Rivera designed Super Champ layout?

[Matthews Guitars]

Who's got a layout for the Rivera designed Super Champ? I'm thinking it may be my next build. I've got the official schematic but haven't found the layout for it yet.

[sluckey]

Layout is in Hoffman's Tube Amp Schematics Library.

[syscokid]

Here you go:
https://el34world.com/charts/Schematics ... _super.pdf

[Yoda]

The Rivera Super Champ is a phenomenal amp; I had one for service and kept it long-term for review and I really loved it. Would love to own one eventually.

If you’re building one I’d highly suggest replacing the 6C10 with 12AX7s.

[Stevem]

Without a doubt plan on replacing the very hard to get 6C10 with two 12ax7s.
The heater current draw with the two 12ax7s will be the same as with the 6C10, so don’t fret over that.

If particular importance with any amp and its layout is to get the plate decoupling cap as close to the next down stream tube that it’s feeding, in other words use long plate wires and short grid wires.

This is especially true when it comes to pI caps that feed pin 5 of the output tubes,

Try to plan on having one end of then right on the tube socket.

In short just don’t copy what was done layout wise, take advantage of starting from scratch!

[maxkracht]

What's the deal with Rivera era naming conventions? Just repaired a Princeton II, which looks like a hotrodded Deluxe Reverb, this Super Champ looks like a hotrodded Princeton Reverb. This underselling and overdelivering thing is foreign to me...

[Matthews Guitars]

Yes, if I do this, it'll use only 12AX7s. I'm well aware of the supply limitations of the triple triode compactrons such as the 6C10 and 6K11. I used to own a Super Twin Reverb which uses a 6C10 in it. I acquired a small stash of those tubes to support it, which went with the amp when I sold it.

I'll inevitably end up wondering what I can do with that spare triode half that isn't used....maybe use it as a front end booster. (Switchable, of course.)

[statorvane]

Spare triode? How about a tremolo oscillator?

Here's an idea: http://sluckeyamps.com/trem/trem.htm

[maxkracht]

Could parallel the input triodes like the deluxe reverb II. Lots of switching options.

[proaudioguy]

The Super Champ is very “BOX”y. The PRII is the same exact amp with a proper sized enclosure. That’s what I would do. I have a Super Champ, I intend to sell. It sounds great with the EV, but I like a more “fender” sound. They have lots of mids scooped and lows are big on the SC to make up for that tiny box. If I was building from scratch, I’d definitely go with the PRII. Again, same amp. Same transformers, etc.

I also have a DRII which is very modified now. I am almost done with the clean channel, and ready to start on the dirty channel.

I also have a Concert which is lightly modified relatively speaking. V1 is split, the bright circuit is TR, most of the snubbers are gone. This amp sounds fantastic. The dirt channel is also great on this one. Even though the 2 amps are similar, the dirt on this one sounds much much better than the DRII. Very HRD ish full tilt, but I have no first hand experience with those so TIFWIW. If you leave the GAIN at 0, then its like a very overdriven clean fender, but with a master so you can get the balance between clean, on the edge of breakup and OD. Kick in the mid boost and you get that singing. Start turning up the GAIN and it gets into that D territory. The DRII doesn’t really do it but to be fair the entire PI is modified to BF in my DRII.

[proaudioguy]

Could parallel the input triodes like the deluxe reverb II. Lots of switching options.

Paralleling the V1 makes the amp very mid heavy. I split the V1 on my Concert and DRII and they both sound a lot better. I may reduce the cathode bypass for the lead side of V1 to get more gain for the lead channel (which was reduced a bit by splitting the tube), but I would not touch the clean side’s 1500r/25µF. Its all FENDER.

[maxkracht]

The PRII is the same exact amp with a proper sized enclosure.

Don't think I've worked on a super champ, so maybe production amps are different from the schematic, but they don't appear to be the same amp. Similar, but not the same. Princeton V Deluxe

Paralleling the V1 makes the amp very mid heavy. I split the V1 on my Concert and DRII and they both sound a lot better. I may reduce the cathode bypass for the lead side of V1 to get more gain for the lead channel (which was reduced a bit by splitting the tube), but I would not touch the clean side’s 1500r/25µF. Its all FENDER.

Not really following you. Do you have a schematic for these changes? Superchamp only has one channel, so I wouldn't expect the same results anyway.

[proaudioguy]

The PRII is the same exact amp with a proper sized enclosure.

Don't think I've worked on a super champ, so maybe production amps are different from the schematic, but they don't appear to be the same amp. Similar, but not the same. Princeton V Deluxe

Paralleling the V1 makes the amp very mid heavy. I split the V1 on my Concert and DRII and they both sound a lot better. I may reduce the cathode bypass for the lead side of V1 to get more gain for the lead channel (which was reduced a bit by splitting the tube), but I would not touch the clean side’s 1500r/25µF. Its all FENDER.

Not really following you. Do you have a schematic for these changes? Superchamp only has one channel, so I wouldn't expect the same results anyway.

No, PRII is not like DRII at all. PRII and SC is the same.

Someone suggested paralleling the extra triode in the SC build. The Concert, Twin II, DRII all have a V1 that has paralleled triodes. It really veers away from the “Fender BF sound”. Its not a bad sound, just not the Fender BF sound.

I went back and checked and other than some tone shaping to deal with the box in the superchamp, the PRII has a long tail phase invertor and the SC has a cathodyne phase invertor. I guess if you were building it with 12AX7As, you could just use the PRII schematic, get a few more bells and whistles, such as a switchable bright, and a long tail PI. The PRII really sounds great. The SC clean is essentially a PR in a too small box, and the PRII is kind of a 1 channel mini DR. Of course both amps have the dirt channel which is derived from using the reverb driver to OD the next stage. That is a love it or hate it dirt channel. Both amps suffer from the “tone suck” when you use the footswitch for channel switching. The Concert and DRII don’t have that issue with the footswitch. The best sounding amp of the bunch IMO is the Concert and the PRII. They are different but both good but I like a few mods on the concert.