It's interesting to see you young guys rediscover what us old guys have known since the 60s. It's better when you discover it rather than being told it. Love your channel Mike
This guy has practiced a lot. Look at his first videos - very beginner half shitty playing. But yes, an amazing storyteller and now a half decent player also.
Mike: I too am at a stage in life where I want max headroom. I work in no-pedal mode a great deal of the time, and when i do add effects, it’s reverb, delay, all things to bring forward the “chime.”
Yoooooo. Just a heads up. You’ve got a few frames at 12:17 and 12:33 where the video file is corrupt or something. Give it a look. Great video man. Liking the new spot.
The new Vibro Champs are pretty sweet… but hear me out… you can buy a vintage silver panel one from the 70s for the same price or less. I bought a 64 black panel Vibro Champ a year ago and it absolutely rips. The natural tube breakup you can get at volume levels that won’t peele the paint off the walls is so killer. Highly recommend! 🤘
It for me always comes back to the tools that fit what I have in my head for how i want the song to sound. Guitars, amps, pedals, strings, tunings etc etc. Great video dude.
You know, Mike, many of us brothers haven't had the benefit of a lot of amp exposure. I myself have had a grand total of four guitar amplifiers! Of those, all had at least a solid state power section; three of them were fully solid state. Only my Fender Performer 650 combo had even one tube in it, and that was a preamp tube. I didn't manage to get at all creative with my signal chain (aside from a string of pedals) until I got a decent modeling solution. That was when I began realizing things like how much difference a speaker change could make -- and this was in the days when all cabinet simulation was done with EQ curves!
The Fender champ and similar smaller combo amps are what players are going for today. Marshall stacks? These days you can't give them away; even 4× 12 cabs have lost their appeal to so many guitarists. The combo amps mixed for performance is what I'm seeing with the cats I play with as a bassist......Google changed mic.....Ed to mixed. Mixed WASN'T what I meant.
I got a Vibro Champ about 6 months ago because it was the biggest and heaviest featured tube amp that would fit in my semi truck. It was a good purchase.
I loved this one, Mike has become quite the expert on amp/guitar tone, the "turn the amp to ten and roll back the guitar pot" thing blew my mind. Thanks Mike, keep it up.
Something you might want to check out is the Tone Master line of Fender amps. Being a "tube-snob" I looked down on these-- until I played through one a blonde Deluxe Reverb Tone Master. To say I was pleasantly shocked by the tone is an understatement. Then I dove deeper into the range: there is a Twin Reverb and a Super Reverb (4x10). Normally those are just too loud for me to enjoy-- HOWEVER, these amps have an attenuator on the back which allows the amp to be run at 6 different wattages-- all the way down to 0.5 wats. That means I can now have a 45w Super Reverb with its volume on 7 and via the attenuation play all day long without melting walls and blowing out windows. After watching this video I kept thinking, "I wonder if he knows about these amps..." :) Check them out sometime-- I think you'll like them (BTW there's also a Princeton Tone Master)~
That studio is beautiful. Love the lights. All of those tones were great, too! Love your playing and how you shared your thoughts around the process. Good stuff!
Love this amp. I actually inherited an original from 1977, it's still completely original and I still have the panflets and folders that came with it too.
First of all, good for you on the new digs! These vibro champs are waaaay under appreciated. I have been using mine all day every day since i got it 3-4 years ago. Excellent job on explaining how to use an amp. Brilliant.
Hey Mike, enjoyed your video. Very informative. I have an amp that Fender doesn't make any more, a Fender Super Champ with many cool built in effects. And as someone else commented, Clapton did use a 5 watt Fender tweed Champ amp, I believe for Layla and other recordings. The other amp he uses for performance I believe is a 40 watt Fender Twin amp, with no reverb. To me, Fender makes the best electric guitar amps, they seem very versatile.
I live in Los Angeles and do a lot of studio work. I think I’ve used my 72 Fender silver face champ on more sessions than any other amp. It’s really versatile. Lately, most sessions are virtual amp sounds and I just plug into the computer, but my fender champ has always been a big part of my setup.
Vibro Champ Reverb is so good. Been gigging mine for about a year but I was cheeky and modified it with a beefier OT (with extra speaker output tap to run an extension cab) and rebiased to run a 5881 at 9 watts. They’re pricey for sure but definitely worth looking out for a deal on the used market. I’d take one of these over the Blues Juniors I’ve owned in the past any day.
12:27 You've perfectly articulated the absolutely pivotal point in how I've been researching amps in the past few months. It can be a little overwhelming with how much information there is to take in and compare, but I love that feeling of discovering another layer of the onion lol
More than 50 years ago, we had a new silver-face late-sixties VibroChamp, and also a tweed model that was quite old. They were two completely different amps with a similar name. The silverface amp was not designed for breakup. The tone was that of a practice amp and very clean - 8” speaker, low wattage. The tweed amp was precious. I will never forget its tone - and used on many hit records of the day. The newer Champs these days are re-engineered, now with reverb, 10” Celestion and some low-end.Thanks for the video!
Man I needed this. Work has been crazy. Your videos are not just educational, they are therapeutic. Your playing is awesome, and you really put together the best videos on equipment. Thank you.
Ha ha! I know what you mean. I just love listening to this guy talk... He sounds so upbeat and enjoying what he's doing. I just wish I could afford a Fender tube amp....
