Fender Champion 20 Speaker Upgrade: Celestion TF0818 (Quilter)
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- Опубліковано 18 жов 2024
- The Fender Champion 20 is one of the better home / "bedroom volume" amps on the market. This video shows a speaker upgrade option that will give you loud solid clean tones if you also want to use it in a jam or small gig setting. Demo'd with a US Strat with Custom Shop 69 neck/middle and Seymour Duncan SSL-5 bridge pickups. Songs sampled: "Waiting on a Friend" (Rolling Stones), "Chi Chi" (Satan's Pilgrims), and "Mama Kin" (Aerosmith).
Thank you Hoodrio for showing me this loud 8 inch speaker that I never knew existed as now I want a quad of them and to build a 408 cabinet to put them in
Wow, I got my Champ 20 from GC at Black Friday sale. Looking around the web, I saw this upgrade. I just put in the Celestion speaker after 2 months of ownership. I didn't expect to hear it as much as in the video, but it really is a much richer, fuller amp with the new speaker. It's great, thank you!!
I just did this speaker replacement on my Champion 20. The video show it true. Much more to my liking now.
@awesomesauce666 $50
Thanks! got inspired here in Late 2022 to swap the stock Fender Champion speaker for a TF0818 for a fuller sound,...=) Thanks a lot for shareing Love cheers
The Celestion wins ❤ more dynamic, more clarity, pleasant on the ears, good tone, any day all day.
Wow thats really the first speaker swap I can hear a major change with an iPad Pro on a UA-cam presentation. Very big difference, bet its even huger in person. Great Demo. Liked the OD.
Thanks, Damien! Years later I’m still amazed at how great this amp sounds with the Celestion.
@@HoodrioI read in another comment you'd choose the wsg or 8 15 over this one, do you still feel that way? Thanks
@@chazmichael7967 Wow, totally forgot I ever said that and had to go back and see that it was four years ago to remember that you are correct! Anyway, I would say no, because not only did I end up loving the TF in the Champion for all those years, but when I got a Mustang LT 25 I chose the same speaker to upgrade with, and got similarly excellent results. The one thing I do remember from that old comment was how bad the TF sounded with my Quilter 101, so I still don’t recommend this speaker for a regular guitar amplifier, only for modeling amps.
@@Hoodriocool thanks for the reply! I was also on the fence about the wsg g8c or the Jensen c8r but because the wattage is so close to what the amp puts out I didn't want to risk blowing through speakers for such a cheap amp, I got my champion 20 for $50 so lol might see if I can find a lower wattage celestion 8" PA speaker maybe closer to 50 instead of 100 because i don't really play clean, i prefer a treble booster and dumble style pedal on BF model gives the champion really close to tube like overtones/harmonics. Thanks again
@@chazmichael7967 if you don’t play clean, definitely don’t get the Jensen - that is its only strong suit.
I changed mine out as per your advice here and I was certainly impressed--thank you!!!
So glad to hear that, and thank you for the feedback!
Wow. Great review. I hear a huge difference in the sound, the celestion sounds much bigger and open!
Bought one, waiting for delivery. I would be thrilled if an 8inch is all i need. Thats what she said...
Yep, you are correct! Great upgrade!
Thank you !!!
I guess "she" is NOT for me then...Oh well.
Yep that sounds like a good up grade.
I have been like you a few Amp choice deferences but the same search. I'm going to try this. Thank you
OD 7:25 celestion 6:48 stock
Clean 3:20 celestion 2:21 stock
Surf 5:37 celestion 4:25 stock
Oh yeah mids are much more solid, warmer bigger fuller tone.. nice video thanks for putting it up, getting ready to do something similar with the mustang v1.. already jumed it to my katana 50 spkr.. so definitely upgrades make a huge difference in tone and volume..
I really hear the difference on the OD tone. Much more meaty!
Oh what a huge difference Man that's great 👍
Good video. What the Celestion loses in fidelity to the original sounds it more than makes up for with its own more muscular sound. That said, tonewise, the original does pretty well.
The stock speaker blew and got damaged from backing track music. This amp has an input jack for playing along with backing tracks. I don’t like the stock speaker.
The stock speaker sucks. You're almost guaranteed to have to buy another one when you purchase the amp.
Superchamp x2 sounds fantastic at low volume with a multitude of different sounds.
True. It's the same amp as the Champion series, with the addition of tubes. Most say the tubes help mainly at higher volumes.
I swapped my stock speaker for the Celestion Eight 15.
Definitely worthwhile.
I would like to try a WGS or Celestion Eight 15. I'm really puzzled why Quilter uses the TF with their amplifiers, because it sounds terrible with my Quilter 101. It sounds really good and big with the Champion and is still the best choice if you're looking for maximum clean headroom. I recommend it only for modeling amps.
trying to upgrade my lil Champion 20, did you buy the 8ohm speaker? I know it needs to match the impedance, just trying to make sure
Yes, 8 ohm@@erolegemen5955
Very nice comparison.
Makes sense to go the PA speaker way. Full range speakers are the way to go with these emulating guitar amps.
