Holland Westside 35 410 Combo

OK, for the harp players out there who struggle to be heard over those guitar amps on stage, the Westside Andy 4x10 is your solution. There's plenty of power behind the 35 watts and the four speakers will help to effortlessly carry your sound in any room. The stereo reverb is probably the best reverb I've ever heard from any amp. However, the control knob for that is internal but very easy to get at from the back. Once you look in, you'll understand why the control knob is mounted internally (not really an inconvenience). The choice of four separate inputs help you to exactly match the particular harp mic you're using to the amp itself; each input carrying a different amount of gain. Not a crunchy enough sound? - just try another input and you're there. I ordered the amp with black Tolex and grille cloth. I also asked them to mount metal corners. The Tolex is about the thickest and most grainy that I've ever seen. With the black on black and the metal corners, this amp is simply a handsome piece of electronics. You'll find this to be a heavy weight amp (over 50 Lbs.) and I wish I had ordered it with wheels in order to make maving it around a little easier.

With the Westside Andy's four mic inputs, you can go from variations of a clean sounds to distorted ones. I pulled out the pre-amp tubes and changed them to ones with slightly lesser gain and got an even crunchier harp sound out of the amp. This is a versatile amp that likes to be challenged. The sound quality and tone is there and are extremely noticeable for those harp players looking for the Holy Grail. I'm sure there are some customized or reworked old amps out there that would challenge the Westside Andy in sound, but at least you've got a new amp with the old Fender point to point / all tube type technology within and without the all the headaches, time and money involved in with trying to customize or rebuild something old and questionable.

So far so good. The physical quality of the amp is quite obvious. The speakers had smaller magnets than what I had expected but the sound quality is still there. I could have opted for heavier magnet types had I known but don't fix it if it ain't broken is my philosophy. To break it in, I gave it a good drive several times with volume and gain levels up in order to compete with the guitar amps on stage. It came back from my trials with smiles, looking for more.

Honestly, I was somewhat disappointed in the long wait (4 months instead of 2) for this custom harp amp but some of the excuses for the delays did seem believable. I would have been happier if I was told it would take 4 months originally. I posted a review on the amp once before but only for the customer support part. I hadn't received the amp at the time I was promised to get it and couldn't get them to return my calls at the time. You can see how emotional I got when you read what I wrote. Mike Holland eventually contacted me and was extremely appologetic for the delays but the fact remains that for whatever difficulties there may have been, I should have been contacted by Holland Amps at some point and updated as to delivery status. Would I buy another amp from Holland even if I knew it was going to take 4 months? Yes!

Overall, I would rate the amp very high. A feature I would like to see is some kind of set up where you could quickly switch the amp from 4 speaker output to two speaker output. If I had to, I would purchase another Holland Amp. Also, the Holland name tag on the amp is just a little too big for my purposes. It's OK for a manufacturer to take pride in what he's built and he has every right to advertise his name on the amp. I just felt that the size of the name tag seemed a little to big or maybe just a little too pushy.

OK Folks, here's the bad news about Holland Amps. Ya, they probably do have a good product but how long did you want to get jerked around by them before you get it delivered? Holland ran and still has their October/November/December special on their website. "Order in October and have it by Christmas", it says. I ordered the Westside 35 410 in October and was called by them a few days before Christmas. After the two and a half month wait they called me and said, "hey, we're ready to ship your amp can you send us the half balance you owe". This was the deal, half up front and half when it's ready to ship. Well, here it is a month after it was supposed to ship and still no amp. I made dozens of calls and e-mails to thier production manager Chris Enderly as well as owner Mike Holland. Guess what friends? You guessed it! They're gonna take your money and run. No return calls and no return e-mails. You never get a live person on the phone there. I begged them to call or at least e-mail me with the status on delivery. Absolutely no replies. Now they've got all my hard earned cash and I'm out without an amp. I've threatened to file charges against them if they won't ship the amp or return my money. Good luck ya'll.

