Added: 3 years ago
From: alanstrainor
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  • A little pinch of Stevie Ray Vaughn I presume... sick clean tone dude. Typical fender sound

  • @musicalenergyworld It's impossible to get away from SRV! Cheers man, it's a really great little amp. Don't play it enough these days being honest.

  • so what tubes did u put in this amp,thks!

  • @kymojo1 jjteslas!

  • @alanstrainor thks bro!

  • what did the weber speaker do for it?i cant really tell by vid i only play harmonica threw mine.

  • @kymojo1 i play some harp through mine too. The stock speaker couldn't handle anything with the volume above about 10, you'd get horrible speaker breakup. the Weber speaker completely eliminated this and also gave it a more compressed sweet tone. You can still drive the amp when you crank it to 12. Even though it's a 5 watt amp, it's still loud!

  • @alanstrainor thks man,i usually cant go higher than 10 for feed back,use a high impe mic.its loud enough unless im at a gig.but i just mic it threw pa.so if i did not do any other mods but replce the speaker with 6 inch weber you think id get better tone?i like the way this amp breaks up easy for small room and i like greasy but ur right it gets a little much when cranked.so when u play it around 5 with harp plugged into high gain is it clean or dirty?

  • @kymojo1 The quality of the stock isn't great overall. The Weber is just better in every possible way being completely honest! I'd upgrade the stock valves too, as the ones that come with it are just shite! Valves and speaker should be cheap.

  • this is the new 600 on sale now for 119 at musicians friend!

  • just curious, is that an american strat or mim?

  • @FlipTSO MiM with seymour duncan antiquity II's.

  • You have a very..... weird way of play. Very staccato.. Me gusta

  • Just bought one of these with a Jensen speaker! You have some great chops :D

  • Fine Playing on this little honey of amp.

  • suono tipico stevie ray vaughan bravo complimenti

  • Why dont you use your pinky very often?

  • @GrowTheCaine No real reason, its just the way I feel comfortable playing. Cheers for the comment.

  • @alanstrainor thats my only reservation is using your pinky everything else is awesome. Its so you wont develop carpal tunnel.

  • @GrowTheCaine do you know if this was the new champ 600, or one of the real vintage ones?

    sounds great. If all i have to do is get a new one and upgrade the tubes and speaker to get this sound, I'm sold.

  • @jgk381 There is a complete kit available by mercury.

    I just bought the amp awaiting delivery buying the kit soon.

  • @hmccloy that kit costs twice as much as the amp! I'll probably just upgrade the tubes/speaker on ebay. Thanks though.

  • @jgk381 I just upgraded through ebay, parts were cheap.

  • @alanstrainor hey, is this one of the new champ 600's, or a real 50's/60's one? Great playing and great tone.

    Also, were the JJ tesla's you used the EL84's, and did you use the same in each the pre and power?

    Thanks

  • Volume setting was about 8/12 if i remember correctly. That is quite loud tbh, and i would say it would most definitely annoy the neighbours.

  • do you remember the volume setting for this video? Do think I'll bother my neighbours if I use a Champion in an apartment?

  • kick ass man, playing reminded me of srv

    

  • omg you got some crazy fingers!

  • arigato!

  • What type of cone is your weber speaker?

  • thank you for playing a start correct lol. what do you think man im looking at that and a fender super champ xd, thank if a drummer is palying jazz drums ill be ok at the club mic? im very poor lol

  • hello, great tone and playing. which weber are you using. smooth, or full, or partial ribbed cone? thanks!

  • hello, sounds fantastic. does your weber have a smooth cone, a partially ribbed cone, or fully ribbed, just curious. thanks!

  • Sounds like you're using a compressor. No?

  • @goldenhopper No, i'm plugged straight into the amp. No effects used. Just guitar and amp. It has a great "compressed" tone.

  • @goldenhopper

    Youtube makes it sound a little more compressed as well.

  • Your fingers are just like Brian Mays.

  • can you plug this into a cabinet?

  • that's a sweet tone!

  • How are you liking this amp? I'm thinking of getting one as an amp for now, as I don't wanna fork out a few hundred for a higher price ranged amp. Is it rocking hard enough?

  • this or the vibro champ! which sounds better?

  • man this is great. what kind of strat and gauge strings? sounds awesome!

  • @TheSchoolsux345 Strings are probably 10's in that video. Pickups are Seymour Duncan antiquity 2's. Cheers

  • what u got for pickups in that strat? just a beauty!

