp has never broken down.

N/A

I played from the age of 12 - 24, quit for 20-some years, and then started playing again in my late-40s, so about 20 years. I own a bunch of other instruments and a sound system I've cobbled together over the years. If my Champ 12 were lost or stolen I'd probably buy another amp with fewer challenges, upgrade a bit.

I was looking for a cheap tube amp when I bought this one 7 years ago at a pawn shop, dusty but clearly never used.

It's hard to believe that Fender made this amp for 5 or so years and never fixed the OD channel.

The only thing unique here is the ugly red knobs. Has everything I need, an on switch and some tone controls.

Ok, I don't know what you guys are using this amp for, but, this amp is perfect for pedals. I have owned lots of amps, and, I borrowed this little ugly amp from my friend (who owns a guitar store) when my Blues Junior was in the shop. This thing sounded so smooth and full with my setup, it was so inspiring I tried to buy it off of him. He said NO WAY, so I got one on ebay instead. What I like most about this little guy is that I can use it in church and it gets its best tone right before it is about to break up, and it just loves it when you use a compressor. Just mike it up and listen to it soar!

Here is my setup:

PRS Tremonti > Dunlop Wah > CS3 Mod Compressor > TS 9 Keeley Mod > ProCo Rat > Jekyl & Hyde > Boss Tremolo > MXR Phase 90 > Boss Chorus > Line6 DL4 > Champ 12

It is a fairly cheap build, but, mine is 20 years old, second hand, and, still cranking tone. What does that say about Fender?

If you are looking for an amp for heavy rock, seriously, why would you use this thing? Country, Blues, or Classic Rock this thing can more than handle. This amp really has one good purpose, low wattage clean tone that is great with pedals. Use it for this and you will be inspired, and, it will also save your back and bank.

Here's an update for my 03/01/2007 review.

I did finally 3 mods to te amp.

1) a Torres Engeneering hot kit mod.
2) a Jensen P12Q alnico speaker
3) a Telefunken ECC83 (12AX7) in V2 . WOWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!

This is it . It sounds amazing now with the Telefunken. BELIEVE ME !!

With the 3 mods GREAT !!!

One high one low input usual tone with mid boost and gain chanel etc. i fitted all 4 Torres Mods a few months ago with a new Tung Sol KT66 tube. It was a 6 before the mods.

Prior to the mods I thought the sound was OK but a little mushy and the gain chanel was very sensitive and I tried loads of pedals to improve things. After the mods its transformed the input jacks are all metal and secure with a nice clunk, the gain issues are all resolved and its much smoother and useable but the big difference is the ability to adjust the bias and fit the Tung Sol tube. It just sounds amazing now with all the things that they rave about on much more expensive amps like dynamics and response to your picking, clarity, definition, for blues this is a great little thing now, it's all there. For $175 I have a new killer amp I play Gibbos and Fender types, G&L and Nash, through this and they all sound really good, clear, full of tone what more can you say, oh yes the reverb is crap so get a Holy Grail Plus now your smoking.

Not broken yet

If you have one of these get the Torres mods, a new tube, a Holy Grail Plus and smile I think I would have to pay a whole lot to get what I have now.

All of this little amp is already said before.

I did only the "Hot Kit" Torres modification and now it sounds beautifull!! A little distorted clean. It comes way close to a tweed champ!
I Don't use the overdrive which is not so great. Only a little reverb.

It works every day till now on.

Never dealt with them

I have been playing for 4 decades.
I bought a second Champ 12 this week for my Fender Jazzbass guitar.
Will replace the speaker for a 12" bass speaker soon and do no further modifications. I played my bass on my first Champ 12 when it was all original and not modified. It sounded warm and great. Ofcourse only usefull for studio or homepractising because of the low power.

I wrote a review a year or so ago about this little amp and how I did all the Torres Mods and put in a Jensen. All good stuff and glad I did. After a year of constant us, I have finally figured it out. The push pull tone knob (mid boost is a great feature. It helps dial back in when switching between single coils and humbuckers. The reverb is rinky dink and seldom used. The hi low input jacks are useful to either deal with pickups with lower/higher outout or plug a high output into the low input to take the little bugger to the finges of its capabilities.

As many have stated, the gain channel has a very narrow range of usable settings. I usually tweak it in and leave it. Typically around 1.679475 The low gain setting allows the tone to come through, and has plenty crunch. I have fiddled with tube substitution and found the Champ 12 to have excellent tone, particularly from the clean channel. The key is to use a higher gain preamp tube in V1 and a higher quality balance tone tube in V2. The V1 tube affects the most dramatic tone changes. I have settled on a Sylvania NOS 12AX7 in V1, GT 7025 in V2 and JJ 6L6. I turn both channels all the way up, dial in the tone and the Champ puts out great tone at a reasonable volume. Much lower sound pressure than my Pro Jr. An Ei 12AX7 worked very well in V1 also, but went microphonic is a couple weeks. The JJ ECC83 also works well in V1. Using a bright tube in V2 makes the gain channel too bright and sort of solid state. A dark tube in V2 can induce amp flatulance, The GT 7025 and TAD 7025 high grade both seem to strike a nice balance for tone. The Champ will let you optimize the tone, sustain, and gain charactaristics to your taste or whim by changing the tubes.

I am strictly a home player and the Champ sits in one spot. Tube access is easy and tube life is longer than I can hold out with the same tubes. Otherwise, it just does what it is supposed to do.

Never dealt with Fender.

This is a great little amp. The clean channel turned all the way up yields the superb tone of running a power tube near its saturation point. It is more versatile and produces better tone a a lower volume than the Pro Jr. It does not have the kick of the Pro Jr or other higher wattage tube amps, but is perfect for great tone while other members of the household watch TV, ...

i bought this thing new in 87 i cant even remember what i paid for it i think maybe like 220 bones or so. anyway i bought it to compete with my bros M80 when i first started playing the guitar, i also picked up a purple b c rich rave at the same time... lol hehe it was a total poison lookin guitar btw i was only 13. i wasnt serious at all about playing guitar and i thought the amp totally sucked becuz the crunch channel was so balless so the i stopped playing and put the amp in the closet for about 4 years.
when i turned 17 or 18 i started playing again and i took it really serious i ditched the rave and started buying les pauls and strats and eventually paul reed smith guitars i also went through a dozen or so amps like marshalls and mesas and other more powerful fenders like the deville 4 10.
one day in like 1993 i dusted off the champ 12 that was sitting in the closet and plugged my pedal board which consisted of a dual overdrive, metal zone, compression, chorus, flanger and a bunch of other crap that i used at the time, hehehe the thing sounded awesome my band would play cover songs from pantera and all that grunge shit like soundgarden and stp, pearl jam, nirvana and rage u know all the crap that was on the radio back then. anyway just for laughs i used to take this lil amp to gigs and mic it up through the PA all my band mates would get pissed at me but i didnt care becuz it was pure entertainment to use that thing in the clubs and with my pedals and it being mic'd up it sounded awesome.
i ended up selling that lil thing for about fifty bucks after i used and abused it at gigs lol i miss it becuz it was so light and small really easy on the back compared to a jcm 900 head and the 4 12 cab to match, now i use a line 6 flextone 2 but i really miss that lil bastard it was a gud amp when i get some extra money i will look to buy another one on ebay

pretty crappy by itself

hey i used at some pretty big gigs in buffalo NY it lasted through brawls and beers

i had fun ahhhhh to be that young again

I own two of these. I think they are both from late 80s or so. The amp is good for what I use it for. I play rock mostly. It has a clean channel and an overdrive channe. There is a headphone jack, but no effects loop. I use the amp in my apartment and at small jams with frineds. This amp has plenty of power. It uses a 6L6GC or a 5881 output tube and two preamp tubes. This amp suits me fine, and I am shocked at the people that put this amp down. I suspect the main problem with these people is that they don't know how to play a guitar and don't know how to dial in the sounds they desire out of an amp.

I play mostly classic rock. I use several guitars through this amp: a '58 Les Paul Reissue and a couple of American-made Stratocasters. The amp hums a bit, but if you turn off televisions, computers, etc. in the room then it is DEAD QUIET. I can get a nice clean through the clean channel, the reverb sounds okay (not terrible as some of these "experts" have claimed), and the dirty channel gets very crunchy depending on how much gain you dial in. My biggest complaint with the sound, is that the master volume knob is VERY touchy. I have heard that a capacitor or resistor can be replaced to fix this. The amp goes from being sort of a whisper, to blaring loud at just a small bump of the master volume knob.

I have not tried to distort the clean channel at high volume. I would assume it would not get too crunchy since the output tube is a 6L6/5881 (known for headroom). The distortion can be a little brutal, but the key is to turn down the gain and instead use an overdrive pedal to get gain or distortion. This makes this little amp sound God-like.

For Zeppelin/Jimmy Page tones: Les Paul + Boss Super Overdrive + Fender Champ 12 on dirty channel with Gain knob turned below "1".

For Hendrix tones: Fender Strat + Thomas Organ Vox Wah + Overdrive or Fuzz pedal + Fender Champ 12 on dirty channel with Gain knob turned below "1".

*Note: Without the use of effects, the amp still sounds great, by dialing in a little bit of gain, but not too much. The clean channel is nice also. I believe Strats/Teles sound best through the amp when played without effects.

Yes, the amp is reliable. I have two of them and neither one have EVER broken down on me. I would probably use a backup at a gig, but that is true for ANY amp.

Never had to deal with Fender support.

I have been playing for 25 years. I own Gibson Les Pauls, SGs, Fender Strats, and Fender Telecasters. I own four or five vintage Marshall Super Leads ( a couple of plexis), a Marshall Major, a 1965 Fender Blackface Bassman, a Soldano Hot Rod 50, a Marshall 1959SLP reissue (1993).

If either of these amps were stolen, I would try to get another one (or two). These are great little amps that can fit in the trunk with a guitar and a couple of effects and not take up much space. I love this amp because it is small and easy to tote as well as being quick to set up (compared to heads and speaker cabinets).

I have been playing rock 'n roll for a LONG time. I laugh at these people that give this amp below an "8". My feeling is they just don't know how to operate a guitar and amplifier.

Of course, this amp is NOT perfect, but what amp is?. It takes some dialing in and some adjustments to the volume and tone knobs of the guitar to dial in the right sound. But this is true for ALL amplifiers and guitars. I own some of the finest amps ever made and this amp sounds just as good as any amp I own if dialed in correctly. Buy one of these if you can. This amp makes an excellent and affordable tube amp for the beginning guitarist, the professional guitarist, and all guitarists in between.

I think its an 89 I got it off of E-bay, man their sure has been a lot of writing about this little amp here I read about one with 2-12s and one with a switch for the drive on the front and a few other features I sure can't find on mine lol.I got a treble with a pull mid boost a bass and volume then gain and volume for the drive channel and a reverb knob.High and low inputs I haven't played much in the low plug 1 volt out and I love the headphone feature for late night ,which brings me to my rating of a real bedroom amp besides the headphones you can play the clean channel wide open in a room like 12X 12 and it is great its not a real loud amp in the clean channel. I wish it had a standby switch other than that it has what I need in a bedroom amp.

I have a Les Paul Standard,a ES-135 both with classic 57s and a 1962 reissue strat they all sound pretty good in this fender, but like everyone else says the reverb is weak.Mine don't make too much noise even on the drive channel but I usually play the gain down low anyhow. The clean channel stays clean wide open you really gotta play hard ta get it ta break up and then it won't be breakin up much but it is sweet up their like that O yeah.Now in the drive channel their is some bad ass distortion I been fooling round changing the preamp tubes and it is paying off big time I have a 12at7 closest to the power tube and a 12au7 over next to the box side and it sounds way better than those fender from China 12ax7s sounded.

Built like a tank seems tuff Enuff I've had it a while a not a bit of trouble so far.

ver even tried ta talk to anyone at Fender so I don't know.

Man I'm 50 so I been at it a while I think this one is great for practice, in the bedroom ,it don't have enough clean volume ta be doing gigs ,I don't think unless ya mike it up of course.As I said above I like the headphone out and wish it had a standby other than that for practice if your a tube man its great .I've compared it to all kinds of small tube amps its not as loud as most the others fender blues and pro jrs.peavey classic 20 and 30 crate vintage club 2112r gibson goldtone laney lc15r,u know the ones under 5 bills cept for the goldtone the gibson and classic 30 have way more volume the others have more too but those two are louder by far, but the distortion in this one is out there all by its self its pretty harsh but not too bad, the knobs are sensitive just play with it a while and you'll find a sweet spot. I like this one hell for the money you will not beat, it I'm thinking about instaling some of those torres mods, we'll see ya'll later .

Listed ad nauseum in the posts below. It would be cool if it had a power amp in jack.

