Salut,
Voilà une page consacrée aux amplis à transistors des années 60s, utilisant des composants au germanium, pioniers d'une révolution dans le monde de la guitare.
Certains de ces amplis transos des années 60
sonnent grave.
Ici c'est un topic où l'on parle du Vox Beatle, de la série ER de WEM/Watkins, des Rickenbacker Transonic, des amplis Acoustic, Kustom et Whoops!!!
J'ai pour ma part un stack WEM (Watkins Electric Music) de 1968, une marque célèbre pour ses échos à bandes (Copicat), ses systèmes de sonorisation de festivals ("slave", voir citation) , et le fait que Charlie Watkins est l'inventeur du fameux 18 watts lampes appelé Dominator dont le shéma sera repris par Marshall pour faire le 1974x (dit mini-BB).
Dans les années 60/70 ces amplis et sonos ont été utilisées par (entre autres): Pink Floyd, Cream, Ten years After, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, the Nice, Fleetwood Mac (époque Peter Green)..
Citation:
1966. Invention of the "Slave" P.A. System. Possibly the most rewarding and personally satisfying development. In a world bristling with the likes of Alvin Lee and his Ten Years After, The Faces, Jethro Tull, Rod Stewart, Hendrix and indeed the Rolling Stones with so many brilliant groups waiting to emerge but who were unable to do so for the lack of a powerful and competent sound system. This limited the exposure of groups to small venues and pubs or whatever size a couple of lashed up Marshall 100 or Hi Watt Guitar stacks could handle.
For the next 5 or 6 years any group or Band who were serious about their sound HAD to use my WEM Slave P.A. System and they beat a path to my door. This basic system is still used universally to this day by all the P.A. producers (except that the powers are 50 time greater than mine were in those days.
WEM P.A. made possible all of the great, early festivals. Lincoln, Shepton Mallett, Isle of Wight with Dylan in 1970, Isle of Wight with Hendrix in 1971, The immaculate "Stones in the Park" Concert with its quarter of a million audience where I mounted a mere 1500 watts but which could be heard in Edgware and is still rated, to this day, as the most exemplary and perfect sound reproduction of a modern day band. It was breathtaking.........
They started referring to me as the "Father of British P.A." a while back. That's because I'm getting on a bit. . . . I love it.
The first WEM P.A. System with its absolutely Hi Fi quality made its first public appearance at the 1967 Windsor Festival with the help and encouragement of the brilliant Harold Pendleton, owner of London's "Marquee" Club. Suddenly artists could be HEARD with my massive P.A. System with a basic starting power in excess of 1000 watts - power unheard of since Hitler's Nuremberg rally.
Balloon Meadow, Windsor, England, August 1967, The band? Fleetwood Mac on their first appearance. Their private sound was engineered by the legendary Dinky Dawson now in the U.S.A. And the world wakes up to a fresh new world of music. The first 1000 watts of pure Hi Fi power used in live music had arrived. And where was I? I had been arrested for disturbing the peace !!
And the curtain lifted on a new world of music. Multi thousand audiences were now practical, possible, desirable and certainly available and could, at last, HEAR. Now all those brilliant young musicians could emerge and do their thing. Back line gear could be miked up to help it all along. The all important singer could be heard for miles. The rest is everybody else's history.
Ma tête est le modèle ER100, à l'époque c'était l'ampli le plus puissant de toute la gamme WEM. 2 canaux, 4 entrées, 2 treble boosts et une patate à faire fuire Lemmy..
J'adore son son, et plus
particulièrement quand il sature (ce qui est quand même dingue pour un ampli transistor).
Je trouve qu'il peut tenir tête à
beaucoup d'amplis tout lampes en termes de qualité sonore...pourtant je suis un fanatique de la loupiote.
Pour décrire le grain obtenu par cette bête, c'est très aggressif (mais dans le bon sens du terme) en étant très chaud et chargé en mediums.
L'ampli poussé à 10 vous donne une saturation type Queens of the stone age, Fu Manchu, très Stoner rock quoi...
bientôt vous aurez des samples, mais tout de suite, place aux photos!