Small, Inexpensive Tube Amps?

[mr. beaumont]

For about 10 years, I've had a Fender Champion 600 in my living room. Sounded good for jazz, and it was small and cute enough that my wife didn't mind it living between the couch and end table.

I took it out of the house yesterday as it had speaker had started to cut in and out a bit, and I suspected a loose connection somewhere. Having a soldering iron at work, the plan was to disconnect and reconnect the speaker during my lunch break and see if that solved the issue. No big deal...

Of course, I had my hands full in the morning, so like an idiot, I left the amp in my car.

And y'all know what happened. Car broken into, amp gone.

Anyway...I don't need another amp...but I'd love to have another small, cute (for the wife's needs) tube amp to keep in the living room again...but sadly, the cheap Lil 600 is no longer made.

So anyway...whatcha all using? Small, inexpensive, tube, and cute are the criteria

[DRS]

Jeepers, they must have sold 1 trillion of those Champ 600s, I had one, modded, and sold it. You should be able to find one for $100.

[va3ux]

Super Champ XD, Roland Cube, plus many others. Lots to choose from these days

[mr. beaumont]

Yeah, used is always an option. I just wanted to see if there was anything else out there people were enjoying.

Oh, as for where it was parked, I live in Chicago. Big parking lot, car was unattended about 4 hours. Several cars broken into. Only the 2nd time in 17 years, so overall, I've done pretty well. I was dumb this time, I had what looks like a laptop bag in the car as well...I'm sure that's what they broke in for, the amp was just gravy.

The "laptop bag" actually was empty. Serves 'em right.

[mr. beaumont]

Super Champ XD, Roland Cube, plus many others. Lots to choose from these days

Well, the Cubes aren't tube, and the Super champ has all that modeling gobbeldygook. I was hoping for a one or two knob deal.

It's probably just gonna be a used 600...it doesn't look like there's many cheapie amps like that anymore...guess that fad ran it's course.

[vintagelove]

You can’t go wrong with the basic “champ” circuit. There are any number of builders nowadays, and if you do 5 minutes of research on tube amp gut shots, it’s pretty easy to tell clean work from shoddy work.

If you want to get fancy, you might look for an octal champ. I recently got an octal amp and it was like nothing I’d heard before. FWIW, I’ve been doing critical listening in a studio environment for like 20 years, and grew up with a Marshall halfstack literally on my living room table, so I’d like to think I have pretty good ears for tube amps. Man, the first time I heard that octal amp, it was a noticeable difference. Fat, with a quite open high end, and extremely dynamic.

One last little bit, I preferred grid biasing the preamp tube, rather than the typical cathode bias. So, if you decide to go that way, grid bias would have my vote.

Throw one of those in a nice cheap ebay cabinet, stained with walnut, and only walnut.... and you have a really great amp. Ok, ok.. two last things, get at least an 10 inch speaker, and don’t cheap out on the transformers. At least go classictone, which are actually really nice imo.


Good luck

[El Fundo]

I bought a Fender Pro Jr IV a couple of weeks ago and have pretty much used it on every gig since. A much better amp for jazz than the (slightly comparable) Blues Jr imho.

[mr. beaumont]

I think the 600 was like $200-250 bucks when they first came out? Can't remember.

I'd definitely like to keep it in the 2-400 dollar range.

Part of me just wants to go hunt down a silverface Champ, but I don't actually NEED an amp at all, and they're ugly, so it'll probably get booted from the living room anyway

[mr. beaumont]

I bought a Fender Pro Jr IV a couple of weeks ago and have pretty much used it on every gig since. A much better amp for jazz than the (slightly comparable) Blues Jr imho.

The IV, is that the tweed one?

I've always thought Pro Jr's were great, just might be a little big.

[El Fundo]

The IV, is that the tweed one?

I've always thought Pro Jr's were great, just might be a little big.

Not much bigger than the 600, actually. Very light as well. And yes, it’s tweed.

[neatomic]

ugh..that sux..urban living!

cool end table lookin-




cheaper..less fashionable...but with cool el-84 power tube



Bugera V5 Infinium 5-watt 1x8" Tube Combo Amp

[wzpgsr]

VHT Special 6. Used, likely under $200. Tweed-ish. Benefits from, but does not require, a tube and speaker swap. It’s only cute if you have a thing for Darth Vader.

[citizenk74]

Sorry about your break-in, having gear stolen sucks. Had it happen to me.

