Fender Champ 600 (or other small combos) as a cab for a head?

thecolourbox

This will sound like lunacy to you i imagine but bear with me!

I accidentally bought a Mooer Little Monster Bassman head, cos it was small and pretty. The range of small cabs seems very hard to find (i was after something small, to use minimal space). So it got me thinking outside of the box as it were.

Us there a way to use the Fender Champ 600 combo as a cab? I couldn't quite see inside the one in the shop but wasn't sure if the connection was wired or a jack. The attraction being the small 6" speaker sized cab, bonus of another amp to play with, and cos it looks pretty and all like retro init though. Well aware of the limitations sonically of a 6" speaker, though i do think maybe its a sound i could work with. But could it work practically?

Other options are the Lil Night Train cab, or I think Hayden do one too, but they don't quite seem as cool though they would probably sound better. Or if course I flip it straight on and get something else...

ICBM

The speaker is on a plugged-in cable, but the cable is very short - even if you undo the clamp which holds it to the side of the cabinet, I doubt it would reach a head sitting on top of it. You could fix it with an extension cable though - plug on one, socket on the other.

The speaker really is poor though, unless you specifically want that honky bluesy tone and nothing else.

thecolourbox

Ah that's what i feared, I'd be a bit scared of an extension on it to be honest! That said there's one available locally with a so called "upgraded" Jensen speaker in it - I'm not sure a bluesey honky tone would be much of an issue as I'll be playing White Stripes style stuff on it

Do you know of any other small cabs?

Somebody at work showed me a Blackstar 4x8 for a full on mini bassman set up but its naturally bigger a d doesn't really look the business as a set

ICBM

A cable extension is fine if it's built properly - Neutrik locking cable socket preferably. Even if it isn't it would probably be fine at 5W.

Keep a look out for Marshall Micro Stack cabs on Ebay - sometimes people sell them separately because they want to keep the head. (Which sound surprisingly good through a 4x12" - even the MG15 version.) They're 1x10"s so they not only sound better to begin with, you have a much wider range of options for a better speaker.

Blackstar make them as well, and Ashdown did too, but I've never seen either of them separately.

crunchman

You can probably pick up a 1 x 12 for the money a Champ 600 will cost.  The Jensen might be better than the stock one but that would be like saying that a football team is better than Torquay.  It's not a terribly high bar.

thecolourbox

I know that but the attraction was the small size, I don't have much room here. I will probably just flip on the Mooer, out for a duck (ie not having played it)

Jeremiah

I think H&K make a 1x10 cab to go with the Tubemeister 5. Also, there's an Orange 1x8 that goes with the Micro Terror, It's cheap but it's said to sound very boxy, though I haven't heard one  myself.

thecolourbox

Yeah i know but as annoying as it sounds, there is some benefit to having something that is living room friendly in looks, as I'll be moving in with my lovely lady in the not too distant future, and would be able to justify something small and nice looking much easier. The Orange looks and sounds horrific having tried one! The Vox Lil Night train one is ok though, will check the h&k but i think its leading me to getting a different amp...

Which could be interesting

ICBM

Sounds daft to sell the Mooer without even trying it. It might sound great.

How about one of these, plus a Jensen or Weber speaker?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tweed-Amplifier-Cabinet-8-or-10-Speaker-Sizes-for-Champ-5F1-or-Princeton-5F2A-/141373327170?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item20ea81c742

Not that cheap, but less than a Champion 600.

p90fool

I'd be tempted to buy a big old non-working valve radio and stick an 8" speaker in it, and hide the head behind it.

abelard

Hi,

Lurked for a while and just signed up to comment as I have a Mooer BM, which I love. My solution was to buy a pair of own brand 10" cabs, I got mine from gear4music. I've since upgraded the speakers to a 10" vintage and greenback.

Couldn't be happier with this set up. I like the amps fundamental sound and it seems to make every guitar sound like it "should". The limited controls are just a bonus to stop me tweaking. Pretty much all I plug in to at the moment, although it isn't the most versatile.

thecolourbox

I'm still weighing up whether to bother, it was an impulse buy really as I have a preamp I can plug into my hifi, but just missed an amp. What I failed to do was think it through!

thecolourbox

Sod it, I'm going to sell it, needs too much extra money spending to sort it out and id still play it like a 12 year old. Thanks all for the help

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM said:

Sounds daft to sell the Mooer without even trying it. It might sound great.

How about one of these, plus a Jensen or Weber speaker?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tweed-Amplifier-Cabinet-8-or-10-Speaker-Sizes-for-Champ-5F1-or-Princeton-5F2A-/141373327170?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item20ea81c742

Not that cheap, but less than a Champion 600.

Agreed, the Mooer Little Monster AC I had sounded truckloads better than any other 5 watt 'AC' type amp in the store, including the AC4 handwired.  Nope, I'm not exaggerating.  

Perhaps the Bassman is the same.  I loved that little Mooer, it gave really great tones, and took pedals well in the normal mode.  

Gassage

I tried one of these and I have to say, begrudgingly, I really loved it!! Little Monster is apt.

ThePrettyDamned

Gassage said:

I tried one of these and I have to say, begrudgingly, I really loved it!! Little Monster is apt.

I went in to buy a HT5, AC4, something small and cheap.

The Mooer, despite being MIC, was more expensive than others, but the sound actually blew me away.  With the top boost on, it really did capture the sound of an AC30, far better than a modeller or other AC type amp.  

It's heresy, I know... I looked inside, it looked like a pretty solid PCB with full size components, but I suspect things like the pots, switches and valve mounts were cheap (I genuinely can't remember).  If there was a hand wired, top notch version of the same circuit, it would be ace.