fender champ xd combo

[philthis]

you know, I picked up one of these little combo's to haul to work or to practice on at low volumes at the house in front of the TV. Here is a couple of impressions

1)- if you need something light and portable to play at low volumes this is perfect.
2)-if you want some effects on tone but dont want to disconnect all your pedals and chords just to practice in another room or other location this is a good cheap solution.
3)-it actually has real tube tone........not pristine Fender Twin tone.........but real Fender tube tone at a practice volume level without having to go to a solid state amp.
4)-I would not really replace the tiny speaker in this thing, it works just fine for this little amp at this volume.
5)-The onboard effects are not superb but just fine for practice or writing music with someone else at this volume level
6)-I wouldnt really take this thing to a jam session with multiple guys......if the jam was small I would bring a blues Jr........bigger jam-a deluxe reverb.........loud garage or basement jam-a hot rod deluxe -for clean headroom.......beyond that?......enjoy a disturbing the peace ticket.
7)-this is just a little practice amp, it works very good for exactly that. If you want something truly better and professional at this level then buy a real Fender Champ combo from the 70's or earlier or if your rich get the New Vintage Champ from Fender.

for a cheap bang for the buck practice amp this thing works well.

[philthis]

Re: fender champ xd combo

I got this used for $229.00, it's actually the champ x2 combo. Not sure how old it is or what improvements newer models have.

[philthis]

Re: fender champ xd combo

alright heres an update on this little amp.

many people will say "whats the diff between one of these and a regular Fender Blues Jr? having played both and owning both I noticed that to me, the blues Jr sounds better and more punchy and jingly. It just is a great sounding amp for its volume range. However, once again you must turn up the volume on the Fender Blues jr to around 3 to 3.5 to get it to start sounding good the way it does so well. The Fender Champ however does a good Fender tone at very low volume. It will never sound as good as the Jr opened up but at low practice volume it gives you that nice fender tone. its got a crap tun of fx to tink with and its got a reasonable distortion tone at again low volume. Many have claimed to put a Ragin Cajun speaker in it to maximize its potential. I can see this mod now as I have come to appreciate how I can practice at low volume without blowing out the house. It does have a reasonable good clean tone at low volume.

verdict: its a great sounding low volume amp and its a Swiss Army knife for all kinds of tones without dragging a crap tun of pedals around just to practice with or play through a song writing idea at low volume. For practice amp I give this thing a 4 out of 5 stars.

[DankStar]

Re: fender champ xd combo

yeah, I'd love to have the head version. seems like a great plug-and-play amp where you could work out solos and even do some quick recordings that wouldn't suck.

[philthis]

Re: fender champ xd combo

I have been sneaking this thing into a part time job on the weekends. its so small and light I can get away with it at least for now anyway. I slip it in a gym bag and my guitar wrapped in a coat and on camera I can get away with it. Theres nobody there so I can just jam away and nobody cares. I slip it back out before the next goof shows up to watch the place at night. I really cant complain, I get paid to play LOL

[Drunken Bowling]

Re: fender champ xd combo

I have a Ragin Cajun that's just sitting in the box in my closet.

It was supposed to go into one of these combos some time ago but I returned the amp before installing the speaker. I'd like to buy another and install the speaker along with a Tung Sol 12ax7 that I have. Still curious about how it would sound.

Every Fender amp I've played had a distortion that was just a little too smooth for hard rock.

[philthis]

Re: fender champ xd combo

agreed, the most successful heavy distortion amps have been for EVH. Other wise you have to turn to aftermarket mods or people will rant about a Fender Bassman. I think they can get a classic big rock tone but lets be honest, its more a big blues rock tone than a JCM 800 tone. People still rant about how Marshalls evolved from the Bassman but whatever their still way different. I think most Fender amps are too lose and flubby for distortion tones. Kruse Kontrol custom amps can mod them to sound good for like bar gigs and stuff but I would still not really record a heavy distortion tone with them even though some swear by the pedals they own and a Twin or Bassman. The little fender champ xd has a couple distortion tones that are kinda buzzy but ok for this kind of amp and I think its just to smooth out and fatten up a thin single coil pickup. It works ok like the Frontman 25 for a practice amp but ya I agree with you, ok for practice only. It sounds fine at low volume and I like the fact I get a real tube tone even at low volume with this amp and thats its charm but starting at 3 to 4 watts on up the Fender blues jr just kicks its butt for out and out good tones. I may eventually throw in a Ragin Cajun just becouse I use the amp for practice so much and its so portable to sneak into a weekend job. nice to get paid to play LOL

[BenPerkins]

Re: fender champ xd combo

Anyone swap tubes yet? If so, what sounded the best


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PAPADON]

Re: fender champ xd combo

alright heres an update on this little amp.

many people will say "whats the diff between one of these and a regular Fender Blues Jr? having played both and owning both I noticed that to me, the blues Jr sounds better and more punchy and jingly. It just is a great sounding amp for its volume range. However, once again you must turn up the volume on the Fender Blues jr to around 3 to 3.5 to get it to start sounding good the way it does so well. The Fender Champ however does a good Fender tone at very low volume. It will never sound as good as the Jr opened up but at low practice volume it gives you that nice fender tone. its got a crap tun of fx to tink with and its got a reasonable distortion tone at again low volume. Many have claimed to put a Ragin Cajun speaker in it to maximize its potential. I can see this mod now as I have come to appreciate how I can practice at low volume without blowing out the house. It does have a reasonable good clean tone at low volume.

verdict: its a great sounding low volume amp and its a Swiss Army knife for all kinds of tones without dragging a crap tun of pedals around just to practice with or play through a song writing idea at low volume. For practice amp I give this thing a 4 out of 5 stars.

I own both as well and that's about as good of a comparison of the two amps that I've come across. "As built", for garage jams and small venues I'll take the BJ every time. However I have to say that if you level the playing field with a high sensitivity 12" inch speaker (I like the Eminence C-Rex) and a boost (EQ pedal etc.) the SCXD can compete very well with the BJ under those circumstances.

[FuseG4]

Re: fender champ xd combo

I miss this amp... I liked it but traded it for a vox night train 15 head and cab. These days I dunno which one I'd choose. I think at the time I found the small cab/stock speaker a bit flubby and boxy, but lately I can appreciate that sound more.

As far as tube swapping, I swappped JJ 6v6s into mine when I had it and it was a mistake. The headroom went way up but the dirty sounds lost a lot of character. I had trouble getting them to crunch the way i wanted with single coils and it bugged me. I like the EH 6v6. I tried a sovtek and tungsol 12ax7 but it didn't seem to make a difference. The amp doesn't really use the 12ax7 as like a "tone generating/first gain stage" or the like, it's pretty much the phase inverter and recovery from the DSP. So use anything low noise and durable and you should be good. That amp will rattle your tubes when you dime it.

Nowadays I have the digital brother to the SCXD, the Champion 20. Sounds very similar and does those low volume tones well, and it was 1/3 the price... but getting the SCX2 head and a 1x12 cab sounds really nice.
In comparison to the blues jr, the blues jr wins if you can play it loud, like everyone said, and if you want a more sparkly sound with a little deeper bass. I could imagine fender fans owning both as they're pretty different but both quite useful.