Champ 600 Owners Club

Looking through the new "owners" threads and didn't see one for this popular bedroom amp.....so here it is.

I was wondering if the threads that contained the "mods" to be done to each amp will be moved to their respective threads now that we have things broken down like they are.

I love my Champ and will be looking to do some mods to it when I get my bench set up in the garage.......hoping for a good soldering station for Fathers Day:lol:

Chris

Thought I might as well post links to the threads and sites that inspired me to get one of these sweet little amps so if folks wish to mod them the links will be here.

Champion 600 Upgrades
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/amp-central-station/95897-champion-600-upgrades.html

Why do people love champs?
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/amp-central-station/160107-why-do-people-love-champs.html

Fender Champ using the Mercury Magnetics upgrade kit
http://www.mercurymagnetics.com/pages/mainframe.htm

akavalve mods for the champ 600
http://akavalve.blogspot.com/2009/01/fender-champion-600-input-voicing-mod.html

John Frondelli on Hot-Rodding the Fender Champion 600
http://300guitars.com/index.php/articles/interview-john-frondelli-on-hot-rodding-the-fender-champion-600/

Champ 600 Upgrade Kit Installation
http://www.specialtyguitars.com/champ-kit-install.html

FENDER CHAMP 600 KIT CH6
http://www.watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=1916

these are a few from my own bookmarks, feel free to post any sites you may have found about our little friend.

Excellent Links...thanks for posting those.

I love mine, although it isn't a 600 reissue proper anymore with its eyeletboard, tone control and a extra switches.

Thanks for the links! I think the sewatt.com Champ section is very useful, it has annotated pictures of the PCB and lots of mods. It does require registration though.

Thanks CJ!

Always nice to have stuff altogether in one place.

PB

count me in. mine is a christmas present from my wife. love the sound for practicing and got used to the slight hum (if there's an easy way to get rid of that, tell me anyway).

Bought mine when they first hit the stores. Someday I may replace the speaker(sounds fine, as is) but right now it's stock except for a new set of JJ's.

i love my little champ it is brilliant!!!! and the looks are to die for! i want to fit a jensen ch6 soon. any thoughts?

I'm sure I posted on most of those threads! I have a modified one with a Jensen speaker & upgraded tubes (covered in the links before anyone asks). A great amp

My speaker swap (Champion 600) slide show link (http://s86.photobucket.com/albums/k106/johnlg-2006/?action=view&current=32216609.pbw)

If you look in the lower left corner, you;ll see that the Champion 600 makes a great pedestal for Darth Vador's helmet (and they sound great too)......

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k106/johnlg-2006/008.jpg


Did someone say bedroom amp? I got your bedroom amp right here!

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k106/johnlg-2006/Bedroomamp.jpg

John

Proud to say I joined the club last night. Picked one up off of CL for $150. The guy said it was completely stock, but when I got home and took off the back plate I noticed an EHX 6V6GT and a Sovtek 12AX7-WA. Probably will still replaces them with JJ's, but has anyone else seen a stock Champ with those tubes?

i have a champ 600 WITH the Mercury Magnetics Kit

and it is a different amp!

i cant compare it to the 57 tweed champ reissue...but thats just because i dont have it...yet!!!

but i can say its fun to play with and tone wise its there!

i saw a couple people on this forum change the grille cloth from that felt to a nicer looking vintage houndstooth?
not sure exactly what it is but i want it!

...I´ll play too, bought mine new. Upgraded it straight away with JJ tubes and a Jensen Chicago 6". It sounds great and is loud enough to scare the neighbours :shock:

mine's still stock...

the tubes rattle a bit, I'll upgrade when it gets bad, or if I use it for recording, but right now, it really is just a bedroom amp, so it's fine for now.

I just got a used Fender Champ 600 last night. Running it parallel with a Gretsch 5222 I got a couple of months back. Loving some Stereo Champ action!

I got one last week. Absolutely perfect for a practice amp...I can now ditch the headphones and give my ears a rest!

I like mine, but mainly for the way it looks if Im honest.

I wish it didn't buzz so much!

Steve G .try seating the tubes properly .It tends to cough, spit ,splutter ,and buzz with loose tubes ,as do we all .:lol:

Steve G .try seating the tubes properly .It tends to cough, spit ,splutter ,and buzz with loose tubes ,as do we all .:lol:

thanks, ill have a look!

i'll play! just ordered one off evilbay last night and haven't gotten it yet but am stoked. thanks for the links for the mods. not having played it and may not do anything but maybe a tube swap, i think i want it to break up earlier is something in mind.

I joined this club today. Great little sound!

I'm in. I've had mine for a few months now. First thing I did was switch out the tubes with a EHX 6V6 and a TAD 12AX7. Instant improvement with that.

I just ordered a fully ribbed 6" Weber Alnico speaker. I'm hoping this will not fart out as much as the stock speaker. And its fairly cheap mod to experiment.

Just got my Champ 600 last week for 134.99 and it sounds fantastic. It does rattle and buzz a bit. Everything is stock - kungfumailman

I've had mine for about a year and a half now. I did some mods to it to lower the noise a bit, but they didn't really seem to make a huge impact on it. It has a bit of an idle hum, but the JJ tubes I put in helped a bit. Tonally, other than the tubes, I just replaced the grill cloth with some blonde Fender style cloth I had laying around (no more flapping) and clipped C3, one of the cathode bypass caps. This lowers the preamp gain a bit and make the amp's full volume grind less harsh and more usable. That said, the amp's cleans, while quiet, are excellent. I am happy with the stock speaker and won't replace it unless it gets blown. It even fits in my backpack! Definitely a great apartment/practice amp.

