All user reviews of 2/5 for the Fender Champion 110

This is the first amp that I acquired when I handed addition to the guitar after 10 years off. At the time (1995) I bought this little combo with a Squier Strat that I also kept not more than a month before moving to U.S..
Amp transistor. HP 10 ", if I remember right. Two channels with shared EQ.

UTILIZATION

Simple to use Archi. I am reminded of EQ settings quite effective and pervasive medium and reverb.

SOUNDS

The clean channel was pretty good, the drive channel a horror! But hey, the price at which the Champion was proposed, we could not expect much ...

OVERALL OPINION

I did not keep very long time and went to a ROC Pro 1000 was something else.
Therefore difficult to recommend this amp found in Cygnus to softly rates. but I guess the bottom line of amps (Fender and others) transistors are at the same level-bad-quality ...

This is a recreation of a classic Fender Champ amp, but with solid-state technology replacing tubes. In fact, the manual states that it is purposely designed to recreate the classic tube clipping of a Fender tube amp. It has one 10" speaker and delivers 25 watts of power. It has one 1/4" input, as well as a footswitch jack, external speaker output, and headphone output, all three of which are also 1/4". There are two channels, normal and drive, there is a three band EQ and a reverb knob.

UTILIZATION

This amp is easy enough to use as it's pretty simple, however, getting a good sound out of it is tricky considering it's a solid state amp. Neither the clean nor the drive really did a whole lot for me. The manual explains pretty much everything you need to know about the amp, but in all honesty, anybody who isn't using an amp for the first time will have no problems with the actual usage.

SOUNDS

This amp, to put it really bluntly, does not sound that great. I can imagine anybody who owned the original Fender Champ would be a little disappointed, if not genuinely upset, at the attribution of that name to the Fender. Everything that comes through has a really bland, dull tone to it that I can't stand. I play my Strat, which is really bright and somewhat thin in a tube amp, and it sounds really lifeless. A hollow bodied guitar can sound ok for jazz but that's really about it. My Les Paul is just as bad as the strat through this. The drive channel is pretty bad, in fact, I use a slight amount of drive (barely any) and end up using that as my clean channel. In that way it sort of resembles a tube amp, but even then, a bad one.

OVERALL OPINION

This thing is obviously a cheap starter amp, based on the price. I guess it'll work in that context, though most likely a beginner will get frustrated because the amp will sound bad. If you start with a bad amp, you probably won't want to keep playing. It'd be better for you to get something a little nicer. Even if it's another solid state, there must be something better than this.

The 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.