Watkins Dominator cabinet build Ever seen these?

[amplifiednation]

I'm definitely going to build more of these. Its hanging out in my living room and it is just too cool. The shape is so wild.

Thanks Tom, there are seams down the front angles! I planned out the tolex for a few days. I need to find a pair of celestion blues and then see how crazy I can get with the covering. I don't really like doing the beading, but its worth it once its done.

[Structo]

Cool Taylor!

I like your guys thinking of using two different sized speakers.
Should cover the range well.

I haven't had much luck finding a 10 inch speaker that works well for me.

Or even one with 2x12 would be very cool.

I imagine this cab and amp would work well on stage because of the disbursment of the audio.

Or you could turn it any way you want to avoid beaminess.

[amplifiednation]

Cool Taylor!

I like your guys thinking of using two different sized speakers.
Should cover the range well.

I haven't had much luck finding a 10 inch speaker that works well for me.

Or even one with 2x12 would be very cool.

I imagine this cab and amp would work well on stage because of the disbursment of the audio.

Or you could turn it any way you want to avoid beaminess.

We were thinking about putting tilt back legs on it!! I'm not sure if it even needs them though.

So is there magic to the Dominator? From my research it seemed as though Watkins made these to sell to the masses, that anyone could afford one...but big name bands like Pink Floyd had them on stage....was it just for show??

They weren't mic'ing amps back then, correct? So how did a 17 watt amp make it on stage? Let me guess...because it was shaped like a triangle???

[Richie]

The Watkins amp, as was posted, the amp that Marshall used to borrow the circuit to build the 18watt marshalls. Kind of like them borrowing the fender bassman. The Marshall 18 had a few changes,mostly in the trem. Which really seems to work better than the marshall trem,or maybe not better sounding,but with just less problems.
If you look at the old watkins amp the grillcloth,and matching amp covering is the same thing Marshall used in many early amps. You might also find that same cloth and covering on early record players and other equipment.

Like some of the old stuff, its been listed as wall covering, to fly screen fly cloth,among others. The watkins dominator had been around for quite a few years before Marshall borrowed it. Probably the V front was like fenders V front suoer, or Gibsons V amp. I thinks its a very cool looking amp. It was or has been reproduced. Don't know if they still do them.
some info here.
Also notice in the reissue pics, the difference between the PI being in V3 compared to the Marshall being in V2.

http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/britamps ... dom22.html

also look at this, it has some bare cabs before covering of the reissue amp.
http://www.amp-fix.com/Watkins%20Domina ... eissue.htm

[Structo]

Wow!

That is cool!

I didn't make the connection between Watkins and WEM.

Thanks, Rich

[Structo]

Hey Taylor, this page has a lot of neat stuff on it.

http://www.amp-fix.com/Watkins%20Domina ... eissue.htm

[rp]

http://www.amp-fix.com/Watkins%20Domina ... eissue.htm

I hate reissues but this is very nice, thanks for the heads up, might try my own one day. I was very surprised to see the Elacs, I once had a 1962 AC10 with the orig Elacs and it was incredibly good and the speakers no small part. Most reissue speakers don't measure up so I wonder, but it's still good to see the effort being made. I noticed the limited ventilation and small opening in back. Is this a tuned rear port sort of cab?

[Phil]

HI Folks, I just found Amp Garage and love the Watkins thread.
I wanted to reply to this post in particular, asking about the allure of the V-front Watkins:

"So is there magic to the Dominator? From my research it seemed as though Watkins made these to sell to the masses, that anyone could afford one...but big name bands like Pink Floyd had them on stage....was it just for show??

They weren't mic'ing amps back then, correct? So how did a 17 watt amp make it on stage? Let me guess...because it was shaped like a triangle???"

Well, I never heard of them going onstage much, as amp mic'ing wasn't really going on much then. Besides, in an emerging era of huge backwalls, they were considered extremely uncool onstage.
Although Floyd were huge Watkins fans ( See the back cover pic on Ummagumma), so anything is possible.

They were ubiquitous in all the major studios though: Page, Clapton, Beck, Green, Gilmour, Mayall, Towser, they all used them. They were very versatile amps, and loved pedals. They also break up very sweetly.

