Fender Vibro Champ

Fender Vibro Champ. Made in 1978. Not too versatile, but what for it does, it does it really well. Good for rock, good for jazz. Same features as depicted below. Wish it had reverb. Great tremolo, I modyfied it to a slower tempo (just changing a cap), I also removed another cap, so now it doesn't break so early, and there is more clean volume. At 10 breakes nicely. It had a 8" speaker, and I put a 10" Weber VTS (10A100, 3.2k). Now it's a serious amp, I take it to gigs, just hanging a mic to the P.A. Great amp.

Not noisy at all. Original valves & caps still. Great for recording.

Been playing for 20 years.
I Owned: '64 Fender bassman (blackface), '66 fender Showman (blackface), Mesa Boogie DC5, Marshall valvestates, Yamahas, etc.
I don't miss any of them. This amp is all I need.
Change the speaker for a "10 Weber, you'll have to modyfie the board, but you won't regret it.

This is a 1970 AA764 vibrochamp 6 watt all tube amp. I searched Hi and Lo for this little gem. I had one 25 years ago when I played my Ibenez "Law Suit" Les paul through it. The last of the cool old time low wattage amps. I play blues and classic rock. This is just what a middle aged guy with kids and a wife needs, not to excessively loud but loud enough to get good speaker breakup on about 7 or 8. My only gripe is that it doesn't have reverb. I give it a 9 because of no reverb.

I play a Godin (pronounced go-DAN) exit 22 which is a very versitle guitar for under $500.00. You could play any style of music through this thing. Had to replace the original Sylvania 12ax7. It was very noisy before but now it is as quiet as any solid state practice amp out there. I get good breakup at about 7 or 8 on the volume but get really ballsy distortion with my RealTube distortion pedal and crybaby wah peddal (I like that Clapton, Vaughn, and Hendrix sound and style). Real sweet tone. This is one of those amps that Fender should reissue.

This thing is 35 years old and all of the tubes and the speaker (altough I replaced the original with a Jensen Cr8) with the exception of the preamp tube are original. I would definitly gig this thing miced up in a small venue with out even the thought of needing a backup.

Never had to call. Don't think I ever will have too.

I just started playing again after a 25 year break. I told my wife my midlife crisis would either be a ferarri, a 20 year old nimpho blond, or a guitar setup and lucky for all I chose to pick up the guitar again. If someone stole it I would definitely call the guys at Galaxy Music in Stone Mountain, GA and have them put me back on the wish list for another one (after I hunted down and seriously killed the guy who took it). This thing has the classic Fender tone in an amp that I can play on my back Porch without disturbing my neighbors.

68 or 69 silverface VC, all original tubes except for the 6v6 which I had to replace last week (with another used original RCA). It's plenty versatile enough for me, especially with a footswitch for the tremolo.

It's my number one amp, I've used quite a bit of other gear and nothing quite compares to the tone of this amp, so I use it nearly exclusively, even (mic'd) at larger venues.

I use a late 60s (or early 70s) knockoff LP called a "grande" as my primary guitar, and an Ibanez GAX-70, and a late-model mexican deluxe super strat. The amp performs well with both pickup styles, and gives a clean tone up to about 5-6, then starts to break up into a warm overdrive at higher volumes.

I get *ZERO* noise from this amp. Period.

Setup:
guitar -> zoom gfx5 -> old "memory man" chorus -> boss DS-1 -> vibro champ

It's older than I am. The only thing that's ever been replaced on it is the 6v6 tube, and I did that last week... not too bad for an amp that's pushing 40 years old.

eh? who needs it?

Got the amp from my dad, who got it from someone else in the late 70's or early 80's. I've had a number of different amps over the years, and nothing has come close. If it were to get stolen, the thief can rest assured that I will find who he is, hunt him down, break his elbows/kneecaps, render him permanently sterile, and take back my amp.

This is a 1977 Fender Vibro-Champ in original condition. Very basic features HOWEVER they actually do something sound-wise. L to R Volume, Treble, Bass, Speed, Intensity. It has the original Oxford 8" speaker and RCA tubes; 1 x 6v6, 2 x 12ax7, 5AR4 rectifier. Looks almost mint!

