BYOC Champ 6 watt amp kit released

[tunghaichuan***]

I wish that they would have released a 5F2-A tweed Princeton circuit instead. The Princeton had a larger output transformer and a 10" speaker in the cab. It also has a simple tone control that does not suck down the gain. Really, the only differences in the two circuits are a pot, two caps and an extra hole in the chassis.

I agree on the tube recto, really unnecessary in a Class A circuit like the tweed Champ. The only reason amp companies used them in the past was that at the time, tube rectifiers were cheaper than silicon rectifiers. Leo Fender would have used SS diodes in a heartbeat had they been cheaper than their tube counterparts.

[duhvoodooman***]

Got one of these kits last week and finished it up on Saturday. No problems--everything fired up just fine, no smoke or blown fuses! The instructions are really good. If you can build a pedal, you can build this amp, just following the step-by-step. Just give it the respect and caution that 400+VDC deserves!

I've never owned or played through a tweed-era Champ before, but it's got a sweet, round tone to it. Made for single coils, IMO. It's a tad darker than I'm used to, but not at all dull sounding. I really like how you can really dig in with the bridge pickup of a Strat or Tele without getting the ice pick through your eardrums. I haven't had much chance to crank it up yet, but will get to that soon enough. Seems to take pedals very nicely. And it's amazingly quiet, almost no discernible hum until it's dimed (or maybe I should say "dozened", 'cuz the volume control goes to 12).

Here are a couple of photos. This kit came with the soon-to-be-available 120V/240V dual service PT, so heads up to you guys outside of the US! I still need to push a few wires around to make it a bit neater in there. Ordered a Tweed Champ cabinet with a 10" baffle upgrade from Marsh Amplification, along with a Weber Sig 10AS speaker. Too bad I have ZERO carpentry skills, or I'd build my own....