Creating a Champ Reverb

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sookwinder
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Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by sookwinder » Sun Apr 11, 2010 6:28 am

I always find it amazing how a little encouragement from those who are more experienced leads to a novice becoming confident and then this may well lead to the novice taking on slightly more difficult projects. A couple of years back I was having dinner with a fellow forumite and I said words to the effect that I have no problem repairing vintage guitars or coming up with new / weird ideas for guitar projects, but I’ll never have the knowledge or guts to do anything with an amplifier.

How things have changed in less than two years… I blame you Brad, I blame you Jay, I blame you John … I blame all of you !!!!!

OK … while I was attempting to understand the principles of Fender amp design and replace the electrolytic capacitors in my Bronco a year or so back, I came across these series of photos on the web. They just blew me away. I just love the idea of a “head and cab” small enough for the lounge room while watching TV.

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Time went buy, I got my 73 SF DR, did all the electrical maintenance stuff on that which was required … learnt a bit. Picked up a 68 SF VC, started to understand the circuit and layout drawings even better. My 66 BF PR arrived, besides the electrolytics, I had to replace the transformer for 240V Aussie power (the 120V PT was a replacement anyway).

I had been toying with the idea of building a kit amp (Mojotone or Weber), but the shipping costs really killed the idea. Plus they all seem a little too much “all care, no responsibility” for my liking. Then during a lull period while building the partscaster 63-66 Jaguar I thought “why don’t I build a Champ Head from a broken (and) or cheap 70s Vibrochamp”. [I didn’t particually want to ruin a perfectly good BF or SF VC]. I am more happy redesigning something or modifying a project.

With the help of Jay I kept my eye out for a damaged VC or Bronco amp, missed a few on ebay because the blood was in the water and the bidding frenzy sent the prices way too high. Then I picked up (what I would eventually discover to be) 77 VC for just over $300. Yeah cheaper than what was going, although not as cheap as I had wished. The amp worked, but I will improve it.

Here is the great wall of VC/Bronco amps, with the intended patient/victim on the right.

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The following pics show the condition of the 77 VC. There was a high level of rust on ferrous metal parts external of the chassis (none with in). The cabinet was in average condition, the speaker had been replaced and the valves , although vintage (late 70s, early 80s) were nothing to write home about.

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when I opened her up I immediately noticed that one of the electrolytics capacitors had been replaced and that a 1 kohm resistor was a little worse for wear


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I did also observe that the power valve glowed bright red when the amp was played at 8 or above, not what I had experienced with the Bronco or the 68 VC. It’s a bad photo, but I think you’ll get the idea.


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The intention was to build up a head unit using the VC amp chassis and a (new) head cabinet. But I wanted something a little different to a standard VC. You see basically I never use the vibrato controls on any of my amps, be they a Bronco, VC, DR or PR … never. But I do love a deep and silky reverb and the best reverb I have ever heard is that in my 66 BF PR. So I had a quick glance at the circuits for the VC and the PR and decided that to replace the vibrato section of the VC with the reverb section from a PR would be a great idea.

This would create a Champ Reverb.

Yeah I know the PR reverb section requires an extra 12AT7 valve and the voltages don’t quite match up, but what’s a few hurdles when you’re on a roll, I ask you ?

Electronic Components
The components on the VC circuit which would be replaced / upgraded are:

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A; The tone circuit capacitors. This is where I needed to ask many many questions of people like Jay , Brad and others. Thankfully they all treated me gently and eventually I chose to use some Sozo Vintage Blue Molded capacitors and a silver mica cap.

B: The 25uF electrolytic capacitors are a no brainer , Sprague Atom Electrolytic capacitors. But rather than 25V, I went with 50V caps.
C: The electrolytic capacitor can in a 1977 VC is a 40/20/20 uF set up. A direct replacement was selected

D: The 1 Kohm (1 watt) resistor will be replaced with some NOS 60s/70s Allen Bradley Carbon Composite resistors that I have in my parts bin.

E: Brad suggested that potentially the reason the power valve was running hot as well as why the 1 kohm resistor had fried itself was a fundamental design flaw. The 470ohm resistor should be of the order of 1kohm. This would allow the 6V6GT power valve to operate within its correct bias range. (remember the VC circuit is fixed bias) I decided to select a 2 watt 820ohm resistor for this. Brad also suggested that the corresponding electrolytic cap would be upgraded from 25uF to 50uF.

F: Brad also mentioned that the small ceramic capacitor between on the 6V6GT, used for suppression of parasitic frequencies can be removed.

