NAD! Champion 600

I had wanted one of these little amps for bedroom practice for three years. I first was intersted when they were on sale for 89 bucks during the holidays three years ago. I could not swing one then because of Christmas and taxes so I decided to wait. Then the prices went up, and up....

Anyway I sent Sweetwater CS a proposal on a price for the amp and they accepted (Never pay MAP folks). I was very impressed with the transaction all the way around and they ship FAST!

I have played the amp about 4 hours and it is sounding better by the hour. Initally, the volume seemed less than I expected and the voice of the amp seemed compressed, but as I play the speaker is opening up and I notice I am turning the volume down.

The amp has a good "heft" to it and is built to be rugged. I think it could be dropped from a few feet and still operate normally. The amp has a nice bluesy voice and handles the strat and tele well. I have a set of pedals but not tried any of them through this amp.

If my guitar is close to the amp, I hear the 60 cycle hum/buzz but moving the guitar five or more feet away the amp goes dead quiet.

I tried to break-in the stock speaker, but it never sounded good. So I bought a Weber signature and now it sounds great. Just my opinion. Good luck!

I think I will do any mods in steps. I have a new speaker cover coming http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Black-OEM-Guitar-Amp-Speaker-Cabinet-Grill-Cloth-36-X-36-X-72-/140736566771?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20c48d95f3. I am looking at replacement tubes. After those have been done, I'll give the new speaker a chance. I kept the stock speaker in the SCXD and feel it sounds much better now that it has had a chance to break in. I'm hoping for the same out of the C600.

I forgot to mention I tried replacing the jewel lamp with a custom blue one. Can't really do it....the bulb is a red one. Even with blue glass, it seems to be an orange color. I wish that lamp were white!

I like the C600 more and more. I've had it over a year now and I agree with just about everything you've said, KyLuckyman. Mine is pretty quiet if I stand off to the side or about 5 feet away and as time's gone on the amp has brightened up quite a bit, while retaining its character, to the point where I really don't want to change the grill material. I've kept mine stock, I just crank it and adjust from the guitar to a lively clean sound. Soemtimes I'll stick a reverb and tremolo in front there, but mostly I like it straight on in. Really fantastic.

I should have bought one years ago. These small amps have character!

I'm really liking the little Champ as well, and I was pleasantly surprised at how great it sounds with a TS-type overdrive in front of it.

I think I will do any mods in steps. I have a new speaker cover coming http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Black-OEM-Guitar-Amp-Speaker-Cabinet-Grill-Cloth-36-X-36-X-72-/140736566771?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20c48d95f3. I am looking at replacement tubes. After those have been done, I'll give the new speaker a chance. I kept the stock speaker in the SCXD and feel it sounds much better now that it has had a chance to break in. I'm hoping for the same out of the C600.

This is just my opinion, my preference for the grill cloth is either the Oxblood/Tan (http://www.tubesandmore.com/scripts/foxweb.dll/moreinfo@d:/dfs/elevclients/cemirror/ELEVATOR.FXP?item=S-G301) or the Wheat (http://www.tubesandmore.com/scripts/foxweb.dll/moreinfo@d:/dfs/elevclients/cemirror/ELEVATOR.FXP?item=S-G455). Even some of the other branded types of guitar amp grill cloths (http://www.tubesandmore.com/scripts/foxweb.dll/catalog@d:/dfs/elevclients/cemirror/ELEVATOR.FXP?PAGE=SUBCAT&SEARCH_TREE01=GRILLTOLEX&SEARCH_TREE02=GUITARGCT&SEARCH_TREE03=GRILLCLOTH) can look good with the colors on the C600. Others have used a variety of Radio Grill Cloth (http://www.tubesandmore.com/scripts/foxweb.dll/catalog@d:/dfs/elevclients/cemirror/ELEVATOR.FXP?PAGE=SUBCAT&SEARCH_TREE01=GRILLTOLEX&SEARCH_TREE02=ANTIQUERADIO) also.

I use mine a lot, perfect for around the house..even makes a usable bass practice amp aslong as you keep levels down.

I was considering a speaker/cloth swap, but lucked in to some NOS GE tubes.
I found the new tubes to be a big improvement over stock, and at much less cost than RCA NOS...

Highly recommended.

The amp has a good "heft" to it and is built to be rugged. I think it could be dropped from a few feet and still operate normally. The amp has a nice bluesy voice and handles the strat and tele well.

Absolutely. The Bestbuy employee who I was talking to dropped it from about 3 feet up to the concrete floor... it was fine and sounded great!

