Lovely Old Amp For Lounge

bazxkr

I just love this....reminds me of my fathers ol' radiogram when I was a kid

Can't be many of these around at all

Even the ol' lady surely can't object to having this in the lounge

ME WANT !!!!

57Deluxe

...and at Christmas time, you can put little glass dishes of peanuts on festive doilies on top...

ICBM

There are certainly very few left in that kind of condition and especially with the legs.

usedtobe

The legs just kill me..!

thecolourbox

That does look wonderful

jellyroll

Very cool

ToneControl

buy one:

http://www.guitaravenue.com/amps.htm#watkins

bazxkr

ToneControl said:

buy one:

http://www.guitaravenue.com/amps.htm#watkins

Tempting if I wasn't skint haha... the one in the pic I posted has been restored to a very high level. Anyone ever heard these played.

Sound any good ? I know in the day Watkins dominator etc were the sought after thing not that there was a huge choice back then.

Nothing beats a bit of nostalgia

bazxkr

Also, I'm assuming these are not very heavy with those spindly legs ? Anyone know approx weight ?

ToneControl

bazxkr said:

ToneControl said:

buy one:

http://www.guitaravenue.com/amps.htm#watkins

Tempting if I wasn't skint haha... the one in the pic I posted has been restored to a very high level. Anyone ever heard these played.

Sound any good ? I know in the day Watkins dominator etc were the sought after thing not that there was a huge choice back then.

Nothing beats a bit of nostalgia

I tried an amp based on that design

Lovely warm tones

I also tried a clubman

Quite a pleasant old school warm tone as well I think

Phil_aka_Pip

bazxkr said:

Also, I'm assuming these are not very heavy with those spindly legs ? Anyone know approx weight ?

I've never seen one on legs. Maybe they broke easily ...

ToneControl

http://www.watkinsguitars.co.uk/ampcombo.htm ;

english_bob

bazxkr said:

Sound any good ?

Good enough for Marshall to use the circuit for their 18 watt model, or so I hear. Speaker choice will make a difference of course, and 18 watts will be ungodly loud at home if you turn it up to get distortion the old fashioned way, but I would imagine they sound pretty good. I've only played a later WEM Dominator 1x12" in very poor condition, but under the inordinate amounts of background noise (owner told me "it's a valve amp, it's supposed to make that noise". OK mate.) it was a pretty good sounding amp. You can take the price of the wedge-front Watkins models and knock the last digit off the end for those too- more like £200 than nearly £2000. The trade-off is that the Watkins looks awesome but the WEM Dominators are ugly as shit.

the_jaffa

My old guitar teacher was collecting Dominators when I was having lessons with him.  This must have been about 93/94.  He basically bought everyone he heard of.  He had four or five of them.  They were really cheap then though.  Think he was paying about £75-100 for them.  Must be sat on a bit of a banker there if he still has them.

The sound was great.  A lovely warm clean that grunted up really nicely when pushed.

I'd love one but the prices are now bonkers

lustycourtier

They were £100-150 up until last decade. I imagine still can be that price dispite the high prices on ebay.

Sassafras

A friend had one of these and I'd use it at every opportunity, it sounded wonderful and really filled a room with it's 2 angled speakers. I kept pestering him to sell it to me.

english_bob

lustycourtier said:

They were £100-150 up until last decade. I imagine still can be that price dispite the high prices on ebay.

Are you talking about the wedge-front 2x10" Watkins Dominators? Or the uglier, commoner, later and considerably cheaper 1x12" WEM Dominators? I suspect you could still get one of those for £150, but not a Watkins.

lustycourtier

english_bob said:

lustycourtier said:

They were £100-150 up until last decade. I imagine still can be that price dispite the high prices on ebay.

Are you talking about the wedge-front 2x10" Watkins Dominators? Or the uglier, commoner, later and considerably cheaper 1x12" WEM Dominators? I suspect you could still get one of those for £150, but not a Watkins.

Sorry yes, the black ones! There a few complanies making clones of these V fronts that always look tempting

ICBM

The angle-front ones are very light, but the speakers are crap - and unfortunately, not easy to change because the design of the cabinet makes it almost impossible to fit anything else with a larger magnet, without cutting away some of the rear cable access box.

Yes, I expect someone will be along to defend Elac speakers, but the plain fact is that they're not robust enough to take the power of the amp without sounding very ratty, or blowing. And they don't sound *that* good clean either.

Marshall took the basic circuit but increased the voltages slightly as well as using far superior Celestion speakers, so don't buy a Dominator expecting it will sound like an 18W Marshall on the cheap - it's a much raspier and less crunchy 'British Invasion' sound rather than a proto-'Blues Boom' sound. A good sound in its own way but more limited really.

midlifecrisis

id like to build a small stack of those to play down the local dog and duck

bazxkr

OK. So I love that 50's retro look and the pastel colours. The Vapporizer has gone for that sort of vibe but is still flat fronted.

I wouldn't pay the upwards of £1000 they are asking for these really nice condition originals despite loving them.

But out of interest....

a) Is there any specific sound distribution benefit by having the angled speakers ? Looks like a 30 degree angle sweep back on the cab.

b) Nobody seems to make this type of design anymore. Danelectro did a very small practice amp version about 5 yrs back but don't remember any others. All the fenders like the Excelsior still have been flat front Do you think this retro design but with modern technology/speakers there would be a market for such a beast ? Certain alot more guys would be able to put an amp in living quarters that currently SWMBO would usually frown upon