The sound from the Celestion seems to have more body or depth than the stock speaker.
and can it be compensated by adding an additional small speaker of acute sound internally?
Great presentation, loved the bigger room too.
Mama Kin .. nuff said
I'm wondering what you are hearing in the room that I am not hearing on UA-cam. When you listen to the video you made, do you think that the YT video doesn't do justice to what you actually hear in the room? I have a Champ 20 with stock speaker, which I like, but am on the fence on whether to do the speaker upgrade. This is a great amp for sure.
Excellent review. Thanks.
beautiful guitar
I like the Celestion best
Big improvement!
Thanks!
Great Video I was Just Asking my sales rep IF it Could be UpGraded ? Wow The Universe Always Answers !
Hello. I sub'd just off these two vids. Exactly the situation I'm in, and what I was looking to do. So are there different 0818 's models ? Also is it easy to swap the speaker ? Did you do a vid for that ? I already ordered my Fender Champ 20 : )
I don’t know of any different models. The swap itself is not difficult. Thanks for subbing!
Hi, thanks for the vid. I'm only going to use my amp at home so glad I read your comment that the stock speaker is better for home! My question, for the money (in the UK at least) you could have upgraded to the Champion 40, why do you prefer to upgrade the speaker instead?
I'm also looking for an answer on this !
If you already own the champ 20. I don't know how much the speaker cost..?
I was thinking not a lot of difference, that the mids seemed louder & then it hit me you said it's normally used in a PA which is geared towards voice & the mid range eq.
Go for the champ 40, it's got a 12". They sound way fuller IMHO
For what its worth I have owned both 20 and 40, for home use the 20 was a much sweeter sound ! The 40 needs to be played at volume then it comes into its own but the 20 wins for me ! The 40's not great and I had two of em going to get another 20 !
great demo..was that Mama Kin?..nice
I also wonder if you could get two champ 20's. Upgrade one speaker. Leave one original.. and run them as stereo. Both are good ; )
Great playing and Thank you for this . You sold me on the amp and now I'm looking to order tf 0818 too . does it match a 50-60watt amp? I'm looking to jam with an acoustic drummer .
Very interesting - thanks for sharing!
Upgrading speakers, especially in modeling amps is a bit hit and miss because the amp's sound processing/shaping was designed for the original speaker. Even if the replacement speaker is much better (especially if it is!), the sound spectrum can get really weird. For example that equalization at certain frequencies to compansate for the original, cheap speaker and cabinet combination can make it all go out of balance. There can be a number of other things the designers may have done to approximate the sound of a combo amp, some of which may work differently, with the new speaker.
In this case, I thought the upgrade sounded different but not convinced that it was "night and day" better. Having better efficiency may be a handy advantage, though.
A while ago, in a different video, I've seen somebody doing a Champion 20 upgrade by adding an external speaker connection. When the external cabinet with a 12" speaker (Warehouse Invader?) was connected, it really sounded great. OK, much bigger speaker but it really worked.
Without being able to hack into the modelling, it's all about finding the right replacement speaker which can be tricky and may involve some luck. :-)
Good points, thanks. I have found that changing speakers is the single best way to easily improve the tone of your rig, but it is true that with digital amplifiers it is trickier. Fortunately the champion series use regular guitar amplifier speakers, not so called full range speakers, so they sound great with a wider variety of upgrades. I have played my champion 20 through several different cabinets with regular guitar speakers, and it sounded fantastic, particularly with the 12” eminence red white and blues.
@@Hoodrio ha-ha, yes, 8" speakers can sound really good... until you hear them back to back with an equivalent quality 12"-er!
Considering their performance, the Champion 20 and 40 must be among the best value combos available at the moment and you just proved that they can be pushed even further with a bit of effort and a few $.
@@sandman0123 I think you're giving Fender too much credit.
1. They're probably adding the cheapest speaker possible from a Chinese manufacturer, rather than carefully designing a matched speaker.
2. All of Fender's topend XD modelling amps have a cabinet output jack, which can connect to any cabinet and speaker. So matching the models with the speaker can't matter that much.
Thanks. I may try this.
Would enclosing it help low end?
Great demo. Thanks very much. Do you think this Celestion would be okay as an upgrade in a small tube amp?
Ian W Rees I would not recommend this speaker for anything other than a modeling amp. For a tube amp I would go with WGS or Weber.
Thank you. I have ordered the Celestion and am going to put it in my Champion 20 instead.
@@Hoodrio I'm 21 I just put this in my tube amp and it sounds great I play cleans only the preamp is a vintage 1950s RCA 12au7 tube for the preamp and the power tube is a vintage Silvertone 6V6 from the 50s I play country and rockabilly and blues howdy from North Carolina
@@southernpride2003 Awesome! Which tube amp are you using?
@@Hoodrio a Monoprice 5w amp I forgot to mention I use flatwound strings
very nice!
Definitely improved the overdrive, but you definitely lost some of the Fender chime on the cleans.
That's how it sounds on the video, but after a day playing around with it, the Celestion actually shines on loud BF Twin and Princeton settings (the Champion Deluxe model is oddly dark). The Celestion is surprisingly bad overdriven at low volumes, pretty good cranked. I will keep it only for the loud cleans and play through my 1x12 at home (Emi RWB).
