Winfield (Winfield) amp compard to the 1974x Marshall

[lemundi]

I bought a Winfield amp and I love it, however, I wanted more of a Blusebreaker sound. I had a chance to play a 1974x and it just was cleaner. What should do to get my Winfield more 1974xish. Someone suggested I put in some 5751 tubes. I also wonder what effect kt66 would have. Thanks

[zaphod_phil]

Why don't you ask Winfield Thomas (aka Winnie) himself? He's a friendly guy and would be the person best able to tell you what you need to do.

wnthomas@earthlink.net Place "Winfield Amps" in the subject line

[lemundi]

Duhh... I should of thought of that. Why is it always hardest to come up with the simpliest solutions.

[lemundi]

Winnie sugested that I put in a 12at7. I did this and, the amp is still not getting the sound I want. I still have not tried the 5751 yet. Is there any other thoughts out there..... thanks

[zaphod_phil]

That's dififcult to say because Winnie is the only person who actually knows the design of the amp, and you're the only person who really knows the tone that you want. I tend to think of Bluesbreakers as having a pretty dirty tone, but you seem to be saying want it to sound cleaner. If its the latter, you could also swap the first preamp tube for a 12AT7, leaving the 12AT7 in the PI as well.

[novemberrain]

I bought a Winfield amp and I love it, however, I wanted more of a Blusebreaker sound. I had a chance to play a 1974x and it just was cleaner.

Try this one.

http://www.winfieldamps.com/

There are several camps on this... one camp owns Soldanos, Boogies and the like, they say their Winfield "needs more gain". OR when they turn it up to get the distortion they like it's sweepin' the cats and dogs out the front door. Loud. Or any number of things.

Winfield can tell you the entire history of your amp starting with the original owner then through mods if any. Some of these have travelled a bit by now.

If you have the basic Winfield there's one input and two volume controls. What you have is bright and dark channels internally jumpered so you can turn the dark channel way up then add some brilliance with the bright volume, a little bit goes a long way. If you turn the bright volume up and then try to tweak it with the tone controls you probably won't get what you want.

Which one do you have? The basic variations are the "Winfield" and the "Elizabeth" although he builds little goodies like the Rosco and the Brat. The Winfield comes in 18 and switchable 18 / 30 watt, the 18 usually grinds a lot more than the 30 even if the 30 is switched to 18. Want clean? Ask for an Elizabeth.

Even if you play one 18 watt Winfield next to another they'll sound a little bit different. I played through one a while back that solidly NAILED AC/DC tone, then I tried another with, umm, the exact same circuit with, umm, a couple tweaks... that sounded to me like the Allman Brothers.

IMHO the 12AT7 is a handy tube for switching duty in vintage industrial applications, a 5751 is much sweeter for audio use. You may even get what you want with a 12AY7 in V1.

BTW if you're not plugged into a Vintage 30 or a G12H you have the wrong speaker. Try a Vintage 30 if you want more clean.

[lemundi]

Thank you for your reply.I have the winfield, winfield 18/30watt, with el84s. I put through a couple different cabs. One of the 4x12 cabs had the celstion 30 watts from the eighties. When I bought them they were sold to me as vitage 30s but to my chagrin apperently the have small mag compared to the real vintage 30s. I am thinkimg of puchasing a couple of Weber ceremaic Blue Dogs and Silver Bells. Any thoughts.... thanks

[lemundi]

It is suposed to read weber above not W*****... well

[novemberrain]

O.k., the 30 watter is capable of cleaning up to a "Bluesbreaker" tone. Keep the wattage switch at 30 watts. Figure out which volume is "bright volume" and leave that one all the way off, use the normal channel instead. Roll off your guitar volume somewhat, you've probably figured out that thing is easily as loud as a Plexi. Set the tone controls to suit, bear in mind that you can roll the treble right off then get some bite back with the bright volume.

I wouldn't worry about your "small magnet" Celestions, IMHO vintage Celestions beat new ones and who needs to carry around those heavy magnets anyway?! Vintage 30s are actually 75 watt speakers so two of them will handle more wattage than your Winfield will ever supply.

These do sound good with alnico Blue Dogs.