Solid Front Ends


There seem to be a lot of lower wattage tube amp oddballs on the market right now, and Peavey isn't the only maker.  Check this out - A Fender Champ 25 SE.

Listed for $250, the seller notes that this map is a "hybrid" amp, with a solid state preamp section feeding a tube power section.  Apparently this is powered by 2x6L6 tubes, which seems crazy to me given the wattage - A Fender Deluxe Reverb is rates at 22 watts running two 6V6 (read: smaller) tubes.

Funny how the industry went from solid state preamps with tube power amps to the inverse.  the most famous of these is probably the Marshall Valvestate series, but I seem to recall Fender doing the same for awhile.


Of the two approaches, this one is probably better.  Solid state gain stages can be pretty great (take the entire pedal industry for example), and the real point of a tube amp is the characteristics imparted by the power section.  Don't believe me?  Think back to how many failed pedals there were that boasted of having a REAL 12AX7 tube in the circuit.  How many TS9's did they end up replacing?

Boom.

They sound... OK.
Back to this amp, YouTube videos* suggest a hyper clean amp with a pretty reasonable "Fender-tone", but one that seems susceptible to mosquito-like high end fizz. To be fair, that may be the result of terrible iPhone speakers used for recording combined with the amps themselves being recorded as a volume that wouldn't wake Mom and Dad.

On balance though, I'd probably stay away form this one:  Just because an amp has tubes doesn't make it a good amp, and while I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this one, your money would be better spent on something that was on the market for more than a few years.  that is generally an indication of a well-received product.

I would imagine that head to head with some Peavey TransTube stuff, this amp would get blown away.


*No, YouTube video aren't a great reference.  I've heard some great amps (including the Maz series) sound absolutely terrible on YouTube. As a tool to give you a sense of what a piece of gear is all about, you really can't beat it though.  Learn how to compensate your own ear for the things that might be off about a video - bass roll off, clipping, etc.  Best way to do this is to listen to other demos of gear you already own - You'll be amazed at how different the same gear can sound.

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