WEM/Watkins ER100 Head

I've got a vintage ER100 from the late sixties although I don't know in which specific year it was made. It's in pretty good state and has been sleeping in an attic for 30 years!!!

That's really one exceptional amp. It looks aggressive, with its chromed facade, its red letterings and basic control knobs.
There are 2 channels with both 3 knobs each (Volume, Bass, Treble) and a switch called "treble boost" is placed under each channel's inputs (there are 2 inputs -Hi and Low- for each channel as well).
I've only got the amp since yesterday so I think one of the channels is "Normal" while the other one is "brilliant".

Something to consider:

THIS IS NOT A TUBE AMP although it was made in the 60s.
It was just one of the first solid state amps at the time. But please bear in mind that the transistors inside are Germanium-made (instead of silicon for those of nowadays) and really sound "Vintage like", you cannot compare this amp with modern days solid state ones.

But it's loud, very loud... In fact when I play it with the volume knob at 10 (full), the glass in the windows starts to shake dangerously!

Another thing to consider:

THERE IS NO MASTER VOLUME. So, like on old Marshalls, you need to push up the volume to make it crunch and then get a great fuzz/overdriven tone.

I give this amp a 7 in the features section because although it has a
killer sound, there's no knob for Mids, no master volume and no reverb.

I plug it in its original WEM Starfinder 4X12 speaker cabinet which is in quite a good state as well.

You can plug whatever guitar in this amp, It will sound incredible.
That's really the sign of a grand amplifier if you want my opinion.

At the shop where I bought it, I tried it with a shit guitar (the cheapest Squier strat you can find) that had shit pickups as well and the sound produced was really impressive. "BALLSY" is the adjective that corresponds the best.

In my band I use it with a Gibson Les Paul Junior Special with P90 pickups and the sound is hard to describe given the fact it's really unique.
It has its own personality, very ballsy as I said before, with a lot of bass frequencies, some nice presence and a DIVINE distortion tone when you push the amp to its limits.
The distortion is natural, it doesn't sound like being solid state operated, it's warm and could be -somewhat- compared to a RAT distortion.

However, while this amp is incredible for overdriven tones and distorted ones, It's only average for clean ones. They sound OK, but that's where you clearly see a difference with a tube amp. It's less dynamic.

I play mostly garage and Indie rock and this amps suits my needs perfectly. I think its original tone is pure magic... I don't think I'll ever use it with any distortion pedal.

I give it a 9.

I cannot say much in this section, having bought the amp yesterday. But speaking about the impression it gives to me, I think it's built to last forever.

I don't Know if Watkins/WEM still exists as a company.. I heard its
founding member still operates in his garage building Copicats (Tape echoes)..

I own 2 amplifiers, this one and a Marshall Bluesbreaker combo reissue. They're a perfect match together.

I LOVE the WEM amp, If it was destroyed or stolen I would very hardly try to find another one. I just wish the EQ section on it would be more complete, but with a basic EQ pedal there aren't any problems.