well hello friends and welcome to
0:51
another Ask Zac
0:53
we are going to talk about fenders
0:56
student models
0:57
the the champ and such and then we're
1:00
also going to talk about this uh
1:02
new amp that uh fender is making now and
1:05
and uh was gracious enough to to send to
1:09
me
1:10
so yeah we're gonna do a little history
1:11
on the champ
1:13
and then talk about this amp and but
1:15
first we've got a little uh
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a little you know housekeeping house
1:19
cleaning i guess
1:21
uh so in past episodes one
1:24
people asked about um
1:27
in the buck Owens episode i talked about
1:29
how buck and the band would all tune
1:31
down a half step
1:32
so they would tune to e flat instead of
1:34
e on their guitars
1:36
and i didn't know the reason why and so
1:38
Casper Rawls who's an amazing
1:40
telecaster player in Austin Texas and in
1:43
fact hosted
1:44
uh buck Owens birthday celebrations at
1:46
the continental club back in the day
1:48
before buck's passing he chimed in
1:52
and he was there when Dan forte
1:56
interviewed buck for guitar player
1:57
magazine in 1988
2:00
and in the interview buck indicated that
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the reason they tuned down was because
2:05
the original steel guitar player in
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bucks band before tom Brumley
2:09
was a guy named jay McDonald and so jay
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when he was doing
2:13
uh when they were doing some of the
2:15
songs and he was using the pedals on his
2:17
pedal steel and of course they're
2:19
pulling
2:19
up the pitch uh he was having a really
2:22
bad problem with
2:23
one of the strings was popping all the
2:25
time
2:27
and so they tuned down a half step
2:30
and the problem was fixed it didn't pop
2:32
the string anymore so they just did that
2:34
for a while
2:35
and they well they did it for a long
2:36
time so
2:38
anyway so that's the answer to that the
2:40
other you know housekeeping thing is in
2:42
the flood episode
2:44
i had told of how there was an art
2:47
gallery in Leiper's fork
2:49
that was filled with these amazing
2:53
vintage instruments
2:55
and i didn't say what happened to them
2:56
you know because of course the area
2:58
you know flooded well joe glazer who is
3:01
the curator
3:02
of the uh vintage guitar exhibit that
3:05
had
3:05
Lloyd lore signed l5's and f5 you know
3:08
mandolins and guitars and it had
3:10
Marty Stewart's Clarence white guitar
3:12
prototype fenders all sorts of stuff and
3:14
if you want to learn more about that of
3:15
course watch the flood episode
3:16
but anyway joe stayed with those guitars
3:20
and when there was a tornado warning and
3:22
all this other stuff going on he stayed
3:24
with them
3:25
and uh yeah and those guitars were fine
3:29
so there you have it joe glazer giving
3:32
his life
3:33
for uh you know risking his life i
3:36
should say
3:37
for uh vintage guitars all right so
3:39
let's talk about champs
3:41
well the first champ came out in 1948
3:44
and it was you know kind of fenders
3:47
entry level
3:48
uh student model and that's kind of what
3:51
it's
3:52
always been to a degree uh
3:55
the amp you know originally you know was
3:59
well the classic champ is
4:02
single-ended which that means it only
4:05
has one power tube and that kind of
4:06
limits the power
4:08
and it usually was a 6v6 which again
4:11
that gives you
4:12
four to six watts tops
4:15
so the champ originally had a six-inch
4:17
speaker then it got an eight-inch
4:20
speaker
4:21
uh you know of course it went through
4:22
the uh the different
4:24
uh iterations of you know the different
4:27
looks of the tweed amps when you know of
4:29
course you get to the narrow panel
4:31
tweed and uh interestingly enough
4:35
uh you know we don't think of it this
4:38
way but
4:38
the the Princeton was also a student
4:42
model hence the name Princeton also
4:44
another you know
4:45
amp that was part of the student lineup
4:48
besides the champ and the Princeton
4:50
was the Harvard which of course I've got
4:52
my 59 Harvard
4:54
you know back there and it's a little
4:56
different in that has
4:57
two power tubes while the tweed
5:00
Princeton still only had one but it had
5:02
the addition of a
5:03
second input and it had a tone control
5:05
where the champ just had a volume
5:07
control in a single input all right so
5:10
then uh the champ
5:12
uh you know kind of stays the same
5:15
uh except for maybe some cosmetic things
5:18
you know of course when
5:19
when the rest of the tweed amps go away
5:21
uh
5:22
it it stays tweed for a while and then
5:24
it actually goes to black
5:26
tolex but still has the top mounted uh
5:30
you know volume control but it also gets
5:33
the uh
5:34
you know the grill cloth like the black
5:36
face amps
5:38
then finally in 64 it goes into
5:41
the you know forward facing
5:44
controls like this new Vibro champ
5:48
and you you get you know the champ and
5:51
the
5:51
introduction of the vibro champ which
5:54
you know one
5:55
you know the the champ gets a volume you
5:58
know
5:58
and and you know and tone and then of
6:01
course you get volume
6:02
and you get uh you know the speed and
6:04
intensity for the
6:06
vibrato and those amps kind of stayed
6:09
the same until 1983.
