What's the verdict on Winfield Thomas amps?

[klasher]

I'm looking to ask him to build me a low-wattage 59 Bassman style head, and I was curious if anybody out there had experience with his stuff.
Karl

[geddyleedog]

I've only seen posts of other people that have them. A fairly common thread is that they sound awesome. However, the reason they are relatively inexpensive is because the parts used to build the amps are also cheap. Again, I have absolutely no experience with these amps but I've seen other posts from people who do own them.

[Ringo]

I posted a reply on the Weber BB's, but again I had WT build me a 30 watt version of the November amp ( basically a Plexi type circuit but with el84's)
It had a great bluesy and R&R tone, but not a lot of clean headroom, which I need for the type of music that I play with this band.
I should have kept it and used a Fender for the clean tones but I sold it

As far as the "inexpensive parts" comment, yes he does use off the shelf parts but the sum of them assembled is what counts, the amps sound great and the build quality is very good, hand made one at a time, point to point.
IMHO you don'thave to use expensive parts to have a good sounding amp!
Also Winnie is a small operation so he doesn't have the overhead that some of the "boutique" builders have, and I get the feeling from talking to him that he does it more as a labor of love, in other words he's not making a living doing it, but enjoys building amps.

[WrapAround]

... to get more headroom. i have switched my preamp tubes around in my Winnie November to help my Fender guitars sound more consistant with P90 equipped guitars with minimal twists of a couple of knobs. i have come to a conclusion that the stock Sovtek he puts in there sound pretty darn good after trying a set of Mullards, black plate Sylvanias and some other old productin tubes. so, obviously, i just have a set of Sovtek in there.

my current main amp is his November and i have also played his Elizabeth (2x6L6GC) and thought it was a fine sounding amp. if you are looking for more headroom, that would the one to get. he's got a quite a bit of PV going through there, though.

as i mentioned in my WeberVST post i have only heard that one guy over at PRS Forum who just had a terrible time with his Winnie amp. so i'm incline to say that it's an exception.

i completely agree with Ringo regarding parts. the sum of assembled parts is what counts for sure.

[marshallmelloman]

I have his November 2+2 and have been using it for 10 mo. now. I love it and people are always asking me at gigs "what the hell is that amp? It sounds great!". I am no amp tech so I can't comment on one specific part or another, but I can say that I also have in my possession a Fender Tonemaster, a 79' 50 watt plexi Marshall head converted to hand wired jtm 45 circuit built into a bluesbreaker cab with Weber Blue dog alnico 12's, a 69 super reverb, a 67 bassman and other assorted good amps and this Winfeild Thomas amp has been the one at the last nearly 175 gigs that I have done. It has sounded great at every one and never given me one ounce of trouble. It is light. It looks great. Mine is the actaul one pictured on his site. The half power option is great for not getting yelled at (still pretty loud tho). I had trouble with the clean headroom aspect that Ringo mentioned at first but rectified that with the right speaker combination. As long as this thing keeps sounding great and holding up week after week I will keep sounding the horn for Winnie. I think that will be a long time. Winnie also modified my 67 bassman to tweed type circuit and that is great too but with the opposite headroom problem--TOO LOUD.

[tjalla]

I've had my 40w Elizabeth BFSR-type amp for over a year now, and it still is my No.1 amp. Pure, no frills and great tone.

Will echo previous comments regarding great build quality, sturdy (the amp has taken a few knocks) and good customer service at a very reasonable price.

Satisfied customer here...

Cheers,
Trevor

[John E]

It was exactly what I was looking for at the time I bought it... A very portable(it's a 1x12 that only weighs 28 lbs), loud, Tone monster that I could very easily port in and out of the clubs we play... especially for Manhattan gigs where parking is ridiculous and sometimes you have to walk 30 blocks to get to your gig... not to mention that they want you broken down and off the stage in 3 minutes flat.

Now it is really my number one gigging amp. I like my live tone clean with hair, all generated by amp and guitar... and very interactive with the vol knob... with the Single coil tele's I love that is almost an impossibility for me with anything over 25 watts w/o an attenuator. It's loud enough unmiked for 90% of the gigs I do, and the other 10% it's easy enough to mike.
As for quality of components, I have no idea... my amp has held up pretty well... I will assume the class of parts is on par with any guy who builds the amps out of his home... that's OK with me as it allows me a ptp custom hand built amp that I can actually afford and not stress about gigging every week... it's a true "working man's amp." And I can tell you that Winnie has been a joy for me to work with.

[Guy from Idaho]

I dig my November 18/30 greatly. Winnie's a truly fine person to deal with too. -Guy