nev,
I have the Champion 600 and it is awesome! I will say that it was well worth the $149(US) I paid for it. If you get a chance I would say buy it. Also, play it for a while and break it in. Alot of guys mod it before properly breaking in the speaker. Mine is going to stay straight stock. I love it!
ABS

You can do one of the champ clone builds, if you have the skills, it's about half the price of a champ.

Or get an silverface champ from like the 70's for like $200-$300

My wife treated me to a gorgeous '68 Bronco for my birthday in May.

What a sweet gal!

Arjay

_________________
"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

I would like to build a deluxe clone, and then just have like a reverb pedal, chorus pedal, and a wah wah and I think I would be good to go.

A buddy of mine swears by a little Gretsch amp with just a volume control that he picked up a while ago-it's a new reissue-and he and another guy use one each when they play a weekly jazz gig using only the controls on their Gretsches-an old Country Gentleman and a new Black Falcon.

_________________
'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

+1

The Music dept at work has just bought one and i've been stealing it on the weekends. Awesome little amp. Really nice pure tone/sounds



I'm considering buying one as I'm a bedroom /home studio player and my signed Marshall VS100 is way to loud to get a decent sound out of it.

If it helps, the August edition of Guitarist Magazine has a small piece on small amps for recording and lists the following along with the Champ 600

Blackstar HT-5
Marshall Class 5
Epiphone Valve Junior
Vox AC4TV

Andy

_________________
Pending Greatness

Here are a few more high-end choices for you, friend:

www.swartamps.com

http://www.vintage47amps.com/files/index.php?id=46

http://staramps.com/index.php?option=co ... 6&Itemid=3

http://www.mahaffayamps.com/little-lanilei-3350lt.htm

Great link, That Supro Spectator Shure sounds sweet, and for the price, That may be my next investment.

Yeah man, I totally agree, most of the time I play with either my Tele or Strat through my 76 SF Champ, nothing else. No effects, just my volume and tone controls and my fingers. I'm still amazed at the almost limitless amounts of sounds I can get from this lil thing. Used to have a champ 600 but it wasn't nearly as good as this old SF, it lacked the punch and warmth that this one has (prob cuz it only had a 6" speaker). If you're thinking about a 57 Champ, you should also look at perhaps a vintage blackface champ, those in good condition are about the same price and will sound as good if not better. Either way, I think you will be more than satisfied ^^

_________________
I traded my car in for a microphone.

Hey Nevin, remind me of what amp you ply through now

Bill

_________________
Hey, Boy Blue is back!

I wouldn,t waste my money on a 57 champ. The crunch is ok at mid volume but the dont clean up that good. There not built that good. Really try out the Class 5 Marshall. I,ve had mine for about 2 monts now and still am very impressed with it.

Oh yeah, I remember... I wonder would the drri be what your looking for? Might be a bit loud for the apartment.. but it could be tamed with an attenuater

_________________
Hey, Boy Blue is back!

Hey Nevin, I have the Tolex BJ and I can dial a lot of impressive tones (to me). What is it that you'd like to hear from this amp, or any other for that mater?
Claude.

I think that I remember reading somewhere that musicians from the good ole days, sliced the cone of their speakers with razor blades, to fine tune their sound the way they wanted. There is so much tricks, swaps, mods and what else that can be done on an amp nowadays, I think that without learning electronics, you and I will only have to play what is around for the rest of our lives.
Claude.

Link Wray invented fuzz guitar by slicing his speaker cpnes.

Anyway nevin, I have a Champ 600. I think it'll fit the bill for you.

I use mine all the time I love the way it sounds at volume level 8, it gets that classic Fender not quite clean not quite dirty sound right there. If i need to clean the tone up, I just roll back the volume on my guitar a bit, and if I want some more dirt i just step on my old (79 or 80,) Ibanez tubescreamer(the new ones don't sound the same, at all, even the expensive reissues.) A little reverb and it's also surf heaven. I have one of those outboard reverb tanks, but the new fender pedals are quite authentic sounding too.)

You won't get any really heavy metal dirt out of it, but i get pretty much every Fendery rock and blues tones i want. Get a Marshall class5 and you'll have nearly every single usable guitar tone at low volume you could even ask for. (They capture the classic plexi tone way better than I could have imagined.)

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.