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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
A Chinese amp story....
A Chinese amp story....
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Tom Lauten
84 posts
May 16, 2019
2:07 PM
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My wife gifted me with a “Super Chump” amp for my birthday a few years back. The Super Chump (SC) is one of those 5 watt Chinese amps based on a Champ/Princeton 5F2A circuit. It has a decent 10” Eminence speaker fitted.
The body of the amp is pretty impressive. It is made of 9 layer (I think) 1/2” plywood and covered with tweed cloth. The face plate is chromed. The handle is leather. The chassis is steel. The physical build quality is pretty darn good! I have seen a number of “proper amp” cabinets, on the budget end of the scale, built using chipboard...not a problem I’m sure, but I personally feel better about a solidly built plywood box.
The guts. Well, it’s a budget amp...the pots are cheap and cheerful as are most of the other bits of hardware, I assume the same of the electronic components. What would one expect given everything? From my limited knowledge of electronics design and a bit of research the circuit is near as dammit a 5F2A. It is hand wired onto a traditional board and It works. Mine was a quiet as a mouse, no buzz or hum...that’s pretty good. Can’t say the same for my “Proper” Fender Champ 600 before I modded it. Maybe a Fender decided to fit that “canvas” speaker cloth so people couldn’t hear the buzzing?
I had installed an Alnicomagnets harp amp mod in my Champ and fitted an 8” Weber speaker along with a new baffle board and (actual) speaker cloth. I really liked the results. I had a harmonica purposed amp. Flush with this success I gave the SC a Paddington stare (look it up). Why not?
I started researching the amp and once I got past all of the (pointless) scoffing and shaming I began to find things out...like that AT LEAST two respected amp technicians/makers have used these Chinese amps as the basis for their own “boutique” takes on a 5F2A based harp amps. Others spent up to twice the money and built their own amps of very similar specs. They used bespoke components and tubes and made the amps look great inside and out...which is wonderful! However, some of us don’t have amp making as a hobby, we don’t have the money, the knowledge, the tools and the time to go this route, as laudable as it is. We DO or CAN have our “kissin’ cousins” the Chinese 5 watt amp...there I’ve said it. They are ok and it’s ok to have one...it’s even ok to like them! (Looks around for lightning bolt streaking out of the sky to smite me).
Eventually I accumulated schematics, web links, images and some VERY helpful email contacts. Select, talented boffins were kind enough to give up treasured secrets to some of the mod options with the 5F2A as they apply to my “SC”. The mods were all pretty easy except I did manage to pick up a mains hum in my “mucking about” with the innards. A re dressing of the AC wires, checking solder joints and a tidying of the valve socket wiring seems to have got things whisper quiet again.
The result is I now have a “harp voiced” 5 watt amp with a well made, tweed covered cabinet fitted with a 10” Celestion G10 Vintage speaker and which is a bit like a hybrid of a “Memphis Mini” and “Little Mo” amps and I’m as pleased as punch. I’m sure I will learn more about how these damn things actually work and I will undoubtably continue tinkering with it.
Like sooooo many of us out there it will be YEARS before my playing is up to the standards of the worst of my kit! That’s the truth for a lot of us I bet, let’s be honest. I’ll admit it, I am a hobbiest, a kit junkie and I love the fantasy of some magic mod giving me an edge, of absolving me of even a few minutes of proper practice...ok, I’m not that naive but the chase is fun. I do really like tinkering, learning and seeing “what happens when...” My passion for tinkering around with amps and mics (et al) is very much akin to the model airplane hobbiest who enjoys the building as much, if not more, than the flying! I’m one who has a lifetime subscription to the adage that “Half the joy of a trip is in the journey as well as in the final destination”. No shame in that...happy is happy!
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Tom "Bad Paw" Lauten
Loch Ness, Scotland
www.nimbacreations.com
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SuperBee
5967 posts
May 16, 2019
4:29 PM
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Good, Tom. i had the impression that "Honkin' Tom's" amp had already been set up for the harp. i seem to recall Will Wilde doing a pitch for it a while ago.
I've had a few chinese-made amps. i believe that Champ 600 is a Chinese amp too. i think those are based on the blackface champ circuit but with set values in the tone stack instead of pots.
my favoured chinese unit at home is the VibroChamp XD, but i'm on the lookout for the "super" version, either XD or X2, i don't mind.
i will say, i built a 5F1 clone using American transformers and a Weber speaker and i feel that thing definitely has an edge.
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Fil
429 posts
May 16, 2019
6:15 PM
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Good story, Tom. Well told.
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Phil Pennington
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Tom Lauten
85 posts
May 18, 2019
2:41 AM
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SuperBee- I’m not sure how it might have been modified to be honest. The amp “as sold” seems so close to the Fender spec and some say it’s good for guitar as well so that would (to me) suggest little in the way of harp specific mods. The speaker was a 10” Eminence with a fairly large dust cap, so maybe that? They also say they could replace the 12AX7 pre amp valve with a lower gain 12AT7 if so desired. Like I said, it is populated with “budget” parts and is a factory make (albeit hand wired) so I bet your build was indeed superior. Neither my budget nor my marriage could withstand me undertaking such a task!!
Fil - Thank you very much. I just wanted to tell my little story and maybe (slightly) de-stigmatise those of us who are monetarily challenged! Hahahahaha!
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Tom "Bad Paw" Lauten
Loch Ness, Scotland
www.nimbacreations.com
Last Edited by Tom Lauten on May 18, 2019 2:47 AM
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Tom Lauten
86 posts
May 18, 2019
2:45 AM
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Oh yes. I can heartily recommend dressing those AC wires (all the wires infact) to clean the background noise up.
In the interest of full disclosure I also HIGHLY recommend discharging the capacitors when checking a components value!!! I can confirm, IT BLOODY HURTS!!! I got lucky. My discharge tool and meter is never far away now!
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Tom "Bad Paw" Lauten
Loch Ness, Scotland
www.nimbacreations.com
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