Champ 600 Owners Club

[Juantelemera]

Here is mine. New jensen mod 6" speaker, NOS westinghouse tubes, new grill cloth. Butter.

[Kyluckyman]

"You can be sure...if it's Westinghouse"

[bossking7]

Heres mine. Got it for $90 a few weeks ago. No mods at all, I love it stock. Great amp.

[MadJack]

Let me preface this post by saying I don't have one, yet. I've been researching them for the last couple of months and these comments are based on what I've found (many of which are in this thread and others on TDPRI). As I've said before, I'm looking into the Bluesky636 build, if not a PTP 5F1 conversion.

I can't find the spectral graphs of the stock, Jensen Mod 6, the Weber Signature 6 and the Signature 8 speakers. The Mod 6 came across as very similar to the stock. The Webers made more of an improvement. I would be interested in how the WGS G8C sounds in a Champ 600. At $39, it's not much different in price from the Weber AlNiCo 8/8S.

The grill cloth change did free up the speaker for more tonal response. You can get quite a number of different colors to choose. My personal favorites are Wheat or Oxblood and tan.

The tubes can be good ones or the can be poorer ones, I've seen them vary from cheap Chinese junk to Groove Tubes. The JJs seem to be a popular choice.

Someone was using an MXR Micro Amp to boost the gain to push a little distortion with single coil pups. For them the humbuckers didn't need any boost.

There are a few different output transformers available, I know of Mercury Magnetics, Classic Tones and Musical Power Supplies. I would be interestred to see if and how the Clssic Tone 15 watt OT would hook-up and work with the PCB 5F1 conversion.

Just a few things floating around in my OCD brain.

[Davo17]

Originally Posted by tlimbert65

Have you tried a Tube Screamer (or clone) in front of it? My 600 sounds really sweet with my Green Screamer.

Agreed, the tube screamer set as a boost sounds great to me, and with the gain about 1/3 to 1/2 up it makes a fine low volume amp too.

[dan79]

Originally Posted by tlimbert65

Have you tried a Tube Screamer (or clone) in front of it? My 600 sounds really sweet with my Green Screamer.

Thanks for the advice - I may check that pedal out!

[teleowner0196]

Just got mine, I love it! Distortion pedal kicks it in the pants a little too hard though, so I was thinking of getting something like a tonebug OD or an original Ibanez TS

[AndrewG]

Originally Posted by dan79

With my Blues Junior out of action until I can get it to the repair shop, I needed a little amp to plug the gap and fast!

Picked up this Champion 600 off ebay - it already has 2 mods - Sozo Capacitors and a Tung-Sol outout tube.

This thing sounds and looks great - I have a little jam once a week where I'm the only electric player so this is ideal!

I would like it to break up a little earlier if possible - what would be the best way to do that mod - Weber speaker perhaps?

Anyway, great little amp

Use a higher gain pre-amp valve (tube).

[3waytie4last]

I just posted this in another thread, didn't realize this club existed:

I just got one on Friday. Within 15 minutes of playing the 6v6 blew, but I was expecting poor quality tubes and replaced it with a JJ I had lying around. I don't have any spare 12a... tubes but will replace that when I can, not sure which specific tube I'll choose yet. I will also replace the grill cloth when I get around to it. I probably won't mod it beyond that.

I've got no hum whatsoever, but I am getting a buzz from something under the faceplate. I haven't taken it apart yet to figure out what is causing it, but it doesn't distract from playing it.

I am loving this amp. I've got a custom tweed champ 1x12, so I can get all the volume and sweet tone I want out of that, but I've never had it anywhere near breakup volume cuz it's too darn loud. It's so cool to be able to crank the 600 and not blow the windows out of my apartment.

It sounds fantastic with pedals. I'd really recommend a reverb pedal for cleans, it's pretty sterile without it but sounds huge with a nice reverb. Sounds great with a good fuzz pedal also.

I hadn't read anything about this amp and just bought it on a whim when looking for a cheap little low watt amp. After I ordered it I read through the 20+ page thread on it here.

I could not be happier with it. In fact, I put away my "real" tweed champ for the time being. We'll see how it holds up over time.

[henry b]

Glad you are enjoying the 600.

[OG_Stike]

Originally Posted by tlimbert65

Have you tried a Tube Screamer (or clone) in front of it? My 600 sounds really sweet with my Green Screamer.

I used a Zvex SHO into an EH LPB-1 to cause overdrive frenzy when I first got my 600. This worked especially well when I used a 5751 as a pre amp tube.

Now that I have converted it close to 5C1 specs, I don't do it so much, because I really enjoy cranking it to 12 and playing with my fingers. The only drawback to this approach is that it seems to be very rough on the 6SH7 pre amp tube.

[hipabilly]

Just took delivery on a new Champion 600 amp. After reading all the complaints about the cheap speaker and the Chinese tubes, and all the mods everyone's making, I was worried I'd bought a "project." But to my ears, it sounds great.

Quiet. No hum. I crank it to 12 and use my Tele volume knob to control the gain, just like the user manual says. I put a pre-amp pedal in front of it for even more break-up. It's awesome. And surprisingly loud.

I have a 4 ohm 12" speaker from an old console stereo (one of those giant mahogany plywood monstrosities someone had left by the curb). Can't wait to get it into a cabinet and see how this little amp sounds through that.

Bottom line, I couldn't be happier with this purchase.

[tele salivas]

I am with you hipabilly. Everything just kind of melds into a sweet molasses when you keep the c-600 at 12 and let the guitar do the walking.

[teleowner0196]

I agree with you Hipabilly. Easy to add in some great O.D. whenever thatway

Also, This amp really makes jazzmaster p'ups sing!

[mike77rios]

In September 2011, I bought my self a new, orange, G2150. I didnt like the way my Epi Valve special sounded with it so I traded it in for a Fender Frontman 212R (I paid the price difference) BUT, as I was looking at all the other amps I saw the new Champ 600 .....and I got infatuated and had to have one. I came up with the money by winning a bet at work where I sprayed my hair red, braided it like "Pippi Longstocking" freckled my face too, at work during business hours at an auto repair shop, also, Im a 49yrs old longhair so you can imagine the visual. but I won the bet and got my amp the same day. Ive replaced the grill cloth with Black, acoustically transparent felt, replaced stock speaker with a Jensen MOD 6/15 and replaced the tubes with JJ's I also use a Boss Blues driver, Behringer trem, Danelectro FAB chorus and a MXR carbon copy between my Gretsch and the amp, Its killer!

[mike77rios]

I forgot to mention that it was Halloween day

[Davo17]

Originally Posted by mike77rios

I forgot to mention that it was Halloween day

:) Awesome story.

[Kyluckyman]

Fender has taken the Champion 600 off its website and Musicians Friend does not list it anymore, either.

I believe production has been halted so the market would support that ugly Greta thing.

I am glad I grabbed one when I did.

[Dumb everyday]

I have a 5f1 ptp board from another project, can anyone tell me how it could be installed with out using tube rectification, I just want to stick to ss.

[bluesky636]

Originally Posted by Dumb everyday

I have a 5f1 ptp board from another project, can anyone tell me how it could be installed with out using tube rectification, I just want to stick to ss.

Take the schematic for the power supply and duplicate it.

http://support.fender.com/schematics..._schematic.pdf

By the way, PTP is literally that: components are wired point to point between the tube sockets, pots, switches, etc. PTP does not use a board. You either have an eyelet board or a turret board.