Hand-built 5F1 Tweed Champ

[duhvoodooman***]

Some of you will recognize this amp as my personal build of the BYOC Champlifier kit from not quite a year ago. This kit was designed to Fender's 5F1 Tweed Champ specs, using the finest quality materials and components available. Construction is turret board point-to-point, with vintage-style cloth covered wiring for everything but the transformer wiring. I then mounted it in a gorgeous lacquered tweed cabinet with a custom 10" speaker baffle, along with a Weber Sig 10AS 8 Ohm alnico speaker. The amp is in absolutely mint condition and just drips vintage Champ tone. See photos below. The only reason I'm selling it is that I'll be upgrading to the new BYOC Tweed Royal amp when the kit becomes available, and since that will be configured for switchable 5F1 and 5E3 operation, I just won't need this amp any more. It will be available for shipment as soon as I have the Tweed Royal built, which I would guess will be another month or so. So consider this an "advance offering".

If you add up the cost of the BYOC Champlifier kit (no longer available), and what I paid for the cabinet & speaker, you're looking at $625. And that doesn't factor in anything for the several hours I took to assemble it (and I do nice work). So I hope you'll recognize what an outstanding value it is at $400 plus shipping (US & Canada only), PayPal required. Interested parties please contact me by PM.

[Tig***]

DVM, you'll have to clean it up again... I drooled on it! (sorry)

[duhvoodooman***]

Sure, get your germ-laden SALIVA all over my nice amp!! Great! Just freakin' great!

[player***]

definitely sweet enough to drool over though.dual inputs? hard to find good small amps with them,here I thought having spring reverb in one was good.

[piebaldpython***]

I just shorted out my keyboard! drool

OK......couple of questions to help move this sweet thing along:
What kind of tubes are in there?

How many watts does it put out?

Any particular reason there isn't a tone knob?

Obviously, it'll give gobs of Fendery-type tone, right?

Approximate weight?

Lastly, at what point does it "break-up" at?........or is it clean all the way to the top?

[Tig***]

I spy a JJ 6V6 and a Sovtek of some kind. 5 watts class A, which I'll bet gets fairly loud.

[Ch0jin]

The amp bug bites hard huh. After my JTM45 project I look at the pedal projects I have under development and I'm not quite as interested as I once was......

I was showing an electrician friend the insides of my 45 last weekend and as I casually mentioned the enormous DC voltages involved and he was like "Damn man, I thought 240VAC was dangerous"

[Ch0jin]

Any particular reason there isn't a tone knob?

Cause Champs don't have tone controls? :P

[duhvoodooman***]

OK......couple of questions to help move this sweet thing along:
What kind of tubes are in there?

How many watts does it put out?

Any particular reason there isn't a tone knob?

Obviously, it'll give gobs of Fendery-type tone, right?

Approximate weight?

Lastly, at what point does it "break-up" at?........or is it clean all the way to the top?

Good set of questions--I forget that not everybody is familiar with the late '50s Tweed-era Fender amps:

Tubes: Sovtek 5Y3 rectifier (converts incoming AC from power transformer to DC); JJ 6V6S power tube; JJ ECC83 (12AX7) preamp tube

Power output: 5W single-ended, pure Class A

Tone Knob: Champs don't have a tone control. (We don't need no steenking tone control!! )

Tone: Lush, round gorgeous Fender "tweed" tone. Not to be confused with Fender "Blackface" era tone, which is much brighter--firmer bass, scooped mids, shimmery highs. Clapton recorded the entire Layla & Assorted Other Love Songs album with a Strat through a Champ, if that helps. The larger 10" speaker in mine gives it a bit more bottom end than the traditional Champ 8" speaker, which I think is a very good thing.

Approx. weight: Don't know for sure, but I'd estimate about 20 lbs. Cabinet dimensions are 14.5" x 13" x 8" (standard Champ size), so it's very compact. Same size as an Epi Valve Jr., if you're familiar with those, but a little heavier due to the better quality "iron".

Inputs: Like many vintage amp designs, though only a single channel, it has two inputs, with the first a bit louder and brighter than the second.

Break-up: Depends on the guitar and strength of input signal, obviously, but breakup typically starts to gradually roll on somewhere around 5 - 6 on the volume knob, and gets nice and juicy by about 9, which is what I'd consider the amp's "sweet spot". It really doesn't get any louder after that, just more distorted. Max. volume is 12, by which time it's quite distorted and noticeably "woofy".

