Can anyone tell what’s wrong with my Fender ‘57 Champ?

Hello I appreciate anyone taking the time to check out this video to help diagnose this issue with my Champ. Thanks so much!

[@wojciech2456]

I heard you say "vibrating sound". I you hear like a rattle it might be the rectifier tube or the power tube. It doesn't mean that they are malfunctioning, it is the cure of combo amps. You can try other tubes or o-rings that you can buy in shop with car parts and slide a few on these tubes to prevent the rattling.

[@mikewatson854]

Honestly, other than the hum, it sounds great. I have the exact same amplifier. I hear normal breakup.

[@Dramirez314]

I have this amp, sound goes away when tubes warm up. Love the tone once it’s warm! If you don’t like it, I’d suggest the Pro Jr iv, great tone too!

[@ianwatts3635]

Difficult to hear the vibration in your video but my Champ makes a vibrating noise when I play certain low notes. I think the vibration comes from the area where the chassis meets the cabinet frame. I think it is the nature of the beast because my Champ is a replacement (I returned the first because of the vibration only to find the replacement was exactly the same). I guess the vibration doesn’t bother me now because I mostly use the amp at around volume 4 and the vibration, if it occurs, isn’t very intrusive..

[@RichieGCondo]

It could also be the electrical panel of your house or apartment.. might be dirty power. It sounds like a grounding issue. You should try and play your amp in a different location and see if you get the same issue.

[@justinr5650]

Check the cage over the tubes in the back. It is prone to vibrate. Can either remove it or add a rubber o-ring to insulate it.

[@justinr5650]

The other thing I have found on mine is the jewel does come loose and needs to be tightened on occasion.

[@razco7]

Any luck finding what the problem was? I have the same exact problem and it driving me nuts.

[@redjonuk1059]

Hey there. I own two of these amps and had a similar problem with one of them. Because I had two, I was able to compare them etc. Try these steps first: 1) can you plug the speaker output jack from the champ into another speaker? 2) then do vice versa - plug another amp into the suspect champ speaker. At this point, you’ll hopefully know if it’s the amplifier section or speaker. One of my champs had a bad speaker so I sent it back. (Please note to make sure the amp always has a speaker load when on. I think the champ speakers are 4ohm) The replacement champ that arrived was better than the 1st one I had (and the speaker was good in it after testing), but was doing what yours is kind of doing, playing loud introduces a buzzing / vibration. Therefore, for you here, I’ve got a feeling the metal chassis is vibrating a lot. To solve this for myself, I loosened the two top screws on top of the amp so the mental amp chassis dropped down slightly. I then put a thin piece of rubber each side. I then tightened the screws back so the rubber bits sandwiched themselves between the amp chassis and pine cabinet (and can’t be seen). This made it a lot better for me as the rubber introduces some good dampening here to vibrations. In addition, I bought some very high temperature rated rubber ‘O’ rings and also some spring tube retainer clips. I Installed these for on the rectifier tubes in both amps. This eliminated a ‘tambourine ringing’ sound when playing at certain frequencies. Please note anything involving the rectifier tube require you to have a bit of knowledge on guitar amps. The tubes can get hot when on so don’t touch them until cooled down (and some people say not to touch them at all as the grease from your fingers can affect how they work). Also the large capacitors within the app can hold deadly voltages even when powered off, so don’t touch anything on the circuit board unless you know the filter caps don’t hold any residual voltage. You may know all this already but would hate to give advice that then kills someone! I hope this helps :)

[@iAMboognish]

Jon Budzynski fantastic advice! Thank you!! 🙏🏼

[@redjonuk1059]

No worries and I hope it helps. In the time since my last message, I’ve also done the following as I still wasn’t 100% happy with my amps: - I put some extra rubber in the sides sandwiched between the metal chassis and the pine cabinet. (The gap is a few millimetres). To do this, you need to remove the back access panel first. Once done, putting the rear access panel back on will hide this rubber. - Also while the back panel was off, I noticed the pilot light fixture was vibrating on one of the amps when playing a C chord, so twisted it round slightly which made the noise go away. I’m now very very happy and they sound amazing at any volume. If you’d like photos to help with my explanations, please let me know. PS as per my last message, please don’t kill yourself on the amp. Voltages are deadly and you should always have a volt meter to check the voltages on the filter capacitors when off. On my amps, the meter reads around 20v after powering off which is safe, but I wouldn’t want to assume all champs are safe to work on once powered off. Many thanks again, Jon.