My home amp is a Gries Home/Studio 5 watt head. It's a blackface circuit with treble, mid & bass and powered with a 5AR4/GZ34, one 6V6 and one 12AX7. I run it through a Mather 1x12 pine cab loaded with a 12" Scumback M75-65. Reverb, etc. is on the pedal board. It sounds nice...very nice!
I think what really does it for me is a warm clean tone with good head room and can get to a nice soulful/bluesy break up. The Fender Harvard style tweed amp is a good example of that. I have the Victoria 'Ivy League' which uses this circuit but doesn't cost the price of an original Harvard from those tweed years. I can't see ever getting rid of this one.
OH YEA!!! I just got one of those too! What a great amp!!! I threw a Warehouse Guitar Speaker Retro 10 in mine and once I go the speaker broke in, I am in LOVE!!!
I've owned a 68 Custom Princeton longer than any other amp. At home and with the band, it gets more play time than my big boy Traynor YCV-80. It's not quite as volume friendly as a Champ, but the spring reverb is well worth the extra weight and cost!
Bought this amp a year ago when it just came out. Although it's a modern circuit board and has DSP reverb, I think its a great way to get a modern version of a classic sound. Fell in love with this amp while I was testing out a Gretsch Baritone and ended up walking out the store with both of them. haha
I bought the Vibro Champ Reverb last year and it was love at first plug-in. I so often talk myself into amps, assuring myself I can find some good tones in there, but the VCR did all the talking right away. It's great. I haven't had a chance to try and gig with it, but so long as I can get a mic on it, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine.
I grew up in the 70's and 80's during the "channel switching" (r)evolution. I've owned a lot of amps looking for the Holy Grail. Fender, Musicman, Vox, Randall, Marshall, Legend, Kustom, Mesa, custom made hand wired. Also in that mix was the preamp and rackmount era. Later the modelers Somewhere along the way I got some good advice, "Choose an amp that is the clean tone you love, then use pedals for the rest." Best advice I ever got. My "Holy Grail" amp is an early 1967 Fender BF Deluxe Reverb. With the right pedals and a TELE I can cover anything; clean gospel to heavy metal.
I’ve got PRS Archon 50 which is renowned for its high gain but I almost exclusively use the clean channel as it is sublime, makes me feel guilty for doing it but it takes ODs and fuzzes soooo well I only use the gain channel for jamming to some metal tunes in drop tunings. Wish they made an amp like this with only the clean channel, less noisy effects loop and built in reverb (and maybe tremolo).
The new ones are pretty darn good. I have a '74 Vibro-Champ that my parents bought me for my birthday in like 1996 or 1997 and it's one of the most versatile amps I've ever played. It's a great pedal platform too.
I've always favored the Blackface/Silverface because of the clean tones and the way they handle pedals. The Tweed amps are what I think of when cranking the amp and getting different shades of gain by using the guitar volume. I guess it depends on the type of music you're playing. All good!
I enjoyed this. I was reminded how when looking back in the years how when Leo (Fender) broke off with the change to CBS. He eventually went on to create Musicman amps. The big feature of music man amps was the combining of a Solid State preamp Circuit with a Valve/tube output power amp. It allowed balancing the input volume/gain potentiommeter with a master volume to somewhat simulate the classic overdrive sound we all know and love. Your video nicely shows this using guitar volume combined with driving the amp circuit Good Job! good video..-doug
Bass player here. I’ve done gigs with guitarists using Fender amps. Clean tones seam to be their forte. Best overall guitar tones I’ve accompanied, were guys using Marshall or Peavey amps. Those amps do dirty as well as clean. In the 80’s I toured a bit with a band, both guitarists used Peavey 2-12 combos. My best friend who I started playing in a band with when we were kids (50 years ago), has 2 amps. A Peavey 2-12 (sorry dunno the model) & a Marshall stack. His tone is better than most any guitarist I’ve ever heard. Doesn’t matter which of his 8 or 9 guitars he plugs in.
I’d like to add. Any guitar players looking for a new amp should search TH-cam. I saw a vid of Ty Tabor (KingsX) demoing a new Orange Crush solid state amp. Sounds fricken killer!
Man, I have really been digging my 5 watt Bad Cat Cougar so much more since my Deluxe Reverb needs tubes. Love both of these Fender Champs. Nice sounds dude. There's a reason Mike Campbell uses low watt amps.
The first stage on the Vibro Champ just is, i.e. the volume control follows it. When you turn the volume up and the guitar down, it's like you're essentially removing the volume control prior to the output stage. All of your control is at the guitar now, and when you finally hit where the first stage is breaking up, the output stage is also at that point. Turning to 5 on the volume control, you're only starting to hit the output stage, so not getting its overdriven effect. You can also reduce the signal hitting the output stage and cutting off some brightness in an interesting way, by plugging in the tremolo pedal and turning the depth up to about 11 o'clock with the tremolo pedal in the off position. It changes the bias on the second stage of the preamp. Combined with turning the volume up as you did, and controlling what hits the amp with your guitar's volume pot, you have another set of tones. I know this because I built a version of the Vibro Champ from original schematics and thought I had a problem with the tremolo circuit. After going into stores and running the test with pedal attached on 4 of Fender's reissues, the same "effect" is present - lowers the volume and cuts the highs. Works well to tame a guitar like the Jazzmaster.