Hope that helps!

[duhvoodooman***]

Here ya go--quintessential Strat-through-an-overdriven-Champ blues tone, courtesy of Mr. Clapton. It's the straight-up guitar parts, not the slide (which is Duane Allman, as I hope everyone knows):



And if anyone is interested, there are a bunch of photos of a 1959 Champ posted at THIS SITE, if you want to see how closely mine compares to the original amp.

[piebaldpython***]

Thanks for the explanations DVM......it sounds heavenly. Sorely tempted but I have an amp (Mack Gem) that covers that "basic" territory. Having said that, I have 3 lap steels that would love to plug into that 5F1 and just SCREAM. Hope it sells quick for you....and for me. lol

Last questions.......how does it take to Boost/OD pedals? Does you think it has enough clean headroom or does it break up too early?

[duhvoodooman***]

At 5W, I consider the Champ a "practice" or a recording amp (the Champ has been used on countless classic recordings by many of the best guitarists in the world). Prolly too small for gigging in any but the smallest of venues, though it could always be mic'ed through the PA. So with that proviso, I think it has sufficient headroom. I'm a home player, so I've never had a problem with the headroom--by 5 on the volume knob, it's plenty loud enough for me, and still clean with anything other than a hot humbucker or heavily boosted incoming signal. Takes pedals very nicely, too, but its own distortion sounds so good, if I want an overdriven tone, I just crank the volume up a bit more.

[mapka]

by 5 on the volume knob, it's plenty loud enough for me, and still clean with anything other than a hot humbucker or heavily boosted incoming signal. Takes pedals very nicely, too, but its own distortion sounds so good, if I want an overdriven tone, I just crank the volume up a bit more.

I will assume that is to 11?

[mrmudcat]

DVM and everyone else.......... FYI..............Clapton showed up with a blackface vibrato champ and a princeton reverb(blackface). Duane and Eric played through both at very low volume they called it the layla rig!


Taken from Tom Dowd as he remembers!!!!!

[mrmudcat]

Tom Dowd said "(Eric) Clapton used those two models(blackface vibro cham,princeton reverb) to do the Layla album – he [connected] one to the other, turned the volume all the way up, treble all the way up, and the bass all the way down; that’s the ‘Layla’ tone.”


Both used the champs Eric and Duane................great amp.....someone buy this!!!

[mrmudcat]

Tom Dowd said "(Eric) Clapton used those two models to do the Layla album – he [connected] one to the other, turned the volume all the way up, treble all the way up, and the bass all the way down; that’s the ‘Layla’ tone.”


Clapton showed up with a blackface vibro champ and a princeton reverb they both played on the champs with Clapton daisy chaining the two amps!!

Buy this sweet thing I wish I could!

[kidsmoke*]

Beautiful work DVM, as usual.

Question...I was looking at a popular boutique P2P version of the 5F1 (victoria 5112 - uses an Eminence 12" in a larger cab), and the seller said it was a fantastic single coil / P90 amp, but that HE wasn't crazy about the sounds he got with his humbucker equipped guitars. Not a knock on it, his point was that its a FANTASTIC amp, but kind of a one trick pony, so make sure that's the trick you want.

Would you agree? Experience with your Dot, for example?

I've got a tele, and an incoming P90 guitar...supposedly, so if his comments were dead on, a champ still will have lots of love...but I'm curious.

[duhvoodooman***]

There's no doubt that the amp was developed to sound good with Fender's guitars, which were all single coils at the time--Esquires, Teles, Strats and Jazzmasters. And I would agree that it sounds its best with those types of guitars. I think most humbucker players--jazz players being a notable exception--tend to want a more distorted tone, and that generally requires more gain than a simple, single gain stage amp like the Champ can provide. But I've played all of my humbucker guitars through my Champ at one time or another, and they sound great with an overdrive or distortion pedal providing that extra gain. But you're obviously not going to get Marshall crunch out of a 5W single-ended amp with one preamp tube, no matter what pedal you use....

I will assume that is to 11?

Actually, if you take a look at that first photo above, you'll see that "these go to 12!"

[kidsmoke*]

Not a Marshall-y guy, I've found. Plexi tones are fun, if you've got access. i have one small amp that does that, but won't clean up much at all. And I've mentined before, the Ampeg stays a little dark, although it does get much cleaner and rounder than the Lanilei.

Ah well, off to youtube I go.

Regardless...nice work!!