OT: Workhorse Amplifiers at summer NAMM

[R.G.]

Just got back from Indianapolis.

We had the first Workhorse Pony in the booth, and got to watch quite a number of different types of players try it out.

I'm a little uncomfortable blowing a horn like this, but the first unit off the line is an incredibly flexible amp. We had steel guitar players, country pickers and metalheads all asking how soon they could get one. I'm a Vox AC30 bigot myself, and I think I'm going to change over. It's funny - I've been so stuck down in the details of the circuitry, final nits and nats of cosmetics, all the minutae of getting something into production that I wasn't thinking about how it would sound. When I heard it, my first remark was "Hey! It sounds really good!!"

Here's the beast in the booth:

The phillips screwdriver to the left of the amp is what we came to call the Workhorse Bias Adjustment Kit. The internal bias lights really seem to work well. I'm normally pretty careful about which tube is which, and usually label them so I don't have to rebias. In the preliminary messing around with the amp, I got downright insensitive to which tube was which or even which pair of tubes I was using because rebiasing was a matter of letting it warm up and then diddling the bias pots til I got two green lights.  Biasing is a breeze.

There were a couple of things that seemed to really grab people. The biggest was the 9Vdc output from the amp so you could run a pedalboard with no wall wart at all. I'm guessing that you're going to see 9Vdc out of guitar amps become a standard given the comments.

We got a fair number of techs into the booth who liked the idea that you could replace a pot without even pulling the chassis out of the box, the tube sockets hard-mounted to the chassis, and the ability to access, unsolder and resolder every part in the amp without even removing the knobs from the control panel.

And then a lot of people just liked the sound. When you're about to give birth publicly, you're more than a little concerned that the baby will be ugly. At least I am. I feel less anxious about that now. The treble dispersion of the hubcaps is a little spooky if you are used to beam-y treble. 45 degrees off-axis is pretty much the same treble you get when you're dead on. One of the first players into the booth pointed out that the other nice thing about the hubcaps is that if you have to play on a cramped stage, YOU can hear the amp without either pointing it at your head and putting muffled sound out to the audience or sticking icepicks into the ears of the poor guy in front of you to hear your own treble.

The biggest bug we could find was that it takes this thing a full two minutes by the clock to get warmed up. That's a side effect of using a thermistor on both the AC line primary and the tube heaters to slow down the warmup. We found some thermistors that were perfect for the heaters. The warmup "surge" from the line cord was only slightly bigger than the normal current for the amp. But it takes some time to get fully up to speed.

There's so much involved in being a commercial success that is not related to the actual performance of any amp that I'm fully aware that it might not turn out to be a world beater. But I'm very happy with the way it's turned out.

If anyone's offended at this post, I'll take it down. But we had a lot of interest earlier, and I thought a number of you would like to see it.

[davebungo]

2 minutes to warm up doesn't seem much of a problem to me or, I would guess, anyone who is used to valve amps.

BTW is the hub cap patented by anyone?

[Fret Wire]

Congratulations!  It must feel good and gratifying to get that response from players and techs alike. I hope it takes off, and doesn't come down.  I still think people are going to like the grill after a slight visual warm-up. I think they'll definately like it after they play it. It'll be copied soon enough, no doubt.

So as not to clog up this thread, I posted a couple of questions on the old thread.
http://diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?p=249939#249939

[ExpAnonColin]

I know that plenty of people go to turn their amps on, wait for a little bit and chat or have some popcorn, then start playing.  I do sometimes, it's like your soldering iron, so the 2 minute thing doesn't sound too bad to me.

-Colin

[Gabriel Simoes]

Who will be the first one to buy it, open , disasemble, make a schematic,  pcb and let us handmade it for ourselves ?
Hehehehe just kidding , congracts! Some ideas are really great, that 9v one, .... is for sure what a lot of people, when most studying at home, would like to have ... less stuff to turn on before playing ...
And yeah ... I think that with some visual improvement and time this thing will be turned on at a lot of places ....
Good luck!
Sorry for my bad english,
Gabriel

[donald stringer]

Congratulations, The 9vlt supply was an excellent idea. I would love to hear some sound samples though. I will definitely have to save my change as I am long overdue for an new amp. Now if you can pick some endorsements like maybe Eric Johnson you would be in business. What were some of the best sounding pedals that stood out from the norm?

[Mark Hammer]

Given the sheer volume of things you have an unrestricted and unconditional right to toot your horn about, tooting it once, modestly, is a privilege you have more than earned, buddy.  It pleases me to no end to know that your leap of faith at this point in your career has been rewarded spiritually, if not tangibly.  Mazeltov.