I picked this amp up used for $40 dollars. It suffered from the usual bad input jack problem. I had found online the Torres Engineering mods for this amp right before I found this deal, so I went for it thinking I could have a fun electronics project over the 4th of July weekend.

I ordered all 4 Torres mods. It took a little bit of time, but if you are good building things its not too hard. Each of the mods improved the amp. The adjustable bias mod is very cool. It allows you to tweak the voltage to the power tube to get it running just where you want it. I installed female rca jacks instead of the test points that came with the kit though. this allows an easier bias adjustment because i attach the test meter via two alligator clip test wires with male rca ends soldered to the other end. this way you don't have to hold the meter leads in the test points while adjusting the bias potentiometer. Hands free!!! tre cool. I also added a 1/4" speaker jack so I can plug the amp into different cabs & i installed a 1/4" footswitch jack so i could axe the broken stock footswitch and use a mesa boogie type instead.

The clean channel improved dramatically. tons more low end, and tone-a-licious. The lead channel still sounds unusable to me, but I use my overdrive pedals for that anyway.

Lastly, I replaced the speaker with a weber signature 12.

Now this is a great, small and portable 12" combo amp that I can get great tone out of for small jams, recording, and quieter gigs.

Its not that loud on the clean channel though, so it won't compete with a drummer who hits hard.

so far so good

well, fender wouldn't touch it now I'm sure since I've modded the crap out her...

All told it ran me 160 bucks to get it where it is today, and thats not bad for an all tube 12" speaker combo with great tone.

Made sometime in the late 1980's. It was discontinued years ago I suspect.
It is a straight tube amp, no effects other than a lead channel and reverb.
It could do with an effects loop.
THIS IS NOT A BEDROOM PRACTICE AMP!!!
I used it in my bedroom. It has WAY TOO MUCH power for a bedroom. It is really for band practices or playing small halls. It can compete and overwhelm an unmiked drummer when it is cranked.

I used a late '80's Fender Jap Strat.
There is a noticeable hum using my guitar with the amp volume turned up.
This amp doesn't really make much of a good sound, however you use it. Very disappointing. I expected a Fender twin type sound from this - and I got nothing like it.
The distorted sound lacks warmth. A tube amp should sound better than this. I have heard modern solidstate amps thta sound much better than this amp.
The clean sound is undistinguished. At high volumes it does start distorting a little bit.

Always worked for me - no problems.

N/A.

I have been playing for 18 years.
I would not buy this again - there are way better amps out there now. Trust me.

This amp is WAY TOO LOUD for home practice use. To get the tubes warmed up you will be creating such a noise that the neighbours will be hammering on the walls and the police kicking your door down.
I remember once I was playing with my window open in summer and people 100 yards away were commenting on it. It is that loud. If you want a practice amp - look elsewhere.

There is not much difference volume wise between this and a 50 watt Fender tube amp - believe me. This could cause problems for a drummer when it is cranked up.

This amp is HEAVY - I would consider something else for gigging. There are better, lighter amps from Marshall and Fender that use solidstate technology.

This amp is old hat, a mediocre product and was a dissapoint to me. Take my advice and look elsewhere.
A good amp should encourage you to play - this one does not.

Not sure what age the amp is. Quite versatile with clean and OD channels. Class A (single tube) output.

I did the Torres mod on mine so it is not really stock now.

I record with it mostly and it is obviously more than loud enough for that.

It is not as transparent as some push-pull design Fenders but has a great creamy midrange which is hard to beat.

Suits any style except extreme metal maybe (and then with the right pedal, who knows). Not very noisy. No hum problems.

The gain and overdrive controls are over sensitive - some people change them for different pots, I just adjust them carefully in the lower end of the range usually. Works for me.

Pre-Torres it was maybe a 7 or 8, post-Torres clean is a 10 and overdrive is an 8. The mod adds bass and opens up the sound in the top end too - quite a remarkable difference.

Its a real nice little amp - records beautifully.

Well enough made, fairly easy to work on. Only 3 tubes so cheap to swap. Never failed me so far.

These amps really need the Torres mod to bring out the rich sounds they are capable of. I don't much care for the reverb but its OK at lower settings. The OD is pretty good, just a bit tricky to set up but once you have it set it is a nice thing to have.

Nice amp.

Made sometime between 1987=1992. I wanted a low power tube amp with a different sound then the Pro Junior and I did not want to spend the kind of money a Victoria, Bad Cat or Dr. Z would set me back. I found the Champ 12 on Ebay. The high and low inputs are quite nice for getting a good sound out of either a single coil or humbucker.

I have a Telecaster with Lindy Fralin Blues Specials, a Samick Ultramatic with a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck and Pearly Gates in the bridge, a Les Paul Melody Maker with a Lindy Fralin 5% overwound P90 and a Hamer Echotone with Seymour Duncan 59s. All of the guitars sound very good through this amplifier. The level on input 2 makes the humbuckers much warmer. The Champ 12 only sounded OK as received. The clean channel sounded pretty good, but the distortion channel was all or nothing, and pretty harsh. It exihibits none of the aforemention hum problems. The amp also had a nasty rattle. The original owner had performed the Torres tone modification, I added the Switchcraft jack modification, Torres potentiometer modification, Torres bias kit, secured the front baffle, change the speaker to an alnico Jensen and replaced the tubes with a Electo Harmonix 12AX7EH, Sovtek 5751 and Groove Tube 6L6R2. After spending $250, the rattle is gone and the sound vastly improved. The Jenson seems to have a fuller sound with better tone than the stock speaker. The clean channel sounds fantastic at any setting and does not distort at volume. The dirty channel has a full range of adjustment. The potentiometer and 5751 seem to have brought the dirty channel to a manageable gain level. The dirty channel is still higher gain than the tone I would prefer for blues and jazz comping. If you are into metal or hair band music, the dirty channel is probably OK for you. The reverb seems useless. I only give it an 8. 10 for the clean channel and 6 for the dirty channel and reverb.

No issue. I have only had the amp for a few weeks, but do not have any reliability concerns.

No dealings with Fender. I have a local guy who does right by me.

I have only been playing a few years. I like the sound of the Champ 12 better than my Pro Junior, which is too bright. I doubt I would replace it if it were stolen. I would probably break down and get the Victoria 5112. So far, I have not felt the need to put any pedals in front of the Champ 12. Unlike the Pro Junior which is shrill without some signal processing out front. Overall, ~$500 for a class A tone machine is not too bad. The reverb is disappointing and hopefully fixable with another reverb tank and the dirty channel is not as rich as some of the botique amps.

sometime between 1987 and 1992 from what I understand. 2 channels, hardwired footswitch, reverb, cool features for teaching loud enough to play over drums.

It sounds good clean, there is a little signature in the sound that I do not really like, but it is an exceptional practice amp. Let me qualify that, the distortion sounded like a toy when I got it. I did the torres mod, changed pots for volume and gain on dirty channel (kit through torres engineering, and they included a capacitor to swick out for an "AC 30ish) tone) it is really goodsounding now. The distortion has a certain "Boogie" like tone that sounds like a quality 80's high gain amp. Before the mods it sounded like complete shit. Now it can be used and it actually sounds great. Ihave used it with humbuckers and my maple necked strat and tele. It sounds better than these off brand tube amps they are making today, and better than a hot rod series amp, but again, there is a certain quality to the sound... I plug in to my deluxe reverb and I say (ok, now that is a good sound) the champ 12 is a good sound, it is small and light and can handle rehearsal but is in no way the holy grail of amps. The reverb is a small cardboard tank inside the chasis, but does its thing a little when cranked, nothing like a classic fender on the reverb side.

It is a circuit board with plastic jacks, but sturdily designed. Whoever claimed Paul Rivera is associated with this amp, or that it is the same thing as a super champ should be punished. It is not either of those things, but it is pretty good.

This is not a point to point wired rivera amp, anyone who says it is is lying. If you do the mods, it sounds pretty good, yopu may even love it. It is probably worth owning (if you do the mods) for portability alone, and somebody will love the tone because it is high quality. Someone coming from a modeling amp or solid state may think they found it, and a good player could get by on this thing all day (without the mods it is a toy), but I have high standards and I am disappointed. If it were stolen, it would be a good excuse to get a rivera clubster as my dual channel high gain lightweight combo, but for me really, if I could reconcile myself to the size and weight of my Deluxe reverb reissue, and use my fulltone 69 pedal for hard rock and roll, that would be all I need. I keep looking for a way to get smaller and get a good dirty channel. I ccame close with this, but at the expense of tremolo, and the sound is slightly off. Wish I could say different. Still a good amp, and probably great to ears with different tastes.

Two channels with shared EQ & Reverb, controls are:
Volume, Bass, Treble
Overdrive Gain, Overdrive Volume
Reverb

I think some of the reviews on this page must be written by people who want to sell their Champ 12. So be cautious when you read reviews that give perfect scores.

The Champ 12 is a low cost design, which has three major problems:

1. It has quite a bit of Hum. Some may say that single-ended amps hum. NOT TRUE - only poorly designed single-ended amps will hum. The Champ 12 has power supply issues which cause the hum. Some units are far worse than others. If your Champ 12 hums you can fix it. Have a tech replace C101, C102, & C103 with good quality 100uF to 220uF axial capacitors. This should cost about $15 in parts & 30 minutes of labor.

2. There is no low end, especially if you turn the volume up a bit. There are two reasons for this:
A) The second & third preamp tube stages are designed to boost the mids & highs, so the overdrive mode doesn't get all muddy. Unfortunately this compromises the clean sound. Sure there is a high cut circuit after the second stage that kicks in when the clean channel is selected, but it isn't enough to compensate.
B) The output transformer is too small & therefor has a poor low frequency response. Not to mention the rather high bias current that runs through the cathode, via the transformer B+.

3) The reverb is just terrible! To keep this amp cheap, Fender chose a tiny reverb spring bank (which is mounted within the chasis). Also, the reverb is run off of the speaker output. So the 6L6 is serving double duty: speaker drive & reverb drive. Furthermore, the reverb circuit forms a feedback loop from the power transformer output back to the grid of the power tube, which is on the verge of oscillation as you turn the reverb up. In summary it just plain sounds bad!

It's okay for low volume practice, unfortunately tubes sound best when they are pushed. It's too bad the amp was designed to do this.

Made in early 1960's in, um.. lets see.. oh here it is on logo, again on the front panel, at least three times on the back panel. Um..USA?
Made in the old Sunn Amp factory in Lake Oswego Oregon. The first amp designed by the "New" Fender Musical Instruments Corp after the takeover fron NBC. Red knobs mean that it was designed by Geraldo Rivera while he was at NBC in his spare time. 10" speaker was made by LBJ I think. I play disco and funk music and I love this amp. Two channels, headfone jack and tape unit built in so you can record directly from it. Two power tubes a preamp tube all made by Fender in Russia by Telefunky. I use this amp in church. Has 24 watts (12 x 2 tubes). Class "A" rating means this amp passed US government inpesctions. Hand wired blackface amp.

I can't see any name brand on my guitar. I bought it at the flea market for $20.00. I play all kinds of music, mostly Jimi Hendrix and SVR while home and Gospel when at church. The amp is very quiet, until you start playing, then it gets louder when you turn the third knob clockwise. The over drive channel breaks my ear drums and makes me want to pee my pants. The clean channel sounds good too and is very loud for an 18 watt amp.

I have had it since 1982 I think. I bought it in a pawn shop for $100.00. I kicked it and it still works. I dropped it down a flight of stairs and it just laughed at me. I finally killed it by using the tubes as target practice with my BB gun. Just kidding.

Fender has moved 7 times since 1982 and I believe the company is located somewhere is Asia now, perhaps Hong Kong or China, Maybe Sing a poor. The pawn shop refused to give me a warrenty. Can you believe that?

I have been playing since early childhood (16 or 17). I own a lot of Nike shoes, but just one guitar and amp, I am very poor. This and my bed are my only pieces of furniture. If this were stolen I would pray for forgiveness for the individual who stole it and God's Grace upon their life. I just hope they would get as much joy out of this amp as I have the last 22 years.

features already mentioned dozens of times in this page. The amp has enough features for me. It does everything I need it to do.

I use Strat Reissue and Tele 52 reissue. Occasionally PRS Custom. I have read many fors and againsts for this amp. I was not 100% happy with the amp as it was. I upgraded the valves. I fitted the Torres mod. Great improvement for little outlay. I then fitted the Torres bias kit, again big difference. When I fitted this kit I found out that my amp had been underbiased since the day I got it. So again it was not performing at its peak. Fitted a Celestion alnico blue, which I got for half normal price on ebay. I changed the values of the overdrive gain pot and the overdrive volume pot so there was not a jump in volume when switching in the overdrive. Right, after all this has been done, I swear you would be hard pushed to find a sweeter toned amp ANYWHERE. It is absolutely fabulous. Bear in mind these upgrades were cheap. The clean channel is perfect fender tone, sounds like a vintage deluxe!!! The overdrive channel in not harsh now, but sweet and warm. Great sound!!!!! The reverb is probably the only slight weakness but I won't punish the amp for this as I do not use a lot of reverb, but rely on the room. Torres would not put so much effort into this amp if it did not have potential for greatness. Ditch the speaker as well though. I totally agree with people who have wrote they are happy with the amp as it is, as it does have a decent sound, but bear in mind how much better it can be for little outlay. I use this amp all the time now on gigs. The celestion blue gives much more volume, but when I play bigger venues, I just turn it all the way up and mike it up MAGNIFICENT!!!!!!!!