Ooooh, my brother in… apparently multiple things lol… if you’ve never experienced a good Marshall CLEAN tone, you’re in for a treat one of these days! ☺️😄
I played a 70's vibro champ for years, it was pure, big fat saggy sounds at relatively low volume. It was barely loud enough to play with a drummer, if they didn't play too loud. Great recording amp.
Totally awesome!!! Fender Champs dont get enough attention. Its the Fender tube amp most people could afford or be willing to put money up for. And hardly anyone covers it and its possibilities for rock music. Hope you keep covering Fender tube amps.
Nice one mate. This was my only amp for a while and I love it. It's versatile with pedals and personally I can get lost in the cleans just noodling. Recently added a QC to get some flexibility and tbh the Vibro Champ even does a passable job of being fun running the QC into. Great amp.
Congratulations, young man. Love the coziness of your studio. I envy your newfound freedom of volume. I don't know what my amp is fully capable of. I live in a townhouse with neighbors on both sides of me, and my guitars and amp never leave the house. I only play (or try to play) as a hobby.
That Fender Champ amp is Historic Legendary Clapton , Hendrix , Billy Gibsons , Keith Richards add a few pedals of one’s choice mic it ,your more then set !!!!❤❤❤❤
First time viewer. Love the style and content. Sixty year old acoustic campfire strummer, just getting into the electric world (Korean Gretsch and a Fender Blues Jr). Your vid is the first that I have found in years that gave me a base understanding of amplification. Thanks a bunch. Much love from Canada.🏍️🇨🇦 Oh yeah, subscribed 👍
I have a 70s silverface Champ that I bought for about $50 in the late 80s. It’s been a great, fun little amp. It’s very basic-no reverb or vibrato, but still great to goof around with.
I have that exact amp! Wasn't expecting a video on it. It's the only valve amp I own. It's my second amp after a boss katana 100. I looooove it. The cleans are so nice. I can barely put it on 5, let alone any higher though due to my living situation, so I'll try the high volume and dialled back on the guitar.
I grew up with a Riviera designed Champ 2 and then a red Champ 12 back in the '80s and they were awesome to ten year old me. I've been thinking about getting a tweed champ kit for a while but this vibro champ video has me thinking that's the way I should go to augment my Princeton Reverb. That hall verb is killer.
Build the tweed- the princeton is the best thing going for that tone. Vibro is same family- where the tweed will give you a whole nother flavor. IMO owning all three.
Mike, great video, well done. I heard you give a shout out to your Supro Amulet amp. I’ve got one also and love it. Your videos are articulated very well. Keep up the good work.
When i first started playing guitar, i was using a 70s strat plugged into a vintage tweed champ that i borrowed from a friend who was going to medical school in the Caribbean. Yeah, he was in greneda before they sent in the marines. I didnt know enough to have any idea how to dial in an amp, but damn I could get great tone out of that rig despite having no ability. It's great to hear what you're able to get out of that wee, but potent, amp.
Exactly. The Hot Rod Deluxe IV is a beast of an amp. At bedroom level, just plug the guitar in the low input level, with bright Switch ON to enhance thr dynamics. Even better put a lower output 5751 in V1 tube socket. Use a good tone shaping high quality pedal, for instance : Benson Preamp Origin Effects DCX Boost .. Or a good compressor with a Blend knob.. Or anything, just experiment.. And the Hot Rod Deluxe becomes anything you want, from super quiet too loud enough for any gig. I've tried a lot of high end amps, and I found out the Hot Rod Deluxe IV is the best amp out there as a tone pedal plateform, even at bedroom level. To me the only better amps for this situation are HIWATTS. The Hot Rod Deluxe IV can do the Stevie Ray Vaughan or Hendrix stuff... think Little Wing, Lenny, Albert King style licks ... to Gilmour Comfortably Numb, Echoes etc... stuff with an exceptionnal convincing versatility with the right pedals Just buy a Hot Rod Deluxe IV instead of the Vibro Champ The only advantage it has over the Hot Rod Deluxe is it's size and portability.
love all of these amps. I have an early 70s silver panel Vibro Champ and also a version 1 Pro Jr. both amps sound great but totally different. Pro Jr sounds less like a vintage Fender and possibly more like a small Marshall or something like that. The Vibro Champ sounds much more like the version you are using here. the Pro Jr has a 10" speaker and the Vibro Champ has an 8" speaker. The Vibro Champ and Pro Jr do not have reverb so thats a bit of a drawback but I don't think either amp would cut it for a gig maybe a low volume rehearsal or something like that. Great video and playing. Just found you today and subscribed. Thanks!
Got myself a Fender Pro Jr. IV ! Simply Simplistic . 1 Tone / 1 Volume .Now I’m building Mojotone 5F2-A and a 5E3 into Tweed head cabs . [ Poor man’s versions ]
Not to take away from your playing on your early videos, but you’ve really come a long way in the little things that make a guitar player very good. The way you use amplifiers now really reflects this growth - finding those subtle tones that Fender does so well.
