The Tremor

A while back, I had the opportunity to visit Winfield Thomas’ workshop, and I assure you, it is far from the North Pole, and there are no elves. Much better, it is a haven for great amplifiers, and Winnie Thomas has wonderful tastes in amps, including some vintage pieces which are fantastic. His own designs push the envelope, usually starting with a classic vintage circuit but ending up better, because Winnie knows how to improve in subtle ways and create and even better product in the process. Thusly, I met the Tremor.

The Tremor is kissin’ cousins with the Tweed Vibrolux, which, in turn, is nearly identical to the Brownface Princeton. The sound is warm with a strong midrange, but it has, in my humble opinion, a bit more stridency than the Tweed Deluxe. My interest in this amp started with Surf Music, which was a product of the Brownface generation of Fender amps. Brownface were known for their clean power and having a stronger midrange than their Blackface descendants. It is the sound of Freddie King’s Hideaway and many of the Surf classics of the early sixties.

So when Mr. Thomas had me plug into his tremolo equipped prototype, I had found sonic fulfillment and, best of all, I had found an amp that would fit into my existing collection quite well. A bit warmer than the Winfield Cyclone, less glassy than the Elizabeth, a perfect grab and go amp.

It took a little while, but eventually the first production amp and I was the lucky guy that got to bring it home. Last Saturday’s rehearsal was its maiden voyage and I’m happy to report that it did not disappoint when I played at rehearsal volume. My first inclination was to play some Surf, and the amp held up its end. It was quite true to the classic Brownface sound of First Wave Surf. The single 12” speaker makes for a solid bottom end that holds up well, even on the lowest notes a guitar has to offer. The upper end is smooth and not at all peaky. The “icepick effect” never reared its ugly head.

Then there’s the bias-modulating tremolo, which is smooth and effective. While some tremolos can be choppy, this one is perfect for my tastes with wide range and no drama or sonic artifacts. Set the speed and depth to the right settings, play and open C chord, and you are transported back to the early sixties and will find yourself expecting the Everly Brothers to sing the opening line to Dream. On the Surf classics it sounded just right to my ear. This is not the harmonic tremolo of a Brownface Showman, but for my purposes, this is better. (Harmonic tremolo tends to make me a bit seasick.)

Aside from the speed and depth controls of the tremolo, there are tone and volume knobs, one of each. This is my favorite control set, simple, yet adequate to the task. Set the tone to taste, and the volume to meet your needs and you have arrived at your destination, safe and sound. Ivory colored chicken-head knobs work well and make it easy to check your settings at a glance.

The pair of 6v6 tubes in the power stage punch out 14 watts, which puts it in league with the Blackface Princeton. Just for perspective, it’s stiff enough to stay clean on a small gig or for a rehearsal with a drummer. It’s a bit more than a bedroom-only amp, but a very decent practice amp, yet it will sing nicely at bedroom volumes. It will break up if cranked and does so quite pleasantly, sounding somewhat like a Tweed Deluxe’s big brother. It speaks with a calm authority that can’t be easily ruffled.

Speaking of tubes, the basic circuit is quite true to the 5F11 Vibrolux (which in turn is nearly identical to the Brownface Princeton) but has one nice added feature, which is the addition of a pot which allows you to adjust the fixed bias. The original circuit was a non-adjustable fixed bias, with meant that power tube changes were a gamble, or an exercise to trial and error tube choice.

As an experiment, I tried pushing the amp’s volume far into the range of natural overdrive. The overdrive retains a degree of clarity until you have it pretty well dimed. It’s not a circuit just bustin’ out with gain, so the overdrive reflects this. Even at the max, I never felt that the amp was trying to get away from me. It’s an old-school overdrive sound, which is perfect for my tastes. I didn’t try driving it with any pedals, but the overall behavior of the amp would suggest to me that it would handle pedals with the same aplomb it handles a guitar signal.

For the maiden voyage, I used a Gretsch Tennessee Rose with Supertron pickups, which are no slouch in the output department. The amp was fine with those pickups, giving a sound Freddie King would have dug. Truly, the amp is unflappable. It doesn’t have the razor’s edge between clean and broken up that defines so many amps. Instead, it’s a predictable partner in the dance; one that never steps on your feet nor does it try to take the lead role away from the guitar.

In the final analysis, it is an amp that does what an amp it supposed to do; make your guitar sound louder. OK, amps do that, but some amps impose their will into the mix. The Tremor seems happy to just increase the volume, remain faithful to the original signal and manage to output a very pleasing sound.

For the time being, Synchro Studios is not in operation, while my home is being remodeled, so I’m afraid that I can’t offer any samples, but there will be samples up when Winnie’s webmaster/dealer takes possession of production Tremor #2 and has a chance to do a video demonstration. These aren’t up on the winfieldamps.com website as of yet and I’m not able to help out with pricing info, but if prior experience is any indication, Winnie will remain true to form and produce a boutique amp at a very friendly price.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Post deleted by author.

Last edited: Mar 10, 2020 14:54:01

I, too, have had an opportunity to visit Winnie's Tone Laboratory on the Lake. I currently have a 5 watt Winfield but have owned and played his other offerings as well. If I get another amp it will be an Elizabeth for sure. Winnie makes great stuff and is a great guy.