Never had any problems since I bought the amp 10 years ago

Never had to deal with Fender, but I imagine it would be difficult to get personal attention for an old product from a manufacturer this large.

Great amp. It has some SLIGHT design flaws, but these are very easily rectified for little cash. I have heard Matchless, Badcat and all the rest of the so called Boutique brands. I would not swap this amp now for anything. It has THE sound.

I bought this amp at my local music store; some guy was getting a divorce and came in selling a lot of equipment, including this amp. I watched the store owner give the guy $600 for 4 guitars and 2 amps and a bunch of effects. I offered $150 for the Champ 12 and he took it.
I think it was made around 1989, according to all the information I can gather. It was (and still is) in mint condition when I bought it.
I find it very versatile. I can jam out on rock and blues, either with pedals through the clean channel, or just straight in to the distortion channel. I can even play my electric accoustics through the clean channel and get a nice tone.
I find that it has a lot of power for its size. I play frequently with guys who have all kinds of larger, more expensive amps, and it seems I always have the superior tone.
The last band I played in on a reguler basis, I used it exclusively; I put it on an amp stand, so I could hear myself, and ran the line out (very handy) to the mixing board. I never carried a back-up.

I play a Fender Fat Telecaster 95 % of the time, and the combination just sounds like the classic killer Fender sound. I play hard rock (AC/DC, Led Zep, Hendrix, etc.) and blues (Stevie Ray, Albert King, etc.) and it has a great tone for these styles. It has a little hum, especially when I use the original single coils on the Tele, but the tone makes up for it. I do find that the controls on the "lead" channel are very touchy, and I will look in to the Torres mod package. A far as I can tell, this amp is completely stock; it looks like it's never been played.

I have never had any problem with it, and I have gigged without a backup with no fear at all. It even still has the original plastic jeacks, which have given me no problem yet. If and when they ever break, then I will replace them. Why bother now?

Not really applicable, although when I called Fender to kind of figure out what Ihad, the guy I got was very cool and helpful, very enthusastic.

I've been playing for 25 years, since I was 15, and I always played a Les Paul through big Peavey solid state amps, but since I bought the Fat Tele, and this amp a short while later, I am enjoying this different, more variable sound.
I would definitely try to find another if I lost this one. For a tube combo of this quality, it was definitely a steal.
I like the compactness, the weight, but most of all the tone and versatility.
If you have the opportunity to pick one up at a good price, jump on it.

Follow up on additional mods to Champ 12.

I did the mod listed further below in these posts. I went a little further and up the caps from those found on the fender amp discussion pages. Rather than 10mf and 1mf capacitors on V1 and V2 respectivly put a 10mf on V2 and added a 4.4mf in addtion to the 10 to V1. This really made the clean and gain channels balanced. I put new tubes in as well, 2 Groove Tubes 12AX7-C (China) and a SOVTEK 5881/6L6LWGC. I also installed a 1/4" socket to allow quick speaker hookup. I used a 1/4 jack with a small metal chassis mounted between the removeable cabinet brace and the cabinet top. (The brace provides the force to hold it when it is screwed in. It is that panel that has to tbe remoived to get the chassis out)

The tubes I replaced was a Peavy Super 6 - 6L6GC (unknown origin) and 2 Fender 12AX7A (made by GE) These tubes sounded very harsh.

Now when the gain is set to lowest level it sounds nearly clean. Without swapping pots I have fairly smooth gain control and smoother distortion as well.

As for the speakers the 2X12 enclosed cabinet is filled with 2 16 ohm EV EVM-12L. I rewired them with new 1/4" jack in parallel for 8 ohm. Testing it comes out at more like 5.6 ohms.
The EVs sound excellent not as crunchy as a celestion but more beefy with a tight bass. Clean they are exquisite. I am appreciating these speakers much more though is not a good at distortions as a celestion. The amp still has no speaker in the amp cabinet. Plans are to put either a Celestion 12G Greenback or 12G Alnico Blue.

Possibly rig a switch to use only the Celesion in the amp for the gain channel and the EVs for clean.

Combo amp with the snake skin, black knobs

2 Channel low wattage tube amp
10 Watt
1 6L6GC power
2 12AX7 pre
12" speaker (missing when)

I found this amp sitting next to a dumpster in 1998. The speaker was missing, one input plug was missing, the other was broken and the 6L6 tube was missing. I took it home. (I'm glad I did)

I took the chassis out and inspected the innards the circut board looked in good shape, no burns marks, meltdowns etc....

I fixed the input and put in a 6L6 tube I had laying around. As for speaker I messed up here and put a 16 ohm speaker from a fender cabinet I had. The amp sat in a closet for the next two years. I was playing bluegrass banjo mostly for the past 10 years and had no use for the amp, so I ended up loaning this amp to a buddy in 2001 and did'nt see it for the next 2 years. I got it back and started researching low watt tube amps after I decided I had enough of bluegrass and wanted to ROCK again...so I found that the champ 12 indeed has some potential and it was currently being used by my daughter as a practice bass amp. (yeah it didn't sound good in it's current form)

I found the details for the Torres mod on fender forum and went to the Radio Shack and bought the two capacitors and resistors required. (I'm a hack so I recommend you pop for the $15 bucks for the terminal block and instructions from Torres to make it look nice. Mine looks rather Frankenstien-ish) ANy way I did the mod and it indeed does make a huge effect on the sound. I am bought a bunch of tubes from torres...anyway. So I don't feel guilty....really.

Put the speaker back in the cabinet and wired the speaker leads from the champ with a 1/4 jack. This created the correct ohm rating of 8 and the speaker cabinet a Fender CBS, all black 2x12 (ElectroVoice OEM I suspect)

The reverb does leave a bit to be desired. Keep it low and it seems okay. I never played with much anyway.

Pre Torres Mod with 16 OHM speaker in:
Total crap in the gain channel, no clarity, very cheap garbage in sound. Clean was a dull, flat, lifeless sound not round and warm.

While doing the mods I had the chance to try some speaker selections
These were all Carvin speakers (buddy has tons of stuff)
SO here goes post Torres Mod:
Using a Strat
15" 8 Ohm Closed back Cabinet - Rich clean tones, very warm with a nice high ping. The middle seemed to spike. No unpleasent.
IN the gain channel it was not complex enough to be considered a desireable sound. Seemed a bit hollow.

2x10 4 Ohm Closed back Cabinet - This was the best sounding and had the most variety. The 4 ohm load for the 8 ohm rated output of the Champ saturated the power tube and generated a sexy compression and lovely brit crunch at medium gain too high and it flammed out into mush much like a hiwatt lead 30. Clean it was delight. Pingy round a detalied great vintage tube sound. I am researching the implications of running with 4 ohms speaker load on the 8 ohm output. Two 8 ohm Celetions greenback wired in parallel would probably sound very sexy. THough be prepared to run through power tubes as they take a beating by being continuously saturated. There is also a danger of blowing something else.

12" 8 Ohm Carvin Vintage - Good sound like you would expect. Round and pingy clean buyt the gain was difficult to get a sound like the two tens and any thing less than blisteringly loud.

12" 16 Ohm CBS Fender 12F - Oh man this really sucked. Do not run 16 ohms on this....icky, icky icky....but still better than pre-torres mod.

issues not using the right ohm detailed here:
http://www.harpamps.com/transformers.html
Tons of stuff about tone
http://www.amptone.com/

Considering that I rescued this amp from a cannabilzed death I guess is a testement to it's durability.

Fender has a bunch of stuff you can find out about this amp in addition to the internet.

I play straight in, dabbled with a Tube Screamer with the Peavy Vintage but with my Hiwatt had no need. the Peavy Standard head was a stage backup. I could do most stuff with it in a pinch.

I've been playing for 26 years. Spent 15 years in gigging and recording in orginal bands playing brown and black telecaster deluxe and 74 stratocaster with a Hiwatt Lead 30 (sweet, if you see one buy it), Peavy Standard (ss), Peavy Vintage (tube power) and Alamo amps. Backed out of rock and went acoustic playing bluegrass for the past decade. Finding my way back home....given everything people figured out with the Champ 12 I think that is is a fine paltform to find your own tone, if you take the time to do the mods, replace the tubes and stick a good speaker in.

I play blues to heavy ish rock.So far I would say the amp is only loud enough for practice and recording.I have read that changing the speaker and doing the Torres mod makes it louder. I will report back

good valve sound, o/d is ok, I like the reverb!,a little noisey.
Vintage kind of sound, not very fender in sound.(Marshall pre valves?)
I intend doing the Torres mod and replacing the speaker with a celestion greenback as I plugged it into my 1970's CMI cab with two 15 inch!!!! celestions and it sounded even better.
I agree with the general gripes about the amp, the cleaner channel is a lot quiter than the o/d channel, I think what fender though you would do is turn up the gain on the cleaner channel and then scream with the o/d channel, they got the balance wrong though - Enter Mr Torres- I hope. Oh! I also intend putting some new old stock(I have only just worked out what nos stands for)valves in her to, the previous owner put Marshall pre amp valves in her they sound ok to be honest.The output valve has no markings so god knows what that is.
So far I am quite happy with her, If the mods work well I will update my comments

Only had it two hours. I can see that the inputs are a little feeble NAUGHTY FENDER!.

Too Old.

I have been playing for 20 or so years. Once I buggered around with the settings I found my feet with the amp. Tried it with my 1973 sg, and hamer steve stevens. Hamer sounded very good through it, unusual! I was'nt that found of the hamer before!. Sg sounder fine as usual.
This is a great married man's amp, It's not too big, It sings at low volume(as it's low in watts), It sounds good(by the time you get married you will have developed a good ear for nice amps as aposed to wifey shouting). It is the oposite of my sadly missed Marshall stack.Big, loud, and needs to be turned up to get cooking.

Bought new in 1990 a 10watt with 12" speaker- mainly tube amp (Reverb and power supply rectification is solid state). Very solidly made in Mexico (back panel says "Made in USA" but was covered with a sticker saying "Made in Mexico". Presumably production moved from USA to Mexico.
It has a lot of useful features - channel switching,line out, tape input, headphone out. It is a shame that the speaker cannot be easily unplugged and an external speaker added. The speaker is a "Fender Special Design" and although adequate is not that good.

I bought this amp as a practice amp (American Strat)and the "clean" channel is everything you would expect from a fender tube amp. I found that the dirty channel was unusable because of the shift in volume when switching from the clean channel. The distortion was brash and almost uncontrollable. I took the advice of a previous reviewer and changed the overdrive channel volume and gain pots - a vast improvement.

I borrowed a speaker from my Fender Twin and replaced the original speaker. Again, a vast improvement in volume and quality of sound (the amp does not distort on the clean channel at high volumes). I shall put in a Celestion Vintage 30 at the first opportunity.

Stock faults with these amps are the input sockets. Anyone buying a used one of these amps should check them.
Apart from that I've only had to change the 6L6 power tube

I found the UK agent for Fender (Arbiter) very helpful/friendly and I purchased the input sockets from them.

I do my own maintenance.

I've been playing longer than I would like to mention and also have a Fender Bassman 10 and a Fender Twin.
The Fender Champ 12 is a pleasure to use (and carry!). As mentioned earlier I would recommend changing the overdrive gain and volume controls and put a better speaker in. Even without these changes I would strongly recommend this amp and would replace it if it went missing.

This is an update to a previous review I wrote. I have added the Torres Mod kit, new tubes and a Carvin British Series speaker.

With the modifications to the amp it now has a killer tone and is really loud. I think the amp is gig worthy in smaller venues. A extension speaker out was also added. The clean channel has a lot more low end with the speaker replacement. I have also just bought a US Tele with a Seymour Duncan in the bridge, and this little amp really honks. The Torres Mod made the lead channel more useable. It has a more pleasing distortion and breakup and doesn't sound so harsh.

So Far, So good.

None needed.

I've been playing for over 40 years. I'm currently bidding on another Champ 12 on eBay. If I win, I will do modifications with a different speaker and tubes plus the Torres Mod.

