New amp! Wuuh!

Make it loud here.
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mikkiki
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New amp! Wuuh!

Post by mikkiki » Fri May 16, 2008 9:25 am

With help from a lot of you guys in this topic, I decided to take a ride into the city and try out some small tube amps. Two to be exact. I ended up with a Fender Champion 600 and so far I'm very happy about the purchase.

It's really small and handy and doesn't play too loud unless i crank it too much up. Although that means that i'm not able to get the overdriven tube-sound so often, but that's fine. It looks really nice as well - not really expensive but definately not cheap at all.

It has two input, a high and a low - the low one is pretty good in the apartment i live in. Maybe a tad too loud for most ocassions. The down side is that to get the tubes to really sound great, the volume has to be more than 6-7 (it goes up to 12), which not always is gonna please my parents. But it still sounds a lot better than my transistor amp - so I'm happy! :D

Of course i can't end this thread without some pictures, so here they are..

Image

Image

Image

And one with the Jazzy..  :)
Image

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northern_dirt
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Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by northern_dirt » Fri May 16, 2008 9:32 am

yum..
I need to get one
'cleanest, best pleasure'

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Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by mjet » Fri May 16, 2008 9:53 am

How much do they cost in Denmark? Here they go for around 210 EUR (that's USD 320 for US folks). They seem to go for USD 200 in the US.
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Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by northern_dirt » Fri May 16, 2008 10:01 am

mjet wrote: How much do they cost in Denmark? Here they go for around 210 EUR (that's USD 320 for US folks). They seem to go for USD 200 in the US.
$200 in Canada too
'cleanest, best pleasure'

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parry
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Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by parry » Fri May 16, 2008 10:49 am

Hmmmmmmmm...
I was considering hunting down a tweed blues junior (for playing at home), but THIS...
THIS is interesting...



And much cheaper!
Hmmmmmmmmm...
:-\
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mikkiki
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Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by mikkiki » Fri May 16, 2008 11:15 am

i paid 1495 danish crowns which in us dollars right now is $310(.57 to be exact).

i a/b tested it with a harley benton ga5 which is $166 in denmark. sadly it wasn't possible to try the epiphone valve jr which i had looked at also. but compared to the harley benton (which wasn't bad, just not as good), the champion had much more a sound of headroom.

now i just have to get some novak pickups and i will be a even more happy man (nearly boy). :)

i hope that made sense. some of it was a bit harder to explain than i expected.. :-\

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northern_dirt
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Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by northern_dirt » Fri May 16, 2008 11:22 am

hansonparry wrote: Hmmmmmmmm...
I was considering hunting down a tweed blues junior (for playing at home), but THIS...
THIS is interesting...

I want a blue JR as well..

I love these itsy bitsy amps
'cleanest, best pleasure'

BenHagerty

Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by BenHagerty » Fri May 16, 2008 11:28 am

northern_dirt wrote:
hansonparry wrote: Hmmmmmmmm...
I was considering hunting down a tweed blues junior (for playing at home), but THIS...
THIS is interesting...

I want a blue JR as well..

I love these itsy bitsy amps
Me too, I wanted a big ol' marshall or whatever, but why not get a nice little amp for like 450 :)

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Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by luau » Fri May 16, 2008 11:43 am

Congrats!

A new $15 Tung-Sol 12AX7 ought to make a nice upgrade as well, as noted by mrnixon here. They sound great in my Vibro Champ. About like the original RCAs but with more gain.
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Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by northern_dirt » Fri May 16, 2008 11:55 am

BenHagerty wrote:
northern_dirt wrote:
hansonparry wrote: Hmmmmmmmm...
I was considering hunting down a tweed blues junior (for playing at home), but THIS...
THIS is interesting...

I want a blue JR as well..

I love these itsy bitsy amps
Me too, I wanted a big ol' marshall or whatever, but why not get a nice little amp for like 450 :)
I have a big old marshall.. they don't play nice with my neighbours :)
'cleanest, best pleasure'

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Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by DWBH » Sat May 17, 2008 3:20 am

These new 5 watters (Valve Jr, Harley Benton GA5 (which I have), Champ) are always great candidates to be modded.
The best mod you can do with your Champ is to eliminate the fixed tonestack, as it robs a LOT of gain.
And the same with Valve Jr/GA5. Although these ones don't have that fixed tonestack (they don't have a tonestack at all, except for that shitty EQ control on GA5), and simple resistor change will augment the gain greatly, sounding much fatter and open.
Actually, I'm thinking of modding my GA5 to 6v6's. That EL84 is way too rattly.

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Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by øøøøøøø » Sat May 17, 2008 4:43 am

If you like it now, spend $15-20 more and put some decent tubes in it.  The tubes they ship those with are basically disposable... just something to make the amp work.  You'll probably like it about 25% more with better tubes (depending on which tubes you get).

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Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by mezcalhead » Sat May 17, 2008 10:55 am

Good choice mate, those are really nice little amps!
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Regan
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Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by Regan » Sun May 18, 2008 4:38 pm

Nice looking amp! Congratulations!

Regan

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Re: New amp! Wuuh!

Post by JMDen » Wed May 21, 2008 4:28 am

Congrats! There are a few you tube videos out there the demonstrate some upgrades. Once done, they are considerably better amps than stock. But they are cool looking from the start!
-Dennis

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