Fender Champion 600 tube amp with R7 removed and R19 toggled

Super quick and easy mods to the Champ 600 for a variety of tones and distortion levels.
This particular amp is a 2006 with the stock speaker.
Stock Chinese 12AX7 tube and a replacement Russian 6V6GT tube.
Speaker grill cloth replaced.
R7 snipped out of the circuit, Toggle added to the tone stank at R19.

[@Realasadonut]

I Tube rolled lots of tubes and I finally ended with a electro-harmonix for the power and tungsol for the preamp. I tried out so many different tubes and those were the two that sounded special with it.

[@ChanceEvans777]

Nice Job, easy Mod that makes a big difference! I always liked the Fender Champion 600!

[@gukobi]

If you add a coupling cap on the leg of r18 where it meets with c1 then across the tonestack to r21 you'll have more control over all that extra gain. Thats how the real champs were built. Fender used a .022uf cap but there are many values to choose from to shape the sound to your taste. You can put it on the switch too like you have now. Switch on puts r19 in the circuit and switch off takes it out and connects your bypass cap across the tonestack to r21. Just like a real champ.

[@billypruiett7502]

Yeah thanks for the mods. I did the same mods except added a eminence speaker to it. It made this amp sound like a beast. I also changed the stock tube with a groove tube. It sounds great now then I added a tube screamer pedal to it and got a Marshall tone out of it. I added a boss ds-1 pedal and it sounds like the realm of a Mesa boogie metal tone. thanks for the mods.

[@glisteningkabana8154]

Which eminence speaker did you use? Regards

[@DrFilterfox]

Rocco i opo

[@VintageRandom]

Holy cow what a difference in volume. Great demo!!!

[@michaelodonovan6989]

The cloth looks cool

[@HillbillyHellcats]

Thank you! I just lifted R7 and R19 and it sounds great. If I want less gain I'll just turn my guitar volume down. I paid $100 for my Champion 600 used mint and didn't want to spend another $50-$70 on the mod kits out there. I have a Jensen Mod 6 speaker in there and I'm just leaving the grill cloth off. Next to replace the Chinese 6v6, but it sounds fine with it.

[@chitowhustler]

Thanks for the vid. Upgraded tubes in mine made new interior baffle to accommodate a 8" jensen special different amp now

[@briankehew579]

Actually, I have a mid-60s Marshall, one of the first 100W amps they made (pre Hendrix era). It has a grille cloth SO thick and tight that you can't even see light through it. It causes compression, and takes the amp from being too spiky and bright - one of the reasons Hendrix sounded so good on a Strat, which is usually bright. So some grille cloths should cut out sound, and compress the spiky parts of playing naturally - just personal taste.

[@BarryWarne]

Brian Kehew maybe one mod is to create a slot system like spotlights have where you could slide various grill clothes in and out .... like a slide projector : )

[@d.j.5993]

With these mods you need to replace the speaker. l've used Alnico and ceramic, alnico sounded better clean and ceramic sounded better overdriven. Like em' both but they both did their own thing well.

[@sunclimber7428]

Hi If I just remove R19 will that remove work the same? Just with out the ability to switch between in or out? Thanks

[@BlueJon1975]

Great job, especially adding the switch

[@sensorysyrynx]

Excellent demo; thanks!

[@davidlalremruata]

Have you had to change the tubes many times?

[@234dilligaf]

Thanks for sharing the video. I may have to do this myself.

[@aronhallam6449]

i always thought fender put those thick cloths over the speaker to drown the unwanted frequencies that a little speaker creates , but everybody removes them so who knows?

[@alimonkey]

Hello. Great vid. Thanks. Just wondered what mini toggle you used? Thinking of giving myself options rather than just lifting the r19

[@SONGSTICKS]

Wow.. What a difference. I wonder why the amp isn't set up like that in the first place? Especially as it's such a simple mod !

[@journeyquest1]

I put a ceramic Weber 8 inch speaker with birch baffle. Tung Sol tubes. Speaker cloth. But need to do the tone stack mod.

[@davidlalremruata]

How is it holding up after all these years?