‘76 Champ, reverb pedal and a Strat is my daily driver. I run the vol. at 4, bass and treb at 5, input 1. Clean with a little fuzz on the edges. That’s my set it and forget it setting. But I’m gonna explore your recommendations and see what I find. Thanks for the advice. 🎉
Good video, I started mainly with Fender's, but transitioned to Marshall "plexi" style amps. A 20 or 18w Plexi style gives you a lot of flexibility, and you can get cleans if you just dial the volume knob back (as you were doing), but you can also dial it up, and (to me), no other amps does as good a job at that.
Love Silver faces. Got my first one in 78 when I was just starting. Still buying them. Twin reverb and my new fav the 68 pro reverb. Pedal board with stacked overdrives is the key for me.
I've had my Vibro Champ for a couple months. It's changed everything. Like you, I am mostly a clean player... This amp is a game changer. I thought it's a rehearsal amp... but I liked the sound so much, I brought it to a gig, put a 57 in front of it. Band leader said she didn't need the mic... ok.. Three songs in, the venue manager asked us to turn down... really? A 5 watt amp? I'm getting ready to sell my big amps... Gigs aren't that loud anymore... why not? I can get the same sounds from the Vibro Champ... at a volume my tinitus doesn't mind. The reverb is perfect as is the trem. It takes pedals well as that. High gain sounds can be had with pedals...
It's good to explore the range of tones of your amp at different control settings, to find the various sweet spots, and the interplay with each of your guitars. I find I like certain guitars with certain amps more than other combinations. When I think of the greatest electric guitar players who used tube amps, they knew how to use the guitar and amp as a system they controlled by their technique and guitar controls, and even where to stand in proximity to the amp, etc. My main amps are Marshall; mostly 100W, into 1 or 2 4x12 cabs; unless it's a combo where I have a 50W and a 40W combo. When it comes to Fender amps, I've had a few over the years, but currently only a '76 Super Twin, 2x12 combo. Plenty of headroom. I don't like reverb and rarely use it except on modern high gain saturated glassy, liquid lead tones along with delay, so I wasn't looking for a Super Twin Reverb. I've tried a few low wattage amps, and really don't work for me. For lower volume playing, I'll use my guitar plugins or my FM9. Cheers!
The Fender DeLuxe Reverb is the best 6V6 amp I ever recorded. The Vibro Champ is pretty good also. When you have the space to multi mic and crank it a little, the Twin is really good. Not only do you get the breakup of the 6L6 tubes working its knife edge, you also get the breakup of the 12" speakers reacting to touch in its own way then the volume control on the guitar. Nice Video.
Putting an amp up around 8 and backing off the guitar volume is my go to tone strategy. I do a wet dry wet setup with a black, a tweed, and a brown fender with the tweed in the dry slot. I will have to give input a second look.
mani amps head a couple of 2x12 cab for stereo plus a Fryette PS-100 ! Plus a good pedal board of your choice. I have my pedal board in front with my tonex on it > my fryette >my marshall>CAB and can make it sound like whatever i want.
Believe it or not, I actually use my 68 Vibro Champ with pedals to get a really sweet high gain/metal-ish tone. I boost the Friedman BE-OD pedal with an EHX Soul Food to get some super sick chuggy saturated high gain sounds at really low volumes.
what can i say, its my favorite amp, its my go to day to day workhouse, the first good amp i ever got, i just love it, miced up it can be very angry...my little secret weapon
I have tried, and failed, to alleviate myself of the Fender Champ addiction. I like them clean because they compress on the top end and I just love that sound. I know it is not loud, so I bring my own mic to gigs, and will even mic them into my own powered PA speaker for my stage rig. I am kind of stuck in my ways (from a way-too-old dude).
I have that one and it’s great for my studio. Did have a hum problem though which needed fixing. I also use an output loader as it’s still too loud at 5 for me.
It's interesting to see you young guys rediscover what us old guys have known since the 60s. It's better when you discover it rather than being told it. Love your channel Mike
you are a great guitarrist but you are an even better story teller, I wouldn't mind videos from you about different topics regarding your life
So true
This guy has practiced a lot. Look at his first videos - very beginner half shitty playing. But yes, an amazing storyteller and now a half decent player also.
Mike: I too am at a stage in life where I want max headroom. I work in no-pedal mode a great deal of the time, and when i do add effects, it’s reverb, delay, all things to bring forward the “chime.”
Yoooooo. Just a heads up. You’ve got a few frames at 12:17 and 12:33 where the video file is corrupt or something. Give it a look.
Great video man. Liking the new spot.
The new Vibro Champs are pretty sweet… but hear me out… you can buy a vintage silver panel one from the 70s for the same price or less. I bought a 64 black panel Vibro Champ a year ago and it absolutely rips. The natural tube breakup you can get at volume levels that won’t peele the paint off the walls is so killer. Highly recommend! 🤘
Eric Clapton and Duane Allman did "Layla" on Champs.
They did her everywhere
@@aleksandervaldal😂😂😂
Good to know. Thanks Steve 👍
No they didn’t.
Tweed Champs
It for me always comes back to the tools that fit what I have in my head for how i want the song to sound. Guitars, amps, pedals, strings, tunings etc etc. Great video dude.
You know, Mike, many of us brothers haven't had the benefit of a lot of amp exposure. I myself have had a grand total of four guitar amplifiers! Of those, all had at least a solid state power section; three of them were fully solid state. Only my Fender Performer 650 combo had even one tube in it, and that was a preamp tube. I didn't manage to get at all creative with my signal chain (aside from a string of pedals) until I got a decent modeling solution. That was when I began realizing things like how much difference a speaker change could make -- and this was in the days when all cabinet simulation was done with EQ curves!
