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Fender Champ 12

Summary
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Manufacturer URL http://www.fender.com/
Features 7.9 (73 responses)
Sound Quality 8.2 (69 responses)
Reliability 9.0 (60 responses)
Customer Support 5.4 (15 responses)
Overall Rating 8.4 (67 responses)
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Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: US $160 used
Submitted 11/19/2001 at 05:01pm by JOSE DE LA ROSA

Features : 9
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.

Sound Quality : 10
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)

Reliability : 10
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.

Customer Support : No Opinion
N/A

Overall Rating : 10
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.


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: US $400
Submitted 11/16/2001 at 01:33pm by Kyle Brenman

Features : 8
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.

Sound Quality : 10
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!

Reliability : 10
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.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never needed

Overall Rating : 10
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.


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: US $275 used
Submitted 11/14/2001 at 07:43pm by guitarkid

Features : 10
previous reviews mention this cleary, this amp is loaded!

Sound Quality : 10
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!

Reliability : 8
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

Customer Support : 6
no email, very limited contact. i guess it's hard being a huge company.

Overall Rating : 10
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!


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: US $300 used
Submitted 11/14/2001 at 02:16pm by Anonymous

Features : 10
cd input, headphones, reverb, two channels, handwired, 12 inch speaker, class a.. wow!

Sound Quality : 9
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...

Reliability : 9
mine really needs new tubes, but these are fenders, like a rock!

Customer Support : No Opinion
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!)

Overall Rating : 10
snag one while they're cheap! blows the blues junior out of the water!!


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 07/23/2001 at 08:18am by Anonymous

Features : No Opinion

Sound Quality : 8
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.

Reliability : 8
Input jack have gone on me twice...all other stuf works great.

Customer Support : 1
From Fender?? R U kidding me???!

Overall Rating : 9
Probably less esoteric & classy than the older champs...but better workhorses & louder....A decent choice!


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 06/23/2001 at 11:19am by Jackson Smith

Features : 10
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.

Sound Quality : 10
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.

Reliability : 10
I?ve only had this amp for a month. It?s a pretty simple amp, so reliability shouldn?t be a problem.

Customer Support : No Opinion
out-of-production model

Overall Rating : 10
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?



Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 06/03/2001 at 01:06am by Steve
Email: thesohns at lmi<dot>net

Features : No Opinion
N/A

Sound Quality : No Opinion
N/A

Reliability : No Opinion
N/A

Customer Support : No Opinion
N/A

Overall Rating : No Opinion
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!


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: N/A used
Submitted 05/15/2001 at 12:26pm by Anonymous

Features : 7
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.

Sound Quality : 7
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.

Reliability : 8
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

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 9
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!!


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 05/08/2001 at 06:27am by Anonymous

Features : 8
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.

Sound Quality : No Opinion

Reliability : No Opinion

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : No Opinion


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: #120 (UK) used
Submitted 03/29/2001 at 05:45am by Colin Macfarlane

Features : 8
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.

Sound Quality : 8
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.

Reliability : 10
It's never failed me.

Customer Support : No Opinion
N/A

Overall Rating : 7
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.


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: US $175 used
Submitted 03/11/2001 at 04:08pm by Anonymous

Features : 9
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.

Sound Quality : 9
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

Reliability : No Opinion
just got it, only has 2 preamp and 1 power amp tubes so not too much worry about that.we'll see.

Customer Support : No Opinion
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.

Overall Rating : 9
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.


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: Traded for a Marshal Lead 12 (he he he) used
Submitted 03/07/2001 at 07:22pm by Jonathan
Email: Sagiru at hotmail<dot>com

Features : 8
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.

Sound Quality : 8
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").

Reliability : 10
Industructo. Years of gigging and nothing has been required aside from re-tubing.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never had to ask.

Overall Rating : 10
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.


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: US $165 used
Submitted 03/05/2001 at 03:25am by Bruce Morris
Email: bluesman1645 at yahoo<dot>com

Features : 8
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...

