Still looking for a Practice amp and saw some good reviews for the Champ 600

Fender Champion 600

5W (Tube)
Tube (12AX7 & 6V6)
1 Volume Pot
Two Inputs (Lo & High Gain)

Vox Pathfinder 15R

15 Watt
Solid State
Boost Capabilities, Volume, Gain, Treble, Bass, Reverb, Tremolo (Speed & Depth)
1 Input

Any Opinions? I know every body is different, and I will go and try em. Just want some thoughts :)

C'mon...easy for you! Get a Vox british made still??? :D:D:D

C'mon...easy for you! Get a Vox british made still??? :D:D:D

Haha, you might say that; But I'm a Fender fan through and and wanted to give em a chance :)

First let me say, I am not a fan of Vox.

But given those 2 choices I would pick the Vox.

First let me say, I am not a fan of Vox.

But given those 2 choices I would pick the Vox.

That's interesting, Any particular reason why?

The sound quality of the Pathfinder is better. I hate to say it, but it is. It flat out just sounds better than a Champ 600.

I had a champ and didn't really get along with it too well but I finally found my small box of valvey goodness in a Black Star HT-1.

Worth a few minutes to have a try if tone is higher up your list of wants than volume or "bigness" of sound.

I've had the Pathfinder 15R for 2 months and am very pleased with the range of sounds I'm getting from my Jet. Great chimey cleans or as much distortion as you'd ever need. Trem is very good but reverb is only as good as you could expect from an amp this modestly priced. Headphone jack is real handy too. Certainly deserves a tryout!

I kinda like the Orange tiny terror.

I kinda like the Orange tiny terror.

Thats not really what i'm looking for but i too have heard good things!

Looking for more of a practice amp, that i can use for small gigs (like an acoustic and me, acoustically - not through some huge PA)

Just on Champs and moving sideways a bit. I heard one of these recently and was really impresed.

http://www.coxamps.com/files/Tweed_Champ_Data_Sheet2.pdf

My vote for the Champ! PURE tube tone, and will cover the small gig you describe easily.

you can find something much cooler than all that run of the mill stuff...look around for some real old weird stuff you never heard of before:) prob less money and much cooler vibe from something old with some history and tubes.

You are in prime Watkins Country...something like this is way cooler than any fender or vox...they both stole from WEM /Watkins so get the real deal, they are still cheap and if it was good enough for the Beatles and Stones and Zeppelin it is good enough for any of us!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-WATKINS-WESTMINSTER-valve-amplifier-SHIP-/110781950840?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item19cb1e6b78#ht_1121wt_1230
I want one of these SSSSSOOOOOO BBBBBAAAAADDDDD!
http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/britamps/watkins/domin.html

The Champ 600 might be all tube and looks cute but to my old ears it's a scratchy sounding thing, as is the Gretsch 5222, which might well be the same amp unit in a tweed covered box. The Pathfinder 15R might be solid state, but for home practice it just sounds better IMO. And you get reverb and tremolo.

If you must have a tube amp, try a Laney Cub 10 or a Vox AC4, but you're talking more money with these.

Chancey's right! Those small Watkins tube amps are very overlooked, there are loads of small solid state amps available these days but a well designed tube amp takes some beating. Among my amp collection I have several Watkins amps, the small 70's Westminster and Clubman models are fitted with 12" speakers, (one of mine even has a Fane), sound great and don't cost a fortune. OK they don't have all the bells and whistles you find on a modern solid state amp but you can always hook them up to a few FX pedals.

Agreed with Dennson here. I you want valves, & who wouldn't! Laney cub 12r is a really good match, also the Laney LC or VC 15s are superb. A used LC 15 (EL 84 tubes) quite often come up on ebay for around 100 bucks.