The Fender champ and similar smaller combo amps are what players are going for today. Marshall stacks? These days you can't give them away; even 4× 12 cabs have lost their appeal to so many guitarists. The combo amps mixed for performance is what I'm seeing with the cats I play with as a bassist......Google changed mic.....Ed to mixed. Mixed WASN'T what I meant.
My friend owns a guitar shop and we ran the most expensive guitar to the cheapest into the vibrio champ and it made everything sound amazing.🤩
I got a Vibro Champ about 6 months ago because it was the biggest and heaviest featured tube amp that would fit in my semi truck. It was a good purchase.
I loved this one, Mike has become quite the expert on amp/guitar tone, the "turn the amp to ten and roll back the guitar pot" thing blew my mind. Thanks Mike, keep it up.
Something you might want to check out is the Tone Master line of Fender amps. Being a "tube-snob" I looked down on these-- until I played through one a blonde Deluxe Reverb Tone Master. To say I was pleasantly shocked by the tone is an understatement. Then I dove deeper into the range: there is a Twin Reverb and a Super Reverb (4x10). Normally those are just too loud for me to enjoy-- HOWEVER, these amps have an attenuator on the back which allows the amp to be run at 6 different wattages-- all the way down to 0.5 wats. That means I can now have a 45w Super Reverb with its volume on 7 and via the attenuation play all day long without melting walls and blowing out windows. After watching this video I kept thinking, "I wonder if he knows about these amps..." :) Check them out sometime-- I think you'll like them (BTW there's also a Princeton Tone Master)~
This new studio's freaking amazing man.
Beautiful amps yes your right about amps perfect world would be a Fender .Vox and Marshall
That studio is beautiful. Love the lights. All of those tones were great, too! Love your playing and how you shared your thoughts around the process. Good stuff!
Studio looks so sick! Super happy for you, dude
Love this amp. I actually inherited an original from 1977, it's still completely original and I still have the panflets and folders that came with it too.
Yeah that reverb sounds really nice!!!
First of all, good for you on the new digs! These vibro champs are waaaay under appreciated. I have been using mine all day every day since i got it 3-4 years ago. Excellent job on explaining how to use an amp. Brilliant.
Hey Mike, enjoyed your video. Very informative. I have an amp that Fender doesn't make any more, a Fender Super Champ with many cool built in effects. And as someone else commented, Clapton did use a 5 watt Fender tweed Champ amp, I believe for Layla and other recordings. The other amp he uses for performance I believe is a 40 watt Fender Twin amp, with no reverb. To me, Fender makes the best electric guitar amps, they seem very versatile.
I live in Los Angeles and do a lot of studio work. I think I’ve used my 72 Fender silver face champ on more sessions than any other amp. It’s really versatile. Lately, most sessions are virtual amp sounds and I just plug into the computer, but my fender champ has always been a big part of my setup.
Great video, thank you Mike. It's a lot of fun just to watch a guy who clearly loves guitars (and plays quite well !)
Vibro Champ Reverb is so good. Been gigging mine for about a year but I was cheeky and modified it with a beefier OT (with extra speaker output tap to run an extension cab) and rebiased to run a 5881 at 9 watts. They’re pricey for sure but definitely worth looking out for a deal on the used market. I’d take one of these over the Blues Juniors I’ve owned in the past any day.
12:27 You've perfectly articulated the absolutely pivotal point in how I've been researching amps in the past few months. It can be a little overwhelming with how much information there is to take in and compare, but I love that feeling of discovering another layer of the onion lol
More than 50 years ago, we had a new silver-face late-sixties VibroChamp, and also a tweed model that was quite old. They were two completely different amps with a similar name. The silverface amp was not designed for breakup. The tone was that of a practice amp and very clean - 8” speaker, low wattage. The tweed amp was precious. I will never forget its tone - and used on many hit records of the day. The newer Champs these days are re-engineered, now with reverb, 10” Celestion and some low-end.Thanks for the video!
Man I needed this. Work has been crazy. Your videos are not just educational, they are therapeutic. Your playing is awesome, and you really put together the best videos on equipment. Thank you.
Ha ha! I know what you mean. I just love listening to this guy talk... He sounds so upbeat and enjoying what he's doing. I just wish I could afford a Fender tube amp....
My home amp is a Gries Home/Studio 5 watt head. It's a blackface circuit with treble, mid & bass and powered with a 5AR4/GZ34, one 6V6 and one 12AX7. I run it through a Mather 1x12 pine cab loaded with a 12" Scumback M75-65. Reverb, etc. is on the pedal board. It sounds nice...very nice!
picked one up in great condition for 400 bucks, absolutely love it… awsome on its own but certainly nice to not annoy your neighbours too
Dude, Mike your killing it. Keep up the great content my friend.
I think what really does it for me is a warm clean tone with good head room and can get to a nice soulful/bluesy break up.
The Fender Harvard style tweed amp is a good example of that. I have the Victoria 'Ivy League' which uses this circuit but doesn't
cost the price of an original Harvard from those tweed years. I can't see ever getting rid of this one.
OH YEA!!! I just got one of those too! What a great amp!!! I threw a Warehouse Guitar Speaker Retro 10 in mine and once I go the speaker broke in, I am in LOVE!!!