6:11
uh of course they changed cosmetics to
6:13
where you get like this drip edge
6:15
in 67 to early 69
6:19
and then you get to you know the regular
6:21
silver face
6:22
look um but then in the
6:25
in the early 80s uh Paul Rivera
6:28
completely revamped the line
6:30
and you get the champ two that had two
6:32
power tubes and you get the super champ
6:34
which of course is very uh
6:36
desirable and uh you know it had a
6:40
you know a little 10-inch speaker and it
6:43
had reverb
6:44
and it had uh you know a lot more you
6:47
know power it had you know like 18 watts
6:49
instead of
6:50
you know instead of five or six watts
6:53
then you get you know you get these like
6:56
when
6:56
when fender you know changes hands in 85
6:59
you get the red knob
7:00
champ 12 which had a 12 inch speaker and
7:03
12 watts
7:04
then you get the weird hybrid amp like
7:06
the champ s
7:07
e 25 se which had a
7:10
solid state preamp and then had a
7:13
tube power amp it had two 58 5881s and
7:16
had 25 watts
7:17
really interesting amp very short-lived
7:20
then you get to where the champ is kind
7:22
of being used for these
7:23
transistorized models and
7:26
and then it didn't until finally you
7:28
know we get the the tweed
7:30
champ you know reissue and we get like
7:33
the Clapton
7:34
you know vibro champ that was still
7:36
tweed and
7:37
top mounted controls but this guy
7:41
is fenders you know kind of first foray
7:44
into the you know what you would call
7:47
the uh
7:48
the forward-facing tube era
7:51
of champs you know the from basically
7:54
from
7:54
you know 64 through you know the early
7:57
80s
7:58
and it's it's a really neat amp and so
8:01
i have to kind of say first off that
8:04
fender sent this to me out of the blue i
8:06
didn't ask for this
8:07
and at first when the box showed up one
8:10
i was surprised that you know offend
8:12
you know a big you know well relatively
8:15
big box
8:16
you know showed up with you know fender
8:18
you know in
8:19
you know all over the box um
8:23
and two when i saw on the label that it
8:24
was a you know the vibro champ
8:26
you know reverb i was a little concerned
8:28
because
8:30
you know to be perfectly honest i do not
8:32
like champs
8:33
i do not like single ended amps which
8:36
amps with one power tube and the reason
8:38
why
8:39
is because of the small speaker the
8:41
small cab
8:43
and especially because of the one power
8:45
tube
8:46
they tend to sound well small
8:49
really small and you know for being a
8:52
tele guy and i like to play on the back
8:54
pickup
8:55
uh when i play through a champ the only
8:57
way you can get a decent sound is to get
8:58
pretty distorted and that's
9:00
i mean if you watch my show you can tell
9:02
that i tend to play kind of clean or
9:04
maybe on the edge of breakup
9:07
so at first i just let the box sit there
9:10
and then finally i thought well you know
9:12
i ought to take it check it out
9:14
so you know i hadn't looked on the
9:16
internet about these things or anything
9:18
so it was all kind of a surprise
9:20
so i i looked at it and i was like wait
9:23
a second they actually put a 10 inch
9:25
speaker in this thing
9:26
so instead of the normal you know eight
9:28
inch speaker that was in it they put a
9:30
tin and it's a and it's a celestial
9:31
speaker which
9:33
i you know I'm a big celestian fan i
9:36
think blackface
9:37
and you know silverface you know fenders
9:39
just sound better with a celestion type
9:41
speaker uh then the other thing was they
9:45
had added verb to it
9:47
and uh then of course i found out it was
9:48
digital and i was a little bit dubious
9:50
about that but then
9:51
you know i plugged in and i was very
9:53
pleasantly surprised
9:54
so this is probably the first you know
9:57
single-ended amp that I've ever
9:59
uh really really cared for at all so
10:02
uh yeah it uh you know it has the really
10:06
cool
10:07
you know late you know mid 67 through
10:09
early 69
10:10
uh drip edge cosmetics which i i like
10:14
uh and then you know of course again the
10:17
addition of the tin
10:18
and tube tremolo but with the digital
10:21
verb it's a
10:22
hall sound uh you really get a nice
10:25
sound
10:26
and you know of course i was playing at
10:28
the beginning doing kind of
10:30
i guess kind of like a variation of bill
10:31
justice's uh
10:33
what is that raunchy
10:47
hopefully you can notice how you know of
10:49
course I've got it set at
10:50
a little about five and a half that even
10:53
the clean has a little bit of hair on it
10:55
which i
10:55
i like it's it's very nice sounding and
10:58
that was on the bridge pickup
11:00
and I'm going to turn the oh maybe I'll
11:02
go to the neck pickup and show you you
11:04
know what it can do on the
11:05
on the neck it can you know you can do
11:08
good r b stuff
11:16
[Music]
11:28
so you got the nice tube tremolo and