Based upon my own experience, if you want a 5 watt tube combo in a decent sized cab that won't sound "small","boxy" or lacking in low end, small builders like Winfield are the way to go. I don't own a Winfield amp but I do have a DeLisle, which is another meticulously hand built amp. Wasn't cheap, but like Winfield, not crazy expensive like some other "boutique" builders and worth every penny. The DeLisle Nicklebox model I have is a 5 watt combo loosely based on the vintage Vox AC5. It has the EF86 preamp but I opted for a 6V6 power tube for a bit more of an American flavor, tube driven reverb and tremolo, Baxendale style eq, in a fullsize 20"x19" solid pine cab w/ 12" Eminence Redcoat speaker. Great tones for just about any style of music and gets "the sound" at reasonable volume (which for a basement hobby player like me, is a must).

Last edited: Oct 25, 2018 13:38:12

Sounds like a winner! What speaker does it have?

MelWaldorf wrote:

Sounds like a winner! What speaker does it have?

Good to see you here, mate. It's a Weber Blue Dog 12". I don't remember if you were at the jam when I first played the Cyclone on stage and told Winnie the "small bottles can surf", but the cabinet of this amp is actually the very same cabinet as the 1x12" speaker cab' I was using that day. When I bought the 2x12" Marshall style, closed back cab for the Cyclone, the 1x12" cab fell into disuse, so Winnie was able to repurpose it for my amp.

Surfadelphia wrote:

Sorry for the brain fart, but I meant Vox AC4. Anyway, one of the significant differences / improvements the DeLisle Nickel Box and the Winfield Typhoon have over the vintage Vox EF86 AC4 is that EF86's are notorious for becoming microphonic in guitar combo amps. As were many vintage amps, they were based on circuits meant for home hifi's and not guitar combo amps with cranked up, thumping speakers. Both DeLisle and Winfield redesigned and bullet proofed the circuit to handle the rigors of a guitar amp. No question however that 5 watts, albeit a glorious sounding 5 watts are not enough to remain clean with a drummer. But for playing at home by yourself or miked up in a studio.....tone to the bone.

Indeed, the EF-86 can be a trouble maker. I have, probably, 10 - 15 spares, all tested to not be microphones. Some have smiley faces drawn on the boxes too; the best of the best.

I will state that mic'd a 5 watt amp can sound like a hardworking Showman from the audiences perspective, while the stage volume is quite low. Likewise, for recording, they are the way to go.

It's funny, because I'm a pretty boring guy, in many ways. I have four Gretsch and one Guild, which all sound at least similar to one another, but my amps are all over the map. If I hit the proverbial jackpot, I doubt that I'd buy much in the way of additional guitars, but I could see myself having a lot of different amps. In this hypothetical situation, I could see myself commissioning a 2x6L6 version of the Tremor. Lord! But that would be a heck of a Surf amp.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Sounds like a great amp, Synchro. Nice to buy from a friend and a nice guy.

Thanks gents. Living about 30 miles from Winnie gives me some great opportunities to visit and sample anything new and different among his creations. He’s always trying new ideas and the best ideas make it into his lineup. He’s always treated me well and the amps are first class all the way. I couldn’t dream of building an amp and having it come out as clean and well lead-dressed as Winnie does.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

That’s one aspect of life in our mail-order era. A lot of items are bought sight-unseen.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Surfadelphia wrote:

In some ways it's nice to be able to just hit a few a keys and get something sent to me...but I really miss the days of the relatively big independently owned music shops. Living in a large city we had four big shops that covered all the big names: Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, Guild, Rickenbacker, Martin and into the late 70's and 80's added Ibanez and Yamaha plus a large selection of used guitars and amps. The smaller mom and pop shops were a great source of used gear and more reasonably priced new imports, especially when they could get their hands on Tokai, Greco, Fernandes, etc higher end copy guitars which were as good and in many instances better than the "real thing" at fraction of the cost. I recall back in the 80's a small local shop having a wall of Tokai Les Pauls, Teles, and Strats going out the door for 300.00 to 450.00 that we turned our noses up at because we had to have the real deal or pointy headstock superstrats with Floyds.

I grieve the loss of brick and mortar music stores. I’m an expat Denverite and we had some great music stores all around me. Villa Music was a local chain that carried Fender, Gretsch, Gibson, Yamaha, etc. Gordon Close’s Melody Music was a wonderful store with high end Gibsons galore, Fender, Traynor, Music Man, you name it, and he had a very large stock. Rockley’s, our in the western suburb of Lakewood had Fender, Guild, Martin and in the eighties into the nineties, they stocked a lot of really nice electric basses made of exotic woods. To the best of my knowledge they are still around but sell only pianos. Guitar City, further to the West was a guitar haven out of the sixties and Drum City, to the north of there had drums, of course, but also stocked beucoup Fenders. Wildwood, I remember visiting when it was a tiny local store, but they sell mostly via Internet and are still going strong.

Sadly, I don’t envision those glory days ever returning. I could spend an entire day visiting music store in Denver and not even come close to making the rounds, but e-tail has changed the game. It’s not all bad, but it’s sure hard to try out instruments, these days. I’m near Tucson, and Rainbow has kept the home fires burning here, but they rarely stock Pro Series Gretsch, so the instruments I am most interested in trying out are not likely to be in stock. I used to “Road Test” a lot of Gretsch at Rainbow and post the reviews at Gretsch-Talk, but I haven’t been able to do that lately.

I’ll tell you an experience that would be all but impossible in our day. Back in ‘76, I visited LaVonne Music, which was in Burnsville, MN at that time (since moved to Savage, Mn) and wanted to try out archtops. They pointed me to a room full of still boxed Gibson archtops and I inboxed and test played 4 or 5 Gibson Johnny Smith models in one sitting. I ended up buying one, BTW. The chances of finding several new Gibson archtops in one place these days is essentially nil.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.