Sound Quality : 7
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.

Reliability : 9
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.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never dealt with Fender CS, and the warrantee on this has probably been expired for years anyway.

Overall Rating : 8
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.


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: US $150 approx used
Submitted 10/15/2000 at 10:45pm by kyichu
Email: none

Features : 7
As above. Many useful features.

Sound Quality : 8
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.

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

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never dealt with the company.

Overall Rating : 8
Great value for money. Packs a lot of punch with gig-able volume levels. An ideal recording amp.


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: 2500 (Swedish crowns) used
Submitted 09/29/2000 at 06:41am by Little Holger
Email: Bluesman2 at spray<dot>se

Features : 6
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.

Sound Quality : 7
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.

Reliability : 7
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...

Customer Support : No Opinion
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.

Overall Rating : No Opinion
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.


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: US $300 used
Submitted 09/25/2000 at 04:55pm by keith

Features : 9
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

Sound Quality : 9
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.

Reliability : 9
just got it - but its 10 years old and doesn't have any noticeable probs.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 10
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.


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: US $225 used
Submitted 08/29/2000 at 08:42am by Anonymous

Features : 9
killer small all tube amp with 2 channels, outs, and it's so light you can take it amywhere...

Sound Quality : 9
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.

Reliability : 10
never had a problem

Customer Support : 5
never had a problem, so i'm giving them an average grade.

Overall Rating : 9
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.


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: US $150 used
Submitted 07/28/2000 at 06:27am by sommersby
Email: stiles42 at hotmail<dot>com

Features : 8
12 Watt, (well, rated at 12), all tube combo, single channel with switchable overdrive, single 12 inch combo.

Sound Quality : 3
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.

Reliability : 10
never had a problem

Customer Support : 2
Fender? forget it!

Overall Rating : 3
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.


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: GPB350 (US$450)
Submitted 06/11/2000 at 06:43am by Davor Pavuna
Email: pavuna<at>bluewin dot ch

Features : 9
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 !

Sound Quality : 9
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.

Reliability : No Opinion
No problem - seems sturdy.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Don't know - don't need it.

Overall Rating : 9
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 ...


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 02/23/2000 at 05:12am by Anonymous

Features : No Opinion

Sound Quality : No Opinion

Reliability : No Opinion

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : No Opinion


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: US $180
Submitted 12/18/1999 at 08:21pm by Jerry
Email: jlf2bard<at>aol dot com

Features : 8

Sound Quality : 8
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.!!!

Reliability : 10
NEVER LET ME DOWN!!!!

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 9
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


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: US $200 used
Submitted 11/08/1999 at 07:10pm by Charles LaPointe
Email: clapointe at viaduct<dot>custom<dot>net

Features : 10
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.

Sound Quality : 9
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!!!

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

Customer Support : 5
They need to work on this problem(but not as bad as Ibanez!)!!!!!!!

Overall Rating : No Opinion
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!!!!!


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: 350- total bargain ($Australian) used
Submitted 10/21/1999 at 06:21pm by Ben Brinkhoff
Email: bernadetteben<at>hotmail

Features : 7
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.

Sound Quality : 9
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.

Reliability : No Opinion
I haven't had this amp long enough to tell. I do like the fact that there are only 3 tubes to replace.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 9
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?


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 04/21/1998 at 10:25am by John

Features : 5
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.

Sound Quality : 5
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.

Reliability : 9
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.

Customer Support : No Opinion
N/A, never used the support.

Overall Rating : 7
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.


Product: Fender Champ 12
Price Paid: UK pounds 130 used
Submitted 02/09/1998 at 11:32am by tony goodall

Features : 7
2 channels, boost largely preset not flexible really - clean or heavy overdrive (footswitchable)

Sound Quality : 8
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

Reliability : 8
very cheap construction, but light reverb tank wrapped in cardboard + PCB construction

Overall Rating : 8
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

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