  • what tubes used ? both jj's ? ty

  • @Geokouu Yup, both jj's

  • Everything was great you may just want to get a better video camera though

  • your pinky is feelin a lil left out :P use it more it's a Quarter of your playing going to waste :P

  • nice play and sound! can you unplug that dc cable? or is it built in? the reason Im asking is I plan to bring it with me to asia, I live in europe now, europe has 2 pins in the wall, and asia 3 pins, cheers:)

  • @satjathamma Cheers!

    No the dc cable cannot be unplugged from the amp. I have one with a european plug, so i have to use a three pin adapter. (Living in Ireland). It should be as simple as that. Make sure the voltages are the same though!

  • You have some crazy fingers man! great great tone.

  • aaa wilkinson bridge aha! jaja it's better than the fender bridge

  • @jriverband No wilkinson bridge on that strat....or any of my strats for that matter.

  • @alanstrainor oh sorry men, i saw the video again, and it's not wilkinson, but i recomend you the wilkinson, two scews, better than the fender

  • I'm going to sound stupid asking this but can you adjust Reverb on the Champ?

  • @czaaaaaa The only control on the amp is a volume knob, so no reverb, no tone controls, no "gain" controls, well unless you count the volume as a gain control!

    Cheers

  • love it

  • Lovely guitar a real stevie ray vaughn sound there! Always loved his sound!

  • Dude has long skinny "Robert Johnson" fingers. It must be a breeze getting around a fretboard with fingers like that.

  • Holy ****! You get 5 stars just for your opening riff! Great playing. Thanks for the demo.

  • great jam man.

  • My kids bought me one of these for Christmas today...sounded really sweet...for about 15 mins. It made a crackling sound, smoked a little, then died.Gotta take it back. Hope the next one holds up.

  • Just bought one of these, its all stock at the moment. I'm thinking about doing the same mods that you did. Your rig sounds great. I play a Strat too, but each guitar is so unique that the video doesn't really help for comparison purposes. So... I've got a question what differences in tone did you hear after the mods?

    Thanks,

    Matt

  • A strat is a strat at the end of the day, there will be differences in tone clearly, but it wont be all that much, it's more down to how you play. But as for the amp, my mods meant i could push the volumes higher without getting awful speaker breakup, the tone is more compressed and sweet rather than harsh. My amp stays surprisingly clean all the way up to 12, but there's a lot of compression added the higher the volume is. It's definitely a sweet amp.

  • Perfect. I was hoping that you'd noticed a difference in compression, thats exactly what I'm going for.

    Thanks a lot.

  • Great tone 5 stars!

  • Can you make a video with your CLASSIC VIBE please (and with this amp of course ...) ???

  • The classic vibe is so far from stock now it's probably not worth it. New neck, new electronics, 2 lipstick tubes, 1 texas special.

  • That's what I'm looking for from my champ 600. Did you just replace the 6V6, or the 12AX7 as well? Do you know the model number of the speaker you put in? Did you just change those components, or did you do anything with the soldered components (caps, power supply, etc)?

  • Both valves were replaced as it says in the description. It's a 6" Alnico speaker. And asides from those mods nothing else has been done to this amp.

    Cheers.

  • Thanks for the details; hate to keep bugging you, but do you recall if it's a smooth, partly-ribbed, or fully ribbed speaker (early, mid, late breakup)?

  • Unfortunately i don't recall which it was, and to see the inside cone of the speaker would mean taking the whole amp apart. I can say purely from playing it, that it takes a lot of volume for it to break up, and even at 12 it's still very smooth, without any harshness to it at all.

  • Nice blues licks!

  • can you get this tone with a squier classic vibe and the same amp ?

  • Hell yes. Have a classic vibe myself and it plays better than the fender.

  • so i should buy one ... =)

  • can you make a video with the classic vibe please ??

  • Man what a tone, i really want to jam through decent equipment

  • My stock Champ quickly seems to "overload" the bass notes, particularly when playing open E and A based chords (bad crackly breakup). Turning the volume down helps some but not all. I think this is mostly from the speaker. Any thoughts? I tend to like a high sustain high gain "scream" in my blues - lazy hand Albert King style. I think your setup might solve (many) of my problems. Can you comment on how crackly the speaker gets at (slightly) higher gains with heavier chords?

  • The speaker was by far the weakest link in my amp, and imo was the cause of that awful unwanted "bad crackly breakup", with the weber AlNiCo Speaker i can crank mine to 12 and still not have any issues even with heavier chords. But it is limited by the speaker size, the 6" speaker just can't give fantastic bass response, but for the size it's certainly good.

