Fender Champ Pros and Cons?

[Bunky]

Was considering getting a SF Champ Drip Edge. Would this ever be something you could gig with miced? Just wondreing of the pros and cons overall, if it leans it self more to singles/humbuckers etc..

Thanks

[corn husk bag]

Hums or singles OK. Great miced for recording. Don't know about in a live setting???? But............................................... .......................... I don't think I would use it for playing out. Great for practice!

Steve

[tcforec]

There are no cons to owning a Champ! Cheap, sound great and look cool as hell!

[corn husk bag]

Originally Posted by tcforec

There are no cons to owning a Champ! Cheap, sound great and look cool as hell!

Yes, I agree. But for playing out, no.

Steve

[Rotten]

Cons: no reverb, 8" speaker can fart out with high output pickups. I think they sound better with single coils.

Pros: you can sound like Eric Clapton and Joe Walsh in the '70s; cool sound.

[Onioner]

Pros: Easily overdriven, Purtty cleans, great size, highly attractive

Cons: Easily overdriven, 8" speaker, not a Tweed.

I think they can work fine for miced gigging if you don't need a lot of variation. If you're gonna just crank it, and maybe clean up a touch with your volume knob, I think they can be functional, in the right circumstance. If not though, there's nowhere really to go. Generally speaking, I think the conventional wisdom, that they're just too small, is probably apt.

Great amp though, even if it's not a Tweed...

[Aaron Smith]

I have a SF Champ. I gig it, mic'd. Original speaker is replaced with a Jensen Neo, which is louder and cleaner.

I don't get when people say that the BF/SF Champs are easily overdriven. With single coils mine is clean all the way up to 10; I have played two or three others, and they have all been like that. With a LP, I get a good R&R crunch over 7 on the volume. With a tube screamer, I get a singing lead tone. Even with the neck position of a LP, if you turn the amp's bass control down to about 4 the fartiness goes away.

I think it's an outstanding amp.

[champster]

Pros: They're small and light.

Cons: 8" speaker, thin sounding, worthless in a group.

[cugel]

save the orignal speaker and put an extra heavy duty weber innit. zero farting out ever. its a great amp and pedals really dont enhance the tone
just crank it and go if crunch is your thing. i only use nos tubes after screening many 6v6s and 12ax7s. huge difference, i was astonished.
yeah its a home practice/recording amp. i did use mine to play with a singer songwriter type and he told me i was too loud. the nerve.

[LPVM]

Are there really any cons? They are great little amps.

[Peeb]

pro: beautiful singing chimey fender tone; simiplicity; easy to carry; cheap to buy

con: 8" speaker sounds like an 8" speaker; simplicity; volume (it can get loud relative to conversational speaking, but not loud enough for playing out)

[Adman103]

Run one into a 2x12 for larger gigs and it'll speak up for itself quite well. Probably depends on how much clean headroom you need, but I was always surprised at how loud my champ was with a larger cab.

[Swain]

Kendrick is ahving a sale right now on their "Model 118". It's like a Tweed Champ, with a nice Line Out to run it into a larger Amp if wanted.

Great Amp!

[coldfingaz]

Pros: Cheap, easy to find in good shape, an all-time classic portable home practice/recording amp

Cons: Can sound boxy, harsh & are not as warm as a SFPR for same/similar usage (plus a PR can be used in many gig situations too)

The speaker is really important, IMO. An 8" can sound fine, but if you get a new speaker from Weber or whomever, you really need to break it in well to avoid harsh sounding tones.

[fjblair]

I have a 1968. Beautiful warm Fender tone. Breaks up fast, no head room.