Fender Champ

Volume, bass, treble. No "features". However it's amazing what can be done with just the volume knobs!! I have two Champs, both early 70s Silverface all original parts including the tubes I think.

I've replaced the original speakers which didn't sound all that great, with Ceramic Sig 8's from webervst.com (an awesome company if you don't know them check them out) - man now these little amps sound incredible, clean, or distorted, or many places inbetween. VERY versatile!! Roll all knobs to the right, and you're in for a treat.

The way I'm playing the is in stereo coming out of a rocktron intellifex, with Ebtech hum eliminator on the lines out. 1999 Am Std Telecaster or 1956 Gibson ES125 - in any case all single coils. Very light effects, just a touch of reverb. There is so much you can do straight with these amps, and just your volume, and tone on the guitar. 6 Watts, but man, now with the two amps together, I cannot crank them up too far because accidentally going to the bridge pickup on the Tele and it would slice my torso in half. Yes, they are loud.

In a world of electronic crap these little tube amps are the real deal. The overdrive like distortion is so nice when cranked.

These seem super reliable. Though if I was a professional musician I would definitely have a full set of spare tubes on hand.

n/a

If I lost these amps I would replace them immediately. As a matter of fact I'm thinking of getting two more now, just to have on hand. I bought these sight unseen (unheard) off eBay because I heard all the raves, and was not disappointed. I must also emphasize what an improvement the Weber speaker was, and the Weber people were super helpful when I ordered.

Do you know what year the amp was made in?1972
Is the amp versatile enough for you and the styles of music you play? yup
What are those styles? rock and roll, blues, jazz
How many channels? ONE
Does it have channel switching? HA! boo to channel switching, this amp has SOUL and TONE
Effects loops? Headphone jack? fooey
What features do you wish it had? Why? I wouldnt change a thing
Where do you use this amp? studio, small rooms
Does it have enough power for you? to record

Perfect tube crunch smooth Fender sound, yadda yadda. TONE PERFECTION!

It is solid and built like a tank.

I use this amp with Fender, Gretsch, Rickenbacker guitars and it sounds great with all of them. Perfect controllable studio amp, crank it and get TONE. Throw away your pods and other JUNK, this is the real thing.

This is a 1961 tweed champ. I think it's the same circuit they used from 1957 to 1964. It has one control: volume/on. I can get any sound I want out of this amp (except modern metal-this amp has a soul) with no effects. From crystal sweet clean country-style to fuzzed out bluesy seventies Sabbath/Zeppelin/ACDC. You just dime it out and use your volume and tone control on the guitar. Inside there are a few caps, a few resistors, one tranny, and three tubes. And one eight inch Jensen. The whole circuit is devoted to one purpose-create tone. No, I don't want anything else in it.

I play mostly rock n roll- which in effect country, blues, jazz, punk, ska, etc. etc. Listen to early Young, Clapton, Eagles, Led Zep. Or Howling Wolf if you like old style blues. This amp is in all of that. I'm amazed at how once those old tubes start to bake up that little eight inch Jensen just grows. It's like I have three amps behind me- not volume-wise, but sound-wise. It's like the amp crawls out of itself. You still need to mic to play on stage in a club though reach the folks in the back. I have a Dallas Rangemaster treble boost I kick in front of if to tighten up the low end when in I have it running full out. I also have a DM-2 delay I use on some Radiohead (Karma Police, The Bends). Me and my brother play open mic slots at some local clubs and quite a bit a parties/cookouts for family and friends, so I don't need a larger amp though I do have my eye on a tweed Vibrolux, or Deluxe. Something with just a little more power for outdoor playing. I have 1976 ash Telecaster with a Duncan Broadcaster bridge pickup and vintage Fender neck pickup. Something about these old tweed amps that just make you play all the time. They sound incredible and it's easy jump right into any song you want and get the tone you're looking for. You have to run it all th way up and use your volume control to control the clean and distortion. Plenty of overdrive in this amp indeed.

I think it will last for another forty years. I haven't dropped it yet(only weighs a few pounds) so who knows about that. It looks beautiful with aged shellcked tweed. Has original leather handle also. Sometimes the tubes whistle and spit if it's around some high output lighting or equipment. Overall it's very quiet. Tubes are old GE and RCA's- eventually they'll have to be replaced.

I'm the only support this will get.

