How good is a late '60s to early '70s Fender Champ Steel?

Joseph Lazo · From: Wisconsin, USA

I've wanted one of these for awhile, but never come across one "in the wild." There's a '73 Deluxe with legs and case I've been watching, but can't pull the trigger. Just curious what opinions you all might have on Fender steels of that era.

This demo has the sound I'm after:
https://youtu.be/bCQE0fxFJBU?si=z1B7X0bfKaTM6c13

Jack Hanson · From: San Luis Valley, USA

In my opinion, the Champ is a well-built instrument with a comparatively wimpy sound (as compared to a typical Gibson -- Skylark excluded -- or virtually any Ric). Keep in mind the demo is played through a '63 Twin, one of the finest amplifiers produced anywhere, at any time, by anyone, which has a lot to do with the sound (and the player ain't no slouch, either). A Champ, or its sister the Studio Deluxe (basically a Champ with a marginally thicker body to accept its leg sockets) won't sound its best unless the screws behind the bridge are good and taut (but not over-tightened to the extent that it warps the plate).

Joe A. Roberts · From: Seoul, South Korea

I agree that that guys skillz and the blond twin are a considerable factor of the sound of that vid.
Champs are well made, and have a really cool design, but IMO are only decent sounding considering the prices they are commanding these days.
I personally would only buy one if I got a really good deal

Bill Groner · From: QUAKERTOWN, PA

Champs are well made, and have a really cool design, but IMO are only decent sounding considering the prices they are commanding these days.

Yes the Fenders are really cool lookin but, looks ain't every thing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1edRK7pV1o
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Currently own, 6 Groner-tone lap steels, one 1953 Alamo Lap steel, Roland Cube, Fender Champion 40

Joseph Lazo · From: Wisconsin, USA

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

The single-pickup Fender steels that I have played over the years all had a thin, cutting tone, as Fender designed them to have. I've bought/sold or borrowed several Champs, a couple of Studio Deluxes, and a couple of Fender Whites, and the sound was the same in all of them... mostly cutting highs, some mid, and very little low end. No "grit" in the natural sound of the guitars (if it's grit you're looking for). Of course, play them through a vintage tube amp with a couple of stomp boxes, as the player in the video is using (possibly overdrive), and they will scream. It also helps that the guy is a very good player.

I would go with a vintage Gibson or a Valco product with a string-through pickup (Supro, Oahu, National, etc). They have a warmer, fuller sound than a Fender. I'm referring to the natural sound of the guitar played through a clean amp, no effects, no overdrive.

A quick story on point: the late Mike Ihde played a Magnatone for a few years and then someone gave him a Fender lap steel (I believe it was a Champ). Mike told me that it sounded terrible... he thought there was something wrong with it. But no, it was working fine. Winking

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Jack Hanson · From: San Luis Valley, USA

Michael Sawyer · From: North Carolina, USA

I have a '57 champ....it doesn't leave the house without a Boss eq 🐒

Joseph Lazo · From: Wisconsin, USA

Miles Lang · From: Venturaloha

Michael Sawyer · From: North Carolina, USA

HowardR · From: N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville

Isn't that a bass eq?......

Michael Sawyer · From: North Carolina, USA

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

It's not just a Bass EQ, it's a Boss EQ. Works for guitar and everything else.

----> https://www.boss.info/us/products/ge-7/
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Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Back to the original post about the Fender Champ lap steel. Was my first steel guitar of any kind - got it from Bobbe Seymour back in the late 80s or early 90s for $200. It's tuners, nut, bridge, and pickup on a plank of wood. Pretty basic, but not that different from a lot of lap steels. Champs have gone up a LOT the last few years, I pretty much recoiled when I searched for them online. But I don't think you have to pay $2500, which is what that one was priced at.

The Champ pickup is not real hot - by that, I mean not over-wound - and kind of neutral-sounding. Probably the same pickup that was in Musicmaster, Duo Sonic, and Mustang guitars. And IMO, that is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on what you want. Hot, over-wound pickups tend to be pretty midrangey, sometimes to the point of being muddy. Great if that's what you want, but I often find that hard to dial out. I personally like the Musicmaster/DuoSonic/Mustang pickups - in fact, my first good guitar was a '65 Mustang.

As far as what can be done with them - well, that video is Boston's own Kevin Barry, who is a fine player. He gets a good range of clean and overdriven sounds. And if you look at some of his videos (frequently with Tele slinger Duke Levine), you can see that Kevin sounds great through anything he's using. When I've seen him, it was generally a pre-war Ricky Bakelite or Valco. Can't be absolutely sure, but that green pedal looks like a late-80s Ibanez TS10, maybe a Fulltone OCD in front of it. But hard to tell for sure without a better view. Those TS10's used to be throwaways for most players, in comparison to the TS9 and TS808, but they have gained a significant following in recent years. At any rate, he's clearly got quite a lot of overdrive going on, and into a '63 Twin 6G8A, which was going for $5700, and is apprently sold now. But I really don't think you need such killer gear to sound good with that guitar. Or any other basic lap steel. There are lots of good-sounding overdrives and amps that will get into that ballpark, IMO. And white-tolex Twin amps are not exactly distortion machines anyway. In fact, without any overdrive, they are quite clean-sounding until you push them pretty hard.

BTW - the Boss GE7 is designed for guitar, and the Boss GEB-7 is designed for bass. Not that you can't use either of them for either guitar or bass. The difference is that the center frequencies of the filters are different. GE7 starts at 100 Hz and ends at 6.4 KHz. GEB7 starts at 50 Hz and ends at 10K. The critical midrange center frequencies are designed to give more detail for their intended application. I have a GE7 - I don't use it much, but it comes in handy sometimes, mostly when I want to dial out an overbearing frequency band or two. I personally prefer to start with a sound that doesn't grossly exaggerate any frequency band.

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