Fender Champion 600 Volume Pot Replacement

Introduction

Once upon a time I bought this amp used in a pretty bad shape, but that was exactly what I wanted - tinkering with electronics is fun, right? 😆

One of the issues it had was a malfunctioning noisy crackly volume pot. Today I'll show you how to replace it if yours has this problem too.

If you're an experienced iFixer - it'll take you about 10 minutes to get it done.
Check the list of gear needed for this project. I offered the tools that I used but it’s absolutely doable with less or some other similar tools.
Important: disconnect an amp from the power outlet!
Please be careful - tube amps can hold a serious amount of electrical charge that can cause injuries or even death. Avoid touching any wires or contacts with your bare hands or instruments that have no reliable insulation.

Let's start by removing the rear chassis screws. All of the screws we are going to deal with work nicely with a PH2 bit.
Then remove two side screws that also hold the amp chassis in place. Those are 4x30 mm btw.

Below the chassis you'll find 4 more phillips screws holding a rear cover in place - remove them as well.

Now it's time to remove the nuts on the input jacks and our broken volume pot - I used pliers to do that, but it is advisable to use a small adjustable wrench in order to avoid any unwanted scratches.

Tool used on this step:

Magnetic Project Mat

$19.95

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Next let's remove the volume knob - you'll need a flat 2.5 bit for that. Carefully insert the bit into the hole on the rear side of the knob to undo a tiny screw inside of it.
That's it - chassis is free 👍.
Hint: use a plastic tray or a magnetic mat to safely store all of those screws and nuts. You can even write where all those parts come from.

Slightly lift it up and pull towards you with just a hand to access the internals.
That's it - the amp's chassis is right in front of you.

Disconnect the panel that holds the input jacks and our volume pot. For this you may either use your fingers or an IC Extractor/Connector Puller.
Then lightly push one of the input jacks inside of the chassis to remove the panel.

Tool used on this step:

Desoldering Pump

$3.99

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Now let's replace a broken volume pot. For this we are obviously going to need a soldering iron, a flush cutter and a desoldering pump.
Hint - I used flush cutters to cut a broken pot off from the PCB and then used a desoldering pump to clean the mounting holes in order to get them ready for a new pot.
Also a good PCB holder may come in handy as you may see in my example.

After removing a broken pot and preparing a PCB for the replacement put a new pot into place.
Add more flux - don't be shy there - and solder a new pot in place.