I bought this amp as a simple practise amp and for quiet jamming with my band. Instead of going for a cheap Solid State (and I nearly went the Vox Pathfinder 15R) I caught the vibe of a vintage amp and scored the Vibro-champ instead. I play single coild guitars mainly although I do own a MIJ '72 Reissue Tele. My U.S Standard Tele sounds superb through this amp! Up to 5 on the master the sound is sparkly clean Fender and after that it gets "gritty" up to 10 which is a beautiful ballsy overdrive. My Rickenbacker 1997 Reissue also sounds great. Tremelo is very inspiring and can be tweaked for a number of sounds. Having played this amp for 3 months it puts my other gear to shame. Dead quiet too. Gets very loud for only 6 watts...but they're tube watts!!

This thing is almost 30 years old and point to point hand wired. Reliability isn't an issue however my amp tech (and ANY amp tech worth their salt) knows how to work on them and has a healthy opinion of vintage Fender gear.

Never dealt with Fender but this amp would be WAY out of warranty anyway.

I've been playing guitar for about 30 years now and own or have owned a lot of gear. This little amp lives up to all the hype and then some. A great practise amp and well worth the money. Now I've started thinking about a Silverface Princeton! If you can get one of these then do it, you will not regret it.

1971 Silverface purchased used in 1981. Features are well described in other reviews. Used for home jamming and recording, and parties. Would never guess it is 6 watts by the sound - that's what tubes and a Class A amp do for ya! It can play plenty LOUD for home/party/small venues. Blew the original speaker in the 90's and replaced it with a Pyle Driver - didn't really change the tone (thankfully). Otherwise, tubes and all are stock.

Play it with a standard Strat, a 70's-vintage Les Paul copy, and Washburn acoustic/electric. Sounds great with all. EXTREMELY clean sound! Whether playing clean, through my vintage Tube Screamer, or the Zoom 505 II, it sounds truly awesome!

Have had no problem whatsoever other than blowing the speaker, which given its age and my playing was clearly my fault. Its coming up on 34 years of age and still ROCKS!

N/A

Playing since early 70's, a bit of every genre. Would definitely look on eBay for another if this gem went missing.

This is a review for my 1973 Silver Face Vibro Champ. Mine came all original and i changed the speaker to a WEBER, and the tubes are Ei 12AX7 Gold Elites, JJ 6V6-S, and a NOS RCA 5Y3. Its sound was OK before these changes, but AFTER these changes the clean tone and tremolo especially are better than any other amp ive owned as i will explain. My review is for the way it sounds after these changes so here we go...

Features Volume, Treble, Bass, and for tremolo - Speed, Intensity. 8 inch speaker, 4 Ohm, 6 watts output from its 6V6 tube. I give it a 9 because i wish it had reverb, but i know from looking inside, you can't fit anything else in there! :)

Its quietest amp i've ever heard. Its clean sound is so pure it amazes me everytime i turn it on. You can crank it up and get superb natural overdrive and since its only 6 watts you can crank it up and its not too loud. You can gig with it if you mic it of course. The tremolo is the most warm, pure, pulsing sound i've ever heard. Nothing i've ever played has come close to this... Even custom shop fender amps i'd sad to say (is tremolo really so har dto make?!) It works great with pedals and with my analogman modified fuzz face (NOS NKT-275) it transforms me into eric clapton when i play "sunshine of my love"

This amp is over 30 year old and all original. It came with the original speaker and the original fender tubes. All of which still works. I replaced the speaker and tubes for sound reasons only. I don't think you can get better reliability than that so i give it a solid 10

This amp is vintage, I can't really rate it here because fender hasn't made it in over 30 years.

I can't say enough good stuff about this amp. You can find them on eBay for 150-400 dollars depending on the year. You'll spend about another 80 bucks on a good weber speak and some Ei gold elites and/or JJ tubes and then WOW. You have an amp that will put any current production fender amp to shame in its tremolo, clean tone, and quite-ness. Best bag for the buck!

