WEM/Watkins Dominator MKIII 112 Combo

early 70s I think.
Perfect for my lower volume blues and older rock stuff.
2 channels but the second channel doesn't work -I dont need it anyway.
It would have been nice to have reverb but that was never going to happen. I've got a basic outboard reverb unit and a couple of pedals which gives me all the sounds I could possibly need.
17 watts is fine for me. I have to mic it up for bigger venues but this is ok.
My amp is the same valve arrangement as previous reviewers but the 12" speaker is the old horseshoe magnet type -all black with no makers name on it. This gives a very clean and bright sound which is very useful. I have toyed with putting in a celestion greenback to get a more gritty sound but the sound of this old speaker is so so clean at low volumes that I'm having too much fun at the moment to try the celestion.

I got this free, but not working, with another valve combo that I purchased. I stopped playing through the other combo now that the WEM is working and use the WEM all the time. It is my main amp for practise and gigging. The amp tech charged me ??45 to get it working.
I use 2 guitars - a big bodied jazz guitar like and Epiphone regent and also a telecaster with a humbucker at the neck. Outboard digital reverb and 2 Danelectro pedals (tremolo and distortion).
The amp is so clean that all the effects sound really good through it. the reverb is long a shimmering, the tremolo gives that nice wobbly feel and the distortion has got that slight roaring motorbike feel to it.
I now realise (after way too many years playing guitar to want to admit this) but the trick in getting a good guitar sound is to have a quality amp that can produce a nice clean sound so that your effects can then get a chance to do what they were designed to do.
I had another Dominator 3 years ago but stupidly had to sell it because the band I was in was too loud and it was drowned out. This one had the Goodmans speaker which also sounded really nice.
I also remember 'looking after' a dominator back in the 1970s for a friend of mine and falling in love with it back then. My respect for this amp has been on the go for over 30 years.
With the volume passed the half way mark the natural distortion of the amp starts to come through. When I was younger this used to give me hours of playing pleasure -not so interested now.

was broken when I got it, but it was free so cant complain. Cost ??45 to get it working 6 months ago -never let me down since.

dream on

Made between 1970 - 72, I think. Mine's been pretty heavily used and has had newer valves put in before I got it. Has two channels, each with volume, low and high tone controls and a treble boost. Amazingly simple and sounds FANTASTIC. There's no headphone jack, no line out, no effects loops. It just sounds fantastic with Celestion speaker and mullard valves. It's only 17Watts but it is INSANELY loud. You could use this on stage anywhere. The louder you turn it up, the more distorted it becomes. At 9 it's the rawest most beautiful distortion you'll find anywhere...but even the deafest person would find it painful in a small room.
The tone controls cover a range of sounds...you can play blues, rock, grunge, whatever you want on this if you fiddle with it beforehand. w00t.

O. I was talking about sound before. Yes, and the distortion is very brutal. Brutal and british are two sounds to describe it. At about 4 or 5 volume it's the same sort of sound you'll hear on earlier The Who albums or in Syd Barrett Pink Floyd.
w00t.

It hasn't broken down on me yet, but I haven't had it long and I haven't gigged with it yet. It wouldn't expect it to break down any time soon, but I suppose I'll need to put new valves in before too long and sometimes it fuzzes when I adjust the tone and volume controls.

Apparently very good, although I'd never get Charlie Watkins to fix it. I'd take great pleasure in taking it to bits and working it back to life - as should all musicians.
10 - Incredibly kind and helpful (apparently)
w00t

If it was stolen or lost I would buy 2 as compensation. After weeping non stop for a year and a day. These things are relatively hard to find, unless you look on eBay where they crop up once every couple of months. It wouldn't be the same - my friend has one and his sounds completely different even though they are exactly the same amp. Mine's better, though, obviously.
w00t

This is a vintage, all-valve 1x12 combo made in the UK in around 1972. Mine's the front-panelled Mark III Dominator, as opposed to the top-panelled Mark II. Bought recently, it's still got the original 3 Mullard ACC83 valves in the preamp, with two EL34s in the power amp.

Two inputs, two channels. Both have independent Volume, Treble and Bass control and the first has a treble boost, which we'll come to later. No speaker jack, no headphone out, no effects loop, no channel switching. This is vintage gear at its simplest.

Original Goodmans Speaker, running at 16 Ohms, because this predates the time when WEM converted to Celestions.

Pumps out about 17 watts of pure, English valve tone. So it's loud. Very loud.

I use this with a modded Ibanez SA series guitar, with two SCs and a bridge humbucker. I use a stereo chorus pedal (Marshall supervibe) to split the signal, and route it to my WEM and a Traynor YCV40. Generally I use the amps independently, though.

I play in a straight-up Christian Rock band. The sound's that of a 70's British Rock band, and this amp sits beautifully in that.

There's not a lot of gain here, and the amp has to be pushed hard before the sound truly breaks up. Saying that, though, it sounds sweet at low gain, with a highly compressed, slightly furry sound that still retains all its warmth. It responds to nuances of playing to a huge degree - I've had to refine my plectrum work for this baby. Rolling up the volume (no gain control, of course) the edges of the sound start to crack up, but it retains a tight bass response, a nice sparkly top end and an awesome middle-range punch.