First of all, this beast is not that much heavier than it's smaller, little brother. The 2x10 version weighs in at around 45 lbs., and the 4x10 Westside 35 is just over 52 lbs. Mine came with a really sturdy, textured, matte-charcoal tolex (much nicer and more durable than the thin, shiny, black tolex covering you find on old Fenders). The grill is a beautiful heavy-weave, wheat-colored material that looks & feels like it'll last forever. An absolutely gorgeous combo. My amp was shipped with a new, hefty, black leather-like amp cover with side pockets. I feel confident that my investment is well protected.
For starters, the Westside is equipped with four custom AlNiCo blue frame speakers made especially for Holland Amps by Eminence. I have tried Celestions, Weber VSTs, vintage Jensens, and Fane ceramics, and the Holland/Eminence really impress me as being the perfect harp amp speaker. Right out of the box, they sounded fabulous. After a few days of breaking them in, they warmed up even more.

What can I say? This is one jaw-dropping, incredible harmonica amplifier. This isn't a guitar amp modified for harp, but a true boutique harp amp that's been through many years of research & development by one of the foremost amplifier builders in the business. The 4x10 Westside 35 is all you could possibly hope for when it comes to serious tone. A couple of years ago, I found the Holy Grail in the 2x10 version of this amp. The 4x10 model definitely takes everything up a few notches. I've heard the Harp King and other boutique, 4x10 Bassman clones, and nothing compares to this amp. Another thing to note is this amp comes with a very reasonable price tag, direct from the manufacturer (mike@hollandamps.com), at $1500, compared to the Harp King (and other boutique harp amps) at $2000-plus.

What really impresses me most about this amp, that even at 35 watts with 4x10's, I can get impressive tone and breakup even at LOWER volumes. The amp comes with four inputs; two each for separate Normal and Bright channels. A fellow pro, Alec Drachman, suggested bridging the two channels with a patch cord. Long story short, I found that my ideal tone, using my trusty chrome Astatic JT30 with volume control, was achieved by plugging the mic into the Bright 1 input, and bridging Normal 2 to Bright 2. At home, for practice, I was able to get great tone AND breakup with the Bright channel turned up just past 1 and the bridged Normal channel just a tad lower.

My first weekend using this amp onstage, I was able to get all the stage volume, breakup and tone I wanted with both volumes below 3. When I needed to push the harp to be heard through the rest of the band's volume, that was no problem at all. Even in the relatively small room I performed in, I was able to push the volume(s) as far as I needed to without any significant feedback problems. That's been one of Mike Holland's missions through the years of developing these fine harp amp models -- to minimize the feedback issues without sacrificing tone and volume. I have to say he's done a fine job achieving this.

The Westside 35 also comes with Treble, Mids, Bass and Presence controls, an on/off power toggle and a Standby on/off toggle. All controls go to 12. I play with the Treble between 3 & 4, but liven up the overall EQ of the amp by bringing the Presence up to around 5 or 6. I have the bass up to around 8, and the mids at about 6. The vintage-style chicken-head control knobs are mounted on the top of the amp (like a vintage Bassman) so they are convenient to reach.

This amp is less than two weeks old. However, I've owned 2 other Holland harp amp models and never had any trouble whatsover. With a LIFETIME WARRANTY, I do not foresee any problems. I don't feel the need to gig with a backup amp.

Since moving from Virinia Beach to Nashville, Holland's customer service has come a long way, due in large part to his Procuremnt & Production Manager, Chris Enderly. He's always quick to get back to you if you need to talk "shop," and he minimizes the turnaroud time on an amp by staying on top of things. I received my amp less than a month after placing the order with Chris. As previously stated the Warranty on ALL Holland amps is LIFETIME.

The Holland 4x10 model Westside 35 does everything you'd expect from a great, boutique harp amp, and is extremely well-made. The 4x10 has superb tone at a variety of volume settings. I am one picky harp player, and I've tried a slew of different amps over the years: vintage, new retail, and custom-made boutique models. I have played everything from genuine vintage '50's Bassmans to other expensive amps custom voiced for harp, and for my money nothing touches the Westside 35.