G: The coupling capacitors with be replaced with Jupiter vintage tone caps

The circled components: This is essentially the vibrato section of the circuit. These will be removed and replaced with components making up the reverb section of the PR circuit.

I planned to replaced the PT with a 240 V Mercury Magnetics power transformer.

When I explained to the guys at MM what I was planning to do they suggested: “The FTPO-55 output is perfect for use with a single 6V6 tube. It has the single 4 ohm secondary tap. This OT is a little larger than the Champ OT and
it will deliver a warmer and richer tonality than the stock Champ OT”

I also picked up the Mercury Magnetics FBFRT reverb transformer, for the reverb section transplant.

By this stage this project was starting to feel a little like “grand father’s axe”

One of this issues I had from the outset was the actual reverb tank. Which make to use ? What model ? The is very little immediately available information about what the various reverb set ups should be used on Fender amps.

By the time I had selected what I wanted to order, Accutronics had been bought out by the Belton company and everything shipped to South Korea. Fuck !

Given my (work) dealings with Daewoo (in Korea) I have absolutely no confidence with anything Korean. Sorry that is just my experience of 8 years interaction. However after a number of emails, I managed to contact someone at Belton in South Korea and ordered a short 3 spring reverb tank (something that would fit in the confined space of a Champ head). It was cheap, shipping was cheap and when it arrived is had Accutronics embossed on it !!

The Head Cabinet
In parallel with all my activities on the electrical side, I had been checking out various cabinet builders. Locally here in Oz there are some excellent cabinet builders … in fact I had a tweed 2 x 10” cabinet built 3 or 4 years back. But maybe it was the “new available tolex colour” of seafoam green that swayed me, but I selected Mojotone as the company to build the head cabinet. Mind you it was touch and go for a while because I did not want Mojotone to use FEDEX as the shipping courier, because the nearest (only) FEDEX delivery centre is 100km away. But in the end they agreed to use USPS.

So a seafoam green tolex head cabinet with Aged Black/white/silver BF grille cloth was ordered.

Speaker Cabinet
I had not initially thought about having a speaker cabinet made as well, but as luck would have it, thanks to some great advice from Jay, I picked up a pair of 1963 Jensen 8 ohm C8R speakers cheap on ebay from a great seller (Brent) who was moving and downsizing his stock of project parts.

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I now had a reason the have a 2 x 8” cabinet made. Once I was happy with the quality of the head cabinet from Mojotone I would then order the speaker cabinet.

Faceplate
Given that I was intending to remove the “vibro” section of the amp and replace it with a reverb, the existing VIBRO CHAMP faceplate that came with the amp would be of no use (it also was quite scratched / relic’d).

I initially asked Mojotone about the service they provide for custom faceplates, but the price they gave, although probably realistic, was essentially a mass production cost to manufacture 50 odd faceplates. If I was going to spending in excess of $500 just for printing, then I would rather find a local Aussie screen printer who most likely would charge me similar rates, but at least being local I could discuss the issue face to face.

The removal of the vibrato section would leave two control pots spare. One would be utilised for “REVERB” , as per the Princeton Reverb. The second would be a “DWELL” control, copied from the “Fender Reverb Unit” set up.

My idea was to order a Mojotone “blank” VC faceplate. Remove (or paint over) what Mojotone have printed and have my own logo silk screened on instead, as shown below

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The Vibro to Reverb transplant
Although I have spent many hours looking over the various schematics and layout drawings of both the VC and the PR and have a pretty good idea what I am going to do, I am still going to get some advice from my manager at work, who designs his own amps.

The B+ voltage by the time it gets to the PR reverb section is (theoretically) 240V, where as the Vibrato pull off point for the B+ is about 340V (even though this is a late 70s SF VC, I am installing what is effectively a BF VC spec’d PT). I could pull the B+ voltage off after all of the electrolytic caps, but this still is only down to 320V. Obviously some additional components need to be added to reduce the voltage down.

Further, I will wait until I have fixed up the amp (replaced all the components as previously describe) and then I shall measure the actual B+ voltage to see where everything is at.

The reverb circuit also requires an additional 12AT7 valve to be installed. [Half of the existing 12AX7 used for the vibrato will be utilized.] This additional valve will be positioned between the two existing 12AX7s.


Replacing Transformers and rewiring for 240V
Replacing the transformers (PT & OT) is pretty easy now, given that I have done it twice before (if you survive your first, you’re an expert !!), Even though this VC had been built in 1977 with a 3 pin lead/plug, I wanted to get rid of the “death cap”, as well as replace the slider “on/off” switch (the same as is used on Jazzmasters and Jaguars) with one that could handle a few more amps.

