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So I recently acquired a second hand little Fender Champion 600 5W amp... and what a beautiful little thing it is.

I wanted to get something for band rehearsals (and maybe smaller gigs) since my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe is too loud and too heavy to be chugging around everywhere. Ideally I'd like to (still) replace the Hot Rod with a Princeton Reverb, but I don't own a bank, so next best is to have a little low-watt tube amp for rehearsals and the Hot Rod for gigging.

I have to say, this thing blew me away when I first played it. The clean tones are superb, real Fender chime. It has to be said though, the natural overdriven sound is a bit nasty, I think a better quality speaker might solve it. Using my TS808 at lower levels does improve it however.

So, after reading a bit on the web, I found a lot of mods commonly done to improve the sound of this little animal, first thing.. replace the grill cloth with something lighter, and less dense. I went out to look for grill cloth material at a few fabric shops, but didn't find anything (suggestions are welcomed!). I ended up buying hessian fabric and fitted it ? I could already hear an improvement, a bit more sparkle in the sound..

Then I swapped the old tubes with good quality ones.

Follow link below for a short recording, gear setup:

  • Fender MIJ Strat (as shown in pictures above) with Lindy Fralin Blues Special Pickups (mostly on neck pickup, full volume)
  • No pedals
  • Fender Champion 600 "Hessian" ? volume at around 7-8 (I think).
  • Sennheiser E906 microphone into M-Audio interface feeding into GarageBand
  • Splash of reverb added in GarageBand

Next mod will most likely be a speaker swap.

Voodoo Next mod will most likely be a speaker swap.

Sounding pretty good!

I recently saw a Gretsch G5222 (Champ clone) and the one thing it has is a external speaker out - reckon I'd consider adding that mod and a 1x12/2x12 cab. before a speaker swop?

    V8

    Cool idea, but I really enjoy how simple and lightweight this setup is, especially for rehearsals. Once I get a external cab that will change. But it could work lekke for recordings.

      Voodoo Sounds pretty and "spanky".

      I would never have thought that changing the grill cloth would have had such a big effect on the sound. And the hessian actually makes it look a little more vintage and less "polished". Clever ?

          Nice amp. Never understood why one would want valves to hang upside down (bad cooling) behind a speaker (bad vibrations . ha), but these work well and stays popular. I have also thought about hessian, seeing as the grill cloth one would want is not a common item in the shops. Looks right too.

          I agree that you should fit an external speaker socket, to test with cabinets. If you find cabinets with the correct impedance rating, that is.

          My "in progress" champ will be fitted with a Jenssen MOD 8-20, just seems like a good place to start, and cheap too. You will have to decide if Volume is important, then an expensive 98 dB speaker might be required.

          My kit build will now continue, seeing as I sourced a new 9-pin valve socket (see my build thread). My eventual plan is a slightly modified version, with the 5F2-A tone control, upright tubes on a bigger chassis, still have to decide head or combination, combination would be the better space saving option. A small-ish compact amp.

          Enjoy!

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