New - 5F1 Tweed - CHAMP Tweed Amp - Huge Tone here

kerrlehr

kerrlehr

Experienced
Cliff - You hit a huge home run on this one. Thank you!

Guys, do not overlook this little amp - I grew up with one in the early 70's. It was awesome for a little amp, except if had not even close to a usable volume level - If you tried to get it loud the speaker would fart out and you would completely lose it's mojo.

Per Java Junkie's recommendation on another thread, I have the master at 10, set IR #2 1x8" and rolled my guitar's volume way down. MAGIC here! Started with a blank preset for now with only these two Blocks to start with.
Then I turned my Matrix GT1000FX up to about 70% and had my old Champ at it's prime tone, but at venue level. Pure and glorious, highly dynamic and full of tone - This is something very special. I hear the harmonics, bloom and just ringing with goodness. Then I set my PRS Custom 24 (older 3 knob version) to 4 on the pickup selector and this amp gave me sound that absolutely inspired me. I felt like I walked up to the stage on Woodstock and am playing the real vintage gear of years gone by. I cannot say how fun this is to play like this. Roll the volume just .5 and it changes dramatically.

EDIT - Added a combo of #2 and #8 - Very nice sound - added focus to the smaller sound of #2 1x8
Try this out. Are any of you guys getting a similar feel when you play this.

Cliff - THANKS So much for this amp and the excellent new (old) tool you added to our tone pallet - This is fantastic!!
 
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I'm afraid, gentlemen, I'm going to have to insist on a clip. I'm tied up at work tonight and...well...you're driving me nuts talking about this. :)
 
kerrlehr said:
... It was awesome for a little amp, except if had not even close to a usable volume level - If you tried to get it loud the speaker would fart out and you would completely lose it's mojo.
Click to expand...
It's preamp/poweramp that farts, not speaker... ;)
 
I'm getting a very thin tone from this amp model. Can anyone recommend more detailed settings. I'm using a G&L legacy special with rail humbuckers. Does this amp model work well with humbuckers?
 
The Champ is brilliant! This was a long time coming. I owned three real Champs and this model captures
the 5F1 circuit. I'm glad this is so well received. These amps encapsulated the experience of vintage amp playing.
Maybe, if we are lucky, Cliff will eventually model some more older Fender
circuits like the 5D1 and 5C1 (wide panel tweed Champ & Champion 600), which exhibit even denser grind
and input sensitivity.

Cliff, here is a site where you can access the schematic of any old classic Fender circuit:

Fender Amp Field Guide Contents
 
Put this through a 12" EV, Factory cab 8 and cranked the input drive to 8. Backed off the bass and mids to about 3 and 4, treble just past noon. A little delay and reverb and this thing sounds thick, creamy, clear, and huge with single coils, at least with my PRS 513, which has fairly high output pickups. Those with vintage output single coils may have to crank it further. Very Keith Richards. Added the new 4-knob tube driver with the tone rolled off almost to zero and using the bridge pickup got a VERY nice Eric Johnson-type lead sound. I'm a huge fan of low wattage amps and it just goes to show you can get a very big sound out of a small amp. Still refining the patch but I'll post it when it's done.
 
SarasotaSwing said:
Put this through a 12" EV, Factory cab 8 and cranked the input drive to 8. Backed off the bass and mids to about 3 and 4, treble just past noon. A little delay and reverb and this thing sounds thick, creamy, clear, and huge with single coils, at least with my PRS 513, which has fairly high output pickups. Those with vintage output single coils may have to crank it further. Very Keith Richards. Added the new 4-knob tube driver with the tone rolled off almost to zero and using the bridge pickup got a VERY nice Eric Johnson-type lead sound. I'm a huge fan of low wattage amps and it just goes to show you can get a very big sound out of a small amp. Still refining the patch but I'll post it when it's done.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I had tried the EV's as well. They worked very well.
 
I just tried this out and I'm diggin a stereo cab with IR #2 and #8 together. The #2 is too small sounding (IMO) and the #8 is too dark, but together they freakin rock. Followed the above ideas of cranking gain and master and lowering input gain to about 0.7
 
I checked this out today with the 8" Champ mix IR. I just cranked the input gain to 10 and left the tone controls at 5. I'm amazed at how much I like it. Tried single coils and humbuckers. Really liked humbuckers with it. I think I can get a lot of uses out of this amp.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
 
Just had a chance to sit down with this model this afternoon. Amazing. Using stock IRs 8 and 81 - sweet. It's one of these tones you can spend hours just noodling with.
 
I just spent some time with the new Champ model and initially I was blown away. Then I went exploring with the Prince Tone Rev to see how they compare. The Princeton Reverb model actually sounded better in low, mid and high drive settings. I could pretty much get them to sound the same with some eq and tone setting changes. The Champ sounds a lot muddier and less slightly less dynamic than the Princeton by default.

So I'm wondering if there's really particular area where the Champ actually has a unique tone not achievable by the Princeton.

PS I did this with two scenes and switched between them adjusting along the way in AxeEdit with the looper engaged. I tried different IRs on a single cab with and without effects and was still able to pretty much match the Champ in each scenario.
 
Real champ loves tele... they sound unique when about to fart out... champ have a design problem (too much bass) but could be heaven when level are set properly. Find the sweep spot... :) I suggest also, if you search more drive, to lower the bass.
 
Used to have the Rivera one, until 2003; was so stupid to sell it. Sounds absolutely great. Used to play it with DF strat and a Chandler tube driver (4-knob) and really had a lot of fun with this. Rock'n roll !
 
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