You want small, great sounding, and cute? I'm very happy with my Ibanez TSA5TVR. Cosmetically it's turquoise & cream with TV legs and occupies about as much space as my blackface Vibro Champ with the same tube line-up, a real spring reverb, and a built-in Tube Screamer (which I sometimes use to get a little subtle compression-on-the-verge-of-a-hint-of-grit effect. All at very mic- and ear- friendly levels. Seriously, this thing sounds great.

As for cute, when I showed my infinitely better half pix of this online, Mrs. k insisted I should get it. IIRC, MF gave it to me for 4 bills with free shipping.

I'm a very happy camper.

[medblues]

Sorry about the break-in.

$250, cute as can be. BH1H/BH110 Blackheart Killer Ant Head & Cabinet | Reverb

$270, not as cute but well liked by most all. VHT AV-SP1-6 Special 6 1x10" 6W Guitar Combo Amp | Reverb

[neatomic]

yeah, vht 6 watters are great little amps..ive seen guys use'm in live date trio -g-b-d settings and get away with it...

but not so pretty for strictly home use..hah


cheers

[vernon]

Couldn’t post photo in pm... so here is what mine looks like.

[Longways to Go]

I love my Pro Junior III, but I don't think of it as a livingroom amp. It is small and good but loud!





The Bugera and Ibanez TV set ideas mentioned above look like fun to consider.

If you own a cab, there are also plenty of funky small heads out there . . .


I had a chance to pick up a really nice silverface champ not long ago . . . that stuff is floating around out there too . . .

[John A.]

I think the 600 was like $200-250 bucks when they first came out? Can't remember.

I'd definitely like to keep it in the 2-400 dollar range.

Part of me just wants to go hunt down a silverface Champ, but I don't actually NEED an amp at all, and they're ugly, so it'll probably get booted from the living room anyway

Why not a used Champion 600? There seem to be quite a lot on offer. Used Gretsch g5222 is pretty much the same thing Otherwise, the 5 watt Bugera tube amp sounds quite good IMO.

I'd also suggest checking out a Fender Champion 20. It's a modeling amp, not tubes, but as simple as the Microcube. Not cute, but basic black(face) style goes with anything. Mine is allowed in the living room, but that be because of the cover I made out of duct tape for it.

If you're willing to go up to $450-ish, something in Valco/Leilani/Alamo neigbhorhood could actually be quite decorative.

John

[icr]

Car broken into, amp gone.

When I first read it I though you lost one of these. You are better off because that newer one is easy to replace.

[consumerduck]

I had a 2 10 musicman 130 stollen from my car years ago. I put up flyers trying to draw the funky/ugly musicman amp logo with a reward. I got an anonymous call with 2 guys names and I brought it to the cops. They caught the guys but the kids only took the speakers and threw everything else away. I told them if they reimbursed the $200 I paid for it, I wouldn’t press charges.

The moral of the story is you are right, the silver-faced champ is ugly, but the silver-faced vibrochamp is as sexy and cute as they come. My picky wife tolerates mine visible in our living room. Tone- wise you’ll be happy and they are a good investment. Just don’t leave it in the car.

[snoskier63]

There are several mint Champion 600’s on eBay currently, and at reasonable prices. I love the Pro Jr III, but it is 15 watts vs 5 watts, and it is at the upper end of your budget vs the 600 being at the lower end. Good luck!

[oldane]

Mambo 8 wedge. Maybe not exactly cheap, not tubes, but it doesn't get much smaller and these days Jon makes them with a blackface Fender like tone stack activated with a flip of a switch.

[radiofm74]

There’s plenty of Champion 600s on the used market for not very much.
A little bit higher in price, but still moderate, you could look for:
- A tweed champ clone, used. I bought me a Mojotone kit that someone had (mis)assembled already… with tech costs it was a bit above the top of your budget;
- An old (or reissue, used) Gibson GA-5 – no idea how it sounds but it’s cute and tube.

[Jonah]

I used a Bugera 5W (old one) for a couple of years but I belive that Champ 600 is much better.

And after all I came to the point that Bugera at least unmodified makes not mre sense than small solid state for these purposes.

So I am not sure if I can really recommend it... but it's cheap and tube

[339 in june]

Home made Tweed Champ 5F1 clone
< 300 € even if you don't cut on trannies and speaker quality
you make it as cute as YOU design and make it !
it's fun to build

and on top of that, it sounds good !