Oh, and the Prince (another Champ clone but pretty primitive build) is illin', sounds like a bad cap. It is a disaster waiting to happen anyway so I am not sure if I should just off it as a project on ebay.
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5 notes with tone is worth 50,000 without.
Sixveesix, as good as the Frenzel is, in my very humble opinion you don't need the boogered Champ Tone amp at all except as a wierd looking oversized paperweight. Off it on ebay...you know of course that it will command more of a funky than goodie price. If you find an old Silverface Champ or Vibro Champ for cheap then you could mod it for poops and giggles and stick it in a cab with the Frenzel for a stereo rig.
I'd like to share for others what I did to my Silverface Champ...
Bought used and very sick, low volume output, 75 bucks from a friend that didn't know what he had and too lazy to exploit,
Replaced the 3 dead 25/25 caps on the board with ones of much higher values. Overall sound of amp darkened some as they broke in and formed themselves, no fartiness on bottom and very full sounding in mids
Replaced the bias resistor with similar resistance but higher wattage rating
disconnected feedback loop
replaced the main tranny with an Allen rite iron unit, higher rated for current, the one that drops into the stock cutout and mounting bolt pattern,
replaced the wimpy walnut sized 3,2 ohm out output tranny with a MONSTER sized 5-7 pound 40 watt rated single ended unit from eBay, 5000 ohm primary into 4/8/16 ohm, had to mount in bottom corner of cab with bolts and t-nuts (!!!) output was wired into the...
1/4" switchcraft output jack that replaced the stock RCA jack,
replaced the disc shaped ceramic cap bridging a couple of pins on the power tube socket with a 1200 ohm 2 watt resistor going to the screen circuit, thanks to Area 51 guys for that suggestion, made more harmonic detail and opened up treble frequencies
installed Area 51 fized/cathode bias switch, fixed bias board/pot assembly, and bias test jack, I use the cathode bias side of the switch for all tubes except el34 and 6550, for those I use the fixed bias setting and adjust the pot accordingly.
ran a wire from output tube socket pin 3 to a plate cap clip to be able to run el38, purchased some Mullard el38's, this tube is smoother in sound and much less expensive than its el37 brothers, a secret weapon amp tube fo sho!
purchased 6bg6ga adaptor socket and some Sylvania 6bg6ga, a MAJORLY gorgeous sounding secret weapon 6l6-ish tube available for dirt cheap on ebay
purchased 807 adaptor and a few military 807 tubes, will revisit at some point and work up bias adjustment to warm up the tone
Am in process of obtaining an adaptor for the Bendix Red Bank 6384 tube from Titan missile program, the most durable by far and best sounding 6l6 type ever produced
tossed the stock and slightly torn 8" speaker into the trash can since it did not work well as a frisbee golf disc, now use the amp as a head only. I experimented with Peavey scorpion 10, tight fit and the tubes started to rattle some, also reduced power tube choices due to cab crowding, so out it came.
Amp runs 16 ohm output tranny tap to use all of the secondary transformer windings for richest tone with the most harmonics, into either a 16 ohm 1/15 cab with vintage Altec 418b, or 16 ohm 2/15 cab running a pair of JBL g135's, squashes any champ I've had the pleasure to hear like a sumo wrestler sitting on a whoopee cushion. Needs no micing at stage volume, very loud and proud with the more powerful output tubes, even 6 watts from 6v6 is plenty for most club work.
never use 5y3 any more as rectifier, I now use 5v4 for most tubes and 5ar4 for most powerful output tubes, same heater voltage and pinout, but transmits much more current than 5y3. Have seen plenty of writings that say is makes no difference for tone in a single ended amp for different rectifier tubes, they are clearly deaf...!
for all uses I employ a Hilton pedal steel volume pedal for a bit of clean boost and no roll off of highs at lower volumes, it is an active, wall wart powered unit
for a two channel effect I use a vintage DOD 9v battery powered eq/boost pedal, adjustable up into full on scream/controlled feedback territory
for three channels I use my secret tone weapon, a Siegmund Micro Tube Double Drive pedal instead of the DOD unit
Since there is no standby switch installed, I pull out the rectifier tube before turning amp on and after, wait a minute before socketing it to avoid possiblilty of cathode stripping on expensive or rare vintage tubes I sometimes use. I know that 5v4 and 5ar4 are indirectly heated and take some time to warm up, longer than 5y3, but some power tubes need a bit more time, especially the more powerful ones
Gets no love or respect at first when playing out at open stage blues jams due to ratty looks and lowly Silverface Champ status, not "cool" like a tweed champ, that all changes after the first notes come out, then the questions start coming... I also like having the silverface's tone controls available to shape the sounds, there is so much bottom end available from the massive iron in output tranny and big magnet/cone speakers that one can turn the bass down and still get very fat and tight bottom and lower mids, resulting also in more harmonic detail and clarity in upper mids and highs.
Very satisfying to do these mods and the sound is so good it's hard to turn off.
