WEM/Watkins Clubman

1956 Watkins Clubman. Valve, what else, bought in 1975 cos I was a skint 14 year old and had to buy cheap equipment. 2 inputs, lead (normal volume) and rhythm (slightly less volume so your mate who hadn't learned to play guitar yet didn't annoy anyone). Volume AND tone.

Actually this made cheap 70's Jap guitar copies with terrible ceramic pickups sound good because it couldn't amplify any frequency above 7 KHz courtesy of cheap electrical design and speakers. Like most old amps. Valve hiss? Every valve amp hisses.

It was 19 years old when I got it. No reflection on the build quality. If you make enough some will survive, but the valves were OK.

I've seen these going for stupid money ??500/$700. It's old, it's basic and Charlie Watkins would be the first to tell you that the only R&D involved in making this budget amp was shaping the cabinet so that it didn't look pre-WWII.

There are many models covered here. Mine is a early 70's model I believe, maybe 72? Valve amp, with two inputs (One negligably higher than the other). A Treble control, Bass control and Volume control. That's it! No idea of the power, but it's louder than a 30watt Solid-State Marshall so that makes it probably 15watts or lower since a general rule of thumb is a solidstate amp requires double the wattage for volume of it's valve equivalent or so I'm told. Still has it's original (YES!) Mullurd valves. 12" Goodmans speaker.
This isn't a modern amp with a million knobs and buttons, this is a simple no frills workhorse, but a very good one. Get's an Eight for the valves alone!

Once it's warmed up it's broad and warm, though maybe a little too bassy for my tastes. I've mainly been playing an Epi Les Paul and an indeterminate Japanese SG from the mid-70's which has a fat singlecoil (Almost a P90) in the neck through it, so it has still to see a high quality guitar to test it to it's fullest.
It produces that classic British sound of the late 60's, the Stones used WEMS as did Pink Floyd and Hendrix. It adores feedback, and will squeal all night long if you give it some, thus it copes with The Stooges/ Velvet Underground superbly. The only problem with this is it ain't no practice amp, it is loud!
This was never the greatest amp even when new, but I doubt I'll get one as good again. The price these days for something to equal this just isn't around for the bedroom muso.

The body is solid as a rock, as are the electronics. Not even crackling pots on this but I don't think it's seen much action. I know I'll have to replace a valve soon enough, they can't last forever, especially at this age, and I play rarely but when I do I thrash it, which is not good for it in the slightest!
Would I gig it? I'd love to! Would I have a back up? Of course. I've never used it for that and it's so old you have to expect it can go at any time. That's part of it's charm, I enjoy it while it lasts.
Going mid range, it's so old and I know so little of how it's been treated over the years, it's too hard to judge.

I'm not sure they exist anymore. I think any warranty that existed is long gone!

I've been playing a handful of years, and don't own quality guitars. Comparing this to a solidstate is like comapring an acoustic guitar to an electric.
I can't bring myself to use stompboxes with it because I love it so dearly, it has something unique to itself and that is it's charm.
Every now and then one pops up on EBay but never with the same speaker (it seems they made them with what they could get their hands on!) and very rarely with the Mullurds. So if this went missing I doubt I'd find another to replace it with.
I will be having it gone over by a good tech to make sure I can put that reliability up to ten someday soon, and I'm considering investing in a powersoak so I can really appreciate it's true value.

Late 60s, solid-state combo. Combined on/tone knob, volume knob and hi/lo inputs, crappy cab and the sweetest ELAC speaker you ever heard! Maybe 4-5w, quite enough for solo practice and neighbor friendly.

I play mostly with a Tele or a P90 equipped Reverend and they both sound great with this practice amp. The circuit is very simple - nothing to get in the way of pure clean Vox like tone that turns into really nice upper midrange snarl when you crank the amp up. I'm giving it 9 - it's not perfect but it's pretty damn close.

Very simple. WEM is long gone but it would be easy to fix. This was made in the UK so I'm playing it through a step-up transformer. I was a little concenred about this but no need - no more hum than you'd expect from a budget practice amp.

WEM is long gone but the Watkins legacy lives on.

OK, I'm biased. I'm a middle aged Brit living in the States and it doesn't make sense to drop thousands on a vintage Vox to play at home. This little amp gives me the sound I want at volumes that I can use. Add a little reverb from my pedal board and a clean boost to knock it into overdrive...mmmm....

