RE: [Harp-L] Champ amp question

[Niall Tracey <internationiall@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: william.lifford@xxxxxxxxx


> Can a silverface Champ (1970's) be hooked up to a larger speaker?
> I always liked the tone of a Champ but would like more bass response.
> I thought maybe I could hook it somehow to a 1x12 cabinet and it
> might sound slightly fuller.



Any combo can be connected to an external cab.


Warning: thermionic valves have a tendency to overheat if they are switched on without an appropriate load (normally a speaker) connected.  If you start fiddling around with the speaker connections, you run the risk of l


The back's partly open on that model, isn't it?  (I'm not big on vintage gear....)  Have a look through the back of the amp and have a look at the connections at the speaker.  Modern amps have wires ending in little folded plugs that slip over lugs on the speaker.  Does this amp have the same, or are the connections soldered on?


If it's plugs-on-lugs, you could make a little adaptor and switch the plugs between external speaker and internal speaker manually.  But one day you'll probably forget to plug the speaker back in, and boom!


What you really want to do is fit a 1/4" jack socket onto the wires.
You're specifically looking for a jack socket with "break contacts".  This means that for each section of the plug there is two contacts -- when there is no plug in the jack socket, the circuit will complete, and will flow through the contact pairs.  This means that you can wire it up so that when no external speaker is wired up, the internal speaker will be used.  Plug in a cable and these contacts break.  The internal speaker is switched off and the circuit completes through the external speaker.


This is exactly what goes on inside most amps with an external speaker connection -- the only difference is that your connector won't be inside the metal box at the top.  You might want to clamp it on at the back somewhere.
 		 	   		  
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