Riffster Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 A while back I posted a few pics before on my brand new Fender Champ 600 that I am making into a head. I made cabinet for it and replaced the output transformer with one I had taken out of my epi valve junior head version 2. At 7.5Kohms primary impedance the OT was very close to the stock OT in the Champ at 7Kohms. Now the head has 4, 8 and 16 ohms taps. I covered the head in real tweed and shellacqued it in amber, the speaker cab is a groove tubes from the 80's that I bought, it has a 12" weber blue dog rated at 15W. I refinished it too so I could match colors. This was a bit challenging since this cab had some finish on it already. The empty champ cab, speaker and OT where sold on ebay so there is no going back. I have ordered a leather handle, rubber feet and impedance selector switch, they are on the way. The stock jewel light was huge so I took it out and replaced it with a vintage NOS smaller jewel I found on my grandfathers electronic stuff, I used a smaller LED I had and placed the light over the "600" since this is not technically a 600 anymore...it refers to the original 6" speaker. I am planning to make only a few changes to the electronics, I added a switch where the original jewel light was, (the washer around it is not permanent) this will act as a switch between 2 diferent wirings. The tubes were replaced to a tungsol on the preamp and a electro-harmonix on the power section. This is an excellent bedroom amp and it also can get pretty loud. Here is the pics, what do you think? I am going to shoot an e-mail to Fender and see what they think... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSG_Standard Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 That's very cool! Great job...Maybe Fender will make copies of your design...they could call it the "Stiffy". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlekenny Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 wow, that's a lot of tweed. I think it would look cool if you put the normal grill cloth color for a tweed amp where the fender logo is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeRom Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 Excellent job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted December 29, 2008 Author Share Posted December 29, 2008 wow' date=' that's a lot of tweed. I think it would look cool if you put the normal grill cloth color for a tweed amp where the fender logo is [/quote'] I considered it but went with the tweed. I also thought about brown leather... I have a fender tweed cable but that would be too much... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynadude Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 Looks really cool. It would be great if fender offered a package like that. Have you thought about adding the "piggy back" hardware? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlekenny Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 I considered it but went with the tweed. I also thought about brown leather... I have a fender tweed cable but that would be too much... yeah, it looks cool though. good job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 Sweet looks good hows the sound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 Nice Job send a pic to fender they might contact u. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Californiaman Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 Wow, that's real nice. Good job. I hope it sounds as good as it looks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted December 29, 2008 Author Share Posted December 29, 2008 Sweet looks good hows the sound? It sounds OK to good, obviously much better with the 12" speaker. There are a couple of mods to tighten the sound, they are easy, just a couple of resistors. This amp stays clean and does not have a ton of gain and I wnat to keep it that way, it is definitely a Fender sound. I also made the back cover for the speaker cab, I prefer the open back with this amp but I just thought it would be good to have the option to have a closed back cab. Only 8 screws away. Right now I use my BBE Sonic Maximizer with it and it sounds really good as is. I use a Coffin Blood Drive for overdrive and get sounds I really like. The high and low inputs give some options. Thanks for all the cumpliments guys, I am happy with it but like I said it is still not done, I am adding a light color handle and a cream knob. No piggy back hardware as of right since I do not think I would need it but we'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadCase Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 Impressive! Nice job StiffHand! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homz Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 Fender doesn't need the free advertising. You should have named it the Stiffhand 600. Your advertisements could read this amp will give you a Stiffy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tipetu Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Nice champ you got there! Where did you get that faceplate? I`m planning on building a similar head like yours Built a little tube hifi to guitar amp combo but it`s not optimal for recording. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djroge1 Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 It looks great!! The only reason I would consider a front grill cloth is to let more air circulate to keep the tubes and amp cooler (temp cooler that is). I'm not good with wood working and such so I'll stick to the electronics portion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr newhaven Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 wowsas! thats gorgeous! i have a champ 600...got it for $180...then dumped at $300 mercury magnetics kit in it...trannys...choke...speaker...tubes... now it really thumps for a little guy... what did you put inside the amp? or did you leave it stock? if you did i would recommend at least checking out the MM website! best of luck! i love the tweed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Californiaman Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Fender doesn't need the free advertising. You should have named it the Stiffhand 600. Your advertisements could read this amp will give you a Stiffy. That's what I'm talking about. Marketing. Oh' date=' yeah. Got Stiffy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoyt Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Wow, nice work. I have a stock Champion 600 -- well, I've put a new speaker and NOS tubes in it. It's a nice sounding little amp, espeically for recording and keeping in the living room. For your next project, maybe you can try one of the new Vox AC4s. I just got one of those, and it's really nice too for around $250. I sold my Victoria 518 several years ago. I think both the Fender and Vox amps compete very well with the Victoria which goes for around $1000. I bet your sounds better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted June 5, 2009 Author Share Posted June 5, 2009 Nice champ you got there! Where did you get that faceplate? I`m planning on building a similar head like yours :P Built a little tube hifi to guitar amp combo but it`s not optimal for recording. The faceplate is part of the chassis, this is a stock Fender Champ amp. I like the clean sound of it so I did not make many modifications to it. I simply replaced the output transformer with one that has 4/6/8 ohms outputs and higher primary impedance at 7.5kohms (stock ot was 7kohms) so the amp is very clean especially with the NFB resistor. 5 watt amps breakup very early on if you don't have a NFB resistor and if you have a lower primary impedance OT say at 5kohms like my Epi Valve junior. I like this amp just clean and i use my overdrive pedal with it when I want crunch. I added a switch to have the ability to change the sound but I have not wired it yet. Actually I have not completely finish this amp, the leather handle I oredered got lost in the mail, USPS is a ***** once they lose something is gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted June 5, 2009 Author Share Posted June 5, 2009 mr newhaven and hoyt I looked into MM but they don't sell the components separate. I just wanted to change the output transformer, I eneded up buying a Hammond and installed that in my Epi Valve Junior Head then I used the OT from the Epi for the Champ, it works, the stock sound chaged a bit, little more clean and sparlky. The Epi breaks up at 9 o'clock with humbuckers so can't play that clean unless you change the tubes, that is why I wanted to keep the Fender clean. I thought about using a Y splitter and switch between amps, clean and dirty. I never did and now with my new Mesa I never will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted June 5, 2009 Author Share Posted June 5, 2009 It looks great!! The only reason I would consider a front grill cloth is to let more air circulate to keep the tubes and amp cooler (temp cooler that is). I'm not good with wood working and such so I'll stick to the electronics portion. The amp runs very cool and the aliminum tape seems to help dissipate the heat on the side where the tubes are, the side were the circuit is does run hotter so the back cover of the head has to go and will be replaced with a vented one, that should do the trick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Fender doesn't need the free advertising. You should have named it the Stiffhand 600. Your advertisements could read this amp will give you a Stiffy. ;) Good job StiffHand, you should be very proud.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayla Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Very nice job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Californiaman Posted May 23, 2010 Share Posted May 23, 2010 Think I'm going to get me a kit this summer and put it together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted May 23, 2010 Share Posted May 23, 2010 Nice. I missed it the first time around. Good job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.