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Post subject: Champ 600 on the way...
Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2010 7:12 am
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Just ordered a Champ 600 from the LGS. I had a Texas Red Blues Jr. in layaway but due to some recent bills it would have been tied up for 6 months while I got everything else taken care of, so I settled for a little Champ. I live in a townhouse anyways, so it's not like I can use a very loud amp to begin with, although I do plan on getting something like a Deville after we purchase a house (probably sometime next year).
I had initially thought about getting a Vibro or Super Champ XD, but I'd rather have a genuine all-tube amp. It's probably just a mental thing, but I just do not like dsp amps of any kind. Plus, I had looked up several mods and whatnot for the Champs, and since I'm one of those tinkering types, it seems like a good idea. For now, however, I'm going to leave it stock until I can break the speaker in and get a feel for the thing...then maybe experiment with some new tubes, speaker, tone-stack mod, etc.

There is one thing though that I'm going to take care of from the get go, and that's the grill cloth. I've heard enough complaints to know that I'm not going to like that thick cloth farting anytime I really crank it up. I'm wanting to go with a vintage looking grill cloth and have browsed through a few sites, but most of them sell by the yard and I'm only needing at the most a 12x12" piece. Any suggestions? Also feel free to share any mods that you think would be worthwhile.

PS, I've been lurking around the community for awhile now but just now decided to join and start posting. I have a Classic 60's Strat (Lake Placid Blue), a wife and a beagle. I've been playing for over 10 years, badly.....and that's pretty much it.


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Post subject: C600
Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2010 8:01 am
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Hi tcabner,

Yeah, that grill cloth is almost air-tight. I could barely even blow a little air through it, very restrictive. It is also a big part of the sound of the amp. :o I have 2 C600s, one modified, one stock. Part of the change that I made to the modded amp was to change the grill cloth. I went to a fabric store and perused the variety of fabrics, and finding nothing that matched the color of the original, I opted for burlap. I think that it looks great, and definitely lets air move through it. I tried the stock speaker with the new grill cloth and found it lacking, it would still fart a little and sounded worse to me without the thick cloth in front of it. I went with the Weber Sig 6 Alnico, with full ribbed cone, for late breakup, sounds great. I had to trim the baffle board to move the speaker over to give enough clearance for a bigger output tube. The stock tube and an EH tube will fit with the new speaker in the old location, but a JJ or a 6L6 would not fit without moving the speaker over about 3/4 inch. :)

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Pics of back with different output tubes installed, the big one is a JJ, the short one is the stock Chinese.

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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2010 8:22 am
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Yeah, I had thought about burlap, I've actually got some laying around the house. It seems that although it will let more air through it, it's still not quite as "breathable" as actual grill cloth. I'm trying to keep from ordering a Weber Sig Alnico 6 or a Jensen Mod 6, I really do want to give the stock speaker a chance. However, I really am curious how it would sound with an 8" speaker. Obviously it would be a tight fit, but I've heard it is possible with some speakers...I'd like to find out if anyone has managed to fit a 8" Weber Sig Alnico in there and how it sounded. If I can't find anything on it sometime soon, I may just build an extension cab with a 10" (if I'm going to go to the trouble of building one, why not make it the crowd favorite 10"?)

I know there may be a few that will chime in with the "If you're having to mod it so much to get this and that, why not just buy a different amp that suits your needs/wants a little better". I'm doing it because I can and because it's a cheap amp to mod in the first place....not to mention I love having something to tinker with. 8)


EDIT:

Looks like it fits...with some modification of course, lol.

Image


I guess we'll see how it sounds first with the stock speaker. If I end up going to a bigger one, I'll either make a new baffle board for an 8" or build an extension cab for a 10"...either way, I don't want to hack out a larger hole in the stock board.


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Post subject: C600 grill cloth
Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2010 9:02 am
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Yes, I forgot to mention that the stock amp sounds very good in it's own unique way, and better when the speaker is broken in. Using the low input, cranked to 12 with a Strat, it sounds kind of like the little amp used to record Layla. It has a muddy warm sound, with smooth breakup, and not too loud for an apt dweller. And it does sound even better (louder, smoother) through an external 12 inch speaker. I like your idea of building an ext cab with a 10 inch speaker for the C600, very cool. I thought about using one amp to make a cabinet, and one to set on top, like a mini stack, or make one into a head, with one as a cab.

The new speaker, tubes and grill cloth really made it into a different amp, louder and more aggressive sounding. I was very happy and pleasantly surprised with the modded amp, yet I also liked the stock amp sound, both are unique comparing to any other model of tube amp. Try a search on eBay for Champ 600 mods, I have seen some very overpriced baffles that were modified for an 8 inch speaker, but it will give you an idea of the fit. With the 8 inch speaker, the front opening on the amp will cover part of the top and/or bottom of the speaker, the opening only just under 6 inches tall.

