Watkins Westminster 'Black Star' 14w

Super-rare 14 watt incarnation of the fabulous Watkins Westminster – serviced and sounding stunning – missing original covering, stripped back to bare wood.

One of only ten of these amps ever made utilising a pair of EL90s, this is a stunning little amp with a big warm sound – scroll down for a demo.

Read Tony’s detailed blog post about the history and sound of this amp here.

Stripped of it’s hideous replacement red vinyl (originally it would have been black/cream with white stars) and with a non-original footswitch and speaker grille (and a replacement Watkins logo), it has been serviced and is ready to rock. 

It’s been left ready to re-cover as the buyer sees fit (we love the bare wood look) which means there can be some vibration from the plexi panel against the case where it would usually be damped by the covering – this can easily be rectified by the use of blu tack or similar.

Internally it has had a careful full service to bring it up to spec and replace ageing components. It contains a selection of vintage valves. Click on the photos to zoom in and scroll through to see more shots including detail of the interior and valves.

In this condition it is not a collector’s piece. What it is however is a superb and uncommon recording amp that’s loud enough for smaller gigs. It sounds lovely – warm and mellow when you want, but with plenty of grunt and snarl when pushed – a fantastic, versatile recording amp.

It is a UK 240v model so will require a step-up transformer for US/Canada.