For our final Mercury shootout it seemed fitting to have The Champ 600 square off against the Valve JR. Both amps clearly benefited from the Mercury modification, but does one stand above the rest?

The Fender Champion 600 is a 5-watt combo amplifier with a 6-inch speaker that features a 12AX7 preamp tube and a 6L6 power tube. The Fender Champion retails for a scant $150 and is really a bargain when you get right down to it. You can use it at home without any fear of upsetting the neighbors, but the tone and sound of the amp is what you would expect for a combo that retails for only $150.

We continue our conversation with Mr. Sergio Hamernik, the owner of Mercury Magnetics.

Mr. Duncan Haberly who just happens to sit on the board of one of my favorite websites: instructables.com was kind enough to take on the Mercury Magnetics modification of the Fender Champion 600.

Most of the demonstrations that I have seen for the Epiphone Valve JR are done with a guitar that has humbuckers installed. I though that it would be interesting to show the differences between the stock valve JR and the modified valve JR using a guitar with vintage voiced pickups (read: lower output). It also seemed appropriate to include a good amount of lead work in the review so all of the lead players out there could get a better sense of what this amp could do. So I called on Mr. Mike Sopko to run us through the Epiphone…

With the modification of the Epiphone Valve JR completed, it was time to see if we could hear some differences. We decided to take the amps up to Phil’s home studio and set up a proper shootout. To switch between the heads we selected the Radial Tonebone valve tube head switcher, as it would allow us to use only one cab. All of the cables were matched in length and brand type to make sure that the comparison would be as color free as possible. We used a Shure SM57 microphone into an API 512 microphone preamp into…

Part two of the Mercury Magnetics modification of the Epiphone Valve JR begins with the installation of the transformers and choke. You want to pay close attention to the directions in terms of how to twist and dress the wires in the chassis. The way you dress your wiring can mean the difference between an amp that is a quiet monster and one that is not even usable. You would not believe the difference a clean, tight wiring job makes on a tube amp!

I had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Sergio Hamernik about the history of the Mercury Magnetics company, how he became involved in making transformers for guitar amplifiers, and the difference a high quality transformer can make on your tone.