Winfield Thomas Amps Cyclone

I gave it a 7 because of simplicity of controls - Cut, Master, Tone, Gain - work great!

Currently using a Custom Jason Hildebrand LP Jr body style w/ maple top/mahogany, has 3 Lollar pups (H/S/S wired w/ 5 pos. strat style switch)& a '79 Gibson Les Paul K.M.. Love the sound of the amp! - based on a Vox AC15 w/ 2 - EL84's. Have played club & even outdoor gigs (mic'd) - plenty of stage volume for this 50+ yr old player. Don't recommend this for metal, etc.. Have owned Dr. Z's, vintage Fenders, Marshalls, etc. (am selling one of my blackface amps & purchasing one of his Winfield 18/30 heads for versatality), like this amp as much, or more, than those for a club amp - have been getting noticeably more tone compliments, from fellow musicians and onlookers, since playing out with this rig.

This seems extremely well built, don't anticipate any problems - but I always carry a backup head!

Could not have a more knowledgable and friendly builder to deal with!

Having been for 35+ years, have played and owned all kinds gear over the years. If stolen, etc. I would definitely replace. Very reasonably priced for quality - you'll pay more elsewhere, for something comparable or not as good - my only concern about sharing this, is that he'll get very popular & I'll have to wait in a long line for my next amp request!! - That's OK - I wish him the best of luck, he deserves it!!

I just purchased a 2nd cyclone. I have the first one ever made which was built in feb 2006 for me after much begging. Lol. I just purchased another one and got it last week. The original one is without the ef86 tube ( 2 12ax7's instead) and the new one has it. Both of these amps sound absolutely wonderful and different enough to justify keeping both of them. Single channel. 15 loud watts. class ab. no verb or effect loop. plain and simple. Volume,tone,master,cut. I use only NOS tubes(telefunken 12ax7 and ef 86. Siemens el84's. Mullard 5ar4 rectifier.

I play a 1995 g&l asat tele and a 1996 american stratocaster with fralin blues pickups. I don't use extra distortion but I do have a keeley fuzz which is nice but rarely ever sees the light of day with these amps. My rig is a strobo tuner, fulltone deja vibe, and a delay which i use for slapbacks once in a while. Monster cables and a custom 4 10" electro harmonix cab loaded with vintage celestion 30's and an ear candy 1 12" cab the also has a celestion vintage 30 watt speaker. As far as the amps, they are as simple and chock full of tone as any amp I have ever heard on record,owned,or otherwise. I really loved Audley Freed from Cry of Love and The Black Crowes records sound. That is what i based my sound around to start with. The distortion levels are plenty when pushed hard and sustain enough to solo without a boost. In my original cyclone i use nos tung sol 12ay7's in instead of the12ax7's. Love the clean headroom and I think the amp sounds better and richer with these tubes. My new cyclone has a pull switch to bypass the master volume and that is a really great feature. Just crank it up and use the guitar volume to control everything. The ef86 and 12 ax7 are an amazing tube combo and chime is what it is all about. I will never buy anything at this point except another winfield period. If I could give these amps a 100 rating I would. But i guess 10's all around will have to do.

Winnie backs his stuff. I had a bad tranny in my original cyclone. He replaced both of them actually in that amp. the amp is as good as ever.

He'll talk to you on the phone as much as you need to go over stuff. Great guy all around.

I have owned pretty much everything like the rest of us. The only other amp that I really liked as much as these amps was my fender vibro king which is a $2000.00 custom shop amp. For the prices of Winnie's amps you can't go wrong. His amps are in the same realm as matchless and amps on that level. the vibro king was a tweedy type of thang and I'm more in the Voxy mode now. Winnie makes Tweedy amps too. my buddy has an Elizabeth (another Winfield model) and it's amazing of course too.

I had an opportunity to put one of Winfield's new(ish) Cyclone models through its paces recently. I'm a big fan of Winfield's "Winfield" model 18 watt heads, they're like a mini-Bluesbreaker on a budget.

The Cyclone is AC-15 (ish) with a lot more flexibility. It has one channel with two volumes and two tone controls, all interactive and all different in function. Volume controls are normal preamp volume and a Matchless style master volume, there's a simple but effective single tone control and a functionally different "cut" control. Due to the interaction of the controls there are infinite subtle tonal variations available.

Tube lineup is an EF86 preamp, a 12AX7 and two EL84s. The key to this amp is the EF86, the amp has a large warm clean tone with just a hint of grit if you really dig in. It's not a distortion amp. A/B'ed with an 18 watt Winfield the girth of the clean tones are apparent. A Cyclone for the clean side and a Winfield for distorted tones might be a perfect pair.

The amp is tiny and very light, unusual for an all-tube amp.

One slight snivel: EF86 tubes tend to be microphonic, it takes some searching to find a good one. The tone is worth it.

I play a vintage Tele with a stringwound flatpole pickup. I was able to instantly dial in Tele tone with twang and authority. I also use a repro Les Paul Jr. with a hot humbucker, the Cyclone yields definition on the pick attack that might sound harsh with a 12AX7 based preamp. The EF86 sounds thick, smooth and musical. It has a large complex midrange that makes 12AX7s sound thin by comparison.

It's a simple amp built with quality parts. There's not much there to break and if I can figure out how to break it I expect it will be easy to fix.

Winfield stands by his amps. I'm the third owner of my Winfield 18 watt, Winfield has always made himself available to answer technical questions.

If I can get a great tone from an amp then that's what I came for. The Cyclone has a fantastic clean tone and that's what I came for.

All of Winnie's Amps are somewhat based in the vintage world of amps so there's not a lot of extra crap to bog it down. The Cyclone is based on an AC15 Circuit. The control layout is Master Volume, Volume, Tone, and Cut. If you???re a pedal pusher you really don't need anything else. You can also dime this and just roll back on your guitar's volume control to clean it up. Great for some old school Rock tones. The 15 Watt power section is 2 EL84???s, 1-12AX7, and an 1-EF86 for those Sweet Voxy Tones. 8ohm Speaker outs, has an on switch & Standby with a Detachable AC cable. This baby is tiny at about 12 LBS. and 17 3/4" W x 6 1/2 D x 9 1/2 H. don???t let it???s size fool you because this amp packs a wallop.

Well let me say, my buddy has a Dr. Z Stingray and this sounds extremely close. The Clean tones with a tele are excellent and it takes pedals very well. Dead quiet at even high volumes. It's a different flavor for sure. I'd say it's a little warmer than your usual EL84 based amp and I???d say it's the EF86 front end that's the culprit. I can see myself doing a lot of recording with this amp as the high end is just sweet and not harsh. Excellent tone!

It's a little soon to tell in this category but the build quality is off the map. Tubes go bad and anything electrical can break down at times but I feel this will hang it there for the long haul.

Winnie will always find time to talk or email with you. He'll offer his opinion on what he thinks his different amps sound like and what they will or will not do but he's also interested in what you???re looking for in an amplifier. Very quick replies and very thorough in his answer???s

Well I've owned some great amps in my day and paid 3 times more for them. I don't really regret any of them because they led me to Winfield Amps. Winnie believes in using good components to make his amps but doesn't buy into a lot of hype that you can read over & over again on these pages. He makes no nonsense great sounding amps and I'm glad I was turned onto what he's doing. I rank this amp among one of the best sounding amps I???ve ever heard.