View other reviews for this product:
glassjaw7 « Decent amp for beginners, but not very durable »
Published on 03/20/11 at 21:42The Fender Champion 110 is a solid-state combo amplifier with one 10 inch speaker. The speaker is described as a "special edition" and not much else is stated about it.
The amp has two channels, clean and distortion with shared eq controls consisting of bass, mid, treble and a global reverb control.
Also found on the front panel are a guitar input jack, an input jack for a footswitch, an 8 ohm external speaker output (which disengages the Fender's internal speaker, and a headphone out jack.
UTILIZATION
This amp is easy to use and dial in good tones with. The manual is well written.
SOUNDS
The circuit in this 25 watt solid state amp is designed to have clipping similar to a tube amp. Of course it doesn't actually sound or feel like a tube amp, but for what it is, it's really not a bad amp for beginners or for anyone who wants a decent practice amp to play quietly at home.
The eq is well thought out and is home to a few nice tones. The clean channel is pretty good (hey, it's a Fender so it had better sound good!) Full and chimey, but not overly bright. It lets the character of the guitar shine through.
The distortion can be dialed in to sound scooped with the mid control backed off to 0, or brighter and more cutting with the treble and mid up a bit. The low end is usable until it reaches about 3-4:00, where it begins sounding flubby.
Fender calls the Mid control their "tone-shaping" control, and I agree that it can give the amp a modern scooped metal tone, or a nice thick lead tone, all the way to a very honky and overly middy tone.
It's nice that Fender included onboard reverb in this amp, but the quality is really lacking. It's nothing like the reverb in their higher grade tube amps, not that I would expect it to be for this price, but it sounds pretty bad. It's not terrible as long as you use it VERY sparingly. Give it too much and it's way to prominent. It sounds cheap when overused. Subtlety is key here!
OVERALL OPINION
My amp dates back to '92 or '93 and has since began to fall apart. Most of the jacks are scratchy and loose, and the input jack hardly makes a connection anymore. The master volume on the clean channel quit working, so the amp is very loud despite the setting. This makes it unusable for quiet at-home playing, which sucks as that's all it's really good for anyway.
Something has happened to the way the amp's eq controls affect the tone also, because now the treble control is completely worthless and I have to keep it at zero or the distortion tone sounds like razor blades and bees. It's a buzzy, harsh mess! The input jack problem is very common with this amp from what I have heard and read online from other users.
It's a cheaply made amp and it's inexpensive, so I didn't expect it to last forever, but I take very good care of my gear and I was hoping it wouldn't completely fall apart.
I guess if you can find one used for a very low price, and it's in good condition then it would be worth buying, otherwise, buy a Peavey or even a Line 6 practice amp. Or just get yourself a nice low watt tube amp for practice like a Baron Snott Watt.
The amp has two channels, clean and distortion with shared eq controls consisting of bass, mid, treble and a global reverb control.
Also found on the front panel are a guitar input jack, an input jack for a footswitch, an 8 ohm external speaker output (which disengages the Fender's internal speaker, and a headphone out jack.
UTILIZATION
This amp is easy to use and dial in good tones with. The manual is well written.
SOUNDS
The circuit in this 25 watt solid state amp is designed to have clipping similar to a tube amp. Of course it doesn't actually sound or feel like a tube amp, but for what it is, it's really not a bad amp for beginners or for anyone who wants a decent practice amp to play quietly at home.
The eq is well thought out and is home to a few nice tones. The clean channel is pretty good (hey, it's a Fender so it had better sound good!) Full and chimey, but not overly bright. It lets the character of the guitar shine through.
The distortion can be dialed in to sound scooped with the mid control backed off to 0, or brighter and more cutting with the treble and mid up a bit. The low end is usable until it reaches about 3-4:00, where it begins sounding flubby.
Fender calls the Mid control their "tone-shaping" control, and I agree that it can give the amp a modern scooped metal tone, or a nice thick lead tone, all the way to a very honky and overly middy tone.
It's nice that Fender included onboard reverb in this amp, but the quality is really lacking. It's nothing like the reverb in their higher grade tube amps, not that I would expect it to be for this price, but it sounds pretty bad. It's not terrible as long as you use it VERY sparingly. Give it too much and it's way to prominent. It sounds cheap when overused. Subtlety is key here!
OVERALL OPINION
My amp dates back to '92 or '93 and has since began to fall apart. Most of the jacks are scratchy and loose, and the input jack hardly makes a connection anymore. The master volume on the clean channel quit working, so the amp is very loud despite the setting. This makes it unusable for quiet at-home playing, which sucks as that's all it's really good for anyway.
Something has happened to the way the amp's eq controls affect the tone also, because now the treble control is completely worthless and I have to keep it at zero or the distortion tone sounds like razor blades and bees. It's a buzzy, harsh mess! The input jack problem is very common with this amp from what I have heard and read online from other users.
It's a cheaply made amp and it's inexpensive, so I didn't expect it to last forever, but I take very good care of my gear and I was hoping it wouldn't completely fall apart.
I guess if you can find one used for a very low price, and it's in good condition then it would be worth buying, otherwise, buy a Peavey or even a Line 6 practice amp. Or just get yourself a nice low watt tube amp for practice like a Baron Snott Watt.