I have a new champ 600 and the sound with a multi effects digitech rp155 sounds killer. My question is: can I do any harm to the amp by using a effects unit? I am new to the multi effects unit world. so I don't know if there any watt requirements for running them through a small amp. It does work quite well with this small amp. I can get many tones and many different levels of gain. I also play the amp with no effects and It sounds great with the volume below 10, more than that it buzzes and sounds not so good. -Kungfumailman

While waiting on my new speaker to come in, I decided to change the grill cloth to something thinner. I used a dark brown old navy shirt that fit the champ well. Using tacs it took a while, but it came out well.

Also, I messed up some tolex on the bottom right getting a screw out so I decided to turn it into a relic. I sprayed all of the tolex with some amber lacquer I had from reranch. It mellowed out the amp and gave a nice slight relic feel. Here is a crappy webcam pic.

http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs162.snc1/6048_633077291168_29703542_37232681_6501630_n.jpg

I posted this in amp central station also and then realized this is more appropriate.
Has anyone done the ECC832 preamp tube swap? I am looking for extended clean tone, not worried about volume much. I actually only use this for bedroom size room use. I would like to know about what to expect tonewise vs stock tubes. If you did it and like it did you then complete the bias mod or just leave it alone.
Thanks, Tim

Just joined on Friday. Picked it up at GC and have had a great weekend messing with it. Great sound, even stock and really enjoy getting this much goodness from such a tiny and inexpensive package. Great, straightforward no-frills amp. Nice balance to the Twin Reverb and not nearly as heavy. :)

is there a way to get rid of the hum?

we use it for the harp (and I have one in my appartment also), but for recordings it's useless with that hum.

Yay !!, got mine at last in a flawlessly executed deal with TDPRI's Steve G, i'm reckoning on using it to record in favour of the PodII i'm always raving about, tried it today and was knocked out by the tightness of tone, maybe a swap to a 12AT7 for a little less dirt but me likeee !! :grin:
Steve has done a resistor mod and added a Jensen speaker and i can't find much to not like but yeah ..... there is a hum but i'm sure i can live with that.

I guess I get to join this club, received a new Champion 600 from my son as a belated birthday present!

You'll like this...curious as to what tubes were in it, as under another thread I had heard they were sometimes using EH and Sovtek instead of Chinese. Well, the tubes came out easily, even without taking off the back: The 6V6 is "Made in China December 2007" however the preamp is a Sovtek 7025/12AX7WA, pretty good.

Power tube goes back in easy enough...CANNOT get the preamp tube back in...check pin orientation with inspection mirror..nope, won't go. Take back off. No better. Harumph! Down to the workbench, take out the chassis, STILL won't go in. Tube socket looks like two-part, start to unscrew, only the base for the shield comes off, but now I can see the pins well. All are lined up, won't go in! Nothing is bent, all the contacts are there. Well, if I can only do this once, open up the cache, and grab a NOS Amphenol 7025. With great effort, almost to the point of breaking the tube, it slides home.

Thats some tight tube socket!

Ok, its open, grab an RCA 6V6GT while I'm at it, and get 'er all back together.

Ahhhhh, very nice! Even better through my Tremolux cab with a Reverend speaker in it.

This might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship...if I don't have the urge to change the preamp tube again!:lol:

I have one since Jan. 2008. Mine did never hum (but stock tubes were crap)

Didn't change the grill cloth yet since I look for a similar color one (but with no blanket effect! :)
Otherwise I'll use salt&pepper grill cloth or the cane and black version of s&p

I use NOS tubes and no back panel. I love it.
Even with the stock speaker after a good break-up (but it will get a 6'' Jensen soon; too expensive to get a Weber shipped here)

I plan some mods but I keep playing it like this.

Oh, best "mod" was to use a small guitar stand (http://www.herculesstands.com/guitars/GS402B.html) for it to acoustically decouple it from the room.
Absolutely great now. It was exciting very annoying low-mid room modes otherwise.
Not easy to see, but it is on the stand on my pictures.

Take a look at the akavalve (http://akavalve.blogspot.com/2009/01/fender-champion-600-input-voicing-mod.html) mods. You'll learn a lot.

.

I just got my Champ 600 custom head and cabinet done. I took the amp out of the original cabinet and took it to a friend of mine who has woodworking skills. I also brought two 1950's alnico speakers probably out of an organ or jukebox and said can you build me a matching piggyback head 210 cabinet? The best part is the tone! This Champ 600 sounds epic with the closed back cab and vintage low watt speakers.

wooooooow, beautiful!!!

Very nice kungfumailman !

I plugged my champ in my vox ad60 speaker yesterday and wow wonderful.
Now I just need to make a speaker cable to make switching easyer. Maybe I gonna put a weber Sig 6" in the champ.

Just got mine a couple of weeks ago. Great little amp. No hum. :)

Hello all, I've had mine for a while now, Still the stock speaker in her. I did a bunch of mods including popping a JJ 6v6 and taking out a B+ dropping resistor with it. I like the tone just fine, And it sits on my work desk for testing pedal designs and whatnot.


Here's a pic:

http://i430.photobucket.com/albums/qq21/racerx29/Champ600.jpg


Next mod it to do a PTP build in there when I get the time. :cool:

Hello all, just got mine tonight and am loving it. Sounds great so far. No humming. I think I'll play on it a while to see if it develops any issues before doing any changes. Everyones pictures look great! I like what you all have done!

And thanks cjburr for the links!