Have any of you cracked open a new Fender Champion 600 yet??

[Bluzboy66]

I purchased a Fender Champion 600 about 2 weeks ago, and want to sweeten it up a bit. I ordered a Weber Signature Series 6" speaker, and am looking to upgrade the VERY low-grade Chinese tubes. These things are pure JUNK, Fender......come on! That's a pathetic way to cut cost on a TUBE amp.

I was at a friend's place Sunday (a phenomenal Blues harmonica player, BTW), and we tried a couple of vintage NOS 12AT7 tubes to see what they would sound like. WOW, what a difference. I plugged in his MIM reissue Strat with Lindy Fralins, and it was a match made in heaven. The square, hard clip was eliminated, and the top end was sweetened quite a bit.

Then, I plugged in my Edwards, Seymour Duncan P90 equipped Les Paul Junior clone, and the overdrive tone was very organic, whereas the Chinese JUNK 12AX7 delivered a harsh, low-fi top-end fizz that is very unpleasant. Being that I am really warming up to P90 equipped guitars, I need to find a preamp and 6v6 tube combination that will saturate 'just right'. I haven't swapped out the 6v6 yet, but I'm looking forward to trying a few different tubes in place of the factory budget power tube.

I'm curious to hear what you guys have discovered.

BTW, my harmonica playing buddy was REALLY digging the Champion 600. I got a funny feeling that those guys are going to spearhead the 'Champion 600 Mod' movement.

Mike

[karmadave]

Just got mine on Friday. It's a pretty killer little practice amp. Haven't cracked it open yet, but am planning to replace the speaker with a Weber 6" Alnico as soon as these are available. Tube-wise, think I'll put in a RI Tungsol 6V6 and 12AX7. Any issues I should be aware of in doing this?

-KD

[Bluzboy66]

Originally Posted by karmadave

Just got mine on Friday. It's a pretty killer little practice amp. Haven't cracked it open yet, but am planning to replace the speaker with a Weber 6" Alnico as soon as these are available. Tube-wise, think I'll put in a RI Tungsol 6V6 and 12AX7. Any issues I should be aware of in doing this?

-KD

I'd be curious to hear what the alnico speaker will sound like. I ordered the Weber ceramic version. I hope to have it within a week or so. I'll post an update once I've installed it, and allowed it to 'burn in' a bit.

No real issues as far as tube upgrades go. BUT, note that the tube sockets are rigidly mounted to the chassis, which is good as far as durability goes, but this also makes the tubes prone to some serious vibration at louder volumes. I'm going to upgrade to the most robust tubes I can find at a reasonable price. The cheesy Chinese tubes that came with the amp went microphonic almost instantly. They're not worth the material it took to make them, and that's a real shame.

Mike

[Bluzboy66]

OK, I received my Weber Signature Series 6" ceramic mag speaker today. WOW!! Instant improvement. So far, I've been playing my bone stock Fender Highway 1 Strat through the Weber-equipped Champion 600, and it sounds really good. The high notes sing a little sweeter, and the low notes are SIGNIFICANTLY tighter and rounder. Now I'm really looking forward to trying one of my P90-equipped Juniors through it, and finally, a Les Paul with humbuckers.

I was surprised to find that the Champion 600 is being manufactured in China. Overall build quality is good, but those Chinese tubes and speaker are pure garbage.

Mike

[dad gad]

I know there is a resistor you can lift on these to remove the tone stack, do any of y'all know which one that mite be, and also which leg of that resistor do you lift? thank you!

[Old Tele man]

...the "bottom" end (ground) of the 6.8K "middle" resistor.

[dad gad]

It doesnt allow me to post a schematic here, but i believe it would be r19 as r19 r20 r21 and r22 make up the tone stack and the closest value to the 6.8k mentioned is r19 which is 15k, the rest being 75k to 180k, does this sound rite? or does it have to do with layout on the board?

[CNOTE]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...the "bottom" end (ground) of the 6.8K "middle" resistor.

dad gad vbmenu_register("postmenu_2538721", true);
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It doesnt allow me to post a schematic here, but i believe it would be r19 as r19 r20 r21 and r22 make up the tone stack and the closest value to the 6.8k mentioned is r19 which is 15k, the rest being 75k to 180k, does this sound rite? or does it have to do with layout on the board?


You Guys are too good Only on TGP

[dad gad]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...the "bottom" end (ground) of the 6.8K "middle" resistor.

I lifted this last nite, and it effectively doubled the output of this amp. when on 6, i have the output i had @ 12 and at 12 it has an insane amount of gain with nice controlled feedback. Rite now the distortion has a slight fizziness but I think I can bias that out. I am taking it tonite to test vs my modded vj head thru a 1x12 hellatone 30 cab.

[Boomph]

Originally Posted by Bluzboy66

I'd be curious to hear what the alnico speaker will sound like. I ordered the Weber ceramic version. I hope to have it within a week or so. I'll post an update once I've installed it, and allowed it to 'burn in' a bit.

No real issues as far as tube upgrades go. BUT, note that the tube sockets are rigidly mounted to the chassis, which is good as far as durability goes, but this also makes the tubes prone to some serious vibration at louder volumes. I'm going to upgrade to the most robust tubes I can find at a reasonable price. The cheesy Chinese tubes that came with the amp went microphonic almost instantly. They're not worth the material it took to make them, and that's a real shame.

Mike

Why even put those darn tubes in there if they are crap? OK, they want to put in the cheapest tubes they can find to keep the cost down but it looks like everyone is changing them anyway.

Seems to me it would make more sense to ship without tubes and let the buyer decide which tubes to put in. So the dealer sets up a demo with say EH tubes and the buyer either order whatever tubes he wants or takes what the dealer has on the shelf and installs the tubes even someone working at the dealer can do it...takes like two minutes to do it anyway.

The speaker i can actually live with but i guess i will upgrade that to a weber somewhere down the line. I am waiting patiently for some serious mods to this little 6v6 amp.:AOK

[dad gad]

does anyone know what primary impedence this OT is putting out?

[CocoTone]

Originally Posted by dad gad

I lifted this last nite, and it effectively doubled the output of this amp. when on 6, i have the output i had @ 12 and at 12 it has an insane amount of gain with nice controlled feedback. Rite now the distortion has a slight fizziness but I think I can bias that out. I am taking it tonite to test vs my modded vj head thru a 1x12 hellatone 30 cab.

Buddy, thats all greek to me. I need a pic of what needs to be lifted.

CT.

[disaster]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...the "bottom" end (ground) of the 6.8K "middle" resistor.

how would one go about putting in a switch that that would lift this? couldn't be too tough...

[defzeppardica]

i just put in a jj 12ax7 tube that i got for 11 bucks. the sound difference is huge. for some reason, the high input is cleaner till the low. but its amazing. i am going to put in a jj 6v6 as soon as i learn how to bias the amp

[defzeppardica]

holy crap, it sounds amazing qwith the jj 12axt and the 6v6!