Don't worry, they only seem to pick on us if we spend $400 on an amp and then modify it, we're probably safe from lambasting since the C600 is cheap. :lol:

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Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2010 4:55 pm
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Welcome to the 600 Club. I own one and it is my go to amp in the studio! You can crank that little tone machine up and be in tube tone bliss! I won't mod mine because I love how it sounds now that I have the speaker broken in but do what makes you happy. I also have the SCXD...really loud amp! The DSP is actually quite good IMO. But, you have made a wise choice! Enjoy!
ABS :D


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2010 6:55 pm
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Yep your gonna love the little 600. I also have a BJ but find I tend to play the 600 more. I changed the tubes and replaced the speaker cloth on mine which brightened up the sound a little and absolutely love the little tone beast.

Enjoy.

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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 9:23 am
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The little Champ is supposed to come in today sometime. I think I'm pretty much set on leaving the stock speaker in there and just building a matching cabinet to house a 10" speaker. I found some blonde and tan tolex to match it all up perfect. The two things I will do though to the amp itself, is replace the grill cloth with some Fender Beige Brown and look into some better tubes. I've read through several older threads about upgraded tubes, but what is the more recent trend/opinion?


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Post subject: Which tubes in C600
Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 9:59 am
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With an external cabinet, I tried a 6L6 output tube that sounded very nice (5881/6L6WGC Sovtek). I am using the 6L6 in my modded amp now. An EH or JJ output tube will brighten and clean up the sound noticeably, I've tried both. The stock Chinese tube is warmer and seems to breakup earlier than the other tubes. For preamp tubes, I've tried a 12AX7-C (Chinese), a GT 12AT7 (?), a 12AX7WA (Sovtek), a 12AX7WC (Sovtek) and a 12AX7A (US). I thought that the 12AX7A and the 12AX7WA were the best balanced sound with all output tubes. The 12AT7 wasn't enough gain to get good breakup or volume, and the 12AX7WC was just too much gain. The 12AX7-C was just too muddy/warm sounding to me. :idea:

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Post subject: Re: Which tubes in C600
Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 11:20 am
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shimmilou wrote:
With an external cabinet, I tried a 6L6 output tube that sounded very nice (5881/6L6WGC Sovtek)


Sorry to hijack the thread, but did you need to mod anything to use a 6L6 with the Champ 600? Or can its little transformer handle a 6L6 safely? I would love to know. Thanks.

p.s. tcabner, you're gonna like your new Champ. It's a fun little amp.

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Post subject: C600 tubes
Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 12:10 pm
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Hi metropolis74,

No mods necessary to use the 6L6 with the C600. The 6L6 will draw about 0.9 amps for the filament (heater), as opposed to the 6V6 at about 0.6 amps. The transformer seems to be able to handle the extra filament current quite well. The transformer has a 4 amp fuse for that section, and the filaments are most of the load on it (LED, one 12AX7 & one 6L6, maybe 1.5 amps?). No worry about the tube bias, the amp can't supply enough power to come close to hurting the 6L6. I have several hours playing time with the 6L6 in both of my C600 amps, and so far no problems. Of course, like anything, the harder that it's pushed, the more likely it is to fail. I don't expect any problems at all using the 6L6 in this amp. :)

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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 12:20 pm
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Thanks shimmilou!

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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 1:21 pm
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Well I called the LGS, looks like I'll be waiting a while longer for my Champ. They didn't get their order in from Fender yet, next shipment should be in Thursday and hopefully the Champ will be with it. Pretty sure they have the Vibro Champ XD's in stock now though, so it's going to be hard to resist getting one of those instead. I'm not too hot on DSP amps, or spending the $50 difference, but I'd end up spending that much on a reverb pedal, so who knows what I'll end up doing once I get there. I guess I'm leery that the dsp effects and voicing will mess with the tube tone, but is it really any different than running several effects (like a Boss FDR-1) into a normal tube amp like the Champ 600?


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 2:07 pm
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tcabner wrote:
Well I called the LGS, looks like I'll be waiting a while longer for my Champ. They didn't get their order in from Fender yet, next shipment should be in Thursday and hopefully the Champ will be with it. Pretty sure they have the Vibro Champ XD's in stock now though, so it's going to be hard to resist getting one of those instead. I'm not too hot on DSP amps, or spending the $50 difference, but I'd end up spending that much on a reverb pedal, so who knows what I'll end up doing once I get there. I guess I'm leery that the dsp effects and voicing will mess with the tube tone, but is it really any different than running several effects (like a Boss FDR-1) into a normal tube amp like the Champ 600?[/


Sorry to hear your Champ 600 is late.

The VibroChamp XD isn't really all tube. The lone 12AX7 preamp tube in it is just the phase inverter for the 6V6. No preamp tone shaping runs through its 12AX7 tube. The preamp is all DSP, if that matters to you.

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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 2:24 pm
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Yeah, that kind of knocks it down a couple notches in my book. I heard they're great amps either way, but some people do get pretty picky (such as myself). Who knows what I'll end up with. I should know by this evening if the champ 600 will be in by thursday. If it won't, who knows what I'll end up getting....


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Post subject:
Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 10:05 am
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I have a 600 and love it! All stock. Great tone!


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