The basic Clapton/Mayall Bluesbreaker sound is an SG wired straight to a watkins. There's your magic


I still have my '61-62 Dom; I got it about age 15 and didn't appreciate its subtleties, plus, onstage it had all the visual impact of an 18" high Stonehenge monument.
I wanted a Marshall double stack, so as soon as I got a bigger amp the Watkins went up into my parents' attic, until I remembered it in 2004!

It now has some updated components, vintage tubes, and a Tone-Bone Power Supply. Still sounds great!
Phil

[CW]

Ok..here's the scoop on the amp: Taylor is building this beautiful cab for me.
Circuit is basically a Dr. Z Route 66 from lots of NOS parts laying around. I heard these were very nice sounding and simple circuits. '58 OPT will push NOS GE 6L6GB blackplates. PT is new Weber made. NOS Amperex EF86 for the front end. (This was the basic driver for the build...lots of these tubes sitting here and nothing to use them in). I figure about 25 watts or so. Chassis is Weber stainless steel they had on clearance for way too cheap to pass up. Recto will be NOS Mullard GZ34. I do sell NOS tubes, but this is NOT a plug for that..it's info about the amp. That handle came of my departed brothers old mahogany fishing pole box he got in '63 or so...real beefy...so had to use!

Anyway, the lower speakers are from an extra set of '76 CTS AlNiCo's from a Fender Super Reverb. Upper 8's will be a pair of Jensen C8R's or P8R's...whatever I decide at the time.

Taylor has become a friend and has done a spectacular job putting this custom job together and anticipating my wishes. A true Professional in every sense of the word! I'm sure we'll be doing some other "different" projects in the near future.
Thanks TC!!!

[amplifiednation]

Thanks CW! It was a good learning experience building this cabinet! I am just a few hours of work away from shipping it out to Montana, then I'm starting on my own Dominator!!

[amplifiednation]

Wow!! These things are no joke!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1963-WATKINS-DO ... 716wt_1172

[crbowman]

Charlie Watkins was (is?) quite a character.
He has a major place in the history of British rock music. We just never seem to hear much about him because his products, although very popular and well respected in Europe, just never caught on here in the US.
He certainly deserves to be mentioned in the same conversation with Tom Jennings and Jim Marshall.

http://www.wemwatkins.co.uk/history.htm

[CW]

Well, it's all finished and running like a monster!
The tube set-up is a pair of old orig TungSol 5881, NOS Sylvania GZ34, RCA long black-plate 12AX7 and a NOS Amperex EF86.
Holy crap!!! This is the quietest amp I own now. I copied the old Allen Organ Co. grounding scheme by running a brass tube across the chassis and all grounds except power tubes, were attached by clips I pulled from that '55 Allen Organ I was given. The board is loaded with NOS Sprague Vitamin Q caps and 50's IRC CarboFilm precision resistors.
The tone controls (circuit based on Dr. Z Route 66) are very interactive with the Vol pot....very much like an old Rickenbaker M88 I own.
It's clean and punchy at low vol and has brutal (but very nice) distortion when cranked with the Treble pot....especially with the Lollar P90's in that Collings 290 in the pic. Yikes !!
I must say...this project came off real well...and thanks to Taylor it's a beautiful amp to both look at and play.
I took it down to the local music store on Thur where at 5 p.m. everyday a bunch of guys come down and goof with all the guitars and amps...EVERYONE was extremely impressed! Those who played it loved the tone. Looks like a winner was done here! Yea!!!
Now onto next project with Taylor's help hopefully....Tweed Bassman 5F6-A circuit with a 1 x15" + 2 x 10" speaker config.
Building amps is so much better than buying them. I won't ever buy an amp again!
Thanks again Taylor!
V/r
CW
Montana

[amplifiednation]

Thanks CW!! Man I need one for myself now!! Thanks for the report and I'm so happy the build worked out so well!!

By the way if anyone is looking for NOS tubes, CW has the goods!

Thx,
Taylor

[cbass]

Don't have any sustanace to add to the thread.But thta is a badass lookin amp.