It was an investment for 600.00 but I'm happy beyond my expectations. My guitarist friends want me to find one for them. This is hands down by far one of the best amps I have had. I have a 1971 Marshall Lead 50, Mesa Rectoverb, Fender 1968 Deluxe and 1978 Super Reverb, and Orange AD15. The Marshall and Deluxe Reverb were my other two favorites. I will definitely get another tweed Fender. They sound just too damn good.

Silverface Champ (I think 70s), 2 inputs, Volume, Treble, Bass. 6 watts, Class A

Great story behind this one!

This was the first amp I ever owned. I bought it used in 1982 from a friend. Back then, I knew nothing about tube amps and hated that there was no distortion and that it took a long time to warm up. In 1986 I stashed the amp in a closet in my parent's beach house. Mind you, out there we have to replace our stereos, ovens, gas grills, refrigerators, anything electronic, every 3-4 years because the good old Atlantic ocean breezes ruin everything! I don't even bring my guitars out for the weekend because the pick ups tend to rust over!

Anyway, last year I pulled the amp out of a dusty old closet, plugged it in, and surprise! it worked. 20 years and no tube changes (it probably has the original still).

This is one of the nicest, sweetest sounding amps I have ever played. I have 2 American Standard Strats which sound beautiful through it. My Ibanez Les Paul Copy sounds amazing and the humbuckers bring out great overdrive at 4-5 on the volume dial. I like this amp way more than my gigging amp (Fender 65 Twin Reissue). My only regret is that it's too small to gig with.

I have been playing for 21 years, own other great gear, and regularly play all the great amps (Matchless, Bogner, Mesa, Marshall, etc). This amp ranks up there with the best of them!!!

See above. If this amp is still working after being at my beach house, it can withstand anything.

Never had to deal with Fender.

I am seriously considering buying another one. They're so cheap and so easy to find on ebay that I might buy one just to have.

I bought a '74 or '75 Champ at a pawn shop in Chicago (sounds like lyrics to a blues song, don't it?). Two years after, I had Time Electronics in NewJersey do a complete overhaul and replaced an 8 ohm Pyle Driver speaker with a new 4 Ohm Jensen 8" reissue speaker, and the changeover to the Jensen blew me away. The only complaint is that I expected a little more tube saturation between 9 and 10 than I got, which happened to run a little cleaner than I expected. I play both a '52 reissue Fender tele and an Epiphone Joe Pass hollowbody, which I added P90s to and it sounds unbelievable! I didn't give a full 10 because I attempted to plug in a THD Yellowjacket in the 6L6 circuit so I can switch to an EL84 tube (like Vox amps have) because the Jensen Speaker is in the way.

1978 Silverface Champ. Simplicity at it's finest. As has been written many times over: Volume, Treble, Bass. One 8" speaker. Rating based on the fact that it's features deliver without compromise.

This amp is perfect for studio work, and the occasional "quiet" jam. (See below for how I use it with a drummer). My Champ stays clean until about 5, gets warm around 9, then is wonderfully overdriven at 10. My amp tech, Butch Colclough (BC Electronics, Durham, NC) has modded mine to tweed specs. But the best thing he has done for this amp is the addition of a power attenuator (or load dump switch). One flick of a switch and the 6 watt beauty drops down to 1 gorgeous watt. Perfect for demos late at night in my little home studio. All the tone you need at listenable level. This amp sounds best with single coils (G&L Asat Classic is my axe of choice). My stock speaker was wasted so I replaced it with a Weber and it sounds great. The perfect studio amp, and with only three tubes (and class a) minor maintenance is easy. Nothing to re-bias.

I have been using this amp in conjunction with a Princeton (or a Princeton Reverb, both Silverface) and that combination of tones (by way of a Lehle a/b box) is the best that Fender has to offer. The overdriven tones come from the Champ, the clean tones from the Princeton/Princeton Reverb, and the volume of the two is loud enough to play with a drummer! It doesn't get any better.

My basic application is as a studio amp, so a backup is not an issue. Since I bought this amp (about a year) is has been wonderful.

This amp is 25 years old, so customer support is non-existant. Find a good tech and don't let him go!

This is one of the wonders of the amp world. A truly fantastic, tone machine. I've been playing over 25 years and have played HIWATT, Roland, Laney, Fender (various), but the Champs and Princetons cannot be beat. If it were to go missing I would replace it immediately. Thanks to ebay they are still fairly readily available!

I believe this amp is a '71 or '72, or so I've been told. I bought it because I wanted something I could crank up at home, and I just wasn't knocked out by the current practice amps that are available. Plus, it's a TUBE amp! It has a pure sound, as it's design is so basic. It sounds real good clean, but even better with my OD pedal plugged into it. It's pretty loud too, especially for such a low wattage output. I gave it a three because it only has three knobs: volume, bass, treble. It has a replacement Mojotone 815 speaker in it which works wonderfully in this amp.

