Black/Silverface Champ Overhaul
We can get your blackface or silverface Champ, Bronco or Vibrochamp sounding and performing better than it ever has. As part of the standard maintenance/tune-up service, we clean all pots, jacks & switches, clean & re-tension all tube sockets, test all tubes, tighten all pots, jacks, switches & transformers, and give the entire circuit an exam.
A full electrolytic recap is often required in original amps. We replace the cap can with new individual F&T power filters. This does wonders for tone and performance! Modern replacement cap can replacements just don’t meet our sound and performance standards. They sound bright, thin, and weak compared to individual power filters of high quality. They are also often out of spec.
As part of the service we dial in the circuit (called blueprinting) - certain key components are replaced if out of spec.
We replace certain resistors that do get noisy over time such as the plate resistors in the preamp and power drop resistors in the power supply.
If you have a stock silverface, we HIGHLY recommend a signal cap upgrade. It's like taking a wet blanket off of your speaker cab. This upgrade brings you closer to the REAL blackface tone! It’s not modding the circuit, but optimizing the design of Leo Fender as intended. Remember, silverface Fenders were manufactured under CBS, and they did cut corners & cost when they could to increase their bottom line… signal caps were one of these ‘cut corners’.
The Mallory M150s are a good improvement over the stock signal caps. The Jupiter “Vintage Tone” series rolled mylar/foil caps are absolutely amazing, and very close both in tone and performance to the classic “Blue Molded” signal caps found in the original Blackface amps.
If you have one of those rare blackface Champs with the blue 'molded' signal caps (many BF Champs have the brick red caps), keep those in!
In a Champ, Bronco or VC, there are only three signal caps – a little bit goes a long way here (approx $25 for a Jupiter upgrade)!!
A speaker upgrade is also a HUGE step towards better tone in a Champ. The original speakers were 'ok' back in the day (keep in mind that Fender did offer a JBL upgrade at additional cost for most models). These original speakers are often flat and dull now (some 50 years later)!
The Fat Jimmy 8” speakers (made by WGS) are the best modern production 8” speakers available (imho) and bring you Champ to whole new levels sonically. No joke.
Very rich, full, deep, and ‘3D sounding’. These speakers give you the tight, punchy low end that is simply not obtainable with the stock speaker. The highs are round and sweet, and the mids are detailed and textured. They sound great clean and amazing when overdriven!
We also offer mod services for these amps:
Power Tube Resistors: A great feature that extends tube life. The Champ amps were built to be affordable student model amps, and some cost saving practices were implemented as a result. Resistors were left off of the power tubes. These resistors act as buffers and improve the operating conditions of the power tubes themselves, making them much more 'comfortable' in their operating conditions while suppressing oscillation. All larger Fenders are fitted with these resistors. No change in tone, these resistors are more of a performance enhancer and tube stabilizer.
Full Tweed Rebuild: This is an amazing upgrade for any blackface or silverface Champ! We rebuild the circuit to reflect the famous tweed Princeton. The tweed Princeton was the same circuit as the famous tweed champ with the addition of a tone control. We also add a NFB (negative feedback) control, which gives the amp an incredible amount of versatility. This allows you a tonal spectrum ranging from sparkling, shimmering cleans to downright nasty overdrive at the turn of a knob!
Your volume/treble/bass controls are converted to volume/tone/NFB. This entire circuit rebuild only adds about $150 to the cost of the standard overhaul! Recommended if you want more overdrive at lower volumes and more touch sensitivity.
Gain Boost options: We also offer two ‘mega’ gain boost options, but these are not for the faint of heart! They are installed as mini switches on the back chassis, so drilling is required for these. I would not recommend doing this on a mint blackface champ, but in a beat up ‘ol amp… it’s worth the consideration. These are FUN if you want GAIN and DRIVE!
The first of these mods is the NFB (negative feedback) lift. The blackface and silverface champs have a considerable amount of NFB designed to get cleaner tones and more headroom. This switch removes that NFB for a serious gain boost. Tweed champs had no NFB by the way…
The second gain mod is a bit over the top, but simple and extremely effective! This switch lifts the tone stack (which is subtractive - it directs signal to ground to shape the tone). With the tone controls out of the circuit (and not active) you get a MAJOR signal boost which results in SERIOUS overdrive.
The two of these mods together give you three additional degrees of drive from your champ: more (1 on 2 off), even more (1 off 2 on), and absolutely insane when both are on!
I do need to point out that a relatively new 'condition' has been popping up quite a bit lately, where the steel chassis are oxidizing enough to interfere with the ground connection between the chassis and bronze grounding plate under the tone pots and input jacks. I've been needing to remove, polish and clean the plate and chassis and apply contact enhancer before re-installing. This adds about an hour of labor, but it has been literally eliminating hum and other noise issues that may persist after a basic servicing.
We ARE talking about 50+ year old amps after all!!
We like to send the player back an amp that blows away the tone & performance of the amp that was sent in!
Shop rates are $100/hour plus parts. A typical complete overhaul takes about 2-3 hours for a Champ, and tends to average around $300 - $500 for the full treatment, depending on selection of certain components - NOS or new production carbon comp resistors, tube condition, speaker etc. Tweed re-build adds about 1.5 hours on top of this.
After an overhaul, your amp will be good to go for a very long time circuit wise.
Current turnaround time is approx 30 business days.
Please reach out if you have any questions!!