WATKINS / WEM AMPLIFIERS 

- CHARLIE'S ANGELS !

 

Phil Avelli's Watkins Collection (New York, USA)

 



This site, like the Selmer Amplifier Website, is a joint collaboration between Tim Fletcher and myself, Steve Russell. We both feel very strongly that the old British amps like Selmer, Watkins, and Fenton Weill together with a few others, have been pushed into the shadows by the admittedly well deserved publicity heaped upon Vox and Marshall, and these webpages are our attempts to redress the balance a little.

There are one or two other website now which deal with Watkins/WEM gear, the most notable of which are Charlie Watkins' own site of course, and Reg Goodwin's excellent Watkins Guitar World website. We therefore do not intend to go too deep into the history of the Watkins Electrical Music Ltd, as we have attempted to do on the Selmer site, because this is already well covered elsewhere.  At the present, we do not also want to stray off into the realms of the WEM PA systems that were so famous in the late 1960's and 70's. We are both guitar players, and so let's concentrate on instrument amps only for now. The PA's and speaker systems may come later. What we are therefore attempting to do is produce a record of the various guitar and bass amplifier models, their specifications, and their many variations throughout the period when Watkins/WEM were at the height of their fame.


As with the Selmer (and the Vintage Hofner) websites, the philosophy that was adopted with this website was that we put down our joint knowledge on the subject. This relied on us using memory going back nearly 40 years, together with old catalogue entries and magazine articles, etc, so please accept our apologies if you find any errors !!

The name of Charlie Watkins will forever be synonymous with two things : 

His guitar amplifiers are less well-known, with the possible exception of the legendary V-front Dominator of course. He chose to position them at the budget end of the market, perhaps wisely recognising that competition was fierce at the top with Vox, Selmer and later Marshall vying for position. 
Watkins (later Wem) amplifiers were well-made, sounded great (and still do) and easily undercut the prices of his competitors. Consequently they sold in countless thousands to young musicians, as did the Watkins guitars made by his brothers Reg & Syd.

Now for a potted history - very abridged as it's covered elsewhere:

 Serving in the Merchant Navy during WWII, Charlie learnt to play the accordion and upon his discharge became a semi-pro player, often accompanied by a guitarist. In 1949 he opened a record shop in London as a side-line with his brother, and in 1951 moved into selling accordions and guitars. He made a first batch of 20 amplifiers in 1952, but that enterprise was near-disastrous as he had to recall them upon hearing of a guitarist being electrocuted by a similar AC/DC unit. Undeterred, by 1954 he had commenced production of the Westminster, a plain grey model at that time, and by 1956 when the skiffle & rock'n'roll guitar boom hit the UK, he had added the Clubman and V-front Dominator to his range. Demand became huge and the fledgling company expanded : in 1958 the Copicat became an instant best-seller, and by 1963 a dozen models of amplifier were offered.

In 1963/64 Watkins re-branded itself as Wem : the lovely two-tone coloured amps disappeared in favour of the ubiquitous black coverings which were more or less compulsory by then. Throughout the 60s Wem offered a range of combos including updated Clubman, Westminster and Dominator models and various "piggy-back" head & cab set-ups. The big development came in 1966/67 though, when Charlie developed his pioneering master/slave PA systems which for the first time made possible power ratings of 1000+ watts and literally set the stage for all the major outdoor pop festivals which followed. Wem catalogues quickly became showpieces for state-of-the-art PA systems, and guitar amps took a back seat.

Despite a proliferation of new names in the guitar amp market in the late 60s - Sound City, HiWatt, Laney, Carlsbro etc. - Wem soldiered on throughout the 70s offering a wide range of guitar, bass and PA amplifiers, but falling sales and Charlie's ill-health finally took their toll and Wem's doors closed for the last time in 1982. Watkins still lives on though : Charlie continues to operate on a smaller scale selling accordions, amplifiers and Copicats, retirement apparently being an option which hasn't yet occurred to him. Long may he continue !


SOURCES:

 

 

 

1963 WEM Advertisement, courtesy of Brian Watters, UK.