c.cam108 Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 I was tidying out the black hole cupboard in the church a couple of days ago and found this old amplifier:http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kqQ9mwxUL5A/TSblioDNblI/AAAAAAAABMs/FhPnz_zSsWI/s640/IMG_0716.JPG I thought it was odd that it had both a power inlet on the side and a trailing lead. Someone must have misplaced the lead and just hard-wired it I figured, bypassing the original inlet.http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kqQ9mwxUL5A/TSbliKipD6I/AAAAAAAABMo/tATuup_a880/s640/IMG_0715.JPG However, on opening the case I noticed how the trailing lead was attached:http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kqQ9mwxUL5A/TSblhnT9FCI/AAAAAAAABMk/Ed6sMW0EGdk/s640/IMG_0714.JPG That's a nice little widow-maker right there! And that's not all - in use a mains hum must have developed, so the old trick of removing the earth in the plug was used!http://lh3.ggpht.com/_kqQ9mwxUL5A/TSbljF5EYDI/AAAAAAAABMw/9RDeb4j9Kjc/s640/IMG_0717.JPG Needless to say, it's life on this planet is no more! Colin C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junior8 Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Good grief what with that other thread on old music shows this really takes one back. I think it was ten of these that made up Charlie Watkins first 1000 watt 'Wall of Sound' and in my youth a pairing of the PA100 and an SL100 was pretty standard for the aspirational mobile disco of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c.cam108 Posted January 7, 2011 Author Share Posted January 7, 2011 I always feel bad about throwing equipment away, but have I done the world of sound a great favour or travesty here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 Lordy, I had a couple of these back in the day. I knew bands that had several of these along with the WEM columns for a PA. They were very impotant in their time. Not to mention the bandmaster mixer-amp. Wonderful bit of history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pritch Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 Surprisingly, WEM are still going! Sadly, they seem to have given up on doing PA now, and are focussing purely on accordions. e2a: Forgot the link: http://www.wemwatkins.co.uk/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 You should have fixed it! Collectors items. I was back at my old school two years ago and they were still using their 40W version with 2 4x10" cabs. Complete with a replacement mains cable feeding into the amp through the hole of the slave jack outlet. Cable insulation just leaving the three conductors which just fitted. Secured inside by a hefty knot! (Now how did I know that............?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerry davies Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 Charlie Watkins was more important to the UK live music industry than the Beatles. There, I've said it. Few factoids, in 1961 a Gibson Les Paul Custom cost $425 and was a rare beast whereas the Watkins Rapier cost £20 and was everyones first electric guitar. The WEM Copicat allowed live music to sound like recorded music for the first time at an affordable cost. The Stones became a live legend in Hyde Park on the back of the SL100 and, in his own words, from '66 to '72 was when it was "the loveliest time of music".http://www.wemwatkins.co.uk/history.htm Yes, you should have kept it. You don't happen to have an ElPico, AC30 head or a Treble'n'Bass 50 back there do you, Colin? Just remember that this pre-dates HASAWA and tieing knots in cable was accepted practice when electricity was first invented by Muddy Waters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 I have, rotting away in a shed, a WEM Halle Cat, which I bought sometime in the 80s. I'd never seen or heard of one of these, so I rang up Mr Charlie Watkins himself, and had a most interesting chat. He remembers there were something like 700 of these made, so not "rare". Still, its an unusual piece of equipment to have... Charlie and thus WEM really were the fundemental building block of the British sound industry, its frightning to think where we would have been without him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Adam Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 I can't believe you threw it out!! I'm local (and probably countless others) and would have taken it off your hands. My studio woudn't exist without beautiful wee gems like that (fixed of course) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACIDMAN Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 A happy day for safety :) But a sad day for music !!!!!!!!!!:( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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