Poor Thing | '75 Fender Champ Pt 1

[@PsionicAudio]

Sorry, said they fused the neutral but they are switching the neutral (the other no-no).

[@tjminasi1442]

Sadly, That’s how it was done back in the day

[@mikewithers299]

That means all kinda parts are energized whenever that amp is plugged in, even when it's off. Not good.

[@MojoMedicineMan]

I've watched "Norm" right up until his retirement. The man is absolutely amazing and his dedication to quality craftsmanshop is masterclass. 👍👍

[@FuriousMess]

I have a similar vintage Champ that was refreshed about 6 years ago. You're right that little amp is a poor thing in comparison. Picked mine up about 35 years ago for $75.00, second best deal I ever got

[@ditchgator1]

Hoping the owner is ALL IN...🤞🤞👍

[@chrisfit]

I really liked the sound through the shop cab.

[@Satchmoeddie]

My new to me chassis soldering iron came from a thrift store. The brand name is "Sound Design Products". It was still in the taped up original box, the tip was kept very clean and it was very nicely & seemingly freshly tinned. With a name like "Sound Design Products" is had to be have been made for working on audio amplifiers, and someone really took exceptionally good care of it.

[@Elraurko]

The eminence legend should have plenty of bottom end. They are great speakers, i have two of them in my blackface super.

[@larrychung3190]

Good soldering skills and experience are essential. You have to be 100% satisfied with each and every solder connection and know what that means, too. Thanks for sharing this initial inspection with us, looking forward to your restoration of a classic vintage Fender amp.

[@qua7771]

Shame to lose the vintage cabinet despite that it has a less than ideal build quality. Partical board cuts easily, and you could probably cut the baffle out with a router bit. I'd replace it with birch plywood mounted with cleats. I think that having a10" speaker is a good thing if the baffle can suport it.

[@MichaelSmith-rn1qw]

Weren't the upper and lower rear panels reversed? My 1979 VC came with 2 rectangular rear panels. Also mine had the rca speaker jack from the factory, until I recently installed a 1/4 inch. I know you are not set up for woodworking, but a new speaker baffle could be made with a perfectly round cut out using a router with a trammel attachment. My go-to for cutting speaker holes.

[@ElCentralScrutinizer]

Love the Norm Abrams reference (-2 for my poor spelling)

[@captainfineweather5610]

Hi Lyle, I wish you a beautiful Pentecost!

[@ewetoobie]

Did they upgrade the speaker to a 10" size? new baffle board or just cut a bigger hole? ok, see that, rough cut a bigger hole & broke the bb in the process. Nice. =) I put a Jensen Alnico 8-Inch (P8R4) in my '76 Vibro Champ and it rocks!! Great tone, no need to butcher the cabinet.

[@Blueguitar007]

My 8" weber vintage alnico has lots of bass too

[@nate_vz]

Yes lots of good choices in the 8" size that punch above their weight class. Also recommend the Warehouse 8GC which I have in my 73 champ.

[@MrDonc78]

Have you worked on a Mesa Boogie 2:90? I have one that needs tubes and a resistor off the power supply (not sure what else) It also has some noise, bad power switch, and a dirty start..

[@DuoTone23]

hecks yea, shout out to the legend Norm Abrams!

[@goodun2974]

Lyle, if you do decide to reinforce the weakened particle board, don't use ordinary superglue, it's too thick; Titebond "waterthin" CA glue, formulated for woodworking, is a better choice. You might not find it at an ordinary hardware store but a woodworking supply company such as Woodcraft will usually stock it, or you can buy it online. Alternatively, "Hot Stuff", made by Satellite City, is another good waterthin CA glue, but it doesnt last as long in storage as the Titebond CA glues. Titebond makes a medium viscosity CA as well, but if you really want it to soak into the particle board then you should use the thin formulation.

[@alanmcdonald6551]

Try weldbond. My favorite white glue. Even over titebond

[@goodun2974]

@@alanmcdonald6551 , white and yellow wood glues are too thick to soak deeply into the particle board; if you dilute them with water the additional liquid will likely make the particle board fibers swell and expand. CA glue seems the most logical choice, but most ordinary superglue is too thick, which is why I suggest using a waterthin variety. CA cures very quickly in the presence of cellulose and so it won't make the particle board swell like a water-based glue would.