The first small Watkins there has Tremolo built in and is tube powered. Imagine walking down the street with a Laney in your hand and being seen...that would never happen, and guys and gear heads like us would never take you seriously. Now walk down the street with a sweet vintage Watkins or Honher now you get some serious respect! Even if you can only play the heck out of 3 chords we would all be like "DUDE DID YOU HEAR AND SEE THAT Sweet amp?!?!??!?!?!!
I have a lot of stuff I wish I would have saved a little better for and I am trying real hard to push my urges but listen to some guys with old school knowledge about amps.Of all my guitars when someone comes to my house to hang out, the very first thing everyone goes for is my Harmony from the 40's I paid 25 bucks for that guitar and it is my favorite as well..Gibsons,Gretsch fenders and ekos all get the cold shoulder from company..I think you get my point... Do you buy something that is new and just ok, or do you buy something that is super rare and cheap that may need a little love to get going and gets major props??? I think that is what it comes down to, besides the sound of raw vintage El34! Solid state amps are dependable yes; but so is a honda or toyota, and I would never be caught driving either..i would rather be greasy and broke down on the side of the road wrenching on my 55 fairlane than be caught dead driving a Civic...that is about all of my rant:) lol

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Linear-guitar-amplifier-T40-60-mk1-and-12-Speaker-Vintage-/190597106527?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item2c60790b5f

Something like this can be turned into a guitar amp for very little money, and they are about free or 25-75 bucks most of the time..something else to think about when escaping the box:)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-MARCONI-VALVE-RADIO-Working-Order-/330646570997?pt=UK_Consumer_VintageAudio_RL&hash=item4cfc1247f5
I have been wanting to build one myself from old valve radio for a practice/studio amp...a lot of people don't even think about that as an option it just never occoured to them and they are evrywhere in every antique fleamarket worldwide and CHEAP!

Ah, image is obviously everything these days! When Burman amps come back into fashion I'll take mine for a walk down the street and wait for the admiring glances!

I had a Watkins Westminster in 1962 because I couldn't afford a Dominator, never mind a Vox. Yep, the little Watkins sounded fine, even with my Futurama going through it. But the guy up the road — who was older and in paid employment — had a brand new Fender Tremolux. Now there was an amp.

And here's a place for the electronically fearless!
www.amps-n-bits.com/about.htm

Before the Watkins I had a Linear — everyone in the UK who couldn't afford a 'proper' amp had a Linear. Beaver Radio in Dale Street, Liverpool, used to sell them. They seldom looked like the one advertised in Chancey77's link — they were usually sold just as a chassis and that's how most people used them. For an extra few pounds you could buy a sort of cage that screwed over the top. They looked like a cheapo version of the current Vox Night Train. Memory tells me that Linear amps were not good. For something with two EL34s they had surpringly little volume and the tone wasn't up to much. Not everything from those days was good!

If you want some first hand accounts (from some very famous Brit guitarists) of the crappy equipment that young, impoverished UK guitar players had to put up with the late '50s and early '60s, find Mo Foster's book 'Seventeen Watts'. It's fascinating and also very funny.

Ah, image is obviously everything these days! When Burman amps come back into fashion I'll take mine for a walk down the street and wait for the admiring glances!

I had a Watkins Westminster in 1962 because I couldn't afford a Dominator, never mind a Vox. Yep, the little Watkins sounded fine, even with my Futurama going through it. But the guy up the road — who was older and in paid employment — had a brand new Fender Tremolux. Now there was an amp.

Before the Watkins I had a Linear — everyone in the UK who couldn't afford a 'proper' amp had a Linear. Beaver Radio in Dale Street, Liverpool, used to sell them. They seldom looked like the one advertised in Chancey77's link — they were usually sold just as a chassis and that's how most people used them. For an extra few pounds you could buy a sort of cage that screwed over the top. They looked like a cheapo version of the current Vox Night Train. Memory tells me that Linear amps were not good. For something with two EL34s they had surpringly little volume and the tone wasn't up to much. Not everything from those days was good!

If you want some first hand accounts (from some very famous Brit guitarists) of the crappy equipment that young, impoverished UK guitar players had to put up with the late '50s and early '60s, find Mo Foster's book 'Seventeen Watts'. It's fascinating and also very funny.

Very interesting insight! I want to get my hands on that book! He is looking for a practice amp, and just needs some volume, and true not everything old is good, but there is definetly some super good sounding cheap vintage options to fender or vox and a lot of talk worldwide about this same exact situation...I just thought I would look for some options for him. With some links to some other options that he can see.

