RatingsPros:Terrific tweed-style tones. Bargain price for a good handwired amp. Cons: Trem circuit produces pops/clicks at higher depth settings. Street: $1,163 street (as reviewed with Weber alnico 12A125A speaker) Winfield Amps Tremor winfieldamps.com | Tones:  Ease of Use:  Build/Design: Value: |
The Tremor is a 12-watt combo from Arizona amp builder Winfield Thomas. It’s a near-clone of the Fender Harvard, a dual-6V6 tube model produced from 1955 through the end of the decade. Or maybe it’s more accurate to call it a tweed Vibrolux clone. That amp was simply a Harvard with a different preamp tube, plus the tremolo circuit that the new part permitted.
A couple of things about the Harvard: Its most famous user is soul session titan Steve Cropper. If there’s such a thing as a “sound of Stax” amp, the Harvard is it. Still, the amp was never especially popular, occupying an awkward middle tier between Fender’s entry level and pro models. It departed from its cathode-biased contemporaries with a fix-biased scheme—a design choice that tends to provide a little extra headroom and stouter lows.
Bigger and Browner
The Tremor’s main deviations from the original design are size upgrades: It has a larger output transformer (a 40-watt Weber) and an upscale 12" Weber 12A125 speaker in lieu of the original’s 10" Jensen. (Other 1x12 options include a Weber Blue Dog or Eminence Legend 1258, or a 1x10 combo with a Weber Blue Pup or a Legend 1058.) Cosmetically, it’s a tweed in brownface clothing. And the vinyl, by the way, is attractive and expertly applied. But note that the Tremor’s vibrato circuit is tweed-style, not the dual-tube “harmonic tremolo” of some Fender brownface models.
But the Tremor is most remarkable for the ways it cleaves to Fender tradition. This amp is truly made the old-fashioned way. Components are handwired on old-school grommet board. The assembly and wiring seem solid. Aside from an internally accessible bias-adjust pot and modern plastic tube sockets, this could almost pass for a late-1950s build. The same goes for the light, resonant solid pine cabinet.
Present and Accounted For
I recorded the first audio clip immediately after unboxing the amp and warming the tubes. I used my “Don’t make me come over there!” test: I maxed the amp volume, parked the single treble-cut tone control at noon, and sat across the room, controlling tones from the guitar (a DIY semi-hollowbody with humbucking TV Jones Filter’Tron pickups). As you’d expect from a tweed-style amp, the dynamic response is superb. You could play an entire gig with the amp set this way, regulating distortion from your guitar’s volume control.
Speaking of gigs: You’d probably need to mic this amp for all but low-volume performances. Still, the Tremor is more assertive than many amps its size. Tones are ultra-present, with crisp transients, lovely natural compression, and airy resonance. Between the fixed-bias design and the bold alnico Weber speaker in our test combo, the amp dispenses startlingly powerful lows. You hear some of that in the second audio clip, which showcases various amp settings.
More Shout, Less Screech
The bias and speaker design choices also affect the most controversial aspect of tweed amps: their high-volume performance. Whenever I review a tweed-style amp, some friendly reader inevitably points out how my high-gain clips sound like crap. Crap is in the ear of the beholder, of course. And with most tweed-derived designs, you shouldn’t expect creamy high-gain distortion. Think jagged Neil Young.
Here, though, the modest extra headroom and full-bodied speaker provide stouter, less fizzy high-gain tones. This isn’t, to use that popular and annoying phrase, “a clean platform for effects.” It’s pretty much the opposite. But players who a) love the presence and supreme dynamic response of tweed designs, but b) flinch at their potentially shrill high-gain tones may find the Tremor a satisfying compromise. My third and final clip adds effects: Plate reverb to soften the amp’s ultra-present attack, and a hot germanium booster at an aggressive setting. The note definition is excellent, considering how hard I’m slamming the amp’s front end.
Tricky Trem?
The Tremor’s core tremolo sound (which is activated by the classy included foot pedal) is quintessential tweed—a beautiful thing! (The phrase at the start of the second audio clip is a good example.) That said, our review unit exhibited some issues with the trem rate and depth controls. While the depth pot sounds fab in the first third of its range, settings around 10 o’clock produced “beating”—audible popping/clicking speaker noises. The phenomenon was even more noticeable at higher depth settings. Is this a deal-breaker? Listen carefully on headphones and decide for yourself. (Responding to this point, Thomas says the tremolo was designed for smooth, click-free response, so it’s possible the clicking sound we observed was an anomaly induced by rough handling in transit.)
The Verdict
The Tremor captures a classic tweed tone while adding a touch of extra headroom and frequency range that even tweed traditionalists are likely to dig. It’s a fine recording amp, with crisply etched tones that’ll suit many mixes. It’s easy to feel like Steve Cropper at a 1960s soul session whenever you play slow arpeggios or strike a bright backbeat chord.
The ranges of the trem’s rate and depth controls are problematic for me, so interpret my “tones,” “build/design” and “value” ratings of 4 accordingly. (If you plan to use the trem only at modest settings, upgrade those numbers to 5. If you want deep trem, downgrade them to 3.) Also, this is an excellent price for a great-sounding handwired amp, and you can lower the cost further if you opt for a less pricy speaker or the $775 head-only model.