[@jimcastillo8950]

Hello, I know this is three years later and maybe you still have the amp or fixed your problem. First with the fuzz and the amp. The amp is already distorted at high volume because this is the charadter of the amp and adding the pedal is going to make it worse. The pedal should be used with bigger amps which dont breakup early. 30 to 100 watts. Have you tried plugging your amp to a speaker cabinet and see if the problems follows?

[@tankcrowe5417]

Sounds like a tube problem ,or pick up, I play mostly acoustic electric taylor 614CE through a roland acoustic chorus AC-60 , Or an american deluxe fat strat with noiseless pick ups through a hot rod deluxe, no issues. Also a CRK nut as well. Guitars, guns, knives ,and motorcycles is what I'm about. Just makes life worth the struggle to me.

[@christianjonesmusician]

Probably moot now but sounds like you need a new cable - shielded. Mogami gold- they are pricey, but worth every dime

[@Panic42000]

It should have a warranty send it back.

[@adamtick]

Honestly I have the same amp and it’s part of its “charm” I love the amp, usually run it on input 1 at around 5.5 with my strat volume on 8

[@bobdelair02]

Make sure your wall outlet is grounded and maybe get yourself some noiseless pick-ups. Sounds otherwise oké to me.

[@ianaintsaying1625]

Have an amp tech check to see if the power tube is biased correctly. If the 6V6 is dissipating more than 14W the amp will sound bad and the life of the power tube will be shortened.

[@maroonblood151]

mine went bad after 2 months and I'm currently in the process of sending it in for warranty repairs.

[@iAMboognish]

damn. I still have not figured out the issue but I mainly use my Strymon Iridium now. I will likely send this in for repairs. Are they fixing yours free and covering the shipping?

[@ChrisEffort]

It’s hard to tell if the sound on your video is the hum when you’re not playing. Does it get louder as the volume is turned up? All champs are prone to have microphonic tube rattle, at least that’s what I’ve been told.. but could this be a the speaker cone having a crack?

[@Panic42000]

I had to take take that stupid cage off of mine. It raddled. I also changed out the tubes and put some better tubes in.

[@jvbluesville3426]

Were you able to fix the problem, I got the same issue and I’m going nuts please advise

[@iAMboognish]

I haven’t figured it out. I got a Strymon Iridium and this one is on the back burner. 😑

[@emilianwojtowycz4150]

Sounds like there's nothing wrong with the amp at all. It's doing exactly what a 50s tweed Fender amp is supposed to do. Maybe you bought the wrong gear, and are a Paul Reed Smith guitar into a Roland Jazz Chorus amp guy.

[@iAMboognish]

ive had a lot of amps. its definitely defective. maybe it doesnt come through on my phones mic very well.

[@Tim8tei]

@@iAMboognish Is it fixed yet?

[@iAMboognish]

@@Tim8tei I’ve mainly been using my iridium so I haven’t taken it in. I was playing thought it this last weekend and I’m thinking I may have just received bad tunes twice in a row. Odd thing is I’ve owned several 100w amps that use 8-12 tubes and never had a new bad tube.

[@okaytastic6691]

Is it a glassy sound?

[@JohnDoe-dp7sk]

Tubes ? Bad tubes? Try eq to get a better tone. Bridge pickup probably better

[@beneten6462]

Sounds like a fender tube amp to me!

[@ivanmontalvez7337]

The solution calls Supro 1606 Super. No hum, no vibration, no gremlims; same delightful tone.

[@Panic42000]

Trust me it’s not the same sound. This amp sounds way better then the Supro. I have both of them.

[@taghazoutoo]

tv and computer. and cell does that to mine u need to keep it away from other electronic

[@dave5137]

probably has a bigger speaker than the other amp.... sounds like it has too much bass.... bigger speaker will produce more bass sounds

[@benderdiver]

I just think its your thrash playing style,get a hand wired marshal, or dont hit the strigs so hard,

[@lilipearl1]

Speaker sounds blown.

[@iAMboognish]

lilipearl1 would there be any telltale physical signs how I could confirm?

[@lilipearl1]

ARCHMAN try another speaker, champ should be 4 ohm. But it’s perfectly safe to plug it into an 8 ohm cab. I be it sounds 💯 better.

[@Panic42000]

ARCHMAN The speaker is NOT blown!!

[@fuzz2749]

Vemuram jan ray help you.

[@MrSepulveda13]

You obviously do not know what natural tube breakup should sound like.

[@LIBREpensador999]

ES FAKE ES ROBADO ES MERDA