  • will this amp be loud for my bedroom? cuz i live in an apartment...

  • Yeah, almost too loud i'd say. If i were you i'd be looking at the vox ac4tv, you can change the wattage from 4 to 1/4 watts which is ideal. Plus it sounds amazing.

  • what are the pickups on this strat?

  • Seymour Duncan Antiquity II's

  • this shit is so clean i think i need to go play in the mud...good playing...but not my tone

  • Clean is how i like it. Although, i half want a small gritty overdriven amp too, i still want clarity though....i can't stand when things get muddy. Thanks for the comment.

  • Your left hand looks like a face hugger.

  • LOL absolutely true

  • Yes !! That's the way i like it . Thank You !

    Got one of these amps now and my Fender Baja Telecaster . I'm looking forward to a great summer . Life can be sweet , thank god !

  • Cheers! What do ya think of those baja Tele's? I've been curious about getting one, or the neck off one for a while now.

  • what bridge is this?

    i'd nver seen those saddles?

    AH,well playin'........... I'm looking for a home amp,but that's too clean.......

  • They're just stringsaver saddles, no more broken strings! Seriously haven't broken a single string since i put them on. Definitely worth the cash, the do dull the tone a little bit, not too much to worry about though. Yeah the setup i've got is very clean and compressed at high volumes, but i was going for that sweet clean but compressed tone, but you can set it up with different valves and speakers combo's to suit what you want.

    Cheers

  • It sounds great, and you play great. But the way you hold your left hand is kinda creeping me out, looks like you have some sort weird alien claws.

  • your a great player now.

    imagine the beast you would be if you worked on fretting technique. plus, you wont risk hurting your hands and not getting to play anymore.

  • how do you get that sweet tone? that poppingness? mm baby!

  • GAWD!!! thats a great tone you have there.... Would you recomend upgrading the speaker, or the tubes first? and which tube is more important?

  • Cheers man. To be honest i'd do both straight off the bat, the stock speaker is poor at best and the tubes/valves are god awful. The valves i have were quite cheap (sub 20euro) and were a huge improvement over the stock.

  • cool. just got my champ used about an hour ago, and said o shit the speaker is blown.... Plugged in to a 1x12 extension... same shit noise.... i changed out the P.O.S 12ax7 to a marshall ecc81 (12at7), it was better but still bad. i thru in a old electrohmonix 6v6 i had and BAM it was sounding like i wanted it too!!! ill probobly by some new tubes, but what do you recomend? Im aso going to buy the weber 6 inch speaker soon.....

  • nice light touch, sounds good, i like to dig in a bit more, but thats me !he sounds great

  • waouuuu very good song!!!! 5 !!!

  • Crazy thing to try is thd yellow jackets 6v6 converter with el84! The breakup will occur faster and the sound will just add another element and be even more bluesy!

  • Interesting!

  • yor pinkey freks me out sometimes like it not there =)

  • great playing man! watched it more than once and great sound! could u PM me specs on your mods for the champ 600? tone is amazing and definitely something i'd look into doing :D great video man

  • AlNiCo*

  • wow, that is a beautiful sound. i have a champ and a standard strat. what did you do to your amp? which weber speaker and what tubes did you use? that's exactly the sound i am trying to achieve.

  • I personally think he's got texas specials in his guitar and thats what it give his tone that SRV style over-wound bite.

  • Nope! It's all in the fingers! The pickups are seymour duncan antiquity II's.

  • fuck! I thought stevie died in 1990? who is this if its not him?

  • this is me in a year of nonstop playin... maybe...

  • Very, very good. But not Stevie. Different elements to their playing.

  • thank you for discrediting my attempt at a compliment to another player.

  • I have no qualms with him being a good player. He's excellent. I just don't think he should be compared to SRV. Different people. He's excellent in his own respect.

    I apologize anyway.

  • I had a Spinal Tap moment there; Its still got the shop tags on it, none has ever played it, in fact don't even look at it.

    Got one of these amps with a second on order for stereo fun. Great video!

  • yes, it's got a speaker jack

  • Lovely playing, and lovely tone. I'm thinking about getting one in summer - is there a speaker output, so I can plug it into my Laney 1x12 combo for a less boxy sound?

    cheers

  • You can, but for optimal results try a 4 ohm cab. I put mine through a 1x12 and it sounds great.

  • Hey,

    love the hybrid picking stuff! Plus, the Strat has such a nice response to "popped" strings when compared to a LP or other Gibson-type solidbody. Still liking your Champion? I've been thinking about grabbing one; the price is nice!

