WATKINS WESTMINSTER PAGEUpdate December 2001

Below a Watkins Westminster I Recently Purchased the front panel matches my mint looking Vfront

Above front view of this Westminster Amp which is basically the same circa 17 watt amp as the highly sought after vfront same valve line up of EZ80 or EZ81 valve rectifier, 2 X EL84 and the pre amp valves all ECC83's slightly different front panel but only one Elac 10 inch speaker unlike the vfront which has two Elac speakers at angles to get a possible better spread of sound. I think so anyway. These were also available with a black panel similiar to the black panel Vfront amp. The circuitry of the two EL84 Westminster appears to be virtually the same as the two EL84 Vfront amp. The electrolytic capacitors will definately need changing before this amp is cranked up loud and any out of spec resistors and caps will also require changing but after 40 years what does one expect. Potentially a great recording studio amp like the Vfront once restored. There is also a simple mod to increase the gain on one jack socket of the mic channel which with a good ECC83 you can just about get enough gain to get feedback to your guitar when cranked up to max volume. Can sound a bit like a low power output old JTM with the valve rectifier and 40 year old Elac loudspeaker cone. Great little amps! For a similiar schematic check out the web address as shown below.

http://www.obsoleteelectronics.com/The_Archives/Watkins_Dominator_15.jpg

Note the single 10" Elac speaker

Watkins Westminster Tremelo Amplifier in Red and White below with only three controls, (considerably different from the amp shown above) Tone , Volume and Tremelo and two input jack sockets. Note strange photo effect with flash of my camera in some of the pictures. Valve line up 2 x ECL82, 1 X EZ80 or EZ81 valve rectifier missing when I brought it so I found out later as someone had fitted a wrong mains transformer and 2 x semiconductor diodes fitted on stripboard. I happened to have an old Douglas mains transformer with 1 x 6.3Vac winding, 1 by 6.3 fialiment winding with a 5Vac tap and an HT of 250 - 0 - 250 Vac. The mounting holes match the original mounting holes. I think this is the right mains transformer as I have also seen Douglas transformers with 300 - 0 - 300 on the blue and white Watkins Westminster above and Vfront amps and I used to have one 350 - 0 - 350 all with fialiment windings. The transformer also has tappings 200-210, 220-230, 240-250 likw the other type Westminster amps but the voltage selector is missing so its a hard wire to the appropiate supply voltage

It certainly sounds better with the valve rectifier but I think that it may be circa 10 watts as per an old catalogue which describes the amp "Treble circuit which embodies 'Treble Rise' features which ensures that maximum treble is available as required, loudspeakers designed to handle the full output comfortably, two inputs with tone and volume control, tremelo with speed control and foot switch, attractive cabinet in two colours with trim. WESTMINSTER 10 watt." All I can say is that I paid quite a lot of money for this amp with petrol to collect and then found I had to fit an original type mains transformer, ouch! and some more effort to follow. I will be adding pics once I have reasonably completed this restoration project.

Old original type of transformer or hopefully similiar now fitted. Note that sometime in the past someone has replaced the electrolytics obviously the possible cause of the failure of the original tramsformer resulting in the replacement of the transformer shown in the pics above but hopefully this transformer shown in the pics below is like the original it is certainly be the same manufacturer as in other old Westminsters etc. Note the two ECL82 output valves (Sorry not EL84'S as I initially thought. EZ80 and ECC83 'screened' in the second picture below.

Valve Lineup on right hand side 2 x ECL82's nearest output transformer, left hand side lower valve is EZ80 whilst upper valve screened is an ECC83

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