I've owned a 68 Custom Princeton longer than any other amp. At home and with the band, it gets more play time than my big boy Traynor YCV-80. It's not quite as volume friendly as a Champ, but the spring reverb is well worth the extra weight and cost!
Volume can be an instrument in and of itself! Great call outs!
Bought this amp a year ago when it just came out. Although it's a modern circuit board and has DSP reverb, I think its a great way to get a modern version of a classic sound. Fell in love with this amp while I was testing out a Gretsch Baritone and ended up walking out the store with both of them. haha
I bought the Vibro Champ Reverb last year and it was love at first plug-in. I so often talk myself into amps, assuring myself I can find some good tones in there, but the VCR did all the talking right away. It's great. I haven't had a chance to try and gig with it, but so long as I can get a mic on it, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine.
I grew up in the 70's and 80's during the "channel switching" (r)evolution. I've owned a lot of amps looking for the Holy Grail. Fender, Musicman, Vox, Randall, Marshall, Legend, Kustom, Mesa, custom made hand wired. Also in that mix was the preamp and rackmount era. Later the modelers Somewhere along the way I got some good advice, "Choose an amp that is the clean tone you love, then use pedals for the rest." Best advice I ever got. My "Holy Grail" amp is an early 1967 Fender BF Deluxe Reverb. With the right pedals and a TELE I can cover anything; clean gospel to heavy metal.
I’ve got PRS Archon 50 which is renowned for its high gain but I almost exclusively use the clean channel as it is sublime, makes me feel guilty for doing it but it takes ODs and fuzzes soooo well I only use the gain channel for jamming to some metal tunes in drop tunings. Wish they made an amp like this with only the clean channel, less noisy effects loop and built in reverb (and maybe tremolo).
The new ones are pretty darn good. I have a '74 Vibro-Champ that my parents bought me for my birthday in like 1996 or 1997 and it's one of the most versatile amps I've ever played. It's a great pedal platform too.
I've always favored the Blackface/Silverface because of the clean tones and the way they handle pedals. The Tweed amps are what I think of when cranking the amp and getting different shades of gain by using the guitar volume. I guess it depends on the type of music you're playing. All good!
You had me loving it @ reverb! I want one now!
I enjoyed this. I was reminded how when looking back in the years how when Leo (Fender) broke off with the change to CBS. He eventually went on to create Musicman amps. The big feature of music man amps was the combining of a Solid State preamp Circuit with a Valve/tube output power amp. It allowed balancing the input volume/gain potentiommeter with a master volume to somewhat simulate the classic overdrive sound we all know and love. Your video nicely shows this using guitar volume combined with driving the amp circuit Good Job! good video..-doug
Bass player here. I’ve done gigs with guitarists using Fender amps. Clean tones seam to be their forte.
Best overall guitar tones I’ve accompanied, were guys using Marshall or Peavey amps.
Those amps do dirty as well as clean. In the 80’s I toured a bit with a band, both guitarists used Peavey 2-12 combos.
My best friend who I started playing in a band with when we were kids (50 years ago), has 2 amps. A Peavey 2-12 (sorry dunno the model) & a Marshall stack.
His tone is better than most any guitarist I’ve ever heard. Doesn’t matter which of his 8 or 9 guitars he plugs in.
I’d like to add. Any guitar players looking for a new amp should search TH-cam.
I saw a vid of Ty Tabor (KingsX) demoing a new Orange Crush solid state amp. Sounds fricken killer!
Man, I have really been digging my 5 watt Bad Cat Cougar so much more since my Deluxe Reverb needs tubes. Love both of these Fender Champs. Nice sounds dude. There's a reason Mike Campbell uses low watt amps.
The first stage on the Vibro Champ just is, i.e. the volume control follows it. When you turn the volume up and the guitar down, it's like you're essentially removing the volume control prior to the output stage. All of your control is at the guitar now, and when you finally hit where the first stage is breaking up, the output stage is also at that point. Turning to 5 on the volume control, you're only starting to hit the output stage, so not getting its overdriven effect.
You can also reduce the signal hitting the output stage and cutting off some brightness in an interesting way, by plugging in the tremolo pedal and turning the depth up to about 11 o'clock with the tremolo pedal in the off position. It changes the bias on the second stage of the preamp. Combined with turning the volume up as you did, and controlling what hits the amp with your guitar's volume pot, you have another set of tones.
I know this because I built a version of the Vibro Champ from original schematics and thought I had a problem with the tremolo circuit. After going into stores and running the test with pedal attached on 4 of Fender's reissues, the same "effect" is present - lowers the volume and cuts the highs. Works well to tame a guitar like the Jazzmaster.
Excellent job Sir !! 1st time catching you. Totally on point presentation 👌
Love my Vibro Champ Reverb
Ooooh, my brother in… apparently multiple things lol… if you’ve never experienced a good Marshall CLEAN tone, you’re in for a treat one of these days! ☺️😄
Great job Michael
I learned a lot about the little Champ … opened my eyes
I played a 70's vibro champ for years, it was pure, big fat saggy sounds at relatively low volume. It was barely loud enough to play with a drummer, if they didn't play too loud. Great recording amp.
Fun video, your playing is definitely sounding good! I just got this same amp about a month ago and I LOVE IT! Thank you!
