Champ with Reverb?

Bill C · #1 11-12-2009, 12:09 PM

Do any of the boutique amp builders offer a champ-sized living room amp with reverb, or is it not possible to get a reverb circuit into a cabinet that small? I've always wanted a tiny tube amp but with built-in reverb - no reverb pedals, no modelling/channel switching nonsense!

randyc · #2 11-12-2009, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill C

Do any of the boutique amp builders offer a champ-sized living room amp with reverb, or is it not possible to get a reverb circuit into a cabinet that small? I've always wanted a tiny tube amp but with built-in reverb - no reverb pedals, no modelling/channel switching nonsense!

It's possible to get the tank + circuit into a Champ-sized cabinet, many small solid-state amplifiers have respectable (conventional) reverbs. The lack of that feature probably is due to the lack of a market ... just guessing, though.

BigDaddyLoveHandles · #3 11-12-2009, 12:39 PM

What about the PRRI (Princeton Reverb (Blackface) Reissue)? 15W, 1x10", Fender spring reverb?

EDIT: The Champ (well, most versions of it) is just a 5W amp, which wouldn't give you much clean headroom before it starts to break up and distort. Or are you going for some dirt in your sound?

randyc · #4 11-12-2009, 02:37 PM

The amount of power produced by a Fender Champ is a wonderful way to start arguments and win beers. It varies from around 3 watts to "possibly" as high as 6 watts, depending on manufacturing year, cathode bias resistor value, power supply rectifier, transformer and load. The majority of them run around 3.5 watts (at the output, into a 4 ohm resistive load at 5% distortion and 1 kHz).

(As everyone knows, the Champ has an obscure output impedance of 3.6 ohms - suggesting that Leo got a good buy on some old car radio speakers at one point !)

Anyway, the thing doesn't have much power which doesn't prohibit using it in fairly large venues (preamp output or microphone into the main board). Back in the early eighties, one of my buddies used to "hide" a Champ behind his Sunn Concert, miked it into the Sunn - just for the image of it, I suppose. Sounded good though.

Fidelcaster · #5 11-12-2009, 02:48 PM

Would it be a viable solution to put a reverb stompbox before the amp input? (The Champ doesn't have an effect loop, obviously.)

derek · #6 11-12-2009, 04:16 PM

I will bet you Jim would put one on for you.

Li'l Dawg Amps

I would guess part of the issue would be room for a reverb tank.

Bill C · #7 11-12-2009, 04:26 PM

thanks for your suggestions guys

Fidelcaster · #8 12-28-2009, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fidelcaster

Would it be a viable solution to put a reverb stompbox before the amp input? (The Champ doesn't have an effect loop, obviously.)

I'd still like to know if a reverb stompbox would sound good through the Champ, considering that the amp doesn't have the effect loop. Thank you!

SamBooka · #9 12-28-2009, 01:51 PM

Nothing wrong with a holy grail etc going to the input on a champ. This is just for practice at home anyway, right? If you start really driving the amp you will want to roll back the rev a little (but that is true even on amps with built in reverb). But then again, if you are overdriving the amp you probably arent playing much jazz

Personally I like a little REV so I changed the output section on my PR clone to a single ended champ output circuit. A little raunchy but much more manageable than the stock princeton.

Fidelcaster · #10 12-28-2009, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamBooka

Nothing wrong with a holy grail etc going to the input on a champ. This is just for practice at home anyway, right?

Right, thank you!

sgilder · #11 01-06-2010, 12:20 AM

The Holy grail into the champ works well, I ran that particular setup a few years ago. However, Fender did manage to shoehorn a reverb tank into a Champ-sized amp. The Super Champ had reverb, about 15 more watts, and an extra gain stage (if you're into that sort of thing). I'm talking about the original Super Champ, the one designed by Paul rivera in the 80's (not the new, digital, XD version. Feh!). It was Fenders answer to the Boogie. It's also (in my opinion) basically the prototype for Rivera's own amps. You can trace most of his signature design elements back to that little amp. I had one last year and I really wish I'd hung on to it. Probably the last great small amp fender made. Handmade with point to point wiring, just like they use to. Tone for days.

SamBooka · #12 01-06-2010, 09:42 AM

they dont give them away anymore

It is more like a boogieesque princeton reverb.
About the same price as a PR in these waters too.
What I like about the champ is you can get it up over 3 without annoying anyone or feeding back too much (I find most fenders are pretty dull sounding below 3). My PR was not loud at 3 but in a small practice space feedback was more of an issue.

I would still love to have a super champ for a week to play with tho

Steve Z · #13 01-06-2010, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill C

Do any of the boutique amp builders offer a champ-sized living room amp with reverb...!

I agre with the above comment that there is going to be little clean headroom on a 5watt amp, but you didn't mention that you wanted clean headroom just a champ sized- amp with reverb. Take a look at the Swart Space Tone Reverb.
Swart Space Tone Reverb 6V6SE Tube Amplifier

from the website:

Quote:

...the Space Tone Reverb, a circuit based on the little 5W, Class A, single-ended 6V6'R that started it all but with added 60s vibe, the biggest reverb YET, all feeding into a 12" Mojo BV-30H speaker with Big Daddy Iron.

There is one for sale on The Gear Page forum (I am not affiliated with the seller, I just saw it there before surfing here

)
The Gear Page

Image from Swart website...