Watkins V-Front Dominator - black plexi panel

Sought-after late 50s black plexi panel Watkins V-Front Dominator valve (tube) amp for sale. Scruffy condition but excellent working order – these amps sound absolutely huge – stand one behind your Marshall/Vox stack and mic it up….

Dating from the late fifties or very early sixties, it’s had a full service and sounds superb – this iconic amp is a real gem. The tremolo is great – plenty of depth, some thump at deeper settings, but very usable.

Cosmetic condition is fairly scruffy, the blue sections have been lightly-painted black at some point – would probably come off with some careful work. It has a number of scuffs and scrapes to the case which is not uncommon for amps of this age. One speaker cone has had a fairly rough repair at some point, but it’s sounding good.

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 and everything is 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.

The first demo below is of a different. The second is a comparison between the current unit and a Vox AC-15

240v Model.