Red Knob Champ 12 - any good?

knuckleberryfinn

I'm after a small amp for teaching and quiet gigs and have seen one of these for 179 quid in a local shop. I know the red knob Fenders have woeful jack sockets but I can replace these. Should I go for it?

menamestom

Yes quite nice cleans but drive is a bit mushy. Fairly loud on the gain channel but the clean channel is pretty underpowered. Nice core tone for teaching, much better than the usual Line 6 spiders and the like often used for teaching. Could be worth upgrading the speaker and there's a few easy mods to tighten up the drive channel.

jonnyburgo

They don't seem too well thought of on the forums, seems as though everybody mods the crap out of them. Give it a go and see what you think, you might like it, Ive never used or heard one.

knuckleberryfinn

Yes I reckon a good platform for mods, as long as the pcb is not rubbish. Think I'll go for it if it's still there later today...

menamestom

jonnyburgo said:

They don't seem too well thought of on the forums, seems as though everybody mods the crap out of them. Give it a go and see what you think, you might like it, Ive never used or heard one.

The mod is pretty simple, there's a Torres kit or easy to do yourself, i don't think there were ever the numerous turd polishing mods like the Blues Junior. It was more of one simple quick win mod.

knuckleberryfinn

I think the main one is replace the 1meg drive channel gain with 100k to make the drive less wide ranging (I.e. not going all the into bad 80s metal territory)

bertie

I had one,  did some mods on it (two Torres ones)  which improved it no end,   the drive channel was lovely, the cleans not so nice.  I much preferred it to the BJr.......

Its an OK little amp  and can be got for peanuts these days

Someone on MR bought mine off me - cant remember who

knuckleberryfinn

Argh just bought it. Can't afford any more amps, but there you go. The clean sound is good but as @menamestom said, underpowered. I'm looking forward to fiddling with it. It seems pretty well built, which surprised me.

bertie

there are two well known mods.......one helps match the output for the clean and OD channels, the other fattens up the drive.  
I did both to mine while I had it......I also put a G12H in it which really beefed it up.....Im pretty sure Ive got some samples somewere

downbytheriver

I used to have a snakeskin tolex one - love to have that one back...

koneguitarist

I thought they were great little amps, but like the super 60,twin and dual showman, they all had similar issues with input jacks and connections. The clean sound was always decent, but OD was best gotten from pedals.