When I started recording guitar, I remembered reading some article about how Weezer got a huge guitar tone on their debut album by recording super-saturated amps with low wattages at low volumes, resulting in a massive wash of distortion. Having just discovered the differences between Class A and Class A/B amplification, I started scouring "teh internets" for a suitable recording amp. I looked first at AC15's, Laney LC15's [pretty awesome] and even some of the new [at the time] Class A Crate amps that were coming out. Everything was a little above my price range [or, in the case of the Vox's, WAY above my price range], and nothing really grabbed me until I ran across this little gem: An early 90's, all tube Class A 12 watt Fender with . . . wait, was I reading that right? FAKE SNAKE SKIN TOLEX?

I assumed it was too good to be true, but since I'd had some reselling luck with used items in the recent past [my bid-copy skillz paid my cell phone billz] I threw caution to the wind and bid on the thing. And, wouldn't you know it, I was the winner at about $150 -- including shipping!

My Champ 12 arrived without a top carrying handle, and with significant wear marks on the side. No prob, I had been informed about all this before placing my bid. When I asked the seller about the worn tolex, he responded that his golden retriever had a thing for rubbing his teeth on the snake skin. Looks like I've got something in common with that guy's dog, 'cause I'm of the opinion that Fender needs to bring back this finish option, stat. It's the coolest-dorkiest-back-to-coolest-tastiest thing I've seen [or chewed] on an amp basically ever.

The finish alone would have made the amp worth the purchase. Luckily, that thing sounds pretty great, too. It came with the original Fender Special Design 12" speaker, and a fresh set of Groove Tubes [the Champ 12's take two 12AX7's and one 6L6], and I could hear that sweet Class A distortion right away, though they were a little muddy through the stock speaker. Eventually I switched it out for a Celestion G12L, and the lows tightened right up.

The Champ 12 is a two channel amp that debuted during Fender's oft-mocked, late 1980's "red knob era." A former band-mate of mine had the red knob Deluxe Reverb 2x12, an amp that does nothing to improve the dubious "red knob" reputation. As you can see, my Champ sports black knobs all the way: there's volume for the clean channel, and volume and gain knobs for the overdrive channel along with master treble, bass and a pretty standard-sounding reverb. There's a mid-boost pull-pot on the treble control that I keep on basically all the time -- works great for twangy XTC clean and classic rock crunch.

There's also an RCA tape input and headphone out[this thing was designed as a practice amp after all] and a 1 volt line out, which, in conjunction with the speaker defeat on the underside of the amp chassis, turns the amp into a usable tube pre for direct recording . . . though, to be honest, I don't record this way much at all.

The little audio sample I've uploaded shows of the amp's ballsy and musical distortion. I played an Epiphone Sheraton II [through a Vox wah for the leads] and the amp was miked at 4" with an SM57 and at 12" with a Rode NT1A. The bass-line played on this track is played on a a Billy Sheehan Signature Yamaha. It was tracked, along with my embarrassing drumming, into Pro Tools through a Digi 002 by my good friend and engineer Jim Elenteny. Enjoy!