11:30
you've got the uh the
11:32
hall the digital hull reverb sound which
11:34
is really nice
11:36
uh you can uh you know take the tremolo
11:38
off
11:39
go back to the back pick up you can get
11:41
good you know twangy full sound again
11:43
because of the tin
12:08
two
12:09
[Music]
12:17
no charge for the clams uh yeah
12:20
it just it has a big you know it has a
12:23
pretty big full sound it's not the uh
12:25
the near
12:26
it's not your dad's champ as it were you
12:29
know the
12:30
the little sounding guy and and right
12:32
now i have the bass on 10
12:34
okay so if you turn the bass down
12:38
you know especially down to like four or
12:39
something like that you get
12:41
kind of you know more of what i think of
12:43
as the old champ sound
12:52
still sounds you know better than the
12:55
you know the eight inch speaker and such
12:56
but
12:57
still you kind of get that that smaller
12:59
sound so
13:01
while I've got the bass down I'm going
13:03
to turn the volume up because right now
13:05
i have it at like five and a half
13:07
I'm like let's just put it up to nine or
13:09
oh we'll just go
13:10
up to ten so then you can get you know
13:16
[Music]
13:18
more
13:21
of course i didn't turn the verb down
13:23
which you always have to turn the verb
13:24
down whenever you uh
13:26
turn a fender amp up hot so yeah
13:37
[Music]
13:45
so you can see it has you know just that
13:48
that old school
13:49
overdriven you know fender sound
13:52
which you know of course the you know
13:54
the little guy has a little bit more of
13:56
that
13:56
fizzy you know kind of uh papery thing
14:00
going on
14:01
you know here I'll play just some single
14:03
note lines using
14:17
[Music]
14:29
nice let's bring it back down
14:33
you know five and a half I'm gonna bring
14:34
the base back up
14:36
let's let's hear the uh the verb and
14:39
just so you can really hear it I'm gonna
14:40
turn all the way up to ten
14:44
and here you can hear they they put a
14:45
little modulation on the
14:47
on the verb which is nice you know
14:49
because at low settings you don't really
14:51
notice it it just kind of fattens things
14:52
up but of course you turn it up high you
14:54
can really hear
14:59
[Music]
15:07
and that's uh really nice for doing like
15:09
volume swells you mean
15:13
[Music]
15:24
[Music]
15:33
really uh yeah pretty sounding amp and
15:36
the one of the real strengths of this is
15:39
that
15:40
uh you know you have this little you
15:42
know six watt amp
15:44
that has verb and trim on it and so you
15:46
know you could really
15:48
you know go and play like a little a
15:50
little rehearsal or a little you know
15:52
kind of
15:52
coffee house you know gig and not have
15:54
to bring any pedals if you didn't want
15:56
to
15:57
you know because it you know it kind of
15:59
has everything that you would need
16:00
uh you know because you know i like you
16:03
know using my Harvard but usually when i
16:05
bring the Harvard you know i
16:06
kind of like to have verb and tremolo so
16:08
it's nice to have something that already
16:10
has that it really is kind of grab and
16:12
go it could take a
16:13
a telly in the vibro champ to play uh
16:15
kind of a
16:16
a low volume kind of thing and again
16:19
because it's got the tin
16:20
doesn't have the little the little sound
16:22
and uh yeah
16:24
looks nice sounds great uh i think they
16:27
i think uh fender did a great job on
16:29
this uh
16:30
vibra champ reverb amp 68 custom i
16:34
believe
16:35
and of course the the blue the blue
16:37
light doesn't hurt
16:39
all right guys well that's uh that's
16:42
kind of it it for today
16:44
uh i did uh play my uh i know this
16:47
guitar hasn't seen uh
16:48
and asked zack in a while this is my
16:50
1967 uh
16:52
tele late you know late 67 you know
16:55
because it's got the uh
16:56
you know the cbs era logo and the reason
16:58
of course i got it out was
17:00
you know to go along with this amp with
17:02
the cosmetics but uh
17:04
you know it's funny i've been playing
17:05
that esquire back there so much that i
17:07
forgot what a great guitar this one is
17:09
and and what uh
17:11
great sounds it has it has it's
17:14
its own thing and then just that thing
17:16
at the beginning
17:18
again i i was just really playing got to
17:20
turn the verb down
17:23
yeah two and a half's good uh
17:27
that's just a good exercise for for your
17:29
kind of your pick and finger things
17:30
you know because it's
17:45
[Music]
17:53
[Music]
18:03
[Music]
18:07
all right so uh you know if you're
18:09
working on your pick and fingers things
18:11
uh yeah
18:11
work on that a little bit to get you
18:13
kind of doing that kind of alternating
18:15
between the pick
18:16
and the fingers that really kind of
18:17
fatten things out
18:19
all right guys thank you for watching
18:21
see you next time