Fender Champion 600 speaker upgrade

[Bilsdragon]

Has anyone upgraded a 600 to use a 8" or 10" speaker? The two main reasons are the limited 6" speaker choices and a little bottom end would be nice. I recently modeled the current cabinet in 3d. (Autodesk Inventor software) I scaled it up to fit an 8 or 10" speaker. My dad is good at wood working so he is going to help me build the new box. I've been playing this old house for fifteen years but figured it be a good project to do with dad. Any tips or comments would be appreciated. The amp is in stock form at the moment, but I may be able to twist Stoneattic's :poke: arm to get some help with electronic tweaks. (for the love of God, get that damned vvr in that V5 already) Thanks.

[jim p]

I don’t have an opinion on the speaker to give. On 10” you can see what people have been putting in the Crate V5. Just figure if it is bass response you want to improve you will probably need to upgrade the stock output transformer. I would look into Hammond, Edcor, OT8SE and OT10SE as possible choices. There is the mod posting for the Champ here and you should log in over at Sewatt to see what they have going.
By the way I am interested in how his VVR mod works out to and hope he will post some pictures and mark ups.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Good luck!

I've only changed the output transformer and replaced the speaker with a Weber 6" AlNiCo.

I've stopped modding mine as I now have a Gries 5 which is a Champ clone with a 12" speaker. It sounds very full with a nice bottom.

If you are building a new cab for the Champ, I'd go with at least a 10" speaker. Is there a reason that you don't wish to use a 12"?

As Jim says, I'd upgrade the OT while you're at it.

I use the Champ 600 at work, and I like the 6" speaker to keep the volume down.

I've got to go look up the VVR mod.

[Bilsdragon]

I didn't really think to go to a 12" speaker. I like the tone I get with a blues driver but want to get rid of the squawk 6" speaker. Since I made a 3d model and drawing, adjusting to fit a 12" speaker would be easy. hmmm. I'll think about that one. Either way I'll post pics and make the cab plans available via a pdf file when I'm finished.

[jim p]

Just to add to your mods to do list I would consider adding a resistor of approx 510 ohms with a 4 watt rating in series with your plate supply and another 22uf 450 volt cap after it. Looking at the schematic that Fender is nice enough to post at there web site and going by the voltages given on the schematic the power dissipation on the plate of the 6V6 is 14.8 watts spec is 14 watts maximum. So adding this resistor and cap will lower the plate supply and knock down some of the 120 Hz ripple voltage you are hearing on the output of the amp. Using a bigger cap or higher resistor value will lower the noise even more.

[stoneattic]

Thanks for throwing me under the bus Bill! :)

You guilted me into going out into the REALLY hot sweaty garage and work on the V5/VVR. I managed to mount the VVR board and MOSFET. I did get the MOSFET heatsinked(?) to the chassis after all. I had mounted the MV into the indicator light hole and now the VVR into the on/off switch hole. So I relocated the on/off switch to the back/underneath the chassis. I've still have to do the wiring for the VVR and add an LED to the front panel as an indicator light.

I'll take pics when I'm done so that jim_p can make fun of my handiwork.

Of course I probably should have posted this in the V5 thread...

Bill, now you've got the mod bug and jim_p is giving you ideas, hahahaha.

[Bilsdragon]

Jim, I'll take your electronic changes to heart when I can get that lazy Stoneattic guy(Lee) to help me. Hell might start to freeze before that unless I temp him with some pizza. :rockon:

I ordered a Jensen Mod10-50 4ohm from http://www.musicarts.com/. They offered free shipping. They did have to charge me the Pa sales tax though. So, for $42 I should have a much improved sound. I finished the model/drawing this morning before work. I won't post the drawing until I build the cabinet in case some things pop up or go together differently then originally planned. I'm putting a disclaimer on the drawing welcoming anyone to modify or improve the cabinet any way they see fit. It does look pretty cool so far. The dimensions are 15"Hx12"Wx9-1/4"D. Not huge for a 1x10, but plenty of room for everything.

[ibanezjunkie]

10" will have more bottom end than an 8" but the mids will be tigher on an 8" (atleast what i hear from my 8" H&K)

[Bilsdragon]

Here's the new 1x10 cabinet. I used Minwax ebony stain on top of the birch plywood I found a Lowes. The wood isn't cheap, about $48 per sheet. The grill cloth, feet, and handle I got from Lopoline.com. If you buy anything other than a cabinet kit you will have to contact them via email to get the correct shipping price. The speaker as mentioned above is a Jensen Mod10-50 4ohm.

I'm really happy with how the amp sounds. I will be taking Jim p's advice and doing some of the electronic changes soon. I'm no wood worker, that's for sure. I was going for an old vintage look to match the amp. I put the stain on in a single heavy coat to get that white washed look. (but black of course) I thought the cane grill cloth would go good with the cabinet that way. I popped the Fender logo off the 6" cabinet to put on top. This is really starting to become a snarly little amp and I'm liking it. The Jensen speakers really sound great for the money too. If anyone is considering doing this mod I'll have to do an as built to the drawing before posting the pdf for everyone to use.

[kungfumailman]

Here are a couple photos of my Champ 600 conversion. Two 1950's alnico speakers, spruce wood closed back cabinet and head. The tone this thing throws out in fantastic!

[tot_Ou_tard]

Nice!

What speaker is going in the Champion's cab?

[Bilsdragon]

Nice work on that cabinet, bet it sounds great. :applause