Gearank

Overview

The Fender Champion 40 is essentially the same as the Fender Champion 20 except for a few small differences. It also sports the classic Fender amp look with an intuitive interface that makes it easy on the eyes, and easy to use.

Even with the alluring promise of different tones and various levels of distortion, the transparency and articulation of Fender's clean sound continues to be in demand. And this demand applies to the entry level market as well, as evidenced by the popularity of the Champion 40, which takes the old school Fender look and sound, while adding a bit of modern digital amp modeling into the mix without over complicating the controls.

Fender is not really known for amp modeling, but the high ratings of their entry level amps suggest that at least in the entry-level market, their amp modeling has exceeded the expectations of many.

As implied by the name, the Champion 40 has 40 watts on hand compared to the 20 Watts of the Champion 20. This isn’t going to give you a huge difference in volume, but it will allow you to retain a clean tone at volumes louder than what the Champion 20 is capable of.

The Champion 40 also comes with a 12” speaker, which helps to give the amp a bit more depth.

Another cool feature is that you have a both a dedicated clean channel as well as a channel for effects and distortion. This means that so long as you purchase the foot switch you’ll be able to switch between two distinctive tones on the fly.

If you're not into Fender Mustang Amps with their fancy versatility, and you prefer old school streamlined Fender amp design, then go get the Champion 40.

Although this was previously on our recommended list, there are now more highly rated options available which you can see in our guides to The Best Guitar Amps Under $300 and The Best Modeling Amps.

Demos