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Guitar World
Guitar World
Entertainment
Chris Gill

“The tone fattens up as the amp is pushed into overdrive, and fully cranked up it pumps out deliciously gritty crunch”: In praise of the Champ, Bronco and Vibro Champ – how Fender’s compact tube amps became MVPs in the studio

1968 Fender Vibro Champ.

Almost every internet forum discussion of classic late-’60s and ’70s-era recordings where an artist vaguely cites using a “Fender Champ” will result in some belligerent blowhard insisting that it was a tweed Champ.

Sometimes this is correct, but more often than not the Fender amp in question was more likely a black-panel/silver-panel Champ or Vibro-Champ from the mid-’60s onwards.

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