[@AlexBryza]

5.10 Sounds Like Fuzz! :3

[@TheWizardArtist]

Do you still have it? worth it?

[@PrinceWesterburg]

The Vox NightTrain has a tone bypass switch for extra gain. You could also replace the two resistors on the fixed tone with a potentiometer. I have two of these amps I use in stereo and the hum with two is totally unacceptable so I'm trying to find what this mod is for silencing the power supply. Any links welcome! :o)

[@tommynovak6399]

You're probably gonna hafta switch out some caps and resistors. That's my next project.

[@PrinceWesterburg]

Tommy Novak Tone - Nope, its a straight replace of the resistors with a pot. Since viewing your video I pulled up the schematic and no wonder it hums, f*cking poxy little reservoir cap - this is typical Fender; All designed by some speccy twat on a CAD workstation and built down to a price. The cap thats in there would do well in most cheap consumer electronics. So, as its a solid state rectifier, I am replacing that poxy little cap with a 100+100uF tank and adding a standby switch. As for tone; The biggest thing is removing the rear speaker cover which evens out the freq. res. - far better for use as a general purpose powered speaker but leave it on if you want more vintage tone. For proper vintageness, put a Weber alnico speaker in, rectifier valve, use old power caps and replace all the caps with tropical fish / mustards / PIO and the resistors with carbon composites. In other words; Build an amp from scratch and have the model you wanted made on tag boards not quality restricted PCBs. Makes sense dont it?! :o) I got my amps as powered speakers as they where just £79 each new and match the living room. Tweaks are okay but the next upgrade will be custom built, else I'd be putting a Ferrari engine in a Mini! :D

[@tommynovak6399]

I dunno what Fender was thinking by sticking a blackface style tone stack in the champion 600. I modded the tar out of mine to get it closer to 5f1 specs (sans rectifier tube, that endeavor was a little more than what i can do!). Just taking out the tone stack and replacing it with 1 .022uf cap and removing one of the cathode bypass caps (C3) made a world of difference. There were other things i did like remove resistors and replace them w/ jumpers, changed values of certain resistors, and of course: new tubes (tung-sols) and a speaker (i went with a jensen mod...tis ok). in short, simplifying the pcb improved the tone by leaps and bounds...i'm kinda shocked that fender didn't just save the $$$ in the first place by putting in a simpler pcb. however, doing the mods that i did was a great learning experience and fun to boot. peace!

[@PrinceWesterburg]

Tommy Novak Tommy, Its simple; Fender, like so many other companies, employ 20-somethings with electronics degrees who sit in AC comfort, drinking coffee and doing electronics between FaceBook updates. None of them have any mileage and even fewer play guitar. Story; I knew a luthier who had an amazing pickup in his guitar. I asked what it was and he said he didn't know, it was from a Casio guitar and completely potted (sealed in two pack plastic). He had asked Casio and their answer was 'We don't know'. When he quizzed them they replied 'Every three days we phone all our suppliers and see what the bottom price we can get is. Even if we knew who made this pickup we wouldn't know what it was, neither would the manufacturers as they change suppliers for parts equally often. If it sounds good, we'd love to know what it was ourselves. Sorry!' So there you go, the bottom line is the bottom line. Oh BTW, valve rectifier - Not sure the mains Tx would take it but essentially its just rectifier - 47uF - 270R - 47uF, err, thats it. Makes a big difference. If you go that far, consider making another chassis from aluminium (non-ferrous) and tag boarding it as that will sound a lot better too. Have fun now! :o)

[@tommynovak6399]

Thanx for the tip! After simplifying the PCB and doing the minor upgrades, it almost sounds like a boutique piece..i ALMOST don't need my OD pedal! It's like hot rodding a car...more power!

[@davo171]

Excellent and well thought out demo video. I clipped r19 on mine a while back, but just clipped r7 this week, and im pleased with the results. Have you considered putting r7 on a switch as well? I ended up putting a 62 jensen alnico from a stereo in and I love the results. Its a bright speaker, but with the added output from clipping the resistors it compresses in a great way.