  • Yeah, still love it! Dont play it enough to be honest, as it's never going to sound as good as a 40watt valve, like the blues deluxe, as it's restricted by the small speaker. But for the cash it is well well worth it. If you do get one, i'd advise you upgrade the valves and speaker though.

    Cheers Buddy!

    Alan.

  • Thanks, Alan!

  • Awesome playing!

  • clean tone? :)

  • what do you say is the fender champ 600 worth of buying?

  • this is one tight vid

  • dont give the amp too much credit for that sweet tone :)

  • nice pickin!

  • Nice tone man, not very sloppy either, kinda entertaining.

  • What strat are you using?

  • Fender Classic 60's strat MIM, with seymour Duncan antiquity 2's.

    Thanks

  • very nice.

  • what kind of pickups are you using on your strat?

  • Seymour Duncan Antiquity 2's.

  • nice little set-up you got there. your right, that tone really is sweet. i might have to get one of these things :D. nice playing btw!

  • Wow !! Amazing sound and playing !!!

  • sounds great man. r u hybrid pickin in some parts? kinda hard to tell cuz of the choppy video

  • Yes i am, i like being able to "sting" the notes with my ring/middle fingers.

  • yea, i've tried to fit it into my playing but i could never really get it, i guess my style just dosnt call for it :\

  • What exactly did you upgrade alltogether?

  • New weber ceramic speaker, and jj tesla valves, not much really.

    Thanks for the comment

  • You sound good don't be hard on yourself, put up a vidio with the volume maxed please!

  • Excellent playing!

  • yeah, fantastic playing! and fantastic tone! I think i'm gonna buy that amp. do you come from a classic guitar study?

  • Nope! The thumb behind the neck is just one hell of a bad habit!

  • Pssh, bad habit? it's how Jimi Hendrix and SRV themselves held the neck!

  • Cheers buddy, hopefully i'll have another video up in the nest day or so. Perhaps a full volume at 12, to show how nicely this modded amp compresses and overdrives at 12.

    Thanks Again lads,

    Cheers

  • I wouldn't call it a bad habit, i'd call it a different technique :P

  • Where did you get the Weber speaker from?

  • nice! but if can give you a tip: try playing with your thumb holding the neck, it will give you far more accuracy with faster play, especially with bends.

  • Do you remember which weber alnico speaker you got? Was it the early, mid or late break up speaker? Thanks.

  • your a really great player. you would be even better and more precise if you relaxed your fretting hand fingers a bit. great playing and tone though.

  • bro, remember me. long time no videos. im glad u have some more videos up. like i said many times before, amazing playing. u have a great feeling for the blues

  • Thanks a lot man, yeah i was going through a bad spell with my playing, hence the lack of new videos, but i should have a few more up soon if i can come up with some new ideas.

    Thanks again

    Alan.

  • Hey where was the volume set at? And in which input was it in? thanks

  • High input and the volume was at around 7 or 8.

    Cheers

    Alan.

  • Hey where was the volume set at? And in which input was it in? thanks

  • 7 or 8 i think. Not fully cranked.

  • Holy Shit that was awesome!

  • Cheers man,

    Alan.

  • I was thinkin about geting a champ for a practice amp(presently I'm using a small Kustom solid state)

    Do you think this would be the best to get in the under $200(range?

  • Okay, this amp is great for the money but it does need some work to make it as sweet. First of all the valves pre-installed are absolute shite, so you would have to change them. The stock speaker is pretty bad too, although it is usable, it tends to crackle and break up badly at high volumes, so i'd recommend upgrading to a weber or jenson speaker. Those upgrades really make this amp 10 times better.

  • thats when you know you can play when it is with out effects nice job!

  • Cheers Buddy

  • Just to let everyone know,there are no effects used on this video, i'm just plugged straight into the amp.

    Cheers,

    Alan

  • Alan is back and better than ever! The video both looks and sounds great!

  • impressionan!!!!!

  • NICE dude, that was sweet. Not enough young blues players around!

  • Cheers man, it means a lot!

    Alan,

  • wow that was....really good...nice clean sound...but dumb question..what is a champion 600?

  • Cheers, the fender champion 600 reissue is a really cheap ass 5 watt valve amp, based on the original champs from the 40's and 50's, mine has a new speaker and valves to get that sweet tone.

  • oh yeah! where did you get the alnico six inch? i'd like to get me one of those!

  • Cheers Buddy, i bought the speaker on ebay, the seller was vintagemusic4u, 'twas cheap enough too!

    Alan,