I'm not sure of the year of manufacture. I bought it used off eBay. It was in great shape. When I first plugged a Nashville Tele I thought the clean channel was a little whimpy, but when I plugged in my Gibson SG.... Whoa Mama! Power to spare. I was surprised at the power. The amp has two channels and channels are switched via a hard wired footswitch. I bought this amp with the intention of using it in my living room, but I think with my SG or my G&L Legacy I could gig in a small club with it. I've ordered new tubes, the Torres Mod and a new Jensen 12Q speaker for it. These upgrades should give it more punch with single coil pickups. My G&L Legacy has pretty hot pickups so it sounds good but could benefit from a little more power. I think the mods I will soon be making will take care of that. I am playing classic rock & roll, jazz and modern country.

The clean channel is typical Fender tube sound. I had a Fender Blues Jr. for a while and this sounds similar. Once again, my Gibson SG pushes the clean channel to mild break up. My Tele is 100% clean and my G&L gets a mild edge at high volume settings. The lead channel is almost unusable due to it's high gain and sensitivity. The Torres Mod should help this after what I have read about it. The distortion is harsh if the gain is up to high. It it more pleasing with the gain lowered and the volume up.

I don't know about the reliability, but it does seem made for abuse. I've had other small tube amps over the year that have been fragile and required very careful packing and handling. When I replace the speaker with the Jensen 12Q and replace all the tubes, I think this amp will be very reliability. The problem with buying an older used amp is you don't know how old the tubes are and what kind of shape the speaker is really in until something fails. I would recommend always changing tubes and speakers in an older amp when you buy one used.

Haven't needed it.

I would give this amp an overall 8 just because I haven't had it long enough to make an informed evaluation. After Mods, I think this will be a killer Class A tube amp and the price was almost a giveaway.

Right, here is the deal with the Champ 12. It is a brilliant amp for very low money. But you gotta do a few small spec changes to get the best out of it. First get the Torres upgrade kit, this is easy to fit and makes the amp sound a LOT better, change the overdrive channel volume and gain pots to 450,000 value from 1000,000. Again reasonable outlay. This balances out the volume from the clean channel to overdrive channel. The lower value pot on the gain gives a smoother increase in gain and is more useable. Fit a set of decent TUBES, N.O.S if possible. There is only one output and two 12ax7's (this is a cheap ugrade to quality tubes compared by other amps with many more to replace). Fit a better speaker. I suggest the Celestion vintage 30, which will give the amp the volume to gig at reasonable venues. If you can go as far as the Celestion Alnico Blue, more the better, as this makes this amp come alive even more. For you guys in the States, I realise the Celestions are more expensive over there so I am sure you can come up with a USA 12" driver upgrade that does the business. Now all these mods are at reasonble cost and the end product is brilliant.

This amp is always going to sound better with a strat or tele. With the upgrades mentioned above, this amp sounds as good as any high quality low power amp. Throw an old tubescreamer or OD1 into the front end and it is even better. I am reading a few moans about this product on this page, but please take the cost into it. A matchless 15 or Badcat 15 is crazy money, and with a little investment on your Champ, you can really make it sing. Go on, get the most out of it.

Never let me down, but I would have preferred a standby switch for turning on and off to protect Tubes a little more.

Never needed it

If my amp was lost or stolen, I would definately pick up another one and do the same mods again, no question. Sure there are marginally better low power amps but at a LOT more money and some of them are perhaps overbuilt.

everyone else covered the features....hated there is no way to switch
the overdrive channel on from the front panel only thru the hardwired
footswitch.

Gain channel WAY too hot, really unusable, clean channel very low
in volume, reverb was just ok...I tried another one like mine in
a music store and it sounded just the same...so I sold it.
I have no idea why people could like this amp.

Mine was working to specs, the one I played in the store had
most of the input jacks broken and the pilot light was out.

Bad features: An ugly plastic face plate, plastic input jacks, cheap plastic power rocker switch, ugly little pilot light, lack of chrome chassis mounting strips on the amp top,
a marginal transistor reverb with an even more marginal chassis mounted cardboard spring tank, a composition board case and a poorly designed lead channel overdrive.
Good features: Although it has printed circuitry, the amp produces a good classic fender tone with easy to get tubes. I also like the 12 inch speaker and the chassis mounted tube sockets and pots.

I bought this amp new for use in the band's rehearsal room. I used it there for years, never realizing the original 6L6 power tube was somehow faulty and causing a very poor overall tone. When the tube finally degraded to the point where the amp became unusable, I installed a cheap Sovtech replacement. To my surprise, the amp never, not since day one, sounded so good. This says something about user reviews. Before the change, I would have rated sound quality as a 2. Now, I would rate the clean channel as an acceptable 7. The reverb is very shallow and doesn?t add any of the nice overtones of real, tube driven types, but it is preferable to none and works well enough to prevent that dry sound of reverbless amps. The 12 inch speaker helps by adding a bit more body than most champs. I would say that I prefer the sound of this amp to any silver faced champ.
I find the built in overdrive to be totally useless. Way, way too much gain.
If you use the traditional blues technique of cranking the amp to 8 or so and using the guitar volume to switch from chord to lead work, you get a useable blues, R&B sort of sound. Not great, but fine for rehearsals and casual jamming. This is a very handy and reasonably good sounding amp, if you?re the type of player who likes the sound of Fender combos to begin with.

In 10 years of use, only the power switch failed. I replaced it with a proper metal toggle.

These amps were made from 1987-1991. It's a pretty basic amp: @ channels share common tone controls ( treble, bass ) and the treble control has a pull mid boost switch. Two channels : 1 clean ( volume) and 1 gain ( gain, volume ) and also has reverb ( this is a true spring reverb until, but it is actually inside the chassis, and house in a cardboard "tank.") It has a headphone jack, a line out jack, and jacks for a tape/cd input. It has a 12" speaker, and the footswitch (channel switching) is actually hard wired to the amp.

I'm not sure of the actual power rating, but it is between 10-12 watts. This is a class A tube amp, 1 6L6 GC power tube, (2) 12AX7A pre-amp tubes, everything else is solid state. The amp actually has just the right amount of volume for bedroom playing.

I have a Fender Super 210, and the distortion sounds very close. It is not over the top, but you can get some good Hendrix type sounds, AC/DC, Zep, but not for the metal crowd. I play tele's or a strat. The amp isn't unusually noisy, but hums a little, probably due to much needed tubes. The gain channel can get very loud, but nothing that most small tube amps can do. Again, it does need a new power tube, so the volume might go up . The clean channel sounds great, just what you would expect from a Fender Tube amp.

I got this amp used, actually abused is more like it. It was beat to shit, and I'm guessing it was probably picked-up out of someone's garbage. It had s few rips and tears in the tolex, 1 major chunk of wood taken out of the front, the speaker has a hole in it ( ice pick from the looks of it,) 1 broken chassis mount, master volume and reverb control pots were broken right off the circuit board. Yet, it still LIVES!!! It fired up when I got it, even with the broken controls ( which I have since repaired.) I've completely dissassembled the amp, and I like what I see inside. The tubes are mounted to the metal chassis, NOT to the circuit board. As far as the circuit board goes, the two control pots ( broken when the amp fell at some time in the past) broke in half, but NOT the circuit board!! It didn't have a scratch on it! The only thing I don't like are the friggin' plastic input jacks, but those can be replaced easy enough. The amp is very easy to work on, even if you haven't soldered much before...just watch out for the filter caps, or you will get the shock of your life!!! All things considered, I'd have to give this amp a 10 as far as reliablility goes.

I have been playing about 30 years, and I like this amp for what it is... a small practice amp which a decent tube sound. That's because it is a real tube amp. If it were lost or stolen, I'd try to replace it. I love the overall sound of the amp, both clean and gain channels. It does sound a little boxy, but hey, so does the Blues Jr., and just about any single speaker amp, in my opinion. The volume leverl is just right...my Super 210 sounds better, but is just too loud.

I feel that this amp has enough features for the average player.

The clean sound on this amp is very good. It has the classic Fender tone. I have read other reviews from guitarists that are unhappy, but I find it very good. I changed the speaker for a Celestion Vintage 30 and the difference was amazing. The output is greater and it sounds a lot more classier. I hated the overdrive for the leap in volume and harsh gain. I changed the overdrive volume pot from 1000,000 value pot to 100,000. I also did this with the gain knob. This has also made a huge difference. I can now get a just breaking up sound on the OD channel and without the jump in volume. I am also add the torres mod. Overall this amp was cheap at #125 and with a few tweaks it can be killer.

Never, ever has it let me down. I have just had to change the input jacks

If this amp was lost or stoled I would definately buy another. I have owned amps that are a lot more expensive and have not sounded better.

The champ 12 is a footswitchable two channel tube combo amp with solid state reverb. The footswitch gives you the option of a clean channel and an 'overdrive' channel. The Amp is powered by a single 6L6 with a two 12ax7 preamp section.
The features(overdrive and reverb) get alot of bad press in previous reviews, so I would like to say what can be said, that is good about them. If you read 'overdrive' as versitile overdrive you will be dissappointed. If you under stand that this feature is actually a 'treble booster distortion' with only one good setting then you will see it for what it is, and be perfectly happy that it's there. The only useful setting is 'overdrive' 1.5 and 'volume 1.5.
No kidding. This channel is so much louder than the clean channel, it leaves one wondering what the designer was thinking. Set as mentioned, most people who like treble boosters and Boss OD-1's will like it. The reverb if set at 1-2, puts a nice pocket of air around the notes. Above that it is splashy and unmusical. It sounds better than all of Marshalls attemps at a reverb.
I had a chance to A/B the Champ 12 ($185) with a 70's Fender Princeton reverb ($650) a 66 Princeton ($450) and a silverface Champ ($275).

The features aren't amazing but they are there and usefull if used
appropriately

I was looking for a fat sounding practice tube amp for small small dollars. I will start by comparing the clean channel of the champ 12 to the three fenders.
The Fender princeton reverb was by far the best, fattest, and loudest of the 4 amps I tried - no surprize. It also had heavenly fender reverb. It was also the most expensive.
The 66 (non-reverb) Princeton was surprising flat sounding.
The trem/vibrato feature was alright, but weak. The Champ 12 was fuller and louder sounding at alot less than half the money.
The Silverface champ sounded good, but again was not as loud or full sounding. The champ had no features.
The champ 12 came in second in this group of four fenders, and was by far the cheapest. It's reverb, while inferior to a tube driven reverb pan, certainly didn't suck when used in moderation to wet notes. The 'treble booster distortion' was also a single setting effect, but useful and cool for what it was.

This amp was produced in 1987 or so and has survived in good
working order for 15 years. That has got to be worth...

unlikely Fender would be receptive to the suggestion that they provide service on this amplifier.

It's never going to replace a Fender reverb combo in anyones
musical universe, but it's a darn good 'bang for the buck' preformer. IMHO better and cheaper than a silverface champ
and better a non-reverb Princeton ( that now commands too much money) Because it's affordable I'll give it....

76 or 78 depending on who you believe.
I have been looking for a clean but edgy sound for blues and Blues Rock. The sound on the clean channel is like a double power champ.
The Overdrive channel is almost worthless as it becomes too distored beyond 1 maybe 2. I really like the clean channel so the overdrive and reverb quality (or lack of same) is not a big issue.
Two Channels with a permanently attached switch. No effects loop. Headphone jack and "1 volt output"
Wish it had the effects loop, better reverb, and ususable overdrive channel
I use this a practice amp. But imagine it would be adequate in a small club. The tube sound it nice if not twin reverb rich.

I use this amp with a Epiphone SG (twin Humbuckers)
It is adequate for blues
The Overdrive and reverb is a little noisy
If you like the tone it is fine but not particularly versatile.
Play it loud and it will distort
the Overdrive is brutal past 1 or 2

It has been dependable, I would gig with it without a backup.
Never broken down

N/A

I have been playing for 20 years
I have an Epiphone SG, Fender Strat, Gibson 58'reissue 335, Gibson Flying V, two Randall amps, a 70's fender champ and a rickenbacker amp. Also have Pod 2.0

I rated this on 9/10/02, name: give me earplugs....I have changed my mind after talking my friend who builds tube amps at $1200 and up, and the guys at Torres(sell their mods for $17)...

Have decided to make it work...it wasn't easy at 1st, but after the low cost initially, and advice from my friend to put my old pedals in front it here is what I got: a all tube amp, very loud, not noisy, with a fender 12 inch driver...that as a geezer, I CAN CARRY. The pedals: tube screamer, Boss Blues driver, and my modeler. The modeler handles the reverb and delays, and of course the above mentioned cover channel changing and overdrive(as my initial rating berated the overdrive channel, and still find it annoying...but I read that on many ratings on Fender amps excetp the Rivera Era stuff). Sounds much better through the house system than my Crate Acoustic. This amp has the CD line in, and a line out, plus head phone jack(also useful for line out if you want all your sound in the monitors and the house but not out of your amp.