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The PT went in without a hitch (this time I remembered to twist the paired wire groupings)

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The guys at Mercury Magnetics had recommended a slightly larger (in output) Output transformer. It was also physically bigger. When I went to mount the OT I was plesently surprised that Fender had had the foresight to already drill a screw hole that aligned with the larger footprint of the MM OT.

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Capacitors
The electrolytic Capacitors (the 25uFs and the Capcan) were replaced along with the coupling capacitor (with a Jupiter) and the caps for the treble/bass (with Sozo and silver mica).

I had taken Brad’s advice and replaced the 25uF / 25v electrolytic of the 6V6 with a 50uF / 50v, as well as the associated resistor upgraded to approx 860ohms / 2watt.

Well the improvement in tone and tightening up of the bass response was so impressive, I went and made the same changed to my Bronco ( I had the soldering iron good and hot anyway …)

Vibro circuitry
Then I removed the circuitry and valve associated with the vibrato.
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By this stage it had been a long day and as I mentioned elsewhere in this forum I was tired, I should have stopped but I didn’t. I then picked up the amp chassis and caught a blast of 240v up my left arm. I know it was a short time before the houses “earth leakage safety switch” kicked into action, but it was a weard feeling standing there knowing one is being electrocuted. There’s not much one can do. If not for the safety switch, I would have been a crispy critter.

I have now worked out what I did wrong. I just my left hand over the top edge of the chassis and touched the top of the fuse holder, which is live.

I have now learnt to stop when I start to get tired.

One thing I did notice as I later looked for the reason for my shocking experience was that the 6V6 socket had been burnt/chard so much that sections of it had crumbled away and pins/wires were floating freely.
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I replaced both the rectifier and the 6V6 sockets with new ceramic sockets.

Head Cab
I had ordered a head cab from MOJOTONE and when it arrived it was more than I had expected. It was sublime.
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I was so impressed with the quality of the workmanship that I immediately ordered a matching 2x8” cab.

I had also received the reverb tank. It fitted perfectly into the limited space in the Champ head. Fixing some double sided Velcro was a breeze with the staple gun.
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Again I was able to get the assistance of my friend Carl, who has his own engineering company and use his rather large drill press to drill
- a hole for the additional 12AT7 valve
- holes for the 3 RCA jacks
- a hole for the speaker phono jack
- a hole for the reverb transformer wires
- various other screw holes.

Everything went well, except that drilling the phono jack/RCA plug holes on the rear section of the chassis was somewhat problematic as even though the chassis was secured, the chassis wall itself would move slightly as the drill pressed was lowered. The “errors’ will be covered up by the rear backplate I have ideas for.

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The faceplates had also come with the Head Cab. MOJOTONE sells “nameless” (ie no FENDER) faceplates for the Vibrochamp. I did not at this have a full idea of how I would get the correct printing on the faceplates, but at least having the hardware was a start.

I removed the SF faceplate from the chassis to have a look how the MOJOTONE faceplates looked. I did note when I removed the knobs from the SF faceplate that the pots that Fender used back in 1977 must have had some coded colour system judging by the day-glo colours of the shafts.
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When I fitted the MOJOTONE faceplate to the chasiss, it sort of fit… but something was wrong. No matter how I adjusted it, the holes never quite lined up. I checked it also against the BRONCO and my 68 SFVC and the same issue arose. The holes were close but no cigar.

Then for what ever reason I turned the MOJOTONE faceplates over to have the blank backside of the faceplate facing outward. It fit perfectly!!!! Not only did it fit perfectly, but when you line it up against the original Fender SFVC faceplate there is no evidence of holes being even slightly askew

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As luck would have it, I was surfing ebay and come across a seller who was selling amp chassis kits along with faceplates that had the word FENDER on them. I had read this guys name in some of the online amp/guitar forums and his product had a great reputation for quality. I contacted him and to cut a long story short, he will be printing the design I want on the four MOJOTONE faceplates I bought (and have sent him) AND manufacturing/printing metal blanks for a rear backplate and shipping from Thailand to Australia for $180.
All I can say is Wooooooooow !!!!

I can’t wait for the front and back faceplates to arrive.
Special thanks to Jay for his kind assistance in doing the Adobe artwork for the plates. Thanks mate.