I have the champion 40! What spkr do you recommend? Even think ing of a 10 inch on a piece of pine or birch baffle board. Just got the gun of it!
I have a Champion 40 and upgraded the speaker with an Eminence V128, it sounds great..it was worth the $80 and 10 minutes to install.
Definitely filled in the midrange nicely. How much are the Celestion speakers?
$50. After playing it more, I'm not thrilled with the od tones, ironic for a Celestion. Sounds big clean though.
After selling my Vox AD50VT, I'm now in the hunt for a low volume practice amp and research brought me here, what other speaker can you recommend for this? I dont want to lose all the Fender clean chime!
lowfatberryblue I am still liking this speaker, and it does retain most of the sparkle. A lot of people say that the stock speaker is fine if you let it break in, so if you don't need to play out or at loud volumes I would just keep the stock speaker.
Can you please explain the swap process? 4 connectors on the tf0818 and only 2 on the fender speaker. Also 1 of the connectors from the fender speaker is too small to fit on the tf0818. Do I take off the small connector and ad 1 that fits?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Even though there are four tabs on the Celestion, you only use one on each side (positive and negative), just like the stock speaker. If one of the stock clips is too tight just work a little screwdriver or something in there to open it up more.
@@Hoodrio thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it. The positive connector fit perfectly but the negative connector was way to small. I tried to open it up with a small screwdriver and the connector came off in my hand. Can I just crimp on another connector to match the positive one? One more question, did you have any trouble getting the 4 screws to line up to attach the speaker?
Thanks a lot.
@@brianrollins7275 Yes, just crimp another connector on there or you can even just solder the wire to the tab on the speaker. I did not have any difficulty lining up the screw holes. Good luck!
@@Hoodrio thanks again for your help with this. I will crimp on another connector tomorrow. Solder would be easier but I don’t have a soldering gun. I need to pick one up for stuff like this. The alignment seemed a little off with the 4 screw holes but I’ll mess with it again tomorrow. If you had no trouble it should be fine.
Thanks for posting the video by the way. Appreciate you taking the time to do this.
Someone posted somewhere this mod is difficult because the factory speaer was glued to the baffle. I'm going to buy this amp new, want to change the speaker but don't want to deal with a glued speaker. What are your thoughts.... you encounter this?
Thanks
I bought mine from GC in November. No glued baffle, easy swap.
I think it should be noted the Celestion is a Mid/Bass speaker , just saying.
I swapped for a Warehouse Guitar Speakers vintage. Made all the difference in the World. Ended the low end flubbiness.
@Jeremy Belzunces Howdy. 8" G8C 8 ohm, vintage. No complaints. Easy as pie to install.
How does the high gain “2000 Metal” sound? Is it fuller than the stock speaker?
Do you have to make any modifications to the cabinet for the Celestion speaker?
No.
I was going to say just go get the champion 100 until I heard that monster speaker.gotta do it..What watt is the new speaker?
When changing the speaker did you have to modify one of the plugs? or add a new connector?
Matt Hill No.
@@Hoodrio Really? The only other champion 20 tutorial on this Ive seen said that it had one that needed to be changed! Thats good news haha!
Hia mate, great video, could you answer me a quick question....i have got a Fender Princeton 65 dsp amp and am thinking of buying a champ 20, would i be able to play it through the princeton, thanks.
I'm not sure what you mean. You could hook it up so it is playing thru the Princeton speaker/cab, but not through the amp itself if that's what you mean.
@@Hoodrio Yes im sorry, that is what i meant, just thought i could make use of the bigger speaker in the Princeton, thanks very much.
@@xtrofilm problem! This website has all the parts you need for that type of thing: www.amprepairparts.com/speakers.htm
@@Hoodrio Thanks mate thats brilliant.
hi, great video. can this speaker be used for frontman fender 15r too? thanks!
Any amp that takes an 8” speaker. Just match the ohms.
Could you share your settings? Really enjoyed that Surf tone.
Thanks! Pretty sure it was just the Blackface Twin with spring reverb.
Do you think is there enough room to fit a 10" speaker?
Not sure. You would have to cut a new baffle as well. I would just go with this Celestion - it sounds as big as a ten.
@@Hoodrio yep, I'd need to enlarge the existing one. The problem with the small speaker is they lack of bass spectrum. I owned a Gibson G5 with a 8" speaker and the sound was good but kinda "boxed"
What was the surf song played ?
hol2atio all the songs sampled are listed in the video description - thanks!
Rad
I how they give you a royalty you sold it
Any ideas for a champion 40??
Tons of good options in 12’s. I’d go with something from the Eminence Patriot series, like the RWB.
What ohm speaker is supposed to work?
8
@@Hoodrio thanks
8ohm or 4ohm in the champ 20?
8, and I think it would sound boxy closed back.
Thanks for the reply.
I have a couple Vox Valvetronix amps and a Champ 20.
I'm itching to upgrade one of them. They're all 8" speakers.