I'm using it full on, 2 hours every friday...I only carry a pre amp tube, and no back ups.

N/A out of warranty.

Played 30 years, mostly blues, roots rock. I wouldn't replace it per say...I'm cheap, and have 5 others...but a class A, hand wired amp???? Try having one built with limited features(less than this one), a 12 inch driver = at least $1000. You get my drift, for what I payed compared to some botique amps, it was a killer deal all the way around(once I got over my initial buyers remorse and talked with tube amp buiding buddy, & got some perspective). I do see some one from a seller in Maine on Ebay selling his own for $400...probably a steal. I plan on doing the mods when the there is more time...cost seems reasonable.

for a small panel there is a lot crammed on it , and its very versatile.

there are a LOT of different sounds available, if you take the trouble to fiddle with various controls, reverb is fine. However, it can sound "small" and "boxy", mainly with midboost on ,and /or gain channel engaged. ive posted this reveiw, to outline some mods ive done which have made a huge difference, and may be of interest/ help to others. Firstly i made a new cabinet, suonds complicated, but not really, i used joinery grade softwood- available from any builders merchant, and cheap- just butted, glued and screwed. After A LOT of experimenting (i started with a big cab, and gradually whittled it down with sound tests, Surprisingly i ended up with a cab the same width (governed by control panel), the same depth, and just 5 inches higher. the speaker sits in the middle of the front baffle. two points;- rear baffles must show same ammount of speaker assembly as original, (a 6" gap),also a much clearer, bigger, sound comes with speaker mounted through front of front baffle (like good hi-fi), THe boxy sound has gone, much improved bass response; the real woodsomehow imparts a "vibrant", "lively" sound -great!
next;- speaker. I discovered that sensitvity- (rated as Db /1watt at 1 metre)was very important, espesially in a small power unit like this -3Db is equvilent to 100% increase in volume! I went with a celestion G12H (100Db at 1M) very good reveiws. To be honest the difference is incredible!!! Its sounds absolutely bloody fantastic, and must be 60/70%louder. If you do just one thing ,try this.
Ive tried several different pre amp valves, including a mullard that was in a mates selmer ,These could be down to personal prefference, with pros and cons alround. my only certainty, is a 5751 in od channel, which smoothes it up nicely,
Sound quality; std-6 , with mods-9

this is made about 84, all seems original and still workingwell

N/A

I wont sell this ever, i dont think, its an alround great package.
Im going to try a walnut wood cab (same sizeas other one), prehaps might even sound more devine!! Overall- 7 with mods- 9

Same as other reviews. I don't think there's another tube amp in this size/cost class that comes close in terms of features. To get all this amp has, you'd have to spend a lot more money and/or be willing to lug a lot more weight.

I think it sounds very good, again for an amp its size and cost. The clean channel has classic Fender chime, and I personally think the reverb is quite good. The drive channel is way too touchy and harsh stock, but I did the $15 Torres Mod, which is a snap even for a moron, and it improved both channels a lot. The drive is now quite useable and sounds killer even at very low volumes. As far as the touchy controls, I will probably do the mods mentioned below.

It's at least 10 years old and going strong. The amp is cake to haul around too, which makes it less likely that you'll bang it up.

N/A

I've been playing for about 25 years but am not a professional musician. Still, I've tried out plenty of gear and have a pretty good ear for tone. The Champ 12 with a simple mod or two gives you an extremely versitile amp for home and/or small jam use that won't take up much space or break your back, and will give you every tone you need for any style without a bunch of stomp boxes. With all that plus the unusual tolex color options, these amps will likely become collectable.

Just got it yesterday...drooled after it for 3 weeks. Features? who care it sucks. But that's cruel. A tube amp for $225, what was I thinking. I play now through a variety of Strats, and tele's, one with Lindy Fralin's, through a(believe it or not, a Crate 30 watt acuoustica amp, great bottum, great reverb, 2 types of distortion pedals do my two desired stages of gain, and the Zoom 503 amp modeler gives my me cabinet, delay, amp model(usually clean Johnson or Fender) and some lush reverbs. After getting this thing, out comes the Crate, until I can surf for some other 'vibey' toy..this ones history. Why? Features or lack there of: no volume control, its loud or off, zero bass, it's like someone took out that potetiometer for another project. Reverb: where? My Sivler face champ(70's) is better cause with pedals I can mod my sound with the champs controls I can at least turn it up gradually, the treble and bass work(ok not grate, but better than this overated beast).

As stated above..hey it doesn't hum but neither does a used Marshall 30 cd(solid state), at least that overdrive is usable, as is the reverb-along with some smallish amps ie Fender 25 frontman, champ 30, Vox 15 watt(solid state). It's clean, so what!

Very, for the two day I've had. It was shipped(ebay) N.Y. to Floriday, and took the beating. So would most else I think.

N/A

I've played in the bedroom for 30 years, some garage bands, now every friday I have a gig. Have owned an original Sears twin twelve(danelectro)in the 60's, 66 Bassman for lead with a 65 Meledy maker, still have the melody maker now with twin humbuckers, thanks to Rob Monroe in El Paso(Rhino Amps, Monroe Guitars). Have mid 70's 60watt Acoustic Combo, killer overdrive, bass and reverb(suprise it's not tube, wouldn't know it though) Just sold my beloved Peavey Delta Blues 210..now theres one I'd buy again: lush reverb, deep overdrive WOW!! I get all tingly just remembering, if they'd just cut the weight down(why I sold it, couldn't lug it without back surgery), which brings us today's fish: smells bad, wish it were stolen today, will consign it locally this weekend, hope I get my $ back out of it. I hear those new Epiphone Elector 30's are hot!(light, sealed cabinet, good bass ect., cheap). My gut told me to buy a used 60 watt Seymour Duncan Convertable despite the weight, or a comproble Carvin Tube, or a Mesa Subway Rocket....but I'm cheap, now see what it cost me? I'll have to sell my collection of maple 80's squire strat necks to afford the good stuff.

OK, ok, after reading all of the comments about this amp in these pages, I feel compelled to give everyone who cares the REAL story, in Fender's own words, of this great little amp. What follows is a complete transcription of my original owner's manual...

"The Fender Champ 12 amplifier combines all-tube, footswitchable overdrive capability, reverb, and a Fender Special Design 12" speaker all in a compact yet sturdy enclosure. The Champ 12 utilizes state of the art construction techniques and minimum parts count for maximun reliability. The amplifier uses only three tubes and features a unique CLASS-A type output section which causes the 6L6GC tube to produce a distinctively smooth sound which has proven to be a very popular characteristic of low-power tube amps over the years.
The tonal characterisics have been tailored to produce a wide range of sounds in both the clean and overdrive modes. The tone controls actually work over a different range while in the overdrive mode effectively giving the player a second set of controls. The PULL FOR MID BOOST feature on the treble control provides even more flexibility and will produce a fatter tone useful for distortion playing.
The Champ 12 also offers a variety of input options. The two instrument inputs will accommodate many different instruments, either active or standard passive types, and the two inputs come in handy in the teaching environment where both the student and teacher can plug in together. The Tape input is useful for the attachment of any line level signal source to be used as accompaniment, be it a tape player, CD player, or rhythm machine. Stereo inputs are provided and the signal is converted to mono inside the Champ 12. The volume control on the external signal source varies its level and the Champ 12 volume controls set the instrument level. This feature is particularly handy for practicing and works well in conjunction with headphones plugged into the headphone jack for private playing. In addition to the headphone jack the Champ 12 has a line output jack that provides an unbalanced signal which is useful for the connection of slave power amps and larger speaker systems for more output. This output can also be connected to a mixing console, equalized and then used for recording or sound reinforcement.
The selection of a Fender amplifier will reward you with years of quality music in a wide range of controlled sounds. This manual is designed to familiarize you with the equipment and acquaint you with its many features. Read it carefully so that you will benefit from all the features as soon as you start using the amplifier.
The built-in quality of a Fender amplifier is the result of over three and a half decades of dedication in the combined skills of research and developement by our engineers and musicians.
That is why we say, proudly, FENDER, The Sound That Creates Legends.

Champ 12 Front Panel Functions
A. INPUTS - Plug-in connection for instruments. Input 1 has a higher sensitivity and impedance than Input 2 and is suitable for most all instruments. Input 2 has 6db less gain and is useful for clean sound with high output pickups. When jacks 1 and 2 are used simultaneously they both have the same sensitivity.

B. TREBLE - Adjusts the amount of boost (accentuation) or cut (attenuation) in the high frequency range. This knob also can be pulled out for boosted midrange which is useful in the overdrive mode for more sustain and drive.

C. BASS - Adjusts the amount of boost or cut in the low frequency range. This control automatically operates over a different range in the overdrive mode to provide optimum equalization for distortion playing.

D. VOLUME - Adjusts the overall loudness when in the clean mode (overdrive indicator is off).

E. GAIN - Adjusts the amount of amplification in the preamp when in the overdrive mode (overdrive indicator is on). Ceaner sound is achieved at lower gain settings. High gain settin

The Torres mod for the Champ 12 makes a HUGE difference. More output, more consistency between clean and drive channels, and lots more tone! The kit is simple to install and is available at torresengineering.com.

Very sturdy construction. Haven't had a problem... but this thing does get hot! I used small washers for spacers between the amp chassis and the cabinet on top to let a little of the heat out. It's not visible and it definitelt runs cooler. Change the four power supply caps (the large blue ones on the board next to the output transformer inside the chassis and your hum should go away. These caps are close to the output tube sucket and get HOT! I recommend again to use the spacers as mention above to let out the heat.

Fenderforum.com is the place to go for fender information on guitars and amps that Fender doesn't make anymore. Fender is very helpful with their new products, but information on the old stuff is tough to get from Fender.

If you find one of these little gems used, grab it! Most people still think the red knob Fenders were crap... their loss! Their stupidity keeps the used price down for those of us who can still hear and appreciate what a hot little tube amp can do...
Good luck!

Features are described in other posts but most useful are reverb and separate switchable overdrive channel. This class A tube amp puts 10 watts into a 12" Fender special design speaker and is plenty loud for home practice. No effects loop but I dont need one.

The clean channel has a nice class A sound with my '75 Les Paul Deluxe. The stock O/D channel is much too harsh and bright for my liking. Hitting the O/D footswitch overrides the volume control effectively setting it to 10 resulting is massive distortion. A previous reviewers suggestion to bypass this is essential to getting the O/D under control. I recently posted details on how to do this and eliminate some of the O/D brightness in the Amp Mods section of the Fender Forum (fenderforum.com).

The reverb in this amp is solid state driven and therefore doesn't have the classic Fender sound. Nonetheless it is still useful perfectly adequate for what I need.

There is a slight hum to this amp but that is considered normal. The hum does not get louder when the volume is turned up and cannot be heard when playing. There is tech note on the web covering this. To find it use the phrases "Champ 12" and "Hum" in your search engine.

The rating for this amp reflects the modded amp. The O/D on the stock amp would knock several points off.

I've only had this amp a few months but it has given me no trouble. The amp cabinet is very sturdy. The input jacks are plastic and I can tell they have been repaired or replaced in the past. I have no doubt this amp will last a long time given reasonable care.

These amps went out of production in the early 90s so the warranty is long gone. A good amp tech can handle problems if they arise.

I gigged heavily in the 70's but stopped playing in the 80's and 90's and am now starting again. The Champ 12 is an excellent value for a home / practice amp. You get a variety of features and sounds for a very reasonable price. For this reason I am rating it high.

Bad control layout -- gain stage too sensitive.

Clean channel does not break up and has a high frequency ringing that sounds bad on recordings - can be stopped by removing c26. The most useful and simple
mod that can be done on this amp is to bypass the optical switch
and short the first volume pot to ground. Much more control over distortion -- do not try this if you have no experience, take it to a tech.

schematic
http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/schem/champ_12_schem.gif

Played mostly with strat - clean channel is ok, distortion
bad.

Very reliable.

Check out

http://home.ix.netcom.com/~mag120/tone_samples.htm

Two channels;clean and o/d. Reverb,2 inputs, headphone socket, line out, tape / cd in; treble (with pull mid), bass and gain on ch. 2. volume for each channel.
1 x 12 inch Fender labelled speaker.Black face styling and red knobs. 1 x 6L6 and 2 x 12ax7's. According to a "Guitarist magazine" of 197? this amp is rated at 18 watts RMS.THe name "Champ 12" comes from the 12 inch speaker.I was interested to see in other reviews that this amp is "single ended class A" ... I always thought it was class A/B!
Although the amp has enough power for small gigs (with a restrained drummer)but I usually put the line out into the back of a Roland cube 60 for the extra oomph.