Installing the reverb circuitry – take 1.
My naïve idea initially was to just remove the vibrato section of the circuitry and replace it was something like what was in the Princeton Reverb

I had spoken to my boss who designs his own amps and we came up with a circuit that would allow the grafting of the Princeton Reverb reverb section into the VC.

The sections in blue in the pic below are the PR reverb sections. My boss also recommended that I remove the 220k resistor coming off the 6V6 and change the 500pF cap to 0.002uF. I sort of understood his logic on the latter (to keep the R C ratio the same) but I didn’t really understand his logic on removing the 200k resistor. But I know nothing so that is how I proceeded.

I worked out a nice clean layout for the new components, using the space left by the removal of the vibrato section. Also it was a good move on my part some months ago when I ordered a bag of the “rivet” like things used in the turret board to locate components. I would used the existing rivets and add what additional ones I needed.
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Just for comparison I checkout the VC from the 60s to the 70s
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You can see where Fender have instigated “cost downs” over the years and I have to ask why were some done, as (as I will find out) the cost of the “cost down” could not have been more than the additional time the “cost down” require.
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Installed the new rivets.
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Then the components
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At this stage it was looking quite neat and tidy …. (if only I knew what was coming !!)

I then added some additional rivets as per the early BF and SF design, just so it was easier to get access to the voltage rail from the cap can.
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Already in the above photo is my first mistake, but it would take me a week to discover (not to mention the loss of what little hair I have)

Once all the leads to and from the valves were soldered in, it started to look a little messy. But with the limited space there was nothing one could do about it.

Here is the completed take one of the Champ Reverb.
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I took it into where the VC cab and my guitars were, plugged everthing in, including the reverb tank and turned it on. Almost immediately I knew something was wrong. Besides the fact that no reverb could be heard, I could smell that classic smell of burning electrical components.

Shit.

Turned everything off, removed the valves, the reverb cables, the guitar cable, the power cable (You don’t know how many times I have done that over the past 10 days).

Went back to my work room to discover this:
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This cap off the 6V6 had obviously had got a wee bit warm. Initially I thought that maybe the 860ohm resistor next to it had got a little hot and caused the outside cover of the capacitor to melt. I replaced the capacitor and set everything up again and turned it on. I am not proud that I sacrificed another 50uF / 50V capacitor, but I did learn something. It wasn’t because the resistor was too hot.

A this point I asked a few people here at OSG for their advice or words of wisdom. Brad helped out a bit, but I have to say a huge thank you to James (Jimboyogi) who’s calm advice helped me during periods when I could have easily just thrown it all in the bin.

After a number of discussions I decided to add back in the 220k resistor connected to the 6V6. This solved the problem of the suicidal 50uF capacitor. So be warned… do not remove this resistor. I also measured the voltage drop across the capacitor with the 220k reinstated and it was 37V. Good advice from Brad to go with the 50V rated cap in that position.

Next issue was why did I not hear any reverb at all.

I probably would have thought of it myself, but the (calm) suggestion from James was to set up a signal which could be tracked and looked for where the reverb disappears.

I don’t own a signal generator… not something I would use that often. But I do have a DAW and using SOUNDFORGE wave editing program set up a 2000Hz signal which could be put into the guitar input of the amp.

I set it up with an input of 0.01V. Then went searching for signal and for DC volts to check against what the circuit diagram says (one has to be careful because depending on what circuit diagram you are using some voltage level can be 80 or 100 volts higher ,,, corresponding to increase B+ voltages as the SF VC were changed by Fender in the early to mid 70s.)

The DC values were roughly OK, but no matter what I would do, sometimes the AC values looked OK, other times they were just plain wrong.

After a number of days and evening of getting no where I decided to pull everything apart and resolder the socket for the 12AT7. Was no really happy with this and it would hurt.

While doing this I discovered one of the issues.
Fender have a colour convention that the REVERB INPUT RCA plug is painted/coloured red. Don’t knbow why, but every 60s and 70s Fender amp I have seen (with reverb) has this red reverb input plug.

When I looked at the reverb tank there were two plug locations. Obviously one for input and one for output. One was colour red plastic, one was coloured white plastic. I automatically placed the input plug into the red socket on the reverb tank. WRONG!

The red plastic plug on the reverb tank is the REVERB OUTPUT.

When I discovered this boy was I excited. Quickly put everything back together, plugged in a guitar and nothing… Just the dry normal guitar note. Not a shred of reverb.

Again I went around with a (newly purchased) digital multi meter, but still no joy. The AC values I was reading just didn’t make sense.