There's no noise at all, and I'm always amazed how quickly the valves reach a decent temperature for driving rock. I use one channel on about volume three, the other on about five, and footswitch between the two inputs with a Boss AB-2. With that setup, the amps silent when not in use (almost alarmingly so) but has an incredible punch even on the quieter channel.

The only down sides are the lack of versatility - this amp is only good for a couple of sounds: those thumping British rock crunches and punchy clean tones - and the fact that to get a decent crunch on, the amp's got to be driven hard. Unfortunately, this means loud. For a 17 watter, that means very loud.

Rating takes into account lack of versatility.

I gig with two amps, so I don't need a backup. Since it's all original, I'm kind of waiting for the first thing to go wrong. Those valves are over three decades old, after all.

However, it's not let me down yet. Seems sturdily built, too.

Rating takes into account the inevitable perils of age.

I've never dealt with WEM, but I hear the man himself is still taking emails.

I'm guessing my warranty's expired, though.

I've owned a couple of old transistor amps, a very modern transistor amp and played through a Fender Deluxe, a Marshall AVT 275 and a Line6 Flextone III before I settled on this and my Traynor for my stereo stage rig. This has usurped the Traynor in terms of tone, but lacks the sheer versatility of the Traynor, as well as suffering from a lack of drive at low volumes.

Still, this is definitely the best amp I've played through, and in my opinion knocks spots of anything on today's market.

I'd only replace this with an all original Vox AC30 from the early 60s, but for the difference in price, I think I'll keep my WEM.

It gets a 10, because it does what it does better than anything else.

these ams were produced in the early 70's. I don't think any were made after '73. This is a fairly basic all tube (solid state rectification) guitar amp. The tube line up is; 3x ECC83, 2xEL84. This one has sat in a cupboard pretty much since new, so still has the original mullards. There are 2 channels, each with controls for volume, treble and bass. There is also a treble boost switch. No standby switch. unfortunately, as it's diode rectification it could have done with one. No effects loops, headphone jacks, lineouts or anything, just two channels , treble boost, on/off and a 12" speaker. The only other feature i wish it had is a standby switch. Otherwise, I didn't really expect anything else. The pair of EL84's push out approximately 18 watts. for such a small amp it's almost indecently loud. I use this amp in my room and with friends. Occasionally I gig with it. I've yet to run it through a 4x12 but if i did i know it would sound amazing. the cabinet/baffle are all solid birch ply. very tough and solid feeling.

After I replaced the filter caps (they were so dried out they rattle when you shake them!) and a few coupling caps, i powered it up with an old variac and it just roared back to life. it sounds pretty amazing. it's particularly sensitive to pick attack and playing dynamics. with the volume at 3 on the clean channel it will start to overdrive depanding on how hard you hit the strings. after the new caps, it's actually remarkably quiet. the clean sounds are lovely. classic EL84 - chimy, with sparkle. the distortin on channel two isn't as similar to a vox ac30 as i was expecting. it's more edgy than creamy. guitars really sing with their true voice through this amp. my teles go "sprang" and "twang", and distort with thick raunchy tones. the amp can really bring out that crisp telecaster bridge single coil "sting" too. overall, very pleased. it responds to effects well, especially "clean" effects. electro harmonix boxes like the "small stone" and "small clone" sound especially wonderful through the clean channel with the treble boost on. my boss DM-2 sounds divine. the big muff through channel two just sounds mental. a touch more clean headroom wouldn't have gone amiss though. i tend to play quite hard, as a result the amp starts to distort quite early. i've yet to try an humbucker equipped guitar through it.

the preamp circuit (and tubes) are built onto a very primitive, very heavy duty circuit board. it's not a pcb, but a thick, epoxied circuit board with thick, wide tracks and the components installed by hand. it seems every bit as solid as point to point/tag board construction. the output tubes are mounted directly onto the aluminium chassis. it runs pretty hot, but i've never had any problems, and the thing just feels so over engineered, that i don't forsee any. i gig without a backup because i can't afford to buy two of everything. guess i'm no pro, eh? the construcion is very good quality - heavy birch ply throughout.

charlie watkins is still alive and kicking around in london. his email address is at the wem website. i've never had any cause to contact him. actually i might, just out of curiosity. this amp is well out of warranty, and it's pretty simple, so i do all the repairs myself.

i've been playing over 9 years. i own a couple of teles, a vox AC30TBX, and a smorgasboard of good, simple, analogue, pedals. the only other thing i really want is a 70's fender twin, or if i get very rich very quickly, one of the new hand wired AC30'S. i think these amps are a real hidden gem at the moment. they don't seem to command anything like the prices of their equvalents (in terms of popularity, WEM traditionally trailed a poor third in the U.K. after VOX and selmer). if you want to know what they look like watch the video for (i think it's) either "cigarrettes and alcohol" or "live forever" by oasis (i'm not much of a fan) - Noel Gallagher is using one. if it were stolen or lost, i'd be pretty pissed off. it's in uniquely good condition, i wouldn't find another like it. i love the WEM for it's sound, it's simple circuitry and it's brick shithouse construction. the diamond fret grill cloth and drainpipe edging on the baffle are very 70's, but it's cool in it's own little way. i think the amp it compares closest to would be a vox AC15.