[@alanmcdonald6551]

Been a million guitars with cracks etc fixed with diluted titebond

[@aorippedbandaid3711]

That hiss 🐍 in the voice

[@mickizzo]

The speaker bolts look like regular home cheapo machine screws. If so, you could replace them with the correct ones that have reverse wood threads near the head. Stew Mac has them in stock.

[@tjminasi1442]

Great vid. Got a ‘69 champ all original that got a couple of tone caps, full ‘65 style rewiring, and plays great but for a bit of noise probably from eyelet power leakage to signal nodes. But your champ is definitely worth a bit of work to restore.

[@shckltnebay]

I wanted a good quality plywood baffle for my 73 PR which needed the grill frame replaced anyway so I used the stock baffle as my cleats for a new baffle that bolts in where the grill frame originally sat by cutting down the baffle to 1" on each side. A lot of work with replacing the grill and mounting a new 12" speaker, which also allowed me to use a adaptor ring so i have a choice of a 10 or 12 and after paint a layman cant tell anything has been done.

[@qua7771]

That's an excellent idea. Good thinking.

[@shckltnebay]

@@qua7771 thanks after using similar hardware that a black face with use bolt wires and painting it flat black inside the baffle and using the correct real cloth I'm very happy with the results and I don't think I've taken away anything from the collectibility

[@wckoek]

I am thinking of buying an Ampex MX10 tube mixer adding direct out for the preamp. I wondered if you do this kind of mod or you deal exclusively with amps only?

[@JuanLuna-ew3zo]

Off topic but Hello sir, I’m a new fan of yours. Love your videos on KZbin. Your insight and knowledge is very helpful. I thank you. I know this is a long shot and I’m not sure if you will reply but I need help with deciding which amp. I have the option of buying one of 2 TopHat Royale Amps but I’m not sure which one to purchase. One of them has an effects loop and one doesn’t which leads me to believe the one that has the effects loop had it installed afterwords. The one with said effects loop is being sold out of a store and the one that doesn’t is being sold by a studio. The one with effects loop has a green Celestion g12-m and a Weber blue dog. The one without it has 2 g12c-30 speakers. I’m putting the link to the one selling out of the store and I attached photos of the one being sold out of the studio. Do you think it would be wise to the one that’s been at a studio since most likely it hasn’t been tinkered with? Any guidance would be very helpful.

[@PsionicAudio]

Thanks! Get the one without the effects loop. Brian didn’t install it and you won’t know what you get.

[@ourlifeinwyoming4654]

Very fixable. Staying tuned for this one.

[@almoreno8852]

If I wanted to change the can capacitor to three F&T caps which ones would you use? I’ve lost faith in the CE cans.

[@PsionicAudio]

I’d use 30 30 22 F&Ts or 20 40 20 MODs for axials or 32 32 22 Nichicon radials (easy to attach to a terminal strip).

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

...When a legend is not in fact a champion.

[@masonianbund]

And at 0:22 my knees shook and my heart quailed within me

[@victorbeebe8372]

Aloha Lyle! Did the tech really learned how to work on amps?

[@Rico_G]

I believe that speaker is a 1028K. Good speaker when operating correctly.

[@PsionicAudio]

Yeah, it’s weird. The only 1028K I can find with that sticker is at New Sensor and it’s out of stock. The 1028Ks everywhere else say Legend 1028k 35W and have the impedance listed. Was this a previous model? A cheaper version built in a different factory? Just a dud? Because I’ve used 1028Ks in Super Reverbs and this one doesn’t sound at all right.

[@Rico_G]

@@PsionicAudio Looks like they changed the label at some point in time during production. I've had a couple over the years with that sticker and they were 8 ohm. I don't know if they were ever available in 4 ohm. Just my experience.

[@gremlinmachineshop]

They took that thang to the butcher shop for mods, gyat dang!