This is a followup from the review I posted 3 reviews down. I serviced the amp myself. I replaced each bias cap and the filter cap. Bought sprague atoms, tubes and a new Jensen speaker from ampsandmore.com in Arizona. With point to point wiring, the cap replacement was easy. No biasing was needed as these amps are self bias.

Wow! Tone comes out of this little guy that you can stick a fork into it and bite off a huge piece. First of all, the farty speaker is a thing of the past. The new Jensen probably did the trick over the stock speaker(which I still have in a box).

This amp is quiet. Clean sounds are 3 dimensional with nice bite when you dig into the strings. Overdrive is smooth with attitude and best of all---fart free!

For grins, I connected this amp up to a Dr Z 1x12 cabinet and this amp sounded great as well. Just more full due to the 12' speaker.

I really wish I had this simple and great tone in a 18 watt equivalent.

I paid around $50 for the servicing. I now want to keep the amp as it's perfect for practicing quietly or when volume doesn't need to get loud.

If theres an amp with 18 watts out there with this kind of tone, I'd really want that if lost or stolen.

These little amps are really fun to have and I recommend one for you tube lovers out there.

My mom bought this silver face Fender VibroChamp brand new for my dad for Christmas in 1973. I was 9 and was with her. Technically its still belongs to him, but it has been in my house for the last 15 years. It is a single channel all tube amp with a very musical tremolo circuit built in, 5 watts through an 8 inch speaker. I used this to record all of my lead guitar parts when my former band recorded our CD last summer. Great for clean and mildly distorted sounds. You have to dial in one sound at a time, but wow what greats sounds. Reverb would be nice, but I don't really mind it not being there. I give it an 7 only because you can't change sounds and the (non-tremolo) controls are limited to volume, bass, and treble so it isn't really flexible in a performance setting.

My mid-80s American Standard Telecaster with stock pick-ups and this amp sound like they were made for each other (I guess in a way they were). Through my other amps that guitar sounds too thin or just plain wimpy. Through the Champ it sparkles and gets a really rich sound. My 1970 Les Paul Deluxe with a Seymour Duncan humbucker in the bridge position and a P90 in the neck position sounds great through it too. This amp is not loud enough for clubs but it really can keep up with all but the loudest drummers. It is sometimes hard to believe that it is only 5 watts. It is great for practice and recording. Sounds range from sparkling clean with the volume up to 5 to light overdrive around 8 to an almost fuzz box like buzz with humbuckers and the volume at 10.

It has worked perfectly for 30 years with just two exceptions. 1. a loose ground wire that had to be fixed about 15 years ago. And 2. the power switch needs to be replaced. The switch works, but it doesn't click into position so you have to hope it doesn't slide back to off. I just ordered a replacement switch so that problem will be gone soon.

Never had to deal with Fender directly.

I've been playing for 26 years and have used this amp for practice, to perform with my first band, and in a professional recording studio. If it were lost or stolen, after crying for a week I would definitely look for another. My other amps are an early '80s Peavey Classic VT and a Hughes & Kettner Attax 100 head and Hughes & Ketter Vortex 4x12 cabinet. The Vibro Champ is a great little practice/recording amp. Also, good in low volume perfomance situations. If you want to make eardrums bleed, look elsewhere. I think Leo Fender originally envisioned this as a beginners practice amp. It definitely exceeds that goal by miles. I haven't compared it directly with the older black face or tweed Champs, which I guess would be better, but I can't see how. If you find one of these at a garage sale, I think you'll be pleased.

Amp was made in November, 1964. Bought it at a garage sale in the country from a fireman who used it for years for the friday dance. Thing has been well used. Versatility? It's been said here already--there aren't many knobs on this puppy. Plug in and play. I wish it had reverb, but that's easy enough to add with FX box, as others have pointed out. The unique beauty of this 6-watt, Class A amp is that you can push it, as tubes are meant to be pushed, without ear-splitting volume. You can easily play at 8 with an absolutely luscious, saturated tube tone and not have the neighbors call the cops (well, okay, running an FX board through it cranked the power some and once summoned our local law enforcement:)It's strictly a practice amp or recording amp, not a stage amp. But it can be pushed to its highest volume and sound wonderful, plenty loud for home.

