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Post subject: New Fender Champ 57 Re-issue
Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:35 pm
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Has anyone got the new 57 champ re-issue, don't know if it's been released yet, heard the demos on this site and it sounded really good, they're supposed to be mega-expensive though and what with it being a one control amp don't know whether it'd be worth the money.
:shock:


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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 4:07 pm
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Way, Way overpriced. You can buy a kit for around a third of the cost and it will sound as good if not better.


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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 4:10 pm
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Welcome to the forum pliers! :)


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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 5:16 am
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Thanks Hop, i'm in the UK so i emailed Fender UK for the price of the champ and was a bit shocked at the reply £859.99, don't know what that equates to in Dollars but it must be around $1200 or so, a bit steep for a one control amp that basically would be a practice amp (not powerful enough for much else).
For an extra bit of cash i could get one of the 65 re-issue twin reverbs or super reverbs with a lot more features.
I'm not a gigging player, but a keen enthusiast for years and years, so if i'm practicing at home i still like good tone.
I thought the champ would have been good for home use, being able to crank it a bit but the price, woah ! :(


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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 8:49 am
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Yeah I think you should just get the Vibro Champ or a small vox amp (ac4).


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2008 Squier bullet stratocaster modified with Rumpelstiltskin pickups -> Dunlop GCB-95 Original Crybaby -> Fender Vibro Champ XD

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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:50 am
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Thanks Screamin J, you must have been reading my mind, just ordered one of those small Vox amps, AC4, as the reviews i've read have been really good.At a fraction of the price of the new Champ as well.
It would have been a bit like overkill to buy a Twin reverb or the like just for practicing at home, though i still like good tone, it inspires you to play, if you've got a crap tone you tend not to want to hear it.
Don't know who Fender are trying to attract with the 57 Champ as the price for what is effectively a practice/studio amp is way too high

:D


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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 5:40 pm
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pliers wrote:
Thanks Hop, i'm in the UK so i emailed Fender UK for the price of the champ and was a bit shocked at the reply £859.99, don't know what that equates to in Dollars but it must be around $1200 or so, a bit steep for a one control amp that basically would be a practice amp (not powerful enough for much else).
For an extra bit of cash i could get one of the 65 re-issue twin reverbs or super reverbs with a lot more features.
I'm not a gigging player, but a keen enthusiast for years and years, so if i'm practicing at home i still like good tone.
I thought the champ would have been good for home use, being able to crank it a bit but the price, woah ! :(


I thought the same.... Its seems pricey..... until I started to look.

The 57 Champ is a hand-wired amp and hence the price ($999 here in the States). There is a high demand for all those vintage amps and several companies have made clones of those great Fender amps using the original circuit designs - also hand-wired. They are easily priced at or above the cost the Fender reissues (57 Champ, 57 Deluxe, 57 Twin - all hand-wired in the Custom line). Check out Victoria's Champ Clone

There are even kits you can buy to build your own Tweed Champ (5F1). Most of those sell between $400 - $600 - just for the kit. You provide the labor :wink:

So for those of us who are use to seeing a 5 w practice amp for $150 (Champion 600), we get sticker shock. But those amps are filled with printed circuit boards (PCB's) which can't be repaired like a hand-wired amp. My guitar teacher had to trash his 50W Peavy after less than 10 years because the PCB just failed with age and use.

While I just purchased a new Vibro Champ XD for everyday use, I am starting to pursue a small collection of vintage amps - which are all hand-wired. Look around for a blackface or silverface champ. Hand-wired, vintage tone, and they will increase in value with age. :D

I sold and horse traded my Hot Rod Deluxe and Vox Valvetronix away in the last month. I took a very clean and wonderful 1966 blackface Champ in one of the trades. A wonderful amp.


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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 7:47 pm
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The Tweed Champ kits can be built in a few hours and are a real simple build. You can also just buy chassis and part kits and even just a pre loaded eyelet board real cheap. That 57 Tweed Champ is obscenely overpriced. I've seen the real deal for not much more. It's a one trick pony.
Mission Amps has 5e3 kits that start at $400 for a chassis & parts kit and complete amp kits for around $720. The 5e3 is much more versatile and has around 12 watts.

