I don’t mod amps as a rule. Pedals are my thing. But a little Fender Champion 600 came along on Trademe the other day at a really good price and I was tempted enough to hit the Buy Now button and get it sent up. It arrived this morning.
The Champion is a one knob affair at 5 watts running a 12ax7 in the pre amp and a 6V6 in the power stage. So power up, plug a guitar into the high or low input, turn the volume knob up and away it goes.
I wasn’t impressed with the sound coming out of the little 6 inch speaker at all so I hit up Google for the mods and set to work.
First up it was clear the speaker needed to be changed so I grabbed a 6.5 inch 60 watt Wharfdale Hi Fi speaker from my storage cupboard. The speaker cloth was like 2 way stretch vinyl or suede so I just took it off to let the sound out. I’ll get some acoustically neutral material and put that on.
Next I removed the tone stack, essential according to the gods of the forums, and raised the gain so the amp had more volume.
I put it all back together and spent the next hour having a complete ball. The amp has lost the flabbiness, the gain mod opens up some real distortion and the new speaker handles the amp’s power better than the stock 15 watt part.
Before the amp arrived I gave my 1993 MIJ Fender Squire a birthday, completing the pick up upgrade so it now has Texas Specials in all 3 positions and a new pearloid pickguard to tart it up a bit.
Red MIJ Squire 1993 and Modded Fender Champion 600