The clean sounds are fine, but I find the distortion a bit harsh, especially at practice levels, so I usually set channel 2 as a second clean "boost" channel and use a session sp75 pedal for overdrive / distortion purposes.
The amp is a little "toppy" so I roll the treble down and the bass up. The combination of the Champ's open back cabinet and the closed back of the Cube rounds things out nicely. The reverb is a tad dull but better than leaving it turned off.
I play covers from the 50's to the 80's and the Champ works well with a Strat, Yamaha SJ550 ( coil tap humbuckers) and even with my Epiphone Joe Pass jazzer.

No problems!

Never had any dealings with them.

A reasonably versatile little amp with a decent sound. I don't know if I would replace it if it was lost or stolen, I'd like to try a Deluxe reverb, or a subway rocket, but I prefer the sound of a small amp working hard to a large amp "ticking over".

The amp was purchased new by me in March 1990. I had a problem with the inputs early on but the music store replaced it with a higher quality inputs under warranty and I haven't had a problem since. The features are great for studio use and home practice. I use the headphone feature all the time. I use a jack without a cord in the input to quiet the speaker and play thru the headphone input only.

I play rock and blues and this amp works well with my style. I play a Strat Plus Deluxe with blue, silver and red Lace Sensors with this amp, my '57 strat reissu sounds a little thin going in w/o effects to fatten up the tone.
I don't care for the reverb much, though. It's not bad-just sounds a little small for my taste.

As mentioned earlier I had problems with the inputs that was taken care of under the warranty. No issues since then.

They took care of the input problem-no complaint

I've been playing since 1965 and have owned many amps over the years, this one is a keeper. If lost I'd replace it witout a doubt. This is one incredible amp bargain-buy one if you can! I might look for a snakeskin tolex variant because they look cool and are bound to be collectible in a few years.

Ultra-compact all tube combo with a standard Fender clean channel, Marshall-like overdrive channel, and spring reverb. There's also a headphone out, line out, & tape/direct inputs.

I use it with a Fender lonestar strat. The amp has sweet clean & overdrive sounds with no hiss. The clean sound is almost identical to my bandmates Deluxe Reverb. The reverb isn't nearly as rich as the DR's, but sounds very good. I'd say that the Champ 12's reverb sounds more like the natural echo you get in a theater hall. The overdrive sounds like a vintage marshall cranked. It's impressively loud for its size & power rating, & is suitable for most club gigs. Best of all, you can crank it at manageable levels.

I use this amp a lot because it sounds great and is easy to transport. I've never experienced any problems with it. I do however change the power tube ever couple of years, but a single 6L6 is cheap to replace.

I've been playing for about 10 years. I also own a marshall half stack & a Johnson J-Station, which sounds awsome into the Champ 12's tape/direct inputs. I've been through several amps through the years, but this one has stuck around. It's hard to beat the tone that I get out of this pint size beast. It's definitely a keeper.

Great little amp with a classic Fender blackface clean channel, overdrive channel, & reverb. Plus it's all tube and has a nice sounding 12 inch speaker. It also responds very well to just about any pedal.

I use an '82 American Strat with a SD little '59, single coil size humbucker, in the bridge position. I also use a Gibson flying V with classic PAF pickups. Both guitars sound wonderful through the amp. I get a nice range of spanky clean sounds, warm bluesy overdrive, to classic Marshall-like distortion with either guitar. This amp is very simple to use, and a real joy to listen to.

It's a solid little tube amp. If anything just keep a set of spare tubes at hand.

I've enjoyed over 12 years of semi professional guitar playing. I've recently become involve with home recording using a PC. This wonderful little tube amp gives me great tone at home & live. It's also the smallest big sounding amp that I've ever heard. Fender crammed a lot of nice tone into this very portable package. I also use a Line6 Pod for recording. The Pod works very well with the Champ 12. Just plug it into the tape inputs, right on the front panel of the Champ 12.

It has that vintage Fender clean channel, plus spring reverb & footswitchable overdrive. This amp is all tube too, except for a solid state rectifier. Also, this amp is loaded with other handy features like a tape input, line output, & a good sounding headphone out. It lacks an effects loop, but I've recently discovered that you can use the line out + tape in for this purpose. My biggest complaint is that it was difficult to set the tone controls to sound good for both channels. However, I got a mod from an amp guru named dan on alt.guitar.amps newsgroup that fixed this problem and made the amp sound unbelievable.

I use an ibanez usa custom guitar with a dimarzio tonezone at the bridge & paf pro at the neck. It has a solid mahogany body, beautiful flame maple top, birdseye maple neck, and rosewood fingerboard. The 5-way 4-pole switch is wired to get humbucking & split coil (strat positions 2&4) sounds. The split coils, neck humbucker alone, and both humbuckers together positions all sound great on the clean channel. The overdrive channel screams with the bridge humbucker, but also works well with the other positions. You can dial in a variety of rock, blues, & modern crunch sounds on this amp. Anything from Brian Setzer spank to Blink 182. The reverb is very good too. I'm basing this review on my modded amp. In its stock form this amp tends to be too clean & bright on the clean channel, and the overdrive can be harsh if the tone controls aren't set right. In any case it still makes an outstanding studio amp. I'm sure you could gig with it too, as long as you mike it. I've even used it at private parties, without a PA! The trick is to put it at ear level, like on top of a stool.

This amp has been very reliable considering all the abuse that it takes. It has been dropped several times, had beer spilled on it, and it has lasted through several gigs in which it was run wide open all night.

It's long out of warranty, and I don't think Fender supports its retired products. That's too bad because most of their new products can't hold a candle to their classics!

I love to play guitar. I've been at it for almost 15 years. I got rid of most of my big gear, like a mesa rectifier stack & a marshall half stack, and have become a fan of ballsy little combo amps like this little gem. I haven't found any other small amp that has as much tone as my Champ 12. Besides I can get a great cranked marshall sound on the overdrive channel, at tolerable levels. I can easily get high gain boogie sounds using a distortion pedal in front of this baby.

Compact 1x12 all tube combo amp with volume, bass, treble, overdrive & spring reverb controls. It also has direct (tape) inputs which you can plug your favorite preamp into, a headphone out, & a line out that comes after the power section - great for recording.

The clean channel alone can cover a wide range of sounds. This baby will play loud too! Overdrive & reverb just add to the flexibilty of this sweet little amp. It's great for practice, recording, & small venue gigs.

The tube sockets are all chasis mounted & hard wired to the circuit boards. This is a great mechanical feature, because it keeps the heat away from the rest of the circuitry. Also, the reverb springs are mounted within the chasis, so you don't have to worry about damaging them. There is no standby switch, so tube life could be an issue, but I've never had a problem with this amp.

I've been playing for about 11 years. I love the fact that this amp packs a lot of tone in a small package. I like it better than Mesa's Subway Blues, which is another giant killer. The Champ 12 would be a perfect 10 if it had an effects loop & separate tone controls for overdrive.

For you tweek heads out there, I came up with some cheap & simple mods that fatten up this baby nicely & balance out the two channels better. [This is not the same as the Torres mod]:
1. Remove C6 (750pf) & R11 (100k) - reduces clean channel brightness
2. Remove C26 (180pf) - reduces brightness more
3. Change R21 (220k) to 470k - makes the clean ch. break up sooner
4. Change C12 (.68uf) to 3.3uf. - increases the bass response

NOTE-1: You may find schematics at http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/
NOTE-2: Handle the circuit board carefully. The wires that connect to the tube sockets will break if they are bent around too much. I had to resolder a couple, but I was a bit rough with the board.

Already well dscribed , from the Fender schematic Ive seen it is rated at 10 Watts rms. Mine was made in Mexico not sure when .Compared to the Vox Cambridge I traded in this amp is a major leap forward in tone and as flexible .I play an Epiphone Sheraton 2 and the amp reveals tones which were missing before.The clean channel is very sweet ,overdrive great if abit lacking in range (considring getting a local amp specialist to putin the Dan Torres mod )

Aa above .Class A simply sings .

Cant say as yet ,very recently purchased , but is very well made and verly little hum/back ground noise .Still has Fender 12Ax7s (originals probabyl)6L6 replaced with Svetlana

Contacted Fender UK on acquiring the Champ ,found them very helpfull but were unable to date the amp .

Magnificent ,looks great easy to move .useable at home and should be fine for small gigs.Spring reverb would be nice but fitted reverb is surprisingly good . An amp to trasure .

Others have told you what it has. What it lacks is separate tone controls for the overdrive channel. The tape inputs & line out aren't important to me, but maybe they can be used as an effects loop?

This amp will deliver a wide range of rock & blues sounds. You'll need a distortion pedal for harder stuff. I use a mesa v-twin pedal in front of her, with excellent results. A boss DS-1 & MT-2 also work well. The overdrive works well with low drive settings.

Carry spare tubes & a fuse just in case.

This is a great amp with that classic Fender sound. It's the only red knob Fender worth checking out. It is also the smallest 1x12 combo around. The sound is huge & full of great tone. I highly recommend it.

Bass, Treble, Volume, Overdrive Gain, Overdrive Volume, Reverb, Tape Input, Line Out, Headphone Out, Footswitch. All tube design with 2 x 12AX7 & 1 x 6L6 power tube.

The clean channel simply sings. It sounds beautiful with humbuckers, or a strat on positions 1, 2, or 4. You get that creamy singing fender sound that's great for blues, rock, or rockabilly. The reverb sounds warm & natural. The overdrive will sustain for days, but colors the tone quite a bit. However, you can tweek the Bass & Treble to correct it. I understand that Dan Torres has a cheap mod for this.

I've used it for over 6 years with no problems.

This amp gives you a nice rich fender sound in a small package. The 10 class A watts are loud enough to gig with. Get one before the prices go up.

FOR WHAT I USED FOR IS MORE VERSATILE THAN MY FENDER DELUXE. I MAINLY PLAY IN THE HOUSE AT LOW VOLUME AND CRANK ON IT WHEN THE WIFE LEAVES.

I'M VERY NEW AT THE ELECTRIC GUITAR BIZ, BUT THIS LITTLE TUBE AMP SOUNDS MUCH BETTER THAN THE ONES THAT THE KIDS ARE PLUGGING IN THE GUITAR STORES NOW DAYS..(TWICE THE PRIST)

I BOUGHT IT USED FOR 160 AMERICAN DOLLARS, AND ONLY HAD IT FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS. IT LOOKS THAT THE PREVIOUS OWNER DID NOT GIVE IT TOO MUCH USED.

N/A

I HAVE ONLY BEEN PLAYING FOR TWO YEARS. I OWN TWO AND A HALF ELECTRIC GUITARS, ONE IS A DELUXE STRAT, AND MY BABY A WHITE ASH TELE WITH NEW NOISELESS PICKUPS THAT I INTALLED' "THANK YOU VERY MUCH", THE HALF GUITAR IS A DANELECTRIC CONVERTIBLE THAT SEENS TO SOUND THE SAME WITH ANY AMP, AND EVEN UNPLUG.

Small all tube combo amp with 4 stages of 12AX7 & 1 single ended (true class A) 6L6 power tube. The speaker is a 12" Fender special design that barely fits in the cabinet. This amp is a wolf in sheep's clothing. It has a blackface style clean channel, reverb, and a nice bluesy to hard rock overdrive.

This amp absolutely sings with a strat. It does that great 3-dimensional fender clean, like a good old blackface. A humbucker based guitar makes this baby growl nicely. The overdrive channel is nice for blues or hard rock, but you have to back off the bass, pull out the treble knob (for mid boost), and set the gain at 5 or above to get high octane Boogie sounds. The reverb sounds very nice. It isn't quite as dramatic as a deluxe reverb, but it beats the hell out of boogie & blues junior verbs. The only negative thing about this amp is that you can't set the tone controls for both a great clean & high gain sound. You have to pick one & compromise on the other (of course this isn't a problem in the studio). Your best bet is to dial in a great clean & use the gain sparingly on the overdrive channel. This will give you sweet clean & blues sounds. You'll have to add a pedal to achieve a third (high gain) sound. This is one of the best sounding small amps around - it's a 10 for studio work!

It's over 10 years old & has never failed me. For insurance just bring 1 spare fuse, 2 spare 12AX7 tubes, & 1 spare 6L6 tube - it's a very low maintainence amp.

