Cost Of Stupidity

[drewl]

I still get teased by my childhood friend and bassist for putting tin foil over the blown fuse.
Hey, I was 15!
Arcing tube socket, but it got us through the gig!

Years later I rebuilt it for him for free when I knew what I was doing.

Same for his Vibro Champ, but that's a different story.

[bob p]

I never even think about the Champs. They were all from the 70's and 80's and as of this writing no one cares too much about them.

Have you checked lately? Prices always surprise me.

Last time I bought a SF Bassman head I paid $250 on ebay. I made the guy take it back because I received a no-tail-logo amp that didn't match the tail-logo amp in the picture. Today that would be a steal and I would've kept it. To this day I regret making that return, but at the time I just didn't like the idea of not receiving the amp that I paid for.

I felt the same way about Champs being cheap amps, but today's prices surprise me. Maybe 10-15 years ago I bought a cosmetically dead-mint SFVC that was showroom new, but not working, for $150 delivered. It needed Rk and Ck on the 6V6. Otherwise the amp is totally bone-stock original. Now it sits in a corner under a cover.

Much to my amazement, nice faceplates with rusty top straps can bring $699+ship on ebay:

Fender Vibro Champ Amp 1976 Vintage Amplifier Worldwide Shipping

Wow. $650-$700 is common for a nice SFVC. That reset my head. Maybe we need to pay closer attention to what people are paying, and maybe we shouldn't go carving up SFVC. I'm thinking it may be time to sell mine to a collector and use the money to buy another amp.

And what really makes no sense: as prices on SFVC get ridiculous, I recently bought a virgin circuit Bassman 10 with hang tags at GC for half of what the SFVC are selling for. The temptation to mod it is impossible to resist...

[Chuck H]

I never thought the sf VC would be the one to achieve collectible status. Sure looks like it's going that way. Makes some sense. Classic tone, add real tube trem, use the pedal of your choice and you have a mini version of a recording rig you can use with a mic and software on your computer based studio without disturbing the neighbors. Sure, you could use a modern amp like a Valve Junior or some such, but it lacks the mojo factor. Not many amps from the golden age can be force fit into the new era but I think the VC might be one of them. Sort of silly though since the stock amp actually doesn't sound all that good because the OT's were $h1t. I did elude that I wasn't keeping up on it. The couple (ok, a few) Vibro Champs I've buggered shouldn't make too much of a dent in the supply at least And they all sound fabulous the way they left my bench too. At least two that I know of earn their salt with good players that just can't believe how much tone they're getting out of them. One is a studio amp that gets used by many players randomly. I'm a proud papa and I knew they were cool when I handed them over. But it's nice that my vision for them was realized by players... I promise to not "ruin" any more of them