I had been working on this now for 5 days and I was just sick of it. It was late so I decided to go to bed, and just took the VC and the PR layout drawing with me to have one final look.

As I am looking at each layout drawing I could sense something was wrong, something wasn’t adding up. Then it hit my like an anvil hitting the Coyote.

The VC has a single 6V6 power valve. It is earthed via pin7. The PR has two 6V6s, they are earth via pin8. When I was installing the reverb signal line to the 6V6 I was obviously looking at the PR layout drawing a counted around from the earth to see what pin on the 6V6 to connect it to and counted to the wrong pin!!! I had connected the reverb output to pin4 (the high voltage) rather than to the correct pin5.

Slept well that night.
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Last Friday, got home from work … quick bite to eat and then back to the soldering iron. Moved the reverb output from the V3 12AX7 to the correct pin on the 6V6 and …..

I had …… REVERB….. splashy, wet, dripping reverb.

Turned everything off, went to bed early. Life was back on an even footing
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Installing the reverb circuitry – take 2.
Saturday morning, up bright and early (well 10.30Am is early for me), plugged in a guitar turned on my newly completed Champ Reverb and played a chord with the amp set on 10 …. Twangggggggggggg

Yeah there was great dollops of wet reverb there, but it sounded like Chairman Mao had invented the Fender strat and was trying to play Chinese Opera with it.

The sound was anemic, thin, no bottom end … yes I loved the reverb, but compared to the the Bronco sitting near by it was like a 60s hand held trasister radio (remember those ?)

At least now I had a reverb signal, but what was going wrong ? Now ?!?!

With the aid of some alligator hook up wires I shorted out the 3.3M/10pF just before the 6V6 (see pic below) and immediately that great Champ sound returned. Removed the shorting wire and the reverb was there , but the amp had no balls.

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After about an hour of this … I sat back realized the design had failed. I could either get a great dry sound or a lower volume reverb signal which sounded shit. It was one or the other.

I would have to start again…. Shit.

I did note that the volume of the reverb signal was way lower than that of the dry signal…. So my only hope was to use the “unused half of the second 12AX7 valve to boost the reverb signal.

Normally at this stage one would ask an electronics engineer for some help… but as I was fresh out of electronic engineers, I pressed on regardless.

Having given up on the idea of using the Princeton Reverb as a model for the reverb of the CR, I turned to the circuitry of the Deluxe Reverb

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As you can see in the pic above (I have removed the Vibrato input section from the pic to not confused things) this appears to work the way I thing a DRY / REVERB system should operate. The dry signal (shown by the green arrow ) is amplified and then a section of it is bled off and “Reverbed” and then this (shown by the blue arrow) is then combined together before it goes to the Power valves and associated other valves. To my uneducated eye, this has two distinct signal paths which are only combined at the last moment.

The Princeton Reverb system always confused me, as there didn’t appear to be (in reality) two distinct signal paths for the DRY and the REVERB signals. Ahhh but what do I know ?

So I then re wired the 12AT7 socket again (just because I could) and had to destroy my nice clean layout and add in another 8 or 9 components. I knew that I had achieved reverb, so at least the early stage of my circuit actually worked. I was now attempting to use the spare half of the second 12AX7 to amplify the reverb signal.

If one compares most of the Fender BF amps which have reverb, the designs are very similar. I added the additional components, but I was uncertain about the two resistors and the capacitor that I circled in red. It didn’t make sense that what appears to be the signal input of the 12AT7 be connected to the high voltage rail.

But I followed the plan… remember this is an electronic design, on the run, by someone who should not be let anywhere near live power….

Here it is ….
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By this stage I had gone out and bought a couple of dozen alligator clip wires, as I was sick and tired of soldering components which would be removed 3 hours later.

Plugged it in…. zip, nothing, narda, zilch … no reverb. Just the normal dry guitar signal.

By this stage it was late Saturday night…. I was “this” close to dumping the whole idea of a Champ Reverb, but I was too tired to even weigh up my options.

I did one more thing … I removed the input cable to the Reverb tank and then dropped the head cabinet (with the reverb tank inside) hard enough on the floor to see if anything would happen. We all know the sound of a valve amp with reverb being banged or dropped too hard while it’s still on.

Sure enough that classic sound of the springs hitting each other splashed out of the speaker…. So I knew my reverb system amplification was working. It just wasn’t getting any of the guitar signal.