Never needed

If you can find a used one then grab it! This is the smallest big sounding amp around. It has over 10 watts of sweet, powerful class A tone.

previous reviews mention this cleary, this amp is loaded!

i play alt rock, with a strat with lace sensors, like billy corgan.
this amp has the sound i like at low volumes. the clean sounds are great too, but don't use that much , as i like the distortion so much! some people say it osunds like mesa. i've never hear d mesa, but i know crunch, and this things has it! reverb isn't loud, but i don't use it anyway amp has lot of mids, like tweed champs.
i've heard of a mod for this amp for better distortion. if i could find where it is ,i'd get it, though i doubt it would improve it much!

i smahsed some tubes a couple of times. and that made the fuse go. but i seems sturdy. haven't had it too long tohugh, so it's gets and 8

no email, very limited contact. i guess it's hard being a huge company.

i played a marhsall jcm combo that i wanted for a heavy sound. this amp get that sound, but much better cleans too. and it was cheap, and it's light and looks killer!

cd input, headphones, reverb, two channels, handwired, 12 inch speaker, class a.. wow!

mini boogie in fender clothing. really! better clean though. a very overlooked amp! have to try that torres kit though, as it already sounds great for recording and prctice, even some rehearsals!!
reverb atmospheric, if dim. not newarly as awful as blues juniors though. sounds more like subtle outboard than traditional fender...

mine really needs new tubes, but these are fenders, like a rock!

no contact, but since these are handwired with a small pc, i'm sure most techs could fix a problem. ( don't see why there would be a problem though!! unless you threw it!)

snag one while they're cheap! blows the blues junior out of the water!!

I use 2 of these with my 54 key Fender Rhodes for strereo fx...they sound great. The distortion works well for keys but sounds a bit thin for guitar. You cant argue with the features to $ ratio! A good buy for small clubs and home studio recording.

Input jack have gone on me twice...all other stuf works great.

From Fender?? R U kidding me???!

Probably less esoteric & classy than the older champs...but better workhorses & louder....A decent choice!

A 10 watt tube amp with a 12? speaker AND reverb! What more can I say? I?d heard of the Champ 12, but until I found this at a garage sale, I had no idea it was a tube amp. I was looking for an inexpensive low wattage tube amp for years and this one fell into my lap. It has a clean channel, overdrive channel, REVERB, CD/Tape input jacks and headphone jacks.

I play mostly blues and blues based rock with my 82 Gibson Les Paul Custom or my Fender 62 reissue Stratocaster. When I first plugged this amp in it sounded pretty good, but since I got it so cheap I had some upgrade ideas in mind. I replaced the original tubes with (2) Electro-Harmonix 12AX7s and (1) Svetlana 6L6GC. At the same garage sale I bought a Celestion Alnico Blue, 12 inch, 8 ohm, 15 watt speaker in the ORIGINAL box for $30 dollars! After I made those simple upgrades the tone of this amp went from pretty good to AWESOME! The power also seems to have increased with the upgrades as well. I?m not sure if it?s because the speaker or the tubes, but it now has enough volume to jam with my drummer. The clean channel is very smooth and sweet. The overdrive channel is great for everything except metal. This amp is perfect for me.

I?ve only had this amp for a month. It?s a pretty simple amp, so reliability shouldn?t be a problem.

out-of-production model

I?ve been playing for about 20 years. My other amps are a Fender Hot Rod Deville 4 x 10 and a Marshall Artist 4203. If this amp was lost or stolen, I?d probably cry. There?s no way I?d find a Fender Champ 12 and a Celestion Alnico Blue, both in brand new condition for $80 again! It wouldn?t be worth trying to duplicate this. It would just be too expensive. This amp sounded pretty good before I upgraded it. I would have been more than happy with it in its stock condition. Fortunately the guitar gods were kind to me when I stopped by the garage sale and found this amp and the Celestion speaker. The list price for the Celestion Blue is $295. I?ll bet that?s more than this amp sold for when it was brand new. I wish the reverb was better, but to even have reverb on a small 10 watt tube amp is great. This is an awesome little amp! It?s small, light and has great tone. What more can you ask for?

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Just a note to all who believe the Champ 12 was designed by Paul Rivera....it wasn't. Read about it in the book 'Fender Amps: The First Fifty Years'. This was one of the first tube amp efforts of the POST- CBS era Fender. If you have any doubts, email Paul himself at Rivera.com. He'll tell you he had nothing to do with the design of the Champ 12. FYI & caveat emptor!

Two channels, dual inputs, 1X12 in a cabinet not much bigger than 12 inches. Footswitchable between channels only (no reverb on/off). Heasdphone jack, etc.

I play an Ibanez Artist (1980), Gibson SG-90 and a Fender Mexicaster. The amp responds as one would expect between single coil and humbuckers. The Strat makes for some nice jangly tones, but has enough punch to get raunchy and feedback quite decently. I can get a fairly good saturated raunch with the humbuckers, taking into considertion the amp's size. The clean channel is good for some blues, but will not hold its cleanliness at higher volumes in a jam/gig setting; but again, remember the wattage. If you are looking for some versatile crunch to raunch in a small combo, this amp will perform fairly well in a jam or small gig.

Same input jack problems as stated elsewhere. One input is not functioning and the other will sometimes cut out if the cord isn't hanging just so. Hopefully this is easily remedied when I get around to it. Otherwise, no complaints

I was looking for an amp that I could easily carry around to basement jams (I also have a Fender Concert that can be a bit of a beast to lug around). I bought this used out of the classifieds from a guy who wanted an acoustic amp and had this baby sitting around collecting dust. It is in mint condition (not a scratch) and when I test drove it and saw that it was a tube amp, I forked over the $100 Canadian no questions asked. I have been very happy with this amp and so has my back!!

I bought this amp with the original warranty-certificate etc. This amp has, according to Fender, only 10 watts RMS, not 12 what everyone here suggests. I think 12 is for the size of the speaker.

This is a 12 watt, single 6L6 valve combo. It's very light and portable.I bought it primarily to do studio dates where I needed something small and versatile. It's a good wee amp, but not loud enough to play alongside a medium-muscle drummer. I've used it mic'd up on bigger stages, however, with reasonable results. There could be more in the way of tonal versatility, but basically it's all there.

This amp, ironically (are you listening, Alanis?) sounds better with Gibson than Fender guitars. The latter sound slightly thin; you have to wind the treble control way back for a balanced tone. Gibsons sound absolutely the business with this amp. The dirty channel sounds poor until you really wind the volume up. Could the dirty channel on this amp actually be a solid state stage? that's what it sounds like sometimes. For a killer bluesy sound, plug a 335 into a Boss cs2 compressor with the gain full up and the compression somewhere below halfway and plug into the 'clean' channel up full. For a fab funky rhythm sound, try pickups 1+2 on a good strat into the above compressor and turn the 'clean' sound down to halfway. Add a Boss acoustic simulator to the above and try the neck pickup for extra sonic transparency and funky righteousness.

It's never failed me.

N/A

I've been a guitarist for nearly 30 years, and own Rivera, Boogie, Marshall and Laney amps in addition to the inevitable (and nowadays indespensable) Pod. This amp is a useful tool, but losing it wouldn't be the end of the world. I like the weight, I hate the buzzy distortion channel at low volume. I have effects pedals which do that stuff far, far better. It has that 'small' slightly boxy sound so accurately modelled by Line6 in their 'small tweed' setting, which is very easy to place in a mix.

okay this is a basic tube amp, great for anyone wanting to upgrade from a solid state amp, like myself. my footswitch is wired into the back of the amp, can't remove which doesn't really matter, and i like the mid boost pull know, i'm not really sure what the rca plugs on the front are for.

bought this from a private owner, it seemed a litle quiet on both channels and i was a little unsure, but i use a compressor and a tube screamer so now volume and distortion are not a problem, i would have to recommend an overdrive for better distortion at low volume, but this is my first tube amp, so i'm not complaining, i love it

just got it, only has 2 preamp and 1 power amp tubes so not too much worry about that.we'll see.

fender's website is not good for anything that is not currently in production, it's hard to find info from THEM about older out of production amps.

a 175 dollar tube amp. that's all i can say, i mean i don't think there are enough good sounding smaller tube amps out there.by the way mine is in a red cabinet with black knobs, kind of cool.

Late '80s or early '90s manufacture. This amp really shines at heavy blues and rock. It has a clean channel, but without the overdrive on it doesn't have the oomph to serve as more than a practice amp. This amp has served me well over the past ten years... both in small clubs and as a recording amp.

As I said before, this amp works best for heavy blues and rock. I mostly play a strat through it, though the single-coils can only drive it to moderate volumes (club-wise). Humbuckers allow it to get very loud and very dirty. Overall, the amp is best for lead tones... rhythms tend to be a bit muddy at higher volume levels. For big gigs, I have occasionally run it in tandem with my Super Reverb... only kicking the champ in to fatten up leads. You can hear this amp on various tunes at http://mp3.com/defenders (try "Why Should I Think That")and http://mp3.com/jonathanreynolds ("STR").

Industructo. Years of gigging and nothing has been required aside from re-tubing.

Never had to ask.

This amp is a fine example of something that is a sum of more than it's parts. It isn't terribly versitile, but it works so darn well in a few places that I would hate to do without it. As small combos go, I think it is about as fine an amp as many snooty "boutique" models.

This is a late-80s/early 90s all tube 12 watt combo w/ 10" speaker, with footswitchable channels, 2 EQ bands with a mid boost, and reverb; all in all a very basic combo, which happens to be what I go for. This one isn't perfect, but it gets the job done...

I mostly run my ES-335 copy through this one; I find that my Strat's stock Fender single coils don't give it enough punch on clean channel. Really, the only thing I don't like about this amp is how relatively soft the clean channel is compared to the drive; the closest I get to equal volumes is with the clean volume on 10 and the drive and its volume on about 1 and 2 respectively. Any drive setting over 1 on this amp is pretty harsh in my book too, btw, at ANY volume, and there is some degree of noise when you're on the drive. So I virtually don't use the overdrive on this amp, and I would recommend anyone who buys one get a good OD stompbox if you want drive with any kind of finesse. Otherwise it's a very quiet clean amp, I've used it for blues, country, moderate rock, and reggae and it really gets that Fender sparkling clean sound going.

I haven't had it long, but it hasn't given me any problems so far. No scratchy pots, no noisy or unreliable jacks, including the line out, and I know I'm at least the third owner.

Never dealt with Fender CS, and the warrantee on this has probably been expired for years anyway.

Overall, I'm not looking for much this amp doesn't have. If it was stolen I'd buy another Fender tube combo for sure, but I think I'd move up to someting in the 30-40 watt range. But then I play in a 5 piece band, which can have as many as 3 guitars going on certain songs; for the studio, or in a small group where I was the only electric guitar player, this would be all the amp I'd ever need, plus some sort of gain booster or OD box.

As above. Many useful features.

Excellent clean sound - IMO far superior to many of the new low-wattage Class A combos (eg. Gibson GA15, Laney LC15, Trace Elliot Velocette). Gain channel is useful, however lacking bottom end. Has a raw and grainy overdrive which can be a bit harsh on high treble settings. Nice musical distortion overall, lots of harmonics, but limited in its use - probably better suited to texas style blues. Reverb is pretty weak, but useable.

No probs as yet - not bad so far for a 15 y.o. amp.

Never dealt with the company.

Great value for money. Packs a lot of punch with gig-able volume levels. An ideal recording amp.

This amp is probably from the late 80's. Bought second hand in Sweden six years ago for about 250 dollars, or 2500 swedish crowns.
I mainly use it for playing amplified harmonica, but I believe that my opinion about how to get a good harmonica sound out of it would work also for guitar players. (See the "Sound" section below).
I like the features the Champ 12 provides. Especially the line out and the headphone jack. Line out gives a lot of opportunities to use the Champ 12 as a pre-amp with a bigger gigging amp, such as a Bassman RI, or for just lining the amp into the house PA, not having to care about an extra mic for the amp.
What I really miss is a speaker-out jack, so it would be easy to try different speaker cabs. I will probably have one mounted some day.
The tone controls are quite OK, i believe. The solid state reverb is the major disadvantage of this amp. But tere are a lot of ways to get around it. My solution is spelled Dan-Echo.

I was never satisfied with how the amp sounded, until I got into some tube swapping...
Now I know that there is a lot more tone to squeeze out of this baby than you are able to do with the stock Fender tubes. The trick that worked for me was to swap the pre-amp tubes for better stuff, preferably some really good vintage tubes.
Today I use old Telefunken tubes from the 50`s. For occasional guitar-use I put in two Telefunken ECC 83-tubes in the pre-amp stage (ECC 83 is the old european tube number for 12AX7).
When playing harp I swap the first ECC 83 in the signal line for a tube with less gain, mainly to reduce the risk of feedback from the harp microphone. For the moment I use a Sylvania 12AT7.
Telefunken tubes make any amp sing with the right tone, I believe. The problem is they are hard to get and a bit expensive. But I believe that the 90 dollars you might have to pay for a pair of Telefunken tubes really could be the kick your Champ 12 needs. And if you like the amp for its other features - why not.
Now I got a really fat harp tone, at least for this size of cabinet, and a much better blues tone for guitar out of the amp.
Right now I would like to find a used or NOS RCA Blackplate 6L6GC tube (stock in many 60's Fenders) for the power-amp stage, but then we're talking hundreds of bucks, and I believe it's a real hard to get-item here in Sweden.
I would also like to try out the advantages with a bigger speaker cab, preferably a 4X10 or 4X8 cab, to get more bottom for the harp sound.