Totally awesome!!! Fender Champs dont get enough attention. Its the Fender tube amp most people could afford or be willing to put money up for. And hardly anyone covers it and its possibilities for rock music. Hope you keep covering Fender tube amps.
Love your videos Mike! Great flow to them and your personal experience with the gear sets you apart from other channels.
Awesome new studio! Awesome tones too- really impressed with the tone when you put the "hall" reverb on. Beautiful as always!
Nice one mate. This was my only amp for a while and I love it. It's versatile with pedals and personally I can get lost in the cleans just noodling.
Recently added a QC to get some flexibility and tbh the Vibro Champ even does a passable job of being fun running the QC into.
Great amp.
Congratulations, young man. Love the coziness of your studio. I envy your newfound freedom of volume. I don't know what my amp is fully capable of. I live in a townhouse with neighbors on both sides of me, and my guitars and amp never leave the house. I only play (or try to play) as a hobby.
Really great video. Some great storytelling and walking us all through features that would be undervalued by even experienced players. Thank you.
That Fender Champ amp is Historic Legendary Clapton , Hendrix , Billy Gibsons , Keith Richards add a few pedals of one’s choice mic it ,your more then set !!!!❤❤❤❤
First time viewer. Love the style and content. Sixty year old acoustic campfire strummer, just getting into the electric world (Korean Gretsch and a Fender Blues Jr). Your vid is the first that I have found in years that gave me a base understanding of amplification. Thanks a bunch. Much love from Canada.🏍️🇨🇦
Oh yeah, subscribed 👍
I’ve had mine for the last few years and I love it
I have a 70s silverface Champ that I bought for about $50 in the late 80s. It’s been a great, fun little amp. It’s very basic-no reverb or vibrato, but still great to goof around with.
I have that exact amp! Wasn't expecting a video on it. It's the only valve amp I own. It's my second amp after a boss katana 100. I looooove it. The cleans are so nice. I can barely put it on 5, let alone any higher though due to my living situation, so I'll try the high volume and dialled back on the guitar.
I grew up with a Riviera designed Champ 2 and then a red Champ 12 back in the '80s and they were awesome to ten year old me. I've been thinking about getting a tweed champ kit for a while but this vibro champ video has me thinking that's the way I should go to augment my Princeton Reverb. That hall verb is killer.
Build the tweed- the princeton is the best thing going for that tone. Vibro is same family- where the tweed will give you a whole nother flavor. IMO owning all three.
Love the new studio, the lighting is amazing
Fender tube amps warm the soul :) I love my Supersonic
Great demo on the Champs ! Classics that sound classic
I like your train of thought, brah. Entertaining and informative
Mike, great video, well done. I heard you give a shout out to your Supro Amulet amp. I’ve got one also and love it. Your videos are articulated very well. Keep up the good work.
Studio looks fantastic Mike. Congrats.
When i first started playing guitar, i was using a 70s strat plugged into a vintage tweed champ that i borrowed from a friend who was going to medical school in the Caribbean. Yeah, he was in greneda before they sent in the marines. I didnt know enough to have any idea how to dial in an amp, but damn I could get great tone out of that rig despite having no ability. It's great to hear what you're able to get out of that wee, but potent, amp.
My Hot Rod Deluxe IV gets LOUD clean. I picked it over the Blues Junior because I wanted just that. Something that did cleans very loudly.
Exactly. The Hot Rod Deluxe IV is a beast of an amp. At bedroom level, just plug the guitar in the low input level, with bright Switch ON to enhance thr dynamics. Even better put a lower output 5751 in V1 tube socket.
Use a good tone shaping high quality pedal, for instance :
Benson Preamp
Origin Effects DCX Boost ..
Or a good compressor with a Blend knob..
Or anything, just experiment..
And the Hot Rod Deluxe becomes anything you want, from super quiet too loud enough for any gig.
I've tried a lot of high end amps, and I found out the Hot Rod Deluxe IV is the best amp out there as a tone pedal plateform, even at bedroom level. To me the only better amps for this situation are HIWATTS.
The Hot Rod Deluxe IV can do the Stevie Ray Vaughan or Hendrix stuff... think Little Wing, Lenny, Albert King style licks ... to Gilmour Comfortably Numb, Echoes etc... stuff with an exceptionnal convincing versatility with the right pedals
Just buy a Hot Rod Deluxe IV instead of the Vibro Champ
The only advantage it has over the Hot Rod Deluxe is it's size and portability.
love all of these amps. I have an early 70s silver panel Vibro Champ and also a version 1 Pro Jr. both amps sound great but totally different. Pro Jr sounds less like a vintage Fender and possibly more like a small Marshall or something like that. The Vibro Champ sounds much more like the version you are using here. the Pro Jr has a 10" speaker and the Vibro Champ has an 8" speaker. The Vibro Champ and Pro Jr do not have reverb so thats a bit of a drawback but I don't think either amp would cut it for a gig maybe a low volume rehearsal or something like that. Great video and playing. Just found you today and subscribed. Thanks!
You should totally make a video on Steve Vai
Got myself a Fender Pro Jr. IV ! Simply Simplistic . 1 Tone / 1 Volume .Now I’m building Mojotone 5F2-A and a 5E3 into Tweed head cabs . [ Poor man’s versions ]
Liking the Fender Champion 40 amp, with the dial-in effects and amp simulations :-)
Killer Demo. Sounded amazing. Way to dig in.