Installing the reverb circuitry – take 3.
Woke up this morning (Sunday) and I knew I had a plan. The full circuitry after the inputs on the Deluxe reverb looks like a voltage splitter (maybe yes, maybe no) But I was thinking why use a voltage splitter when I already have the Dwell pot. Maybe I don’t need those two resistors and the capacitor that I circled in red on the DR circuit diagram.

Also it just is stupid to have the input to the 12AT7 coming from the HV rail. It has to come from the main signal before it is sent to the power valves.

So I ran the 12AT7 input back to where I thought it should be and ……..

Yes….. we had glorious reverb with a full bodied guitar signal. It was comparable to the sound out of my Princeton Reverb.

The Champ Reverb has taken its first true breaths of life…. I sat back for half an hour just playing slow chords on my Jaguar and listening to the delightful wet, really wet reverb.

It had worked, I don’t know why or how it had worked, but it did. Even now looking at the circuit diagram it still doesn’t really make sense… but who cares it works.
Manly of these wires were first put in (far too long in length) just as a temporary thing. But I am loathed now to replace any of them, as I don’t want to ruin anything.
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I did notice that if I turned the dwell all past about 5 or 6, the reverb would go into a feedback loop (which sort of makes sense given the crazy way the input and output of the reverb circuitry is anyway). So I stuck a 1M resistor before the 250K dwell pot and that stopped all the “crazy man”: feedback effects occurring on the reverb.

Here is the final circuit (well at least the final circuit as of 11PM Sunday 11th April 2010)
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A higher resolution drawing can be found:
Champ Reverb schematic

Here is the final layout
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A higher resolution drawing can be found:
Champ Reverb layout

Now I await the faceplates and the 2x8” cabinet.
When I do my next CR, for my nephew, I think I may buy some blank component board material and layout the components in a more tidy arrangement.
Thanks again to James for his invaluable assistance.

Geeezzz I need some sleep
relaxing alternative to doing actual work ...

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Pacafeliz
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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by Pacafeliz » Sun Apr 11, 2010 8:16 am

oh WOW... i've been dreaming about something like this for YEARS but i don't have the skills or whatever it takes...

hypothetical question... how much, aprox., would you charge me to convert my '74 butchered vibro champ to one of these? :blush:

good luck, thanks for posting!

Pat.
i love delay SO much ...that i procrastinate all the time.

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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by OffYourFace » Sun Apr 11, 2010 10:48 am

wow David, that was AMAZING!!! hahaha, wow...

i'm just going to buy a Princeton Reverb though... haha.

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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by greyman » Sun Apr 11, 2010 11:01 am

Wow! Great post. Glad you finally got it all working.

Thanks for taking the time to post your project as always!

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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by Stereordinary » Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:05 pm

Awesome idea, and stellar post as par for you David. I love my Champ, and the only thing I can think of that would make it cooler is reverb.

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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by Orang Goreng » Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:13 pm

The matching reverb tank bag is the best thing ever.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man's a freak.

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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by kypdurron » Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:18 pm

incredible post. I smell Leo's footsteps here 8)
"When we built the Stratocaster we thought that was the world's greatest guitar. Then we said let's make something even better - so we built the Jazzmaster"
(Freddie Tavares, Fender R&D 1953-1985)

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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by Jacco » Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:35 pm

I love posts like these :)
Funny actually that nobody thought of, and made a Champ reverb earlier. But then when I see where you went through..
Great piece of work and I love te form factor of a Champ head and a 2x8 cab. I can't wait for the final pics..
Will you add those tiltback legs too?

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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by kypdurron » Sun Apr 11, 2010 1:20 pm

Actually I had a Champ at service once that needed a major workover anyway. I asked if reverb could be done, but the tech said he don't recommend it as it'd be rather difficult and not cheap at all. Seems he was right with that.
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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by Maggieo » Sun Apr 11, 2010 6:38 pm

Wow, that is made of pure, industrial-grade AWESOME.
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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by Jay » Sun Apr 11, 2010 7:46 pm

:long drawn out golf clap:

:)

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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by jimboyogi » Sun Apr 11, 2010 11:51 pm

What an amazing ride David, and what a great result!

Congratulations, another great Sookwinder project to inspire us :)

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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by Slow-Pop » Mon Apr 12, 2010 10:36 am

This post was gripping! I couldn't stop reading it. I envy your bravery and I'm very happy you survived another amp project to share with us. :)

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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by øøøøøøø » Tue Apr 13, 2010 12:23 pm

I salute you. That's a tough project.

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Re: Creating a Champ Reverb

Post by shadowplay » Tue Apr 13, 2010 1:03 pm

Serious flair involved in this. Respect!

D
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