Completed Champ with Walnut Cab

[plaidzebra]

Hello everyone! I'd like to share my finished Champ - complete with custom walnut cab. I'll let the pictures speak for me.

It's a pretty stock build, no modifications to the circuits. The speaker is a Weber 8A100 and I can't recommend it enough. To my (inexperienced) ears it's a great sounding speaker, perfect for a smaller amp like this.

[plaidzebra]

Some more pictures

[plaidzebra]

And some more! The back cover is definitely my favorite cut of wood on the amp.

[sluckey]

That looks great!

[plaidzebra]

Thanks so much sluckey! I'm working on resizing a guts shot as we speak, so that should be up soon as well.

[Ed_Chambley]

Very nice.  I love that you left the back panel like it is.  The Weber speaker you choose IMO is a great 8 inch.  With the added depth to the cab I am sure it sounds great.  They breakup early and compress quickly and that AlNiCo compression.


Did you do the 5F1 circuit?  I just noticed the grill cloth, the Marshall cloth.


Well done!

[tubenit]

Absolutely beautiful cab!  Job well done.  Glad you are enjoying the amp!

With respect, Tubenit

[plaidzebra]

Did you do the 5F1 circuit?  I just noticed the grill cloth, the Marshall cloth.


Well done!

I'm pretty sure that's the one that I used, although it might have been a 5E1 (I'm not sure I fully understand the difference   )

Here's a picture of the guts. I love the way the Orange Drops look, almost as much as I like how they sound!

[Shack]

Looks awesome.....im liking the hardwood cab on amps :)

[plaidzebra]

Thanks man! It's more of a challenge to get everything looking perfect, but the end result is definitely worth it in my opinion.

[jjasilli]

 

[John]

Nice! I like that back panel too!

[Fresh_Start]

Great use of the gnarly wood on the back panel. Beautiful!

Is the cab 3/4" or 1" thick?

Chip

[EKDENTON]

Very Nice looking!

[TubeGeek]

Nice big rectumfryer!


Very well done sir!

[p2pAmps]

Awesomeness

[plaidzebra]

Great use of the gnarly wood on the back panel. Beautiful!

Is the cab 3/4" or 1" thick?

Chip

It's very close to 3/4", something like 13/16".

Awesomeness

Thank you so much! That means a lot coming from you. I look forward to every build you post on here and I learn something new every time!

[eleventeen]

Super nice build! Beautiful and tasteful.


Appears you have a 5U4G old bowling pin style rectifier tube whose heater draws 3 amps. Unless it's a 5R4, of course = 2 amp heater. Are you sure your PT 5 volt winding can handle 3 A? I would suspect it's rated at 2 amps. It won't burst into flames or anything but it *could* run on the hot side & shorten its (the PT) life thereby. Either tube can easily handle 5x the current draw of a Champ. I'd probably use a 5Y3.

[Meteorman]

Add another vote for beautIful cab !
And we'll assume all dovetails were hand-cut. 
very nice.
/mike

[Redfishbum]

That build  kinda looks outstanding!

Bart

[Searing]

Very nice!  Love the cabinet!

[DummyLoad]

very, very nice!
--pete

[plaidzebra]

Appears you have a 5U4G old bowling pin style rectifier tube whose heater draws 3 amps. Unless it's a 5R4, of course = 2 amp heater. Are you sure your PT 5 volt winding can handle 3 A? I would suspect it's rated at 2 amps. It won't burst into flames or anything but it *could* run on the hot side & shorten its (the PT) life thereby. Either tube can easily handle 5x the current draw of a Champ. I'd probably use a 5Y3.

It is a 5U4G. I posted a question about this on the site and the general consensus was that it wasn't too big of a deal. I might get a 5Y3 somewhere down the line, but I had that rectifier when I built and wanted to save a bit of money along the way.

And we'll assume all dovetails were hand-cut. 
/mike

I'm generally a patient guy, and I like to think I'm a decent woodworker. But I'm definitely not enough of either of those to hand cut all those dovetails! 

[Mike_J]

Nice tight dovetails. Like others, really like the burled walnut on the back panel.


Thanks,
Mike

[arjepsen]

Looks awesome :-)

[eleventeen]

"It is a 5U4G. I posted a question about this on the site and the general consensus was that it wasn't too big of a deal. I might get a 5Y3 somewhere down the line, but I had that rectifier when I built and wanted to save a bit of money along the way. "


Agree. If you use it as a bedroom amp and it's on for 45 mins at a time, fine. If you start moving it around and jamming with it, both for heat reasons and for mechanical reasons (big, unclamped tube hanging upside down) I'd move towards a 5Y3. As it happens, some time ago I bot a garage full of junk and have loads of 5Y3s and 5U4s so I sort of take for granted that everybody does. Lotsa 5Y3s in junk radios, etc; if you stumble on one.

[plaidzebra]

Absolutely man, thanks for the advice. At some point I'd like to start bringing it to a friend's house to jam, so when I start doing that I'll consider getting a 5Y3 for it. Maybe when my tax refund comes in 


I'd also like to start collecting up some vintage radio and amp gear to try and make something cool from them. There's a hamfest near where I live at the beginning of May that I plan on going to, hopefully I'll be able to find some cool stuff there.

[punkykatt]

Real nice work!!!!

[archaos]

Very nice, congrats !

[Shack]

hmm, so if people here jam with bands with champs, princetons and tweed deluxes......maybe me and my band just plays too loud,lol

[plaidzebra]

hmm, so if people here jam with bands with champs, princetons and tweed deluxes......maybe me and my band just plays too loud,lol

Hahaha not at all, most of the time I jam with a Deluxe Reverb. This is just more portable right now, and our drummer uses an electric kit when we're at school, so we don't have to be as loud to hear ourselves. Trust me, we can annoy the neighbors when we want!