BOTH SOLD Couple of interesting hand wired valve amp heads - Fender Champ & Matchless Spitfire

4114Effects · April 2015

Hi guys,

Bit of an odd one here. A few of you may know that I build valve amplifiers, amongst other things. So what we have here are a couple of prototypes - a little rough around the edges, but fully functional and great sounding! I was finding my feet with my tolex and faceplate technique, so the finishing is not really up to pro standards a few mis-cuts and scuffs as you can see. I'll try describe them in as much detail as possible, so please bear with me.

Both amps are hand wired on turret board, with quality components throughout. No PCBs here!

First up we have a Fender Champ clone - 5w, single ended and valve rectified. Nice JJ 6v6 and an old Brimar 5y3 rectifier in there. As you can see the amp has a couple of mod switches - one changes the bypass capacitor to give it more gain, the other switches in and out negative feedback to give a tighter or looser feel. Great amp that really barks and growls when you turn it up - then control the gain with your guitar volume control, old school style! 8 ohm output although if you're handy it would probably be easy enough to add a switch or rewire the output transformer.

The pics below make it look a lot darker. The main covering is dark/chocolate brown and the front plate is a nice cream.

Next up is a clone of a Matchless Spitfire. The only difference being this is solid state rectified and runs a slightly lower voltage, to help preserve the tubes. This is a very bright amp with a lot of presence, great for cutting through a mix. It's got a decent amount of clean headroom and sounds a lot louder than the 15w or so rating. If you crank the preamp volume it has a very aggressive overdrive and crunch. Certainly a unique sounding amp. Comes with a pair of Hama EL84s in the power stage.

Price wise I have no idea ... so I'll start off at £225 for the champ and £325 for the matchless head - not much more than they would have cost me in parts! Offers of trades are welcome, always interested in guitars and pedals etc.

4114Effects · April 2015

By the way, I'm in Queensbury, West Yorkshire. Anyone is welcome to come and try them out

Cabicular · April 2015

I like your styling
No handles though?

4114Effects · April 2015

Good point! I have some spare handles I'll put on :-)

Cabicular · April 2015

I'd love to try them they look fun, pity I'm in Edinburgh If you get some clips done that would really help folk If you are even in the ballpark of a spitfire this a cool deal

4114Effects · April 2015

Great idea - will see if I can get someone to come demo them. Sadly my guitar playing may put people off!

From the clips and descriptions on the internet, I'd have to say that the Spitfire sounds like it would be pretty close to a real one. The sound signature and unique way the tone control works seems like it's spot on to the reviews of genuine ones.

SimpleSimon · April 2015

Nice styling! very interested in the champ head, how quickly does it breakup? I'm in Sheffield South Yorks BTW...... Any info on the components used or any gut shots? Also any better shots of the control panel?

4114Effects · April 2015

@SimpleSimon Like any Champ the amp sounds better and better the more you crank it. These things really come alive beyond 6 on the dial. As a rough guide - you'll get some breakup from 5-6 with single coils, a little earlier with humbuckers.Actually there's a slight amount of breakup from 3ish, if you dig in hard enough! Once you get past 6 it gets more touch sensitive and interacts well with the guitar volume control. The boost switch helps to bring on the gain earlier, as well as adding some low end. It all depends how hard you hit the strings too!

I imagine the amp will play really nicely with an old school treble or full range booster in front of it too.

Here's a closeup of the front panel:

And here's the guts. As you can see wiring is neat, heaters are in nice tight twists and I've used shielded for the run under the board. Coupling caps are Mullard and I've used 1watt and 5 watt carbon resistors.

SimpleSimon · April 2015

Looks neat, thanks for the close up shots too. Are the trannies owt special?

4114Effects · April 2015

Power transformer is a nice old sealed unit from a valve radio or similar. Probably a little higher current rated than necessary, good quality iron. Voltages are spot on.

Output transformer is a modern one. Not sure of the make, but it's rated at 10watts so more than enough handling for the champ build.

