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Speaker replacement for 70's Fender Champ


rugby1970

Question

Posted

anybody know of a good one? this is the 6", 5 (or 6 depending who you ask) watt amp model. thanks in advance.

11 answers to this question

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Posted

If it were mine, I'd pull the stock speaker and carefully remove the baffle. Then I'd build a new fir plywood floating baffle and fit the largest speaker I could fit into that little cab. 8" opens up a few interesting options, but 10", if you can shoehorn it in, kicks the door down on a lot of even better options. You get a lot more punch, improved low end response and an overall bigger amp sound out of it in spite of a fairly small cab.

The only Champ I ever had was fitted with a Weber Blue Pup 10" - really chimey, punchy and anything but small sounding driver with a tight, full bottom end. What's more, I could boost or drive the amp really hard without it getting overly wooly, something you can't really do with small speaker with a light paper cone and tiny magnet. This was in a 4W 5F1 Champ, btw...

Posted

Are you sure that it's a 6 inch speaker? The only 70's era Fender Champs that I know of used a 8 inch speaker, 4 Ohm as stock. I've heard good things about the 8 inch, 4 Ohm WGS speaker.

Posted

You can barely fit a 10" speaker in the champ. I have a Weber gold alnico in mine. I also like WGS speakers a lot and that video is a great representation.

Posted

If it were mine, I'd pull the stock speaker and carefully remove the baffle. Then I'd build a new fir plywood floating baffle and fit the largest speaker I could fit into that little cab. 8" opens up a few interesting options, but 10", if you can shoehorn it in, kicks the door down on a lot of even better options. You get a lot more punch, improved low end response and an overall bigger amp sound out of it in spite of a fairly small cab.

The only Champ I ever had was fitted with a Weber Blue Pup 10" - really chimey, punchy and anything but small sounding driver with a tight, full bottom end. What's more, I could boost or drive the amp really hard without it getting overly wooly, something you can't really do with small speaker with a light paper cone and tiny magnet. This was in a 4W 5F1 Champ, btw...

I have a friend who did something similar. But to add to it, he also changed the grill cloth. He said the stock cloth cut a lot of sound and tone. He also retubed it with JJs. I can call him for the particulars if you are interested.

Posted

A vintage Fender Champ with a blown speaker. Shoot, it's useless now. Out of the goodness of my heart, I'll take it off your hands. :)

Posted

Agree 100% on the 10" speaker....a Champ positively comes alive with a larger speaker. Weepers are great, even if you stick with a stock 8. I have a 5f1 tweed Champ with a 12 (bigger cab) and what a great recording and jamming amp it is.

One last thing. Champs love alnico drivers.

Posted

disregard my comment. My friend bought a new one and replaced the cloth. Not a vintage one. Didn't sleep well last night.

Posted

+1 for replacing the baffle board and wedging a 10" if you can. An Eminence Rgin' Cajun or Copperhead will open the amp up much better, extend the low end and give you lots more clean headroom.

Posted

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My 1 x 12 Champ experiment. Head shell was made by David Allen. Inexpensive speaker cabinet. Speaker was cheap on eBay, a used Weber 12F100-T 3.2 ohm 15 watt. I don't use it as often since I got a Swart STR Tweed. I will soon return the amp to stock minus the speaker. I'll return the chassis to the original cabinet and put a decent 8" replacement speaker in it.

Posted

I disagree on the 10" replacement. The beauty of those 8" speakers for me is how well they take a mic, even just a sm57. It just sounds huge. Maybe its easier for the mic to pic up the details with less air being pushed, I don't know, but there is a reason all those classic recordings used Champs. As far as a replacement goes I really like the Kendrick black frame that is in my Vibro Champ. It's slightly less "Fendery" considering it has a ceramic magnet but for me the added brightness and crunch works beautifully.

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