Not to take away from your playing on your early videos, but you’ve really come a long way in the little things that make a guitar player very good. The way you use amplifiers now really reflects this growth - finding those subtle tones that Fender does so well.
earliest ive ever been
me too
this video could also be, almost word for word, about my 68 Princeton reissue, just turn the volume down a number or two :) I lovvvvve my Princeton.
Turn your reverb and a hint of delay up and feel good about yourself, LOL! I laughed aloud at that one.
‘76 Champ, reverb pedal and a Strat is my daily driver. I run the vol. at 4, bass and treb at 5, input 1. Clean with a little fuzz on the edges. That’s my set it and forget it setting. But I’m gonna explore your recommendations and see what I find. Thanks for the advice. 🎉
Refers to the Class A amps as bringing their A Game. I see what you did there, nice
Good video, I started mainly with Fender's, but transitioned to Marshall "plexi" style amps. A 20 or 18w Plexi style gives you a lot of flexibility, and you can get cleans if you just dial the volume knob back (as you were doing), but you can also dial it up, and (to me), no other amps does as good a job at that.
Love your channel. You are super open-minded to gear and KNOW your stuff. Keep them comin!
Love Silver faces. Got my first one in 78 when I was just starting. Still buying them. Twin reverb and my new fav the 68 pro reverb. Pedal board with stacked overdrives is the key for me.
Have you heard the 68 reissue Vibrolux? They’re hard to find
I would love to try one but I know I’d buy it🤦🏻 but you can never have too many😆
At 12:00 very Mary Spender tone, nice.
I have an 80’s Fender Super champ, great little amp, and little brother of the Concert.
Nice. teach us how to noodle like that (5:25)
I've had my Vibro Champ for a couple months. It's changed everything.
Like you, I am mostly a clean player... This amp is a game changer. I thought it's a rehearsal amp... but I liked the sound so much, I brought it to a gig, put a 57 in front of it. Band leader said she didn't need the mic... ok..
Three songs in, the venue manager asked us to turn down... really? A 5 watt amp?
I'm getting ready to sell my big amps... Gigs aren't that loud anymore... why not? I can get the same sounds from the Vibro Champ... at a volume my tinitus doesn't mind.
The reverb is perfect as is the trem.
It takes pedals well as that. High gain sounds can be had with pedals...
I love the 57’ fender reissues, I found they have a little more touch sensitivity and they seem to be slightly brighter with out getting “ice picky”.
It's good to explore the range of tones of your amp at different control settings, to find the various sweet spots, and the interplay with each of your guitars. I find I like certain guitars with certain amps more than other combinations.
When I think of the greatest electric guitar players who used tube amps, they knew how to use the guitar and amp as a system they controlled by their technique and guitar controls, and even where to stand in proximity to the amp, etc.
My main amps are Marshall; mostly 100W, into 1 or 2 4x12 cabs; unless it's a combo where I have a 50W and a 40W combo.
When it comes to Fender amps, I've had a few over the years, but currently only a '76 Super Twin, 2x12 combo. Plenty of headroom. I don't like reverb and rarely use it except on modern high gain saturated glassy, liquid lead tones along with delay, so I wasn't looking for a Super Twin Reverb.
I've tried a few low wattage amps, and really don't work for me. For lower volume playing, I'll use my guitar plugins or my FM9.
Cheers!
Love my '76 Silverface VC.
The Fender DeLuxe Reverb is the best 6V6 amp I ever recorded. The Vibro Champ is pretty good also. When you have the space to multi mic and crank it a little, the Twin is really good. Not only do you get the breakup of the 6L6 tubes working its knife edge, you also get the breakup of the 12" speakers reacting to touch in its own way then the volume control on the guitar.
Nice Video.
so glad you are micing amps !!!
Putting an amp up around 8 and backing off the guitar volume is my go to tone strategy. I do a wet dry wet setup with a black, a tweed, and a brown fender with the tweed in the dry slot. I will have to give input a second look.
Love this dude!
mani amps head a couple of 2x12 cab for stereo plus a Fryette PS-100 ! Plus a good pedal board of your choice. I have my pedal board in front with my tonex on it > my fryette >my marshall>CAB and can make it sound like whatever i want.
amazing vid as always
I have the Champion 100 and love it. Very versatile
This amp is a much better amp than the actual '68 or 70's version. Historically this amp never existed. It's a very interesting amp.
Believe it or not, I actually use my 68 Vibro Champ with pedals to get a really sweet high gain/metal-ish tone. I boost the Friedman BE-OD pedal with an EHX Soul Food to get some super sick chuggy saturated high gain sounds at really low volumes.
what can i say, its my favorite amp, its my go to day to day workhouse, the first good amp i ever got, i just love it, miced up it can be very angry...my little secret weapon
I have tried, and failed, to alleviate myself of the Fender Champ addiction. I like them clean because they compress on the top end and I just love that sound. I know it is not loud, so I bring my own mic to gigs, and will even mic them into my own powered PA speaker for my stage rig. I am kind of stuck in my ways (from a way-too-old dude).
I have that one and it’s great for my studio. Did have a hum problem though which needed fixing. I also use an output loader as it’s still too loud at 5 for me.
Mike, your content is total rizz brother! Please keep it up!