I have had some hum problem and a broken input jack, but nothing that my friend, an at-home amp-tech down the street, couldn't fix for 10 bucks...
The Champ 12 has never let me down on a gig so far. Of course the snake-skin toolex doesn't look brand new anymore, but this is a blues amp, so what...

I've never dealt with Fender or their retail organisation in Sweden.
My amp-tech friend down the street fixes what's needed. And he's got a Fender Champ 12 of his own, too, actually one of the very few amps of this type I've seen in Sweden except for my own.

Been playing the amp for six years, but first after some tube swapping got really satisfied.
If it got lost I would try to find another one, or maybe take a step up in size/wattage. But on the other hand, the size and versatility of the Champ 12 is real advantages.

red knob Champ 12 (late 80s to early 90s model)
12 watts
smallest amp with a 12" speaker I've seen
louder than I thought a champ would be (particularly on lead channel)
clean channel only loud enough for home practice I would think
has headphone jack and line out

tele and strat sound terrific in clean channel
I've had maybe 10 different amps in the past and this definately one of the best sounding in my book. Very full with plenty of low end on the clean channel. Less lows on the overdrive. Much warmer and fuller than I thought a Champ could be. I've owned the Blues Jr and was never happy with that honkey midrangey skanky sound. This instantly sounds better to me. Its the larger power tube I think mainly. The clean channel on 10 hardly breaks up with a Tele bridge pickup. Got some Santana-ish tone out of the overdrive channel using humbuckers. Seems versatile to me. Footswitch makes it pretty easy to switch channels without too much jiggering with the knobs.

just got it - but its 10 years old and doesn't have any noticeable probs.

I think I may have paid too much at $300 from reading the other reviews but I'm not unhappy since it sounds so good. This is a keeper and I'm looking for another one now.

killer small all tube amp with 2 channels, outs, and it's so light you can take it amywhere...

you want to sound like Nirvana? mike this baby up on ten. so many big records use small tube amps in the studio cranked. ac 15, boogie 22, CHAMP 12 etc. just because you have a marshall stack doesn't mean it's the thing to use for everything.

never had a problem

never had a problem, so i'm giving them an average grade.

if you have big rigs, this is the one to have for that small tube rig you can crank up without fear. great tube compression, scary versatility, and wighs next to nothing. GET ONE.

12 Watt, (well, rated at 12), all tube combo, single channel with switchable overdrive, single 12 inch combo.

This amp was a big disappointment for a fender tube amp, useless distortion, well, I should say one sound and not a very good one, very loose and way to boomy a bass, no shimmering highs, not a good clean amp either, but i guess for a cheap tube amp I shouldn't be to picky, but then this has none of the sounds of the old champs which were also cheap tube amps...lol The reverb was also very dry and un-inspiring.

never had a problem

Fender? forget it!

Save your money and find a better amp if you really want a fender, otherwise there are plenty of other brands out there that you can pick up for the same used price that would put this amp to shame, but then that wouldn't take much, I dumped this amp as soon as I could! the only reason I give it a 3 is because it was reliable.

Made in 1989 in Mexico; I begun using it only in 2000
as I didn't play in a band in the meantime.

It was designed by Rivera and has ALL the right features:
buy one if you find it !

I bought NEW tubes - Groove and Sovtek and it sounds INCREDIBLE.

It sings like Santana or gives me bluesy tone like SRV
or whatever you like except metal-trash. It works great
with LesPaul and any great Strat and I use them all ...

I keep 10 for hand-made $2000 amps and more versatile designs
like Mesa-combos so only 9 - but it's really 10 for the price.

No problem - seems sturdy.

Don't know - don't need it.

10 for the price: I paid roughly $400 in England in 1990
and it's BETTER than present Blues Jr. that everybody raves about.
It's Rivera amp for the price of Pro Jr.

Buy one if you find it somewhere ...

I wish it had a tad more bass. but this amp is a screamer. I would show up a gigs where my twin was too much and they would tell me to turn down and that was un miked over a p.a.!!!

NEVER LET ME DOWN!!!!

i OWN ALOT OF VINTAGE AMPS AND WHEN I NEED A SMALL AMP THIS IS WHAT i GRAB....IT KICKS ASS in the dollar/performance ratio....great sustaining feedback with any guitar

This is a very cool amp!It has reverb,footswichable distortion/clean channels,tape input jacks,line output,and an HEADPHONES JACK!12 watts of tube tones!!!1-6L6 2-12x7.

Kickass tube vibe,12 watts of tube tones!!!!!!!!SRV,KWS and Texas blues in a little amp!It's so warm and friendly.This bad boy will do rock,blues,country(ughh!)and top 40 with ease.It doesn't have the gain or the bottom for metal.Great for clean tones,and very nasty for da blues.My only gripe is that the reverb is digital and not spring!!!

It's over 10 years old,all original and still kicking it!Ron Rivera did a good job designing this amp.

They need to work on this problem(but not as bad as Ibanez!)!!!!!!!

I love this amp!!!!This amp was designed by Ron Rivera,he also designed the badass Super Champ(Rivera amps).This amp was made by Fender from 89-91.I hunted for this amp for awhile(also looked for a Super Champ for a good price!).If lost I'd be very upset!!!I now can jam at home without pissing off anybody,and have late night jams with the headphones.This Champ12 will CRUSH the new Blues Jr&Pro Jr,plus a heck of alot cheaper$$$$!If you Find one ,snatch it up!!!!!

This amp is not bustin' with features - only 6 knobs. However, with 2 inputs, line out, headphone jack, just enough tone control, reverb, and a {albiet limited} overdrive, it's versatile in comparison to other amps in its size and price range. Put a speaker out jack on it yourself.

Buy this amp if you want a small valve amp with a beatiful clean sound. Get the clean channel to break up for that fabulous blues sound. Use the other channel if you really don't want to pack your favourite pedal. Some other reviews have mentioned lack of bass response. This is due to the small cabinet, not the amp. I use this amp with other cabinets regularly with both guitar and bass - it is not lacking in bottom end. For me, the clean channel sound rates near to a 10, and the other considerably lower due to lack of variation - it's near to being just either on or off. However, I see this channel as a useful extra. Few people won't use a multi effects unit or 1-15 pedals anyway, whatever amp they have.

I haven't had this amp long enough to tell. I do like the fact that there are only 3 tubes to replace.

This may well be the only guitar amp I ever own. I'll track down another one if it gets abducted by aliens or whatever. I use it by itself frequently, but otherwise add to it at either end with effects, mic/PA, power amp, other cabinets. Small amps rule the known universe in my opinion. See www.cybtrans.com/guitar/ for some great info and ideas about this. For example, did you know that a 12 watt amp is 65% as loud as a 50 watt amp?

This is a great practice amp. I bought it new in 1990 for $225, it was my first all tube amp, having previously played a Westbury 1000 ( a loud, sterile solid state amp that was somehow related to Marshall, but I digress...). The amp has two channels, one clean, one overdrive. They share tone control, basic treble and bass with a mid boost pull switch on the treble. The mid boost makes my Pro-Tune strat all muddy. There is no effects loop, just an output jack for speaker extension cab and head phone jack. The amp came with a single button footswitch for channel switching. There is a reverb circuit, but it sucks...dry and uninspired.

As far as sounds, this is a good practice amp. I play a Squire Pro Tone Strat with 3 single coils. Mainly I use the neck pick up as I am working on my SRV and Kenny Wayne licks. I had this amp sitting in a closet for the past four years and only in the past six months did I really start to play with it. The clean channel breaks up slightly with the volume at 10 (I've set the treble at 7 and bass at 8), I nice tone for the SRV mellow stuff. Not much power on the clean channel, definitely a practice amp. The second channel has a gain pot and master vol pot. The master is sensitive, practice levels are achieved at no more than 2 or 3, beyond that, this Fender is loud for only 12 watts. The volume level does not seem to change much beyond 5 to 10. The overall distortion is slightly clipping, no massive gain with the gain set at 10. This amp is tight and bright, no bass here. I've tried a friend's Les Paul, doing my best Noel Gallager licks with the gain on 10 and there is definitely the need for a stomp box. This is a clean distortion. Best overall comparison is SRV's "Texas Flood" solos, bright and tight. This puppy will not feed back on me, only when I drove it insane with a short term ownership of a Zoom 1010 unit did it cry out. The noisy on the second channel can be high a full volume, if you have a strat, just don't take your hands off the pick guard during non playing moments or the hiss will get you.

The only problem I have is the input jacks, the first jack no longer works I guess a soldier joint has let go. The second input jack is getting scrathy now too. This is the only problem in my eight years of ownership.

N/A, never used the support.

Having been an off and on player for eighteen years, I never collected a lot of gear, mostly recreational playing. I play mostly blues and straight on rock now (Oasis, Sting, and some rock based country- Yoakum, Garth and Parnell) as I get my chops back in shape, ready to gig soon after I trade this amp in on a DeVille.
This amp would be a great step up from solid state for a beginner. It opens your ears to the potential of all tubes, run it wide open and blast away. The tube tone will wet your appetite for larger and more functional tube amps as your chops develop. For those beginners, this amp will not shred or do "death" metal, (whatever that is) if you want those sounds, just play a chain saw anyway. If you need a nice practice amp, pick one of these up used.

2 channels, boost largely preset not flexible really - clean or heavy overdrive (footswitchable)

Good for rock and warm crunchy sounds very good for home/studio use good with strat, clean channel 5 times quieter than overdrive, I had to get a mod to get the amp to crunch at all on the clean channel, but noe very good

very cheap construction, but light reverb tank wrapped in cardboard + PCB construction

playing 17 years, got lots of other kit it's cheap for what you get great practice / studio amp but no real bass or tightness in the sound

This amp has 2 channels. You can't really get any distortion on the second channel unless you turn it up all the way. I use it for blues and rock, and it works fine. It's pretty loud for 12 watts. I'm not sure what year it is, but it's covered in black tolex. The reverb unit doesn't get very slushy, but it's a solid state reverb unit anyways.

I use a G&L legacy with this amp, and I think it sounds pretty good. My Gibson ES-330 sounds a little bit to dull and undefined with this amp. It's great for playing rock and blues. On the second channel, it gets a little noisy when you turn it all the way up. The clean channel stays relatively clean when it is turned up all the way. The second channel turned all the way up with the distortion turned up to around three o'clock is where I think this amp really sounds great.

This is a very reliable amp. I bought it from my guitar teacher a few years back, and I've only had one problem. The jack is kind of screwed up and it will sometimes cut me off while I'm playing, but usually it's just fine.

Never had to deal with them

I've been playing for five years. I also own a little dean markley amp, which sucks. I would definitely buy it again because I only paid fifty bucks for it and you can't beat that.

For its size and price, this is one excellent little amp.Although it lacks a real Fender reverb unit, the solid state unit it has sounds good. The overdrive is more than just a little unadjustable,but it provides a good tone when the volume and tone controls are set on ten. The little amp provides plenty of volume for the size of my living room although it's not loud enough for much more than that.

Although my Hamer with 4000volt humbuckers is a little bit much for this amp, my '66 fender Mustang really produces some nice sounds through this amp. If you don't just go crazy with the overdrive, it really has a nice bluesy, gutsy tone. The clean channel sounds real nice when fed with humbuckers on ten. The neck pickup does the best Santana around.

Being an industrial electrician road-whore, I've drug this amp across the nation several times with nary a busted knob . Really, it's a very rugged little amp.

I bought it almost brand new out of a pawn shop and have never had to use the warranty in almost ten years.

I wish it had a little more volume, but then again it's a Champ isn't it. My Dean Markley was louder, but it didn't have half the sound of this amp. This amp also weighs half as much. I love it. It is well worth the fifty dollar pawn ticket I got it with.

This amp uses 1 6L6GC for power, and 2 12AX7's. It has an overdrive channel, switched by a button on front, or by footswitch. There are 2 inputs, high and low, reverb, 6 red control knobs, and 2 1/4" outputs for headphones, and 1 vold line out, in addition, it has input for stereo RCA jacks, so you can plug a stereo device in. No effects loop., 12" speaker, in standard deluxe/champ size.

Clean channel is crisp Fender when played with an Am. Std. strat and gold lace sensors. Overdrive channel is much too loud for low volume or headphones, you can't get a low volume, overdriven tone, when overdrive knob is turned up, volume knob must stay way down, so it's not flexible at low volumes. At mid volumes, the overdrive sounds great. I've only used one effect in front of this, a Vodoo Labs micro vibe, which sounds great on the clean channel.

I'm the second owner, no problems so far.

A good practice amp, loud for 12 watts or so, classic modern fender sounds.