This is Fender’s hand-wired custom shop reissue of the legendary 5F1 Tweed Champ which is loved by Tweed era fans and studio musicians alike for its highly sensitive tweed overdrive at sensible volumes. Fender have very carefully recreated the famous 5F1 circuit which features a single 6V6 power tube, 5Y3 valve rectifier and 12AY7 pre-amp tube and paired it with a specially-designed 4 ohm Weber alnico speaker. That sits in a finger-jointed pine cabinet covered in proper Tweed (not the olive stuff they put on lesser amps!)

The result is a faithful (but reliable) late 50s champ. These amps are wonderfully touch-sensitive and responsive to your playing (also the guitar’s volume and tone controls). It produces classic, unique mid-forward Fender tone at volumes that are unlikely to get you in trouble with neighbours (although if you crank it, it can actually get quite loud) . The sound is lovely (especially cranked) which is just as well as these could in no way be described as versatile: this is a single-channel amp, so you just choose between the high or low impedance inputs and turn up the single volume knob (there is no tone knob). If you want less gain, turn down the guitar’s volume, and if you want to roll of the highs, switch pickups or use your guitar’s tone control. It is not quite a one-trick-pony as it can produce a range of clean, crunchy and tweed-overdrive tones, but it is certainly not a do-everything pedal platform type of amp! On the other hand, it is small and light enough for that not to matter.

The build quality on these ‘57 custom versions is exceptional - top quality pine case, beautifully finished in proper Tweed, the highest quality capacitors (albeit not many of them!) in the circuit and beautifully wired together. The Weber speaker is perfect.

The condition of this 2021-built example one is excellent. It is fully working and, being only 5 years old, is still sporting the original tubes. The only signs of wear are on the tweed covering which has a few dirty marks and a little bit of fading on the seams.

The amp will come with the original canvas cover (shown) and is 230-240v only (UK market) with the original UK moulded plug, so will require a suitable voltage transformer and adapter to run on other voltages.