This year’s Premier Gear Award winners are, as usual, an eclectic set—full of old-school vintage homage, leading-edge digital developments, and imaginative meetings of those worlds. Dig in and dig it as we revisit the gear that fired the enthusiasm and wonder of our editors and contributors in 2017.
Follow all that? Don’t worry if you don’t. The Dust Devil sounds awesome, and if you can’t get a cool sound out of this amp, you might want to pack it up and study kazoo.
Looks Can Deceive
If you’re perplexed by the Brit-in-Yankee’s clothing that is the essence of the Dust Devil’s style and sound, the control set can compound the mystery—at least at first. A push-pull master volume works for both channels, but is removed from the circuit in the “down” position. The AC15-style treble and bass controls, in fact, comprise the blackface-style tone stack. Meanwhile, the very Fender Deluxe-like single tone control on channel 2 regulates what Winfield says is a more AC15-like output. Regardless of intent, both tone controls are effective and rangy.
The tone controls on both channels are complimented by the post-phase inverter treble cut control, which regulates high-end output from the output section rather than at the preamp. It’s somewhat counterintuitive as a “cut” control because rotating it clockwise actually adds high end (the control’s position relative to the phase inverter means the knob effectively works backwards). Once you get used to the way treble cut works—and on the Dust Devil it’s a very sensitive control—it lets you dial in very precise tone profiles to suit different guitars and effects. It’s a process that takes practice, but which can be invaluable when you switch between, say, a Stratocaster and a Les Paul, use an outboard gain device, or employ guitar controls to fine tune your output.
Each channel has its own volume control, which becomes doubly cool when you use an A/B switch between channels. Alas, Winfield does not include such a switch, but it’s an excellent, minor investment that really opens up the possibilities of this amp.
Dusty Does Dirty
Our hats off to Winfield for crafting two channels that sound and feel so very different, yet share the same power section. Channel 1, though pitched by Winfield as the more “American” channel, is brash, bright, and very, very Vox-like. A Stratocaster bridge pickup paired with this channel will deliver some of the sweetest and nastiest rock rhythm tones you’ve ever heard. It’s the kind of tone that works for everything from ’60s jangle and Oh Sees-style garage punk to funk and angular art-punk textures. There’s a fine line between sweetness and ear-singeing here—just a bit too much treble can transform that Stratocaster bridge pickup from sassy to intolerably scathing. But it’s a great match for a wooly humbucker and it’s the kind of sound I would love to use aggressively in a studio where you can attenuate treble in a mix. Put simply: You’ll never have too little high end if you use Dust Devil’s channel 1.
Ratings
Pros:
Very versatile 2-channel design that delivers unique shades of Vox- and Fender-style tones. Exceptionally responsive and dynamic.
Cons:
Channel 1 can be too brash with single-coils. Does not include channel-switching footswitch.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$1,700
Winfield Amplification Dust Devil
winfieldamps.com
Channel 2 (which is based very closely on Winfield’s Cyclone amp) is supposed to be closer to a classic AC15—and with those two EL84s, the tone cut control, and the Celestion Alnico Blue speaker it’s certainly got the guts to live in that guise. But to my ears, channel 2 often sounded and felt positively tweed-like—dishing Crazy Horse and James Gang filth and sag when master volume and channel volume controls were wide open, and rootsy, clean-verging-on-dirty tones with output controls in more intermediate zones. Perhaps it’s the presence of the EF86 preamp tube and 5AR4 rectifier tube in this channel circuit (old AC15s use a 12AX7 and GZ34 respectively). But there is something very different in the tone and feel of channel 2 that bridges Vox and Fender lands with rambunctious grace.
The Dust Devil always verges on dirty—at least at volumes that would make the amp useful in a rocking band. (And yes, it’s more than loud enough!) So getting the cleanest tones from the Dust Devil requires a willingness to get twiddly with your guitar volume knob. The good news is that the Dust Devil is fantastically responsive to input from guitar volume and tone controls. Moving the volume control on a Stratocaster between 8 and 3 yielded myriad shades of progressively cleaner—but still substantial—tones when I kept the master and channel volumes at maximum. On channel 2 in particular, volume-attenuated tones were a bit of power-pop and jangle-rock heaven. And the sensation of moving from these tones to crushing lead and rhythm sounds with a flick of your finger is thrilling. Chances are, you’ll be using fewer gain pedals if you put the Dust Devil to use in this way.
One aspect of the Dust Devil’s name that does not deceive: It’s a dry amp—there’s no reverb or tremolo. And the inclusion of one effect or the other for the $1,700 price would be nice. Then again, the Winfield sounds so fundamentally good that inexpensive tremolo and reverb pedals (I tested this with an unmodified Boss TR-2 and an Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail) sound fantastic. My guess is that few players will be distracted by any minor shortcomings associated with cheap-but-good reverb or tremolo pedals as they bathe in the Dust Devil’s enveloping output.
The Verdict
The Dust Devil is a classy, well-crafted, and creatively recombinant distillate of classic circuitry and sounds. It delivers on promises to provide bright Anglo chime and American rumble, but will serve up a thousand shades between the two if you’re creative and resourceful. I wouldn’t hesitate to make a whole record with this amp alone. And experiencing its dynamic aggression and timbral nuances at performance volume is positively exhilarating.