I built a Fender Champ 5F1 Clone, this is how I did it and this is how it sounds (Modules Amp).
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- čas přidán 22. 08. 2024
- I built a Fender Champ 5F1 Clone, this is how I did it and this is how it sounds (Modules Amplification).
DISCLAMER THESE AMPLIFIER HAVE VERY HIGH VOLTAGES IN THEM IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BUILD ONE OR ANY OTHER VALVE BASED DEVICE. There is 700V AC coming off the power transformer and over 400 V DC out of the rectiver.
This was a Kit that I bought, I was mostly happy with it and the sound that it makes is really great. I may well build another valve amp kit in the future.
Since I made this video I have also built a Tweed Deluxe 5E3 see it here • I built a clone of a F...
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![Can I Plug My Guitar Into That? [Or How To Rock Without An Amp]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XiYNVLhJgDc/mqdefault.jpg)
Good video, I’ve been considering building one myself and this will be a big help. I’ve done a lot of electrical, home, commercial and industrial and I agree completely with you on the mains wiring. Always look for the safest way!
Yes always got to be careful as my old electronics lecturer said 'its Volts that jolts, Its mills that kills' I love this amp I pretty much use it every day.
Nice job on the Champ build! I never liked the 8 inch speaker that my 70's Vibro Champ came with. I built a new, larger cabinet for the chassis, covered it with black tolex and installed 2 - 10 inch Fender Special Design speakers. It gives plenty of low end without sacrificing the high end, and is still light enough to carry up and down stairs, etc. I once set it near the drummer on a gig, (small stage) and he said it was too loud!
I like your thinking!! Two 10s!
Send the mains power to the on/off switch first, then to the fuse, so that there is no power energising anything in the amp when you switch off the amp. Safer. Ask Uncle Doug.
That may be his opinion in a land of 110v in the UK where the voltage is double imagine a faulty power switch, unlikely I know, but even so, having the fuse in circuit first gives that additional protection.
It always amazes me that these little Champs have such a big sound. It like there's some kind of audio magic going on. Also I would play it with a tube screamer type overdrive pedal. Back in the day when these first came out Leo Fender actually designed them to be very clean low distortion amps since he came from the world of Hi-Fi where distortion was frowned upon. Rockers figured out that you could get a crunchy distortion by cranking them up to "full monty" as you say. The downside is it's pretty clean all the way up to ten where the distortion kicks in. But if you do that you're essentially using the amp as a distortion pedal. If you boost the signal coming from the guitar then the amp input sees a much higher level signal and you have much more control over how the amp itself breaks up. Also you can get a really nice distortion at lower volume levels and have more control over the distortion in general. The volume on the amp then becomes more of a master volume. Also the smaller speaker doesn't have the bottom end of 10 or 12 inch speaker. That might seem like a disadvantage to not have a lot of bottom end but the amp was never meant to be some high power beast. It really shines when you put some pedals on it and just mic it up for recording in the studio. As for the hum you want to make sure the output transformer is mounted at a 90 degree angle to the power transformer so the 60hz line voltage doesn't induce a hum into the output transformer.
I actually made a metal screen between the Output transformer and the power transformer, I was going to do a video about it, but didn't have enough to make it worth doing. I also re laced the heater wires though that didnt make much difference, but this little bit of metal did make it a lot more quiet.
@@MatthewNorthMusic One quick check you might want to try regarding the hum. Plug in your Strat and turn up the amp volume till you hear the hum. If you have a 5 position pickup switch go to the number 2 position which is the bridge and middle p.u. If the hum goes away then the problem is hum getting on the signal somewhere between the pickup and the 12ax7 preamp tube. The 2 and 4 switch positions on a Strat are actually a "humbucking" configuration. Check first to make sure that your trem spring ground is good and you might want to see if your pickguard and pickup cavities on the guitar have shielding. If not you might want to add that. This will eliminate any room sources of hum getting picked up by the guitar. Also a good shielded instrument cable is a good investment. If you're sure that there are no sources of hum outside the amp then check inside the amp. Any wires inside the amp from the input jack to the preamp tube socket have to be kept as far from any other wiring as possible especially any high voltage wiring and any transformers. Some people will even use "shielded" wiring for the input signal wires. The input signal from the guitar is very weak and therefore susceptible to interference until it gets to the preamp. If hum gets on the input signal anywhere along the path before the preamp then amp will just amplify that hum as well as the musical signal which is all you want to hear. In fact Fender would keep the wires from the input jack to the preamp socket away from the high voltage wires to the socket by routing the signal wire straight up from the socket about an inch or so then put a 90 degree bend in the wire so it kind of came down from above the socket and floated above the socket and didn't come in from the side near the high voltage wires. If you run the input signal wires alongside the high voltage wires to the socket the magnetic field around the high voltage wires will "induce" a hum into the input signal wires. Hope this helps.