I have two Stratocasters that I play through it. One is a "California Series" with Tex-Mex pickups; the other is a "60's Reissue" with Texas Specials. I dunno, they both sound pretty darn good to me going through it. The amp does hum a bit at higher volume settings, but it doesn't bother me. The clean channel will start to break up at around 8 on the knob.

It's not a gig-able amp, but I don't believe it was designed to be. I mean, if you were playing to a very small crowd in a small place, it might cut it. I had to replace the 6V6 tube in it once, but no biggie. The burned-out tube was a GE, so that tells me it had been used for a while. It may have been original for all I know.

Other than the tube replacement, non-problematic. I'm pretty sure the warranty expired sometime during the Carter administration.

I've been playing about ten years. My only other piece of gear is a Vibrolux-Reverb reissue, which is a GREAT amp, but to really dig into it, it needs to be turned up pretty high. That's why I bought this. I love Fender gear. I would search out another one if I had to, even if I had to pay a little more. The solid-state stuff that's out there is nearly as much as what I paid for the Champ, and nowhere near as good sound-wise. Find a Champ. They're out there, and reasonably priced too. I'm sure Fender made thousands and thousands of them. Tubes man, TUBES!

Silverface early '70's Champ. Features? Come on, it's a Champ! There are no stinkin' features! All tube 6w Class A.

I played the amp for about two weeks with the original speaker before deciding it just wasn't cutting it for me. Don't get me wrong, it sounded good. I mean this is a amp you can crank to 10, saturate the tubes and not rattle the pictures off the wall upstairs. I was looking for an amp where I could really drive the tubes without it being awfully loud. The Champ was the ticket.

After doing a lot of net research (especically on the FDP forum) I decided on the Weber C8ss ribed cone speaker. Wow! What a difference! It increased the volume about 20% and gave the amp a bit more bottom. The Weber made the amp sound a bit fuller and more Fenderish when playing clean. Of course it's hard to get any bottom out of a 8" speaker but for my money (24 bucks) the speaker upgrade was the best 24 bucks I ever spent. Well, maybe except for the 3 bucks a pop at the Wiskey A Go-Go in downtown Bangkok. Now that was money well spent but, well, hey, I'm digressing.....

I like the sound of a humbucker through this amp over single coils. The single coils are a bit on the shrill side but if you stick a stomp box in front of the amp (I use a Boss BD-2 or a Fulltone FD II) you can smooth out the single coils pretty good. The humbuckers overdrive nicely and you can get some really nice sounds out of this amp at moderate volumes.

Not loud enough to gig with unless you mike it. Reliable? Well it's been around for 34 years without any problems

I've been playing for over thirty years and have had just about every kind of amp. Now I'm down to just a couple. I wanted something I could pick up very easily 'cause I'm old and ain't into lugging around Marshall stacks anymore. Been there done that and got a t-shirt to prove it. I love it's ease of use, simplicity, weight and design. It's probably the best value Class A amp out there right now. You better snap 'em up boys 'cause they're getting more and more expensive.

bass and treble. 10 watt (?) tube amp. silverface

It's a nice, clean, warm sounding amp. To me it sounds like not much better than a good solid state amp. It does sound very good, however. It distorts easily when turned up. at low volumes the clean sounds are very nice and warm. humbuckers/les paul type guitars sound amazing through this thing, they overdrive it perfectly and sound kind of like old eric clapton, maybe. single coils sound more thin and shrill. it's a good amp though.

It stopped working on me, so i replaced the tubes and it worked again. the light stopped working on the front. otherwise, it's reliable.

na

a good deal, a good amp, totally useful, you can use it forever, for recording it CANNOT BE BEAT-- with some pedals it'll do anything at low levels. thank you.

Mid 70's
Volume, Bass, Treble, 2 inputs

Great tone at any volume, sounds great with any type of music. Breaks up really easy, I've replaced original speaker with a Jensen. Can find a small amp that sounds this good, been looking for one with a headphone jack. Sounds great all by itself, or with a Holy Grail reverb pedal.

Had it serviced when I got it, never had a problem with it.

Never had to call about this amp

Great amp for home etc. I'd get another one in a heart beat! Wish it had a headphone jack, for the wife's sake not mine. It doesn't have reverb but that's what the Holy Grail is for.