You do supply the labor, but you also have the satisfaction of building your own amp and doing it right. :wink:


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:01 am
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Yeah it's a funny thing, when the little Fender champ first came out i bet it was a budget amp just for practicing/warming up backstage, but now in todays consumerism gone wild society re-releasing it as a vintage re-issue gives you carte blanche to hike the price way up.
I was in a guitar shop the other day and the salesman came over and saw me looking at a Fender amp (can't remember the make, but it was all tube)
and it had channel switching some DSP effects on board, chorus and delay 40 watts and it was selling £600 and something, the 57 champ has no channel switching no reverb, only one volume knob and it's £859.99.
Man, anyone that buys that at that price has got to be either crazy or loaded to the point where it doesn't matter.
Look at Peavey even you can buy one of their classic series tube amps for way lower than the champ. :D


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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:59 pm
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It WAS a practice amp as was the Bronco and the Princeton. The Bronco amp was sold a beginners kit with a Bronco guitar if you wanted. The Princeton was a slight step up from the Champ. I paid $150 for my 74 Champ about 10 years ago.

The 57's a fun amp but not worth all that coin. It's up in boutique territory but has no features. If I wanted one that bad, I'd just build one. It seems like a grand is going to be Fenders new price point and that's a shame.


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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:07 pm
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Yeah agree with you 63 Supro, it just seems the price of it weighed up against it's features mean it's just not worth the money, if money was no object i'd get it, but as i said the price of it for a one volume control amp, no way.
It is a shame that Fender are pricing there products out of the ordinary players reach. :shock:


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:34 am
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I don't intend to buy one and I don't think anyone disagrees the '57 Champ is a bit pricey, but it is a hand wired. That IS the point. AND its directed at a specific market(s) - mostly the vintage boutique market. What I realized once I started looking around was...... I'm not in that market sector :lol:

You have to separate yourself from your desire to have one and look at it from a business point of view. There is a market of vintage Fender clones selling in the boutique price range. Fender seems pretty smart to have let this market build itself before they invested in production and marketing. They only have four amps in that market - the Champ, Deluxe, Twin and the Vibro-King (all in the Custom Line and hand-wired).

You have to wonder if the 57 Champ would sell better as a Vintage Reissue with PCB's? But I have a gut feeling there was a market study done prior to investing in this amp. :wink:

Like 63 Supro - I have seen vintage tweed Champs selling for around $900-$1,100. But I am sure there are people out there would who want a new amp rather than take the "risk" involved with buying a vintage. If I had $1,000 right now..... I doubt I would buy either a new or vintage tweed Champ.

For the rest of us - there are the kits, the Champion 600, the Pro Jr., or hunting down a vintage Champ..... or waiting for someone to buy a 57 Champ and sell it to us for 1/2 of asking price :lol:

I think if you are looking for an amp with lots of features, then none of the amps mentioned above - let alone the 57 Champ - are going to peak your interest.

FWIW - I always thought you needed all sorts of "features" - which as a kid I couldn't afford - then Eddie Van Halen comes out playing a single pick-up guitar with a single control knob. Suddenly (in 1978) my little Gibson Melody Maker didn't seem so bad :lol: Its not the tools..... Its the craftsman. I think of that everytime I listen to Derek and the Dominos and realize they are using a tweed champ and a princeton reverb.


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Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:59 am
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I've gone through a few amps and none came close to my 5F1 clone. Bought already built, used for $300.

You dont buy those amps for the features but for the tone. Anyone who has tried the single ended simple circuit of a 5F1 or 5E1 can verify.


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:07 pm
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atolleter wrote:
I've gone through a few amps and none came close to my 5F1 clone. Bought already built, used for $300.

You dont buy those amps for the features but for the tone. Anyone who has tried the single ended simple circuit of a 5F1 or 5E1 can verify.


That certainly seems to be the consensus - its the tone. I would be interested in hearing a comparison of a 57 Champ and a clone. I would imagine there won't be any difference. At least not what I could hear :lol:

I did like this comparison of a blackface Champ and a tweed champ from youtube. I thought it was interesting.

I have thought about doing a kit - but I don't have the tools or minimal experience to work my way through the instructions :lol: I'd probably burn my house down :lol:


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:27 pm
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Same reason I bought mine used :) That and lazyness. Would have been a great learning experience though.

I'd like to try a 5E3 and compare with 5F1.


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