For $141 - fantastic value compared to the practice amp options on the market.

made around the 70s ?
Great small amp i think it might even of beena vocal amp i am not too sure , has a great sound now its been cleaned made in england one tone dial one volum dial it gets switched on via the tone dial.
Used through a strat clean it sounds good, its not deafening but has more than enough for at home .

a basic clean amp.is loud and can be quiet gets a bit tinny when turned up at full

plain neglet from my father{there ere cobwebs in it} once cleaned was great.

charlie watkins the maker is old and still runs , but he cant ber expected to reply to the demands.

nicewe amp nothing more nothing less, got a great sound to it i cant figure out what though i like it though.

Very basic features on the little clubman..only 2 controls and a solo and rythm input.One knob for tone and one for volume.Mine has an 8"
speaker of unknown origin fitted. Funny metallic front panel that rattles when you cook it a little.

Sounds great for such a basic little combo and loud too.
Bit noisy sometimes but hey its really old and I found it in a
rubbish skip..so it cost me nowt !

Well it worked as soon as I got it home and plugged it in. I've had it 10 years now and it still rocks..what more can I say..amazing !

Watkins still have a website and I recently connacted them by email..
no reply as yet..only sent it yesterday mind.

Just a great little practise or small venue amp

According to the date stamp inside its made in 1963. Blue and cream two tone "leatherette" finish. Originally had "Solo" and "Rhythm" inputs. It caught fire in 1989 and was eventually repaired- it now sounds even better! Volume and Tone only to give two sounds. Not particularly versatile but...

...using my semi acoustic with P90 pickups and the tone switch on the guitar to muted it will give a Mick Ronson / Marc Bolan sound at 5 watts or whatever minimal power the three valve (one is a rectifier)
out put gives. It is easily the quietest valve amp as far as noise goes that I've used- spooky ! The other sound it can give is undistorted sort of Velvet Underground esque.

Its worked in its repaired state for 10 years without a hitch- changing the valves gives atemporarily extremely "brilliant" sound with seeming extra sensitivity which lasts a couple of days till the valves have run in before settling into its normal deep / middly / distorted sound. Eventually the valves get worn and need replacing again- a slight buzzing appears at this point in the sound.

N/A its nearly 40 years old unless that 1963 stamp isnt really the date of manufacture.

I actually got my brother to make a close duplicate of this amp but for some reason it doesnt sound nearly as good. It would seem to be down to the output transformer and the fact that the wiring wasnt "loomed " like in the original. So maybe there is something in manyfacturers claims about construction and critical components.
I recently tried one of the new transistor revolutionary tiny amps- cant remember what brand- that simulate vave amps and was quite impressed as this was quite close to my Watkins Clubman on the two sounds it can do BUT the new amp WAS definitely noisier with the gain up to get that Ronson / Bolan sound.
I must emphasise that the amp was good to begin with- after the fire the output transformer was replaced along with a couple of resistors and it no longer has the original loudspeaker inside- just cheap Tandy car stereo speaker. The amp now sounds better than it ever did and the volume control seems to behave more like a saturation control for distortion whilst the Tone control adjusts the tone / distortion also since it was rebuilt- but I got him to leave it like that !!!

This is a cute early 70s, all-valve British combo - 15w, 10in speaker. You'll only get it second-hand. It takes one ECCC83 and one EL84 in the power amp. I've just replaced the valves and it sounds great - quite bassy, but with some sweet clean treble. It's a very basic amp - just volume, bass and treble controls and two inputs - it's so kooky: you turn the amp on with the treble control1

I use mainly an Epiphone Nighthawk (LP/Strat hybrid) and a Strat, for clean-ish, jazzy, vintage stuff. I'm no metaller, but you can get great blues drive when the valves are cooking. I also use a EH Big Muff and wah/tre, sixties effects and for this, obviously, the WEM excels. I believe Pink Floyd used WEMs for the Live at Pompeii stuff. That says it all!

Hmm. It's old, so there are a few buzzes and blips now and then. Pretty noise free, though, Turn the gas up and sometimes it complains (but only at the top setting)

Do they still exist? And if so, would they want to know?

Just cute. A great wee valve amp that records nicely. It's cheap and cheerful and a pleasure, purely because it's jso simple, and doesn't try to do anything flash, except sound like a guitar amp!