I struggled with finding a good first amp on sort of a budget. What I got made me more than happy.
I picked up a Fender Champion 600 5W tube practice amp. One simple volume control, high or low gain input and 10 seconds or so to warm up. Plus it has a nice vintage two-tone look. And it goes to 12 straight from the factory.
On a guitar tuned to power chords, this thing rips. On my guitars tuned EBE, I find myself playing mostly the 2 low strings and I love the distortion that I get with the volume set around 10.
If you are contemplating spending $20 on a Honeytone 9V amp, think twice unless you really, really want to run of batteries. Save your milk money for a couple more weeks and find a used Fender Champ 600.
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Michael, the inputs are high gain and low gain. Without getting into the electro-geekery, the low input will give a more honest reproduction of the sound at higher volume levels. The high gain creates more distortion. It sounds great at 10. It is like cranking up the gain adjustment on most other amps. This one just makes it simple by plugging into either low or high. I think the aim was to make a nice, simple amp that doesn't try to confuse the user with 4 dials to adjust tone, gain, effects, etc. Warm it up, crank it up, and start playing.
With my low strings, using EAD from a six pack and tuned EBE I can't crank it up past 10 without stressing the speaker. The low tones are just too much for that size. My other guitar runs the GBE strings also tuned EBE and it can go all the way up without too much stress. However, my ear doesn't like the high freq as much.
I wouldn't spend much money modifying this amp. It is simple and functional right out of the box. Money changing speakers and tubes might be better spent on a different amp if someone is looking for a different sound. This one will make your wife angry without any extra money spent.
Michael, the inputs are high gain and low gain. Without getting into the electro-geekery, the low input will give a more honest reproduction of the sound at higher volume levels. The high gain creates more distortion. It sounds great at 10. It is like cranking up the gain adjustment on most other amps. This one just makes it simple by plugging into either low or high. I think the aim was to make a nice, simple amp that doesn't try to confuse the user with 4 dials to adjust tone, gain, effects, etc. Warm it up, crank it up, and start playing.
With my low strings, using EAD from a six pack and tuned EBE I can't crank it up past 10 without stressing the speaker. The low tones are just too much for that size. My other guitar runs the GBE strings also tuned EBE and it can go all the way up without too much stress. However, my ear doesn't like the high freq as much.
I wouldn't spend much money modifying this amp. It is simple and functional right out of the box. Money changing speakers and tubes might be better spent on a different amp if someone is looking for a different sound. This one will make your wife angry without any extra money spent.
Here's something I didn't know. Taken from the Fender website: http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=2330100000
A fun and affordable tribute to a rare historic Fender® model. The Champion™ 600 is a five-watt tube guitar amplifier with a 6” speaker and a ’50s-style two-tone look. The added higher-gain preamp circuit takes the overdriven tone beyond that of the original, with a choice of high- or low-gain inputs. Internal speaker output jack allows use of a larger speaker cabinet.
Looks like you can also use both inputs, one for mic and one for instrument.
Nice, rock on!
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