4114Effects · April 2015

Not sure if this qualifies as a bump or not - if so I'm sorry! Just thought I'd add, I'm always on the lookout for decent Nikon camera gear - lenses especially, and a good high-end PC graphics card.

Also a nice reverb with shimmer - Strymon Bluesky or similar.

So trades are welcome

thecolourbox · April 2015

I know somebody in the Bucks area that may want to help with the camera gear

i jest I jest

These look great, you've done a marvellous job. Free bump

4114Effects · April 2015

Little evening bump. Offers and trades invited. Missus wants to reclaim house space!

Chalky · April 2015

Perhaps I'm confused but I thought the Spitfire used EL84s not 34s? Can you point to the schematic the amp is built to?

4114Effects · April 2015

You're right ... I just wrote the wrong valve down! Corrected now, thanks

4114Effects · April 2015

Any interest at all? Offers welcome. Otherwise I'll take a mallet and mash them together into some hideous and ill-conceived super-amp.

SimpleSimon · April 2015

Don't do it. The champ looks very interesting though for me its a question of getting over to see it - just haven't had any spare time lately!

harpo · April 2015

No offense intended here. I think that given they are indeed quite rough around the edges cosmetically, your asking price is a bit 'high end'. I appreciate that time and parts are not cheap but there's not a lot of call for boutique amps with a less than boutique finish unless the price is really attractive. Imjs

4114Effects · April 2015

@harpo Thanks for the advice. I have already indicated that they're hard to price and that offers are welcome. Just out of interest, what would you class as a fair price?

I think the Matchless head is already a very cheap way for someone to own an amp that sounds like a spitfire, but doesn't cost well over a grand. An unbuilt Ceriatone Spitfire clone kit is $740, and that's without any valves...

photek · April 2015

I think they are about right to be honest. The only concern would be resale value if you don't get on with it. If of course your amp making becomes a full time thing these could go up in value

Would like to try the Spitfire esq one but only have trades unfortunately.

@4114Effects Any chance of a gut shot of the spitfire and what schem is it based on or can you just use a SS rectifier with the existing one?

harpo · April 2015

Yeah the resale point is what I guess I was getting at.

SimpleSimon · April 2015

photek said:

I think they are about right to be honest. The only concern would be resale value if you don't get on with it. If of course your amp making becomes a full time thing these could go up in value

Would like to try the Spitfire esq one but only have trades unfortunately.

@4114Effects Any chance of a gut shot of the spitfire and what schem is it based on or can you just use a SS rectifier with the existing one?

what @photek said! £250 is hardly high end.....

4114Effects · April 2015

@photek sorry, missed that question. I'll take a gut shot tomorrow. It's based on the Ceriatone layout and schematic.

You can use a SS rectifier with any valve amp design. the only real advantage of using a valve rectifier is a small amount of sag at higher volumes, but I've simulated this to some extent by using a small value and high wattage resistor in series with the ht voltage. The schematic shows a gz34 rectifier originally, which is actually one of the more stable ones and doesn't exhibit much sag anyway.

I have done direct comparisons of valve vs solid state on some of my builds and there are only a few amps where it makes a noticeable difference, this is not one of them. Plus it's one less valve to have to buy and replace periodically, so it's a no brainer for me :-)

4114Effects · May 2015

Right. Forgot these were still here. Just tripped over one ... £175 for the champ and £275 for the Matchless?

horsehead · May 2015

Having recently played these amps, I can tell you they are stunning good!

dickieguitar · May 2015

I'm in the market for something AC15-ish. Would really like to hear samples of the Spitfire...

4114Effects · May 2015

I'll see if I can sort something. Although if you're looking for early breakup a la ac15 the spitfire may not be for you. It's got tons of clean headroom, really has to be pushed to distort.

dickieguitar · May 2015

I don't mind pushing it! It's the way it distorts that matters to me.

david86 · June 2015

are these still available?

4114Effects · June 2015

Very much so :-)

photek · June 2015

Did you manage to get a gut shot of the Sherlock? Cheers.

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BOTH SOLD Couple of interesting hand wired valve amp heads - Fender Champ & Matchless Spitfire

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