[@burnsy55]

Thanks for the video - are those Nichicon caps really all that bad ? I’ve used them before and would probably tend to leave them in, but now also use the Vishay MAL series.

[@PsionicAudio]

Those aren’t Nichicons. Poorly soldered generics.

[@burnsy55]

@@PsionicAudio now I know, thank you

[@gremlinmachineshop]

Is there proof of that logo being Nichicon? Every cap I've ever seen from them has the full lowercase word logo. I know the ones in this video are sold as Generic by CEdist (tubesandmore/AES). A guy I work with calls them Nichicons, also. I would think sellers wouldn't wanna call real Nichicons "generic"...truth is that I don't know the right answer. Never seen documentation or even google image confirming that logo. I always thought it was a U not an N.

[@PsionicAudio]

These aren’t Nichicons. Nichicon hasn’t made axials in about 5 years and when they did they tended to be blue. And said Nichicon. I used hundreds of them - they were good caps.

[@gremlinmachineshop]

@@PsionicAudio ty that's what I thought

[@huddyskiba1]

These ones are always kind of troubling to me. How much $$$ do you put into a 1975 Champ before you cry Mercy? From the sound of it the owner would be getting a new amp tho. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@PsionicAudio]

Yeah, easy to get upside down on. The cab/speaker issues are the really painful bits. The inside the chassis stuff is no biggie.

[@lionscircle4700]

@@PsionicAudio If the owner decides to go with a new cabinet, why get an 8" speaker version? Chris Stapleton's Princeton model has a 12" speaker with more space to accommodate the larger size. Not sure if they sell a 12" modded cabinet for the champ. Maybe they did but its called a Musicman. It might look funny in its elongated form but at least there would be enough space to generate some bass from the champ circuit. I saw your video that proved that the 8" champ speaker is holding back the performance of the champ; lesson learned.

[@PsionicAudio]

Just got off the phone with the owner. While Mojotone sells a (taller) cab for this that uses a 12” we’re going to go with the standard 1x8 version with a new 8” speaker. Our reasoning is he has a LOT of cabs so can easily run out of the Champ’s 1/4” speaker jack to any of those when needed, but it can still be “a little Champ” the rest of the time.

[@huddyskiba1]

@@PsionicAudio great solution. Essentially a head with an internal speaker. Get the real /original thing and then a little extra when wanted/needed.

[@goodun2974]

​@@PsionicAudio, I'm curious if you have a favorite choice of 10" speaker for use in a relatively small cabinet that might tend to limit the performance of some 10" speakers.

[@ToddRichmond]

I hate it when my baffle bulges. Belay the bituminous byproducts!

[@briansilcox5720]

New cab.

[@fenderlead1]

Cutting out and replacing the baffle will be stupidly easy. The grill is on a frame Velcro to the baffle. If you don’t take into account the time for the paint to dry it’s less than an hour work.

[@johnbravo7542]

@@fenderlead1 Dreamer!

[@mattjohnson6916]

"I enjoyed learning how to work on amps with this.... "😬 Would you want someone to say that before working on your vintage car? ..... Or your surgeon?

[@michaelinglis567]

I build my own amps, pedals and guitars when I can afford to so I absolutely understand the original owner wanting to learn a little and do some mods. But jumping into a tube amp for your first project is like a teenager with a learners permit deciding they are ready to race the Indy 500. It kills me that those guys don't even learn to properly solder before they unleash their plumbing soldering iron and acid core solder on these otherwise really nice instruments. It's just so foolish smh. Again, I was a beginner once so I understand the desire but when I was a beginner I started on my own circuits on vero/stripboard not fully functioning quality gear. And even when I did start to do mods with my amps and pedals I always had the rule to never remove functionality. I only add more so that if the amp, pedal or guitar ends up with someone else (or is borrowed etc) they will still have all the original functionality of the instrument with the OPTION for other sounds, configurations etc.

[@sgt.grinch3299]

I give the person credit for thanking the customer for allowing him to learn on his behalf.

[@mikewithers299]

I would have let that tech "experiment" on a less vintage amp. 🤣🤣