Members jjang1993 Posted February 21, 2018 Members Share Posted February 21, 2018 Delete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Daehtihs Posted February 22, 2018 Members Share Posted February 22, 2018 I don't know much about that amp but HNAD anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted February 22, 2018 Members Share Posted February 22, 2018 Which Champ 12 is it? Most tube models are either single channel and the dual channel don't have drive channels. Two channel with overdrive channel suggests it's a solid state model like a red knob series. This article sums up the SS red knobs versions pretty well. https://planetbotch.blogspot.com/201...amplifier.html I have an M80 from that series which is a 100W head which I converted to a combo. I've owned several other red knobs simply because they were decent buy's for the price. First off they don't sound like a tube amp. They have a Fenderish tone but not the dynamics. They are fairly reliable except of the pots and jacks. The jacks are all plastic and can break easily. pots become scratchy and do not improve with cleaning for more then 6 months. The clean channel is just OK. Its drive channel is pretty horrible. I have no idea what Fender was shooting for when it comes to drive but it sure wasn't a Fender drive tone. Maybe they were competing with Peavey in the budget end SS amps and trying to match their equally horrid drive tones. In short, you aren't missing anything worthwhile with the drive channel missing. Your question about the channel switching. You have both a plug in pedal jack on the back and a button on the front panel (possibly a pull out knob on the Champ version) for turning on the drive channel. Even if the pedal is unplugged the front panel switch is going to tell you which channel is on plus an LED indicator. Again If this is a red knob, the clean channel is just OK. Mine has reverb which is quite good, typical long fender verb tone. Its Not a tube amp though. The Clean channel does need help using pedals to sound decent. I typically use a minimum of a compressor pedal to give me the string touch of a tube amp, Tube screamer can be dialed up clean for some mid attack or driven to imitate tube saturation, and I like a little light slow chorus to give the sound movement and depth. Without pedals the amp is as dry and lifeless as cardboard and its frequency response has much to be desired. I haven't had time to investigate all the blackface SS models. I owned a couple of those 15W champs. They were single channel models which simply had an extra overdrive knob. If you leaved the knob turned off they ran clean. No footswitch for turning on the drive though that could easily be added. No front panel switching either, just the drive knob. The clean channel on these amps sound pretty good. The bass is a bit puffy when cranked too high but you can dial it back nicely. Treble sounds natural too, much better tone stack compared to the red knobs. The drive is by far way better too. Fender finally "Got it" when it came to getting natural sounding drive tones which are actually usable and you could blend them in in any amounts you want and have things sound good. There may be other versions. I know fender made a Blackface SS series before the red knob which was terrific. Its why they revived it in the 90's but unfortunately cheapened the line. They had several modeling versions that had built in effects too. My main concern for you would be the drive channel being dead and the reason for it being dead. If you have blown components on one channel its simply not wise to run the amp at all. Doesn't matter if its inly the other channel. All the parts are connected to the same power supply and that supply is balanced to provide the right current to a load. If that load is out of balance because it has shorted or open components its bound to give you problems. For your sake I hope the reason the drive channel isn't working is due to something simple like a bad channel switch that doesn't affect the actual circuit. . Again, with so many versions of champs, its important you be specific and not simply expect people to know which version you have. Post a pic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jazzer2020 Posted February 22, 2018 Members Share Posted February 22, 2018 Congrats on your new amp purchase! I hope you are happy with it. I'm a very curious guy. Here are a few items in your post that piqued my curiosity. How responsive is the bass knob on this? If you turn the bass to zero does it kill the bass frequencies? Is this more of a brighter, shimmery amp, or boomier heavy amp? What happens if you turn the bass to zero? Are the footswitched to these amps all hardwired? I have no use for it. If this thing... has the headroom of say a 15 watt Super Champ... Do you usually buy guitar equipment without trying it out beforehand or knowing much about it? If I desoldered the foot switch from the circuit board, would that make it so the clean channel is always Would there be any grounding issues from this operation of removing the footswitch? Do you usually make mods to new amps you have just bought? Especially mods that you are not certain about? Soooo pumped to get this amp. If this thing is a Fender with controllable bass frequencies, and has the headroom of say a 15 watt Super Champ I gigged with from 2012-2016, that would be amazing! Are you saying you could not control the bass frequencies on your Super Champ? What didn't you like about your Super Champ? What improvements exactly are you expecting from your new Fender Champ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted February 22, 2018 Members Share Posted February 22, 2018 Happy (Pending) New Amp Day. Best of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mikeo Posted February 23, 2018 Members Share Posted February 23, 2018 I just ordered a Fender Champ 12 from GC Eugene. I live up in Seattle so it should be here soon. I'm excited! The guy I spoke on the phone with says the drive channel doesn't work, so he says I should be able to get some extra cash refunded from my local store who he called and talked to their manager to get him up to speed. I'm a jazz guy, so I have no use for the drive channel anyways. I've been lugging around 40 pound amps everywhere around town so it'll be nice to have one that weighs 26 lbs. How responsive is the bass knob on this? If you turn the bass to zero does it kill the bass frequencies? I do that with all my Fender amps as my guitar has a lot of low end character (big 17 inch jazz box with a floating mini hum bucker, strung with roundwoundsa and have the pole pieces on the E and A lowered). Is this more of a brighter, shimmery amp, or boomier heavy amp? What happens if you turn the bass to zero? I do that with all my Fender amps as my guitar has a lot of low end character. Are the footswitched to these amps all hardwired? I have no use for it. If I desoldered the foot switch from the circuit board, would that make it so the clean channel is always on? Would there be any grounding issues from this operation of removing the footswitch? Has anyone had any cabinet or chassis rattle issues with this amp, most notably on the neck hum buckers on guitars? Soooo pumped to get this amp. If this thing is a Fender with controllable bass frequencies, and has the headroom of say a 15 watt Super Champ I gigged with from 2012-2016, that would be amazing! My grab and go back in the late 80's was a Fender red knob super 60. Decent sounding, little skimpy on the quality. The foot switch plugs in and is not hard wired. That is if we are taking about the same series of amps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onelife Posted February 23, 2018 Members Share Posted February 23, 2018 The Fender Champ 12 is a tube amp. Like the "Red Knob" Twin of the day, it uses optical switches. The switches engage/disengage an extra gain stage that also includes its own gain/volume controls - which simply shunt the signal to ground. It also has an unusual Reverb circuit and is not your typical Fender amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mikeo Posted February 24, 2018 Members Share Posted February 24, 2018 It would be nice to find a smaller amp that uses a 10" speaker that has the same chassis dimensions so I could pop the chassis of the Champ 12 into that and have it potentially be a carry on amp for when I travel that I could put under the seat in front of me. Any suggestions? I'm in the process of looking at Quilter MicroPro 2 conbos. They make 4. I called Quilter, and they said the *" speaker one would probably do. I'd like to try the 10" and 12" version. Don't need the 12" HD one with the EV Speaker. 19lbs for the 8" speaker one the other 2 are like 20-21 lbs. You can get a travel bag for it too. You'll want the 6 button foot switch to make the best of it, but there's a 2 button foot switch for reverb and tremolo. [video=youtube;GB30KQd-iQY] [video=youtube;0aSuOJlsUwM] [video=youtube;zeRNHtS9edc] [video=youtube;ZgVMwIi9wKA] [video=youtube;beGWcZXDnaE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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