Just picked another one up on sale here - had one and sold it a few years ago and regretted it. Tried a few and picked what to my ears was the best.

Came home and played it for a while and then opened the back to swap in some NOS tubes, got a shock as the 6V6 is a Groove Tubes / Electro Harmonics not the standard chinese one i saqw with my first amp - that explained part of the reason I found the sound okay. the preamp was a chinese 12AX7 which i swapped out but even there the difference wasn't that great compared to my previous experiences.

Has Fender upgraded the tubes they use in these?

I have one. I first put in GT tubes I had pulled from my DRRI. I then changed the grill cloth. I then replaced the tonestack with a .022mFd cap. Today I installed a Weber 8" sig speaker. It's a little fire breather. The biggest improvement was the tone stack and speaker. The grill cloth just has to go as you can't even breath through it. I was playing this all day. I even built a little pedal board with a pitch black tuner and a Cool Cat tremolo on it just for this amp.

I got one a few days ago and am enjoying it alot. I like to turn it around when I play it; it sounds much clearer and stronger to my ears.

BTW, I can turn it up all the way and there is no buzzing or hum.

I do the same Ed. I noticed mine is much quieter on the telecaster than the strat. Positions 1, 3,and 5 are kind of noisey. I will pull the pickguard off the next time I change strings on the strat and see if here is something I can do to quiet it down. Also I saw on the Tube Depot website they sell amp kits. I watched the build video for the Champ kit and they shield the back of the amp. I may do the same with mine and check the wires to ensure all are twisted to cancel any 60 cycle hum.

I do the same Ed. I noticed mine is much quieter on the telecaster than the strat. Positions 1, 3,and 5 are kind of noisey. I will pull the pickguard off the next time I change strings on the strat and see if here is something I can do to quiet it down. Also I saw on the Tube Depot website they sell amp kits. I watched the build video for the Champ kit and they shield the back of the amp. I may do the same with mine and check the wires to ensure all are twisted to cancel any 60 cycle hum.

Yep.

At some point I plan to replace the grillcloth, speaker, and tubes; but right now it's fun just to squeeze as much as possible out of the stock setup. Plus I'm delaying doing mods because even holding a screwdriver scares the heck out of me, much less actually using it. :oops:

I've had my Champ 600 for a few months now and hear no reason to do anything to it. I'm perfectly happy with it as it came out the shop.

If I want more clean headroom I plug it into a 2 x 10 cabinet.

I've read that swapping the grill cloth gives the amp a more open tone but I like the tone I hear through the thicker material. Maybe that's cos I'm a bit of a tweed tone kinda guy and like that thicker tone.

Either way, I certainly recommend that you live with the amp for a while before deciding to do anything to it.

I've had my Champ 600 for a few months now and hear no reason to do anything to it. I'm perfectly happy with it as it came out the shop.

If I want more clean headroom I plug it into a 2 x 10 cabinet.

I've read that swapping the grill cloth gives the amp a more open tone but I like the tone I hear through the thicker material. Maybe that's cos I'm a bit of a tweed tone kinda guy and like that thicker tone.

Either way, I certainly recommend that you live with the amp for a while before deciding to do anything to it.

Good advice indeed.

Love mine, it's stock & I'm keeping it like that (4 years). This little thing loves Fender single coils.

Congrats. This is a fun amp.

Love mine. Very blackface sounding. Super clean and not tweedy, which is exactly what I was looking for.

I made the mistake of replacing the stock speaker with the Jensen Mod 600. A quick trip over to akavalve's site (I recommend highly) will show you that the two speakers have a virtually indistinguishable frequency response. It may fart a bit less with the Jensen - maybe - but wasn't worth the money spent. Looks cool, though.

After playing a while, I have no issues with the grill cloth, so that's staying. A bit of hum, going to try bluesky's trick of moving the green heater wires away from the PCB and see if that helps, but it's not audible when playing and frankly barely audible when I'm not. A miniscule annoyance with an otherwise fine amp. I replaced the tubes but for me that's pretty much SOP with anything. The stock tubes on mine sounded nice, but a few folks have reported bad things happening with the stock tubes in the amp.

Time will tell - I may get a second one! They are that good.

Congrats! I just got one too a month or so ago...what a cool little amp. I'm going to try it thru a bigger speaker cab just to see what it can do. I really like the grill cloth and I'm not changing my tubes!
Enjoy!

I like to use a Fulltone Fatboost with mine for a little extra spice.