The hum is mains hum from the power transformer to the ot. Hence since I added a bit of shielding it'd better. The hum appeared at power on if you plug in and crank up there is not really much in additional hum at all and since I built it I have used it most days
@@MatthewNorthMusic One other thing is the output transformer and power transformer should be oriented 90 degrees out from each other. I watched your build video but couldn't see any pictures of how the transformers are mounted on the chassis so I can't tell if they are mounted 90 degrees out from each other. If they aren't you might want to shift the output transformer. It only requires drilling some new holes to remount it although it would be tricky now that the amp is fully assembled since you have to keep metal filings from getting inside the chassis or sticking to the transformers when you drill the new holes.
Great Video 🔥
Love seeing one of my badges out in the wild too 🎶🎸🎶🎸
Yea does the job well and has been noticed at gigs
So the kit tries to stay vintage with the power switch but a separate power switch seems so much better. The 0.022 capacitors are Sprague 715 Orange Drops. Very different than the originals but (some say) better sound. Short leads are part of using Orange Drops. The original had a RCA jack going to the speaker so they updated to 1/4" there too. The strain relief was probably sized for 16ga but the cord is 18ga. It doesn't need 16ga. JJ tubes are nice.
Your amp sounds great and you play well.
Put heat shrink on the power cable to tighten up the fit.
Such an obvious thing to do yes thank you !!!
Or put a cable tie on it, then clamp the holder over the knob of the cable tie.
Great job man and love the Sisters t-shirt!
Thank you very much. I love this amp and pretty much use it every day.
It looks great and sounds so nice!!
Thank you very much, I love it.
Very cool I have been thinking about building one. Love the 5f1 sounds cheers 😊
It really is a fab sound, they knew how to design amps back then!
nice little video.. :)
Thank you. I have re wired it since as time goes on experience means I can do it better.
Thanks for sharing! Subbed!
I have been agonising over whether to get one of these or not. I think the question now is colour of the tolex, and which speaker! (Purple, Eminence 1028K or a G10 Creamback. 😉)
If you go for the G10 you need the bigger cabinet, and if you do that Id go for the princeton kit then you get a tone control too.
These kits are not cheep, to my opinion capacitors should fit wit hout extentions
Very enjoyable thanks for doing it - I’ve been looking at this kit but to be honest I don’t trust myself (and rather like being alive). Have you ever tried a fender champ? Just wondering how the two might compare?
I have never tried a real champ but you can sure get Clapton Layla era tones out of it, I am playing through it on this video czcams.com/video/K-YKBjVgnWE/video.html Matt.
Great vid..thanks for sharing
You did good! have you played a champ from fender? or vintage champ? if so? is it worth it? does it sound as good? i is it better, bc thats sounds amazing... cant see the fender reissue sounding better... i wanna start building amps eventually, im just about to launch a vintage correct guitar wiring harness business and vintage/PAF PICKUP winding soon after...just waiting for packaging, machinery etc... so im interested,,, id appriciate your feedback....And if ever wanna an awesome pre-wired harness for that epiphone, i have an amazing harness for it, probably my best one...ty
Never had a real champ but using CZcams video and recordings as a comparison this amp is spot on
Demoing a tweed Champ and not playing the “Funk #49” riff, isn’t that against the law?
Jacks are mechanically quite strong and then does drop test to prove it.
Ive bounced this a dew times! Solid as a rock!
did you check the bias voltage (voltage drop over the cathode resistor on the 6v6gt tube). ??. The plate voltage looked pretty high so the 6v6gt could be underbiased and running really hit,, (more than 14W at Idle)..
All the tests under load appeared to be in spec the other amp I built the tweed deluxe I did re bias as it was running at about 90%
Where did you get that custom nameplate for the front? Very sharp! Great video, thank you!
eBay :)
Good stuff
Where do I get one of these kits? And how much do they cost?
the heater cabling is not twisted properly hence the hum
I should do an update I re did all the wiring and replaced all signal wires with screened wire made not a lot of difference it's very low level and doesn't change when you turn up the volume
What speaker did you use?
Its a Jensen
What kind of pups are in the guitar?
The Strat has Lace Sensors and the Les Paul as DP100s
how loud is it on 10?
I've done gigs with it !
any voltage over 55 volts is potentially lethal