Vintage amps are one of holy grails for a number of musicians, who often have too many holy grails to count. I’ve always wanted one made in 1978, the year I was born. As you can tell by the title, I had the chance to own one, and by the section of the site this page is in, I no longer own it.
Like so many other things, amps were just made different back then. These old ’60s and ’70s era amps didn’t use printed-circuit boards (PCBs) and were instead wired point-to-point (PTP) making maintenance and repairs as simply as unsoldering and soldering in a replacement component.
The Fenders, Marshalls, and a whole slew of boutique amp makers play to this with reissues and clones of these old amps down to NOS electronic components, transformers, and “as close as you can get” speakers.
Heck, I own a Princeton Reverb Reissue (PRRI), though with a 12″ speaker instead of the typical 10″ that came in the old versions, and one of my favorite all time amps is the Deluxe Reverb Reissue (DRRI) I used to own.
The downside to vintage amps is the price, and it’s only gotten worse over the years. When the chance to buy a Vibro Champ that was described as being made between “1977 and 1979, but likely 1978” for the right price, I snapped it up.
The Vibro Champ is a 5-watt amp with a tiny 8″ speaker. It’s not going to win any volume awards, but it, like the vibrato-less Champ, is great for cranking up the volume to get that sweet overdrive-tube breakup that people love but at volumes that won’t leave your ears ringing for hours.
With the 8″ speaker comes the downside of that even when you cook the tubes, you’re still having to deal with a speaker that’s going to bottleneck your potential. You’re not going to be heard over most drummers and if you’re after clean tones, you aren’t going to have a ton of headroom before the amp starts to break up.
For someone like me that plays at reasonable volumes anyway, this wasn’t too much of an issue. I wasn’t getting the tube breakup that is the strength of these amps, but I also wasn’t pushing volumes where the 8″ speaker was immediately a hindrance.
What I did get out of the Vibro champ was that legendary Fender tremolo. My PRRI has it, but the Vibro Champ absolutely and unequivocally left the Princeton Reverb in the dust. It was rich, it warbled in a way that the PCB driven PRRI didn’t, and it came through so clearly. The first moment I actually sat down and played around with it was magical for me.
I mic’d the Vibro Champ with my Shure SM57 and recorded every song on Volumes One through Three, and most of the 2022 singles with it. The thing is, I don’t think I ever used that signal as a primary tone on any guitar track.
The Vibro Champ always sat in the background somewhere, a slightly harsh and bright tone, regardless of where I stuck the mic. Always the bridesmaid but never the bride.
When I wasn’t recording, I’d often just turn the Vibro Champ on and play through it. The clean tone, for as small as it was, still sounded good, but I don’t use clean tone as often as I do overdrive and distortion. Unfortunately, the only pedal that I felt really paired nicely with the Vibro Champ was my Zvex Double Rock. I’d often go back to my PRRI or the Egnater Tweaker before
too long.
As I recorded with the Vibro Champ, I eventually had a falling out with it. Gone was the initial charm and excitement over owning an amp from my birth year. I used it because it was there and not because I was excited to use it. Then, it suddenly stopped working.
I took it for a visit to Scott Hughes at a local repair shop called Vistalux Amplification just before he retired and he repaired the amp. He also confirmed that it was indeed a 1978 amp. Scott was, and still is, an incredibly knowledgeable dude. It’s a bummer he retired from the amp repair business, but I’m thankful for the interactions we had, as they were always pleasurable.
With a clean bill of a health from a reputable business, I posted the Vibro Champ up for sale. The amp had appreciated considerably since I’d bought it and the money I made from the sale enabled me to pick up the Mesa Express 5:25 that I currently own, and would supplant my PRRI as my #1, if my circumstances were different.
This is a fair question. Are you looking for a cool little bedroom amp that won’t piss off your significant other or neighbors? Do you want to get a very particular tone? Are you willing or able to rehouse it?
Would I suggest it? Yes, if only to have the experience of owning it. There are plenty of folks who buy a vintage Champ or Vibro Champ and are incredibly happy with the decision.
As someone who needs to squeeze every little bit of whatever I can out of an amp at the volume I play at, it wasn’t a long term solution for me. If you’re looking for a main amp, then, no, I don’t think this is the amp for you.
For what it’s worth, Fender has put out a Silverface reissue of the Vibro Champ that has a 10″ speaker instead of the little guy the vintage ones come with. I have no idea if these sound any good or fix the issues I had with the amp, but it might for you. Given the fact you can get a vintage Vibro Champ for the same or less than the price of that one, it’d be your call.
I’m glad I bought the Vibro Champ and equally glad I sold it. In the end, it was an avenue to an amp that fits my needs much better than it did.
It also scratched the itch I had to own a vintage amp from my birth year, at least for now.
The biggest thing it had going for it was that it was PTP and that made it cheap to repair, but repairs are something I’ve not really had to deal with too much, especially given the number of amps I’ve owned over the year.
I hope the person that bought it from me has enjoyed it and made better use of it than I did. I haven’t seen it pop back up on Craigslist or the Facebook gear groups I’m a part of, so perhaps that’s a good sign the little guy found a good home.
In a world of noise, be sound
- KC