In a word, gorgeous. I mostly play a G&L ASAT semi-hollow Bluesboy through it. Sounds awesome through the VC. I replaced the tubes only recently with eurotubes, which give it a nice breakup around 5-6, with dynamite touch sensitivity. Lay on the strings and get breakup; back off and get fat tones. Thinking of experimenting with a 10" speaker. When running Zoom GFX8 board through it, power gets major boost. Result is little 8" speaker cannot handle humbucker in neck position. But the extra power boost would be better received by a bigger-sized speaker. I play jazz/blues and love, too, to get dirty. For that, I add a metal zone Boss pedal, which adds rich distortion to an already fat sound. I play it at home, have gigged with it only a couple times (mic'd). It's pretty much a one-trick pony. Excellent for blues/jazz. I tried using a Y plug out of the guitar and running through two amps, the VC and a Fender DSP (for effects). That actually sounded pretty cool--the straight fat round against, say, a reverb/chorus or reverb/delay.

Amp is 40 years old in a few months and everything is original except the tubes I replaced a month ago. I'd called that bitchin' by any standard!

Nada. Haven't had the need to. Lots of info online. I'm going to rank this high, because they built a simple tank, which I call excellent customer support.

Been playing just over 30 years. Have run the gamut of styles and still am driven by this wildy beautiful instrument. I own a MIJ strat from the early 80s, another fender practice amp, and have bought and sold many guitars and a few amps, from Marshall to Sunn. Am more into a learning mode these days, pushing, pushing, pushing the knowledge base. You start with zep and somewhere stumble onto Joe Pass, Martino, Gambale--and the journey keeps going. This amp is killer for practice, low-key friendly neighborhood-tolerable jams. I'm in the market for a stage amp, but not just yet. Meantime, I'll always keep this little VC because it sounds tube pure, no frills, just straight on tone. Clapton played a champ on the Layla album. Enough said!

1972 model that I bought used at a local shop. I traded a Crate 4x12 cabinet and gave $60 cash for it. I play blues and rock, so this amp really is great for the blues stuff. I never liked many options, so this amp is great for me. Volume, treble, bass, speed and intensity. I'm very pleased with my ability to dial in a great tone with this amp.

I play USA strats and a Les Paul. I will say that I love the way the Strats sound with this amp. Humbuckers overdrive the amp too much and causes too much speaker breakup/farting.
This amp nails a really classic blues tone. It's all tube! I wanted a nice tone machine that is quiet but can be cranked to get good overdrive tube sound. As for distortion, think Suzy-Q or some of the old blues sounds. It's a blues amp for sure. I did try distortion pedals, but the speaker farts too much. I really like the amp just alone!
I had an ART MR-1 reverb box laying around, so I connected it up and WOW, instant mini deluxe-reverb! I'm going to take this amp out to a blues jam or two and see how it sounds through a mike and PA. It's easy to carry and only weighs 20lbs.
This amp is due for new caps and resistors and a tube job. I think everything minus the 3 prong cord is original. This speaker farts beyond 6 on the volune with the neck pickup all the way. I think a replacement speaker will fix that. I'll have to post another review should I decide to do all this. I don't want to hack it up and ruin the value of the amp if I don't keep it long. However, I'm enjoying it too much and don't want to sell it right now.
Due to the original speaker, I only dock a point. The amp sounds amazing otherwise.

32 years old, all original and still sounding great. Fender made a great amp! The chassis is all metal and the tube sockets are mounted to the chassis.
I'll have to replace the caps and such, but that's what all tube amps require!

I've been playing 22 years. I play blues and rock. With this amp, I play bluesy stuff only. Yes, I would buy another one of these if lost or stolen.
I think with another speaker I'd eliminate the farting of the speaker. It goes away when I roll off the guitar volume a little.

I love that this amp is small and can be played virtually anywhere. It can be cranked without rattling the house and causing ear bleed. Cranked, you get a super nice overdrive tube sound. The clean sounds are to die for as well. This amp is also nice when the family is sleeping and you can play quietly. If taken to a jam, just mike it!