WATKINS V-FRONT DOMINATOR

Watkins V-Front Dominator valve (tube) amp for sale. Scruffy condition (see detailed photos) but excellent working order.

Dating from around 1960, it’s just had a full service and sounds superb – this iconic amp is a real gem. The tremolo is great – plenty of depth, some thump at more extreme settings, but very usable – has had the slowest speed setting reduced for greater versatility.

We’ve had this in our studio for a while as I’ve been enjoying it so much. On paper it’s nothing special – battered and tatty cabinet, non-original speaker cloth, replacement alnico 10” speakers, later tremolo footswitch – but following a thorough rebuild courtesy of our valve amp wizard, it absolutely sings.

This is a real gem of an amp.

We’ve got three V-Fronts in at the moment (see our other listings) and I did a quick A/B/C shoot-out of all three – they all sound very good in their own right – this one, unsurprisingly as it’s closest in age, sounded most like the earlier black panel one we have in. No wonder Jim Marshall found ‘inspiration’ from these great amps for his classic 18w design. Charlie Watkins was well ahead of the game (ask anyone who owns a pre-WEM Westminster)…

It’s had a thorough overhaul to bring everything back up to original spec. Many components in these early Watkins amps are way out of specification now and they usually need a good deal of work to make them sound as they should – but it’s well-worth it.

This is a UK 240v mains-powered model and will require a step-up transformer for operation in countries with 110-117v mains supplies. The UK plug will be removed prior to shipping to countries with 240v mains supplies, unless otherwise requested.