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New Fender Vibro Champ XD $250!


fuzztone

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Leave it to Fender to blow the chance to do it right. WAY too much digital stuff on that amp - the whole idea of the Champ series was simplicity and tone. If I want all that other digital crap I'll buy a Line 6 or a VOX Modeler for about the same amount of cash...

 

 

I don't think they are blowing a chance to "do it right." What I see is them trying to come up with something useful to some players while trying to capitalize of the heritage of their classic amps like Vibrochamp and Superchamp. They have been doing that for a long time now.

 

the whole idea of the champ was: cheap student or practice model. It just happened to be a more kick ass amp then they had originally marketed it I think.

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This makes more sense than the "Champion 600", JMO.


However, the tremolo and reverb are digital.

 

 

I disagree. The Champ 600 is the ultimate low powered budget practice amp, IMO. My 5 watt '72 Vibro Champ is way too loud to crank up full for practicing at home. The little Champ 600 has the perfect volume level when you turn it up full. You can play it for hours without hearing fatigue.

 

15 watts is freakin' loud. I gig with 15--18 watters.

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The 600s' biggest problem is the small speaker. As mentioned above, if the 600 came with a 10" speaker, even for $250, it would be a hit.

 

 

Yeah, that seems to be the case. I got lucky and ended up with one of the good speakers (so far, anyway). It sounds tight and punchy. But when I hook up the little 600 to a 1 x 12, it gets even punchier.

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Seems pretty straight forward on the second reading.

Voicing = 16 amp models

effects = effects

tube preamp; yes, but does not create heavy distortion.

tube poweramp, hopefully does create power tube distortion.

 

Sounds like the Vox concept with an extra preamp tube.

 

Don't sell this idea short, I've got an old Alamo Embassy practice amp with a solid state preamp and a tube power amp. It does not sound exceptional at low volumes but with the knob turned to 10 it rings like a bell.

 

 

 

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

 

The Vibro Champ of the 1960s and

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The 600s' biggest problem is the small speaker. As mentioned above, if the 600 came with a 10" speaker, even for $250, it would be a hit.

 

 

Yeah, put the 600 guts in the Super Champ box with a 10" speaker AND an FX loop, and it'd be a sweet little combo. It has the advantage of being "pure" tube.

 

If you look at the 600 schematic, they put the volume control between the input jacks and the pre-amp, so it really doesn't do anything more than the volume control on your guitar. If it was between the preamp and poweramp, like the V8, it would be far more flexible allowing you to drive the two sections independently. Even better would be an FX loop so you could have total control over what the amp does.

 

DSP, if done right, can sound pretty good and it has the advantage of keeping costs/selling prices down to where us mere-mortals can afford to drool.

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Thanks for the heads up on this amp and the Super Champ XD, I hadn't heard about them yet - very interesting. Not too long ago I bought a 77 Vibro Champ silverface. I'm definitely curious to check these new ones out to hear what they sound like.

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"The inclusion of solid-state overdrive and distortion eliminates many of the preamp tube problems that plague tube lovers, while providing tones for blues, rock, country, jazz, metal, and more. Recording and practice sessions come alive with the Fender Vibro Champ XD."

 

Hooray for a $250 SS practice amp? :confused:

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I'm not quibbling about it being a replica. I own a Champ 600 and like ti just fine.

I'm just trynig to understand the specs on this amp here.

It says that they've eliminated the pre-amp tubes distortion (which most of us use to get distortion on tube amps with separate pre-amp gain control).

And they're claiming they've instead replaced that distortion with solid state distortion.


I'm just wondering what that accomplishes. Or would it end up sounding any different than a Frontman.

 

 

My guess is that the gain knob acts sort of like a distortion pedal. So instead of overdriving the preamp tube by cranking the gain (like would normally occur), some pedal-like SS device produces the distortion. The real test would be to see if you can get poweramp distortion by cranking the volume and keeping the gain low.

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My guess is that the gain knob acts sort of like a distortion pedal. So instead of overdriving the preamp tube by cranking the gain (like would normally occur), some pedal-like SS device produces the distortion. The real test would be to see if you can get poweramp distortion by cranking the volume and keeping the gain low.

 

 

 

No no no....

 

It's a digital modeller preamp (cyber series from the FM DSP series) into a valve power amp.

 

 

The Super Champ has a CLEAN channel based on a Blackface amp model. I am sure by cranking it using this, you can attain a nice power tube crunch.

 

The Lead channel (and main channel on vibro champ) used the 16 amp models from the FM DSP series into the valve section.

 

Much like the new Line6 Spider Valve series.

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with a 10" jensen speaker and a tweed housing, it would have sold like hotcakes for sure. i guess they cant do these things without it hurting the sales of other models.

 

a non guitarist could easily mistake this new champ for a $70 squier practice amp.

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