'57 Custom Champ and alternatives.

fftc

I'm thinking about getting a valve amp for use at home and one of the options that has crept up on me is the '57 Custom Champ reissue. I would be interested to hear some thoughts on these. I know a lot of people say they are overpriced. But does the hand wired aspect make them better value than a cheaper PCB Fender? Not to mention the pine cabinet. What is the overall quality like? Reliability?
I've been looking at some of the other 5F1 type amps too. The various self build options along with Rift and Flynn have caught the eye. The Rift with a cover is a bit more than the Fender and the Flynn a bit less, but not a great deal in it. Would re-sale prices be different though? I'm buying with the intention to keep rather than sell, but it's sometimes worth taking these things into consideration. Are there others I should be looking at and how do they stack up against each other?

Fretwired

I have one and love it. Pricey yes but they have bags of tone. They are like Marmite - you either love 'em or hate 'em. Mine takes pedals pretty well.

bbill335

If I was spending that much on 5 watts of tweed tone, I'd get someone to do a 5f2a with a tone bypass switch (thus making it a 5f1). I'd *also* go for a 1x10 over the 8" but that's personal preference.

kreggs

What about those juketone royal blood amps. Cheap but maybe worth a try or those honeyboy  amps handwired in scotland

Winny_Pooh

Fenders are overpriced. Buy or build a clone w a 10'. It's a fairly dirty tone so don't expect it to be a linear pedal platform. 

longjaw

I've got an 8" speaker version of one of these. Point to point wiring and sounds great:

http://www.honkin-harmonica-shop.co.uk/honkin-toms-super-chump-5w-class-a-valve-harmonica-amp

fftc

Some interesting options I hadn't seen before. Cheers.
Big price differential though. From the Juketone and the Honkin' Toms at around £300 to the Honeyboy which is more than the Fender! If the Fender is pricey then what are the more expensive copies?

This throws up the funny paradox for me in that I'm wary of the cheap ones for being too cheap but also of the expensive ones for being too expensive!

shaunm

@thebreeze he has a beautiful version made by Rift for sale

NPP

and I have one built by @4114Effects which is great and was significantly cheaper than a Fender one but mine isn't for sale

kreggs

Tubetone engineering  champ 1000 might represent  the middle ground on cost. Havent tried one though
Victoria 518 champ would be more on the expensive  side.

brooom

I'd either get a tweed from Rift amps or look for a silverface champ.

Modulus_Amps

I have a 5F1 clone, its a nice amp, warm and woody, but my preference would be the 5F2a, which is basically a champ with a tone control.

fftc

I've had a look at the Tubetone but can't find a supplier for the Victoria. Any ideas @kreggs ?

I've also looked at your kits @Modulus_Amps Half of me is tempted to do a self build. The other half just can't be arsed!

Not had much comment on the build quality of the hand wired Fenders. Are they decent? And how would they compare to the UK buikders quality?

thebreeze

shaunm said:

@thebreeze he has a beautiful version made by Rift for sale

Cheers Shaun.  Yes, this is a beautiful little amp.  Wonderful build quality and sounds terrific.  Find the sweet spot, control from the guitar and you're there all day long.  I can't comment on the Fenders as I haven't seen one but I really don't think there'd be much in it in terms of sound and build quality.  The speakers may make more of a difference (I was told the Rift had a better speaker:).

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/129152/rift-tweed-5#latest

munckee

I have a modified champion 600 which is now a 5E1 tweed amp, I'm selling it because I bought a princeton 68 custom, if you are looking for blues/rock sounds the champs are great, if you play cleanish I prefer the princeton - plus the tremolo and reverb are great,

Modulus_Amps

fftc said:

I've had a look at the Tubetone but can't find a supplier for the Victoria. Any ideas @kreggs ?

I've also looked at your kits @Modulus_Amps Half of me is tempted to do a self build. The other half just can't be arsed!

Not had much comment on the build quality of the hand wired Fenders. Are they decent? And how would they compare to the UK buikders quality?

I get that, once you build one though the chances of you building something grander are increased. The kits do sound good.

The demo of the Rift version is very good as is the Flynn one, I would choose either of those over the Fender one just for something a bit more personalized.

kreggs

fftc said:

I've had a look at the Tubetone but can't find a supplier for the Victoria. Any ideas @kreggs ?

I've also looked at your kits @Modulus_Amps Half of me is tempted to do a self build. The other half just can't be arsed!

Not had much comment on the build quality of the hand wired Fenders. Are they decent? And how would they compare to the UK buikders quality?

Charlie chandlers stocks the victoria amps on a 6 week order.
But on the other hand I have built a kit from modulus  and it fantastic fun, great quality stuff and mike is always  able to answer technical  questions.

57Deluxe

the smaller Champion 600s may satisfy your small Tweed lust... was a Gretsch badged one also called the Electromatic...



https://www.google.com/search?q=gretsch+champ&num=50&safe=off&client=firefox-b&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=-G-u5v8-aozCOM%3A%2CRyJXCVK-_Vy-yM%2C_&usg=AFrqEzc_91KP4ssUYfU8sq4-dUW1vCW4Gg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbofCV--7cAhWC26QKHZQvAMwQ9QEwDHoECAEQCA#imgrc=-G-u5v8-aozCOM:

Kitsune

I'd go for a Cornell Romany over one of these. I've had a Romany Plus for about ten years now and it does it all. Had a play of a 57 Custom Champ in the shop the other week and its gotta be fairly cranked to get anything out of it - the power cut switch on the Cornells let me do this at home and at non bollocking recipient volume.

Dave_Mc

If you're planning on cranking it, and assuming your home isn't absolutely massive, you'd probably want some form of power scaling or VVR since 5 watts are still very loud in most home environments...

Kitsune

Cornells have a power cut to 0.25 of a watt - plenty of crankability