Champion 600 Rebuild Thread

[Blindog]

Nice job!

[Jack Hester]

On your next Champion retro, try:

6CA4 9-pin full-wave rectifier
6X4 7-pin full-wave rectifier
6X5 8-pin full-wave rectifier

Each of these has a 6.3v filament, and each should be enough to power a nice single-ended amp such as this one.

Just an alternative to the solid-state diode route.

Jack

[Blackburn]

Thanks guys!

Interesting idea using those tubes for rectification. My favorite of those you mentioned is the 6X4. I find those sound the tightest, especially in my Silvertone amps, where filtering can leave you wanting more. Never used a 6X5. The 6CA4 is cool too and I've used them a few times. My favorite is one I just tweaked and is now high gain.

My only issue in the 600 is not wanting to change out the trannies and how cheap diodes are. A lot of extra work getting a tube rect in there. It may be a nice challenge.

I've made a couple more changes to this amp and now have a footswitchable boost in the second input. Still want to get a better speaker.

[Blackburn]

Here's the amp as of yesterday. A couple little things here and there and the second input used for a footswitchable boost... I was bored and figured I'd make use of Input 2 for the shit of it. Kinda fun little boost with the bare minimum of components needed.

[Blackburn]

I got another one of these for $85 shipped. Wasn't working. Not that it matters too much, since the bulb lights and the tubes glow. If the trannies are good and it's in okay cosmetic shape, that's all I need to know. The seller thought the speaker might be blown. I measured it and it came out right at 4R. Been listening to Steely Dan through it for the last half hour. Seems to be working fine!

Gonna step up some of the chassis holes in a bit. Nice and overcast today.

David

[Blackburn]

Got the second one finished up, boxed up and sounding good. Mostly the same as the first one, but with hi/lo setup and a tad higher filtering with 22uf/22uf/22uf instead of the first one's 16uf/16uf/10uf. I didn't think the values were different enough to be noticeable, but I definitely notice the second one being a little tighter. Sozo mustards in this one.

[Blackburn]

Such fun little amps...

[Blackburn]

Finally got some recording done of the first one of these that started this thread. It's had a lot of time put on it and just got tubed with a NOS Dictograph labeled Tung Sol 6V6 and has had a Baldwin labeled 12AX7 in it for a while. Also finally got one of Weber's Signature 6" AlNiCos with the straight cone and broke that thing beautifully with a little filament tranny a few weeks ago. Made a world of difference. I adore this little thing and it's perfect except for a bit of cab resonance.

Just doing some noodling and figured I'd capture the moment. Please excuse the clams and guitar's tuning... Strings are pretty old. Guitar is an R8 plugged straight in. Hope you guys dig!

DK

[eniam rognab]

hey blackburn, those sound great!! thanks for sharing!

[crbowman]

God did not intend for amps to be built in Asia

Yeah, just Chinese food...

Jeez! Delivery times suck already....

[Blackburn]

Switched to SoundCloud...

Some have trouble with WMA format so here are the two clips from above.

https://soundcloud.com/snapdragon58/cha ... 0recording

https://soundcloud.com/snapdragon58/cha ... recording2

[Blackburn]

Check out another one I just did for a friend. This one's cab doesn't buzz like mine. It's funny, the last time I saw this particular friend of the family, he was buying this very amp from a guitar shop that isn't around any more. That was a good few years ago.

This one is my favorite so far when it comes to the build and the tone.

[Mark]

I have one of these amps I modified, I put the Mercury kit through mine and found the output transformer and choke to be cool. The mods, I wasn't a big fan of, though I settled on turning it into a 5F1 Champ. I am using the stock power transformer as Australia uses 240vac and the Mercury one is 120vac. I now have a stepdown transformer so I thought I'd give the Mercury power transformer a run. To my surprise the rail voltage was 445VDC instead of 360VDC. I contacted Mercury and apparently this what they intended. Needless to say the 445VDC rail did blow up my sacrificial 6V6 which was as hard as nails. It still blows my mind that a 6V6 can handle this sort of voltage. A cold biased 6L6 would but the tone of the amp is different.

Getting back to the original topic, has anyone put a pentode into these amp as they originally had. I have heard small amps with pentodes sound great.

[ChopSauce]

Man, I've been missing that post. These P2P gutshots I like very much.

You're lucky you can find one of these small amps for modding them. Here they sell much too expensive ...

[Mark]

The Fender Champion 600 reissue amps sell between $300 and $400 as far as I can tell. It's probably cheaper to build a clone.