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Post subject: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 9:07 pm
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Rock Star
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Location: Natural Bridge, Virginia
With the talk lately about the Champion 600, I decided to pick one up this past weekend at my local Guitar Center. Regularly $170, on sale for Columbus Day at $130.

I checked it out in the store to make sure it made noise (I declined the GC extended waranty) and took it home. The first thing I did was pull out the chassis and look it over. It is actually a pretty well built little machine. The soldering and wiring was very clean and solid. I snugged up all the screws and added some additional aluminum tape for shielding at various places in the amp. Plugged it in and it is actually very quiet. Slight hum when standing right in front of the speaker at ear level, but very quiet at my playing position.

The amp is not as loud through the stock speaker as some comments would lead one to believe. I have the pickups in all of my guitars set pretty low. The SCNs in my Strat and Seymour Duncan Vintage Stacks in my AVRI 52 Tele will just barely push the amp into overdrive. My two humbucker equipped guitars do a better job (when plugged into the high gain input). But setting my Fulltone Full Drive 2 MOSFET for a clean boost really brings this little beast to life.

I'm going to start off experimenting with tubes. I have a JJ 12AX7, JJ high-gain 12AX7, and JJ 6V6S on their way from Eurotubes. They should be here by the weekend. This will give me a good set of preamp tubes to play with:

1. NOS JAN GE 12AY7
2. NOS JAN Philips 5751
3. JJ 12AX7
4. JJ high-gain 12AX7.

The 12AY7 will probably not be of much use unless I really crank the FD-2M, but it might be interesting. The 5751 might work with a litte extra drive also. The high-gain 12AX7 should be interesting.

I'll probably change speakers at a later date and may experiment with hooking the Champ 600 up to the 12" Eminence Cannabis Rex in my BDRI which sits right next to the Champ 600. If I can find a cheap 4 ohm cab (the CR is 8 ohm), I might try that instead.

I may try some circuit mods in the future as time and money permit. Converting the circuit to a 5F1 Narrow-panel Tweed champ circuit by adding a switch to bypass the Champ 600 tone stack looks interesting:

http://ampwares.com/schematics/champ_5f1.pdf

as does swapping out some components for higher quality ones. At $130, even if I screw something up it is no great loss and should be easy to return to stock.

Stay tuned for more.

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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 10:17 pm
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Improvements have been reported when changing the grill cloth for something more acoustically transparent, even with the OEM speaker. You gonna give that any consideration, Bill?

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 11:30 pm
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I've been thinking about buying a champ 600 as a practice amp, but i'm afraid i won't be able to get it to overdrive without waking up the neighbours. I live in an apartment and have master volumes on all my amps. I dont see the point in buying it if i will only play it clean. What is your opinion? Is it possible to get an overdriven tone at low volume?

Thanks.

SørenK

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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 12:52 pm
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Location: Natural Bridge, Virginia
Retroverbial wrote:
Improvements have been reported when changing the grill cloth for something more acoustically transparent, even with the OEM speaker. You gonna give that any consideration, Bill?

Arjay


I forgot about that one. Thanks for the reminder. I'll add it to my list. :D

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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 12:53 pm
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Rock Star
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Location: Natural Bridge, Virginia
SørenK wrote:
Is it possible to get an overdriven tone at low volume?


Yes.

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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 1:58 pm
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Location: Natural Bridge, Virginia
Stock Champion 600:

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Last edited by bluesky636 on Sat Nov 03, 2012 4:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 2:27 pm
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I use a Keeley modded Tube Screamer (TS-9) to overdrive my BF Twin Reverb, without having to disturb the neighbors in the next area code. Four 7581A's & two JBL D120F are lethal weapons in this amp.


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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 3:01 pm
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I've got some oxblood cloth left over from another project, Bill.

Lemme know if you need a piece.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 3:16 pm
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Rock Star
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Location: Natural Bridge, Virginia
Retroverbial wrote:
I've got some oxblood cloth left over from another project, Bill.

Lemme know if you need a piece.

Arjay


Drat. I just placed an order with Parts Express for some plain brown speaker cloth. Thanks anyway. Drat.

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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 3:35 pm
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My bad, Bill -- I should've mentioned it sooner.

:(

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 3:50 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
My bad, Bill -- I should've mentioned it sooner.

:(

Arjay


Not your fault. That's just the way my day's gone. :lol:

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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:10 pm
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The new tubes arrived today. I installed the JJ 6V6S and high gain JJ 12AX7 and WOW! Really noticable difference with just the new tubes. The OD is much smoother and creamier with both the amp and guitar volume maxed out. Back off the guitar volume and things clean right up. The new grill cloth should be here soon. The stock speaker actually sounds pretty good with the new tubes.

This weekend I will figure out what I need to eliminate the tone stack and order the parts for that. I would like to replace the factory volume pot (it is a tiny, plasticy thing) but I'll have to look closer as there is really not much room for a full size pot.

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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 9:22 am
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I think that the whole vol pot/input jacks circuit board could be be removed if you want to change the pot. Mount a decent pot, and two new switching jacks if needed, and the resistors can be soldered to the jacks. Maybe the existing jacks can be kept, they seem to be solid and are mounted to the chassis with metal and not plastic. :idea:

You'll probably be too busy playing to worry about the pot, or the other mods for awhile though. Sounds like you're really enjoying it from the start, and will have a nice little tone monster when you are done (for the time being :lol: ).

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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 4:12 pm
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Location: Natural Bridge, Virginia
shimmilou wrote:
I think that the whole vol pot/input jacks circuit board could be be removed if you want to change the pot. Mount a decent pot, and two new switching jacks if needed, and the resistors can be soldered to the jacks. Maybe the existing jacks can be kept, they seem to be solid and are mounted to the chassis with metal and not plastic. :idea:

You'll probably be too busy playing to worry about the pot, or the other mods for awhile though. Sounds like you're really enjoying it from the start, and will have a nice little tone monster when you are done (for the time being :lol: ).


Yeah, I'll figure out something for the pot. My other parts are on their way. :D

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Post subject: Re: New Amp Day - Champion 600
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:40 pm
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Where did you order the tubes from? I have a Gretsch G5222, which is the same thing, only tweedier.

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