Of course, with so much practicality built in, you know who's going to come looking for you, eh?  Hartley Peavey.

[markr04]

R.G.,

Will you and your amp(s) attend Winter NAMM in Anaheim? We're exhibitors in the recording/keyboard (geek) area at that show and I'd like to come meet you.

[brett]

Hi.  You can tell the baby by the parents, so I'm sure that everyone on the forum can imagine how good it sounds, how well it's constructed, and the fact it has cool tricks like varistors in the innards.

Congrats on a beatiful baby, and best wishes for parenthood!!

[R.G.]

BTW is the hub cap patented by anyone?

It will be when the patent office gets off its duff. The paperwork is in and it's pending.

Who will be the first one to buy it, open , disasemble, make a schematic, pcb and let us handmade it for ourselves ?

While we're not just going to publish schematics, it's not that mysterious. The circuitry inside is straightforward, and fairly easy to trace. The main PCB is 16.5" by 5.75", though, and the grounding is immaculate (if I do say so myself), so that's going to be one expensive handmade PCB.

We went a decidedly low-tech route. There are no super secret circuits and no magic parts hand crafted fifty years ago by Icelandic virgins on the night of a summer's full moon.

But the PCB stock is double the usual thickness, and the PCB copper is *three* times the normal thickness. The board is stiffened by two custom stamped steel stiffeners that run the whole length of the board so that vibration can't wiggle the solder points loose. The chassis has a removable back plate so that every single solder joint can be reworked without removing the PCB from the chassis. The cabinet is 3/4" (18mm) hardwood plywood, finger jointed and glued at outer corners, and the speaker baffle is also 3/4" ply, glued into a routed groove in the outer shell. All the controls, jacks, switches, etc are on short wire leads from the PCB so that you can break them off the outside of the chassis if you like, but it has no effect on the PCB at all.  

Like the English castle lawns, you get them smooth and green by rolling them for 200 years.

I would love to hear some sound samples though.

Yeah, I'm trying to get some of those made up. We're furiously trying to make sure the thing is reproduceable and get the 60W versions here as well, but the samples will happen.

What were some of the best sounding pedals that stood out from the norm?

We didn't get a chance to do a broad spectrum of pedals. That red Jeckyll and Hyde in the picture makes the amp do a very wide swath of sound, however, from soft overdrive to solid metal to hyperdrive when you have both channels on, and each amp comes with a Jeckyll and Hyde in the amp box with it. We thought that a single channel, non-overdrive, non-master-volume, non-distortion-preamp amplifier might be a tad dull, so the J&H is packed in the shipping carton with the amp to give channels two through four.

Of course, with so much practicality built in, you know who's going to come looking for you, eh? Hartley Peavey.

Oh. It hadn't occurred to me that those guys with the "HP" on their hats weren't from Hewlett Packard...

8-)

Will you and your amp(s) attend Winter NAMM in Anaheim?

If our plans hold at all, yes, we'll be there with the full complement of Workhorses.

You guys are great - thank you. I'll pester the boss to get some sound samples made up.

[zachary vex]

congrats, RG!  8^)

[puretube]

Good Luck !

[bioroids]

Great!!

Do you have plans to export one or two to Argentina someday?

Miguel

[BDuguay]

Nery nice, in it's niceness :wink:
B.

[AL]

The circuitry inside is straightforward... and the grounding is immaculate

Perfect. I always go for the amps with less "magic" knobs on them. The best ones are straightforward. Congratulations.



AL

[spudulike]

If anyone deserves commercial success with this then you do  

Questions :-

1. Website for further info ?
2. Pricing ?
3. UK/European Distributor ?

Im in the market for a versatile gigging amp to replace one of my venerable AC30s (the girls are tired and expensive to insure). This looks about perfect ... and like the man said, its parenthood is impeccable  :wink:

{Edit} Sorry if the q's have been answered elsewhere but Im still kinda new round here.  :oops:

[davebungo]

There are no super secret circuits and no magic parts hand crafted fifty years ago by Icelandic virgins on the night of a summer's full moon.

Who cares? as long as it sounds like it is full of magic parts hand crafted....

[Doug_H]

Congratulations R.G.!

Doug

[vanhansen]

Congratulations, R.G.  I can't wait to try one of these out myself.

[MartyMart]

Congratulations !
I hope it does very well for you
( I LOVE the look BTW )

Marty.