wienbrock Amps?

thomasw88

stumbled across a wienbrock gringo head and cab today.

thought it was very nice and interesting sounds. anyone tried/owned