Chancey77: Here's a link to the Mo Foster book. The title is a direct reference to the Watkins Dominator, which was chosen so the whole band could plug into it — "but do we really need 17 watts?"!!!

Not sure where you'll find a copy, but Amazon is probably as good a place as any to start.

www.mofoster.com/author_17watts.php

hahahaha that is awesome! I bet you wish all you had to pay was 38 pounds for a dominator now!!!!!!! 1,500 was the last one I found.

To the OP's question - I have the Pathfinder 15R and I love it. An incredible solid state amp with very warm, almost tube-y tones, and I can dial in almost any kind of setting I want, more or less. That said, I have since purchased a number of small tube amps (vintage and new), and I play them much much more than the Pathfinder.

I haven't played many Fender Champs, but have not heard great things about the new ones (although there appear to be some fairly simple mods that are alleged to make big improvements - look for Alvin Youngblood Hart's YouTube video, running an A/B on a modded and un-modded Champ).

I do have several vintage 5W amps from Silvertone and Valco that essentially mimic the Champ's line up (i.e. 12AX7, 6V6), and they sound incredible. Love the vintage tone, the warm saturated overdrive, and the bedroom volume. You can find these amps for approximately $300, sometimes with a good deal you can get them for much less (I got a Silvertone 1481 for $150 a few weeks ago). As others have said, I would definitely recommend considering small vintage amps if you can find them in your price range and can try them out before purchasing (check Craigslist).

My only new model tube amp is the Vox AC4TV - an excellent small tube amp in every way. I know it is a bit more expensive than the others you mentioned, but I would strongly recommend trying it out and, if you like it, saving up the relatively little extra money it would require. (Note, however, it is a British amp with an EL84 power tube, so will have a much different, slightly darker tone than a Fender Champ.)

Either way, good luck!

I put a vote in for the VOX P15R too, you dont want a tube practice amp, you want an a'mp you can turn on & off as much as you please to have a quick noodle without worrying about tube wear.. Save the tubes for the proper amp!

Those VOXs have fantastic tone for SSs, I have the P10, and I looooooove it! it sees nearly as much playing time as my Orange Dual Terror, just because it's more convenient & doesn't require me to dedicate a solid hour to playing so I don't feel like I'm killing my tubes..

I have the Vox Cambridge 15 which is a Pathfinder sans reverb. Also have the Gretsch equivalent to the Champ 600. The Vox does a complete beat down on the Gretsch. More versatile, better cleans, better grind, more volume.

Try Bugera v5

5, 1 and ,1 watts, gain, volumen, tone, reverb (digital), nice warm sound. got it a month ago fot 140 free shipping at GC

I had a Champion 600 and didn't like it. If I were to go that way again in a tube amp, I would get the Vox AC4TV. at least you have a tone knob then.

I sold my Champion 600, didn't care much for it, but I kept the Pathfinder for tranny 'quick noodling'. When I play a little longer, I plug into a VHT Special 6: nice class A all tube sound, 3 or 6 watts, well built, reliable AND cheap. What more can you ask for?

The Vox is a better choice of the 2 for home and bedroom practice. Great cosmetics-15 wattsw, reverb-tremolo-built in od-speaker out-headphone out-and footswitchable capabilities, the Pathfinder brings a lot to the table.

The Champion is a "find the sweet spot" amp that will probably be too loud in the home, or not loud enough for the gig. After the sweet spot, the Champion just gets muddy and mushy. I also found the Champion 600 is finiky with OD/Distortion pedals. YMMV, but for less dough and way more features, the Vox is a clear winner in my book.

I own both.

I heard guys raving about the Pathfinder 15r on this forum and I was pretty aprehensive about buying anything solid state because I am a tube guy all the way but I decided to go ahead and give it a run. Very nice tube like tones come from this thing and I can save my tubes and turn this thing on and off all day when noodling around. Absolutely love it ! Very nice cleans, the gain sounds great but it also sounds excellent if you back off on the gain and hit it with your pedalboard. Takes pedals very well, and sounds tube like. Perfect for rehearsing !