Tube chart · Guitar amp

Tubes for Fender Champ (5F1)

Era: 1955–1964 (5F1 tweed)Power: 5 W

The tweed-era Champ — single-ended 6V6, no negative feedback, the simplest Class-A guitar amp ever shipped at scale. Eric Clapton's Layla rhythm tones came out of one. The 5Y3GT rectifier is critical: replacing it with a solid-state plug-in kills the bloom and saturation that make the 5F1 special.

Complete tube line-up

Every socket in the Champ (5F1), with stock tubes, direct-swap alternatives, and rolling notes. Tube names link to dedicated specification pages.

Important: bias before you swap

Power tube swaps almost always require rebiasing — running a new quartet of 6V6 cold or hot will shorten tube life dramatically and can damage the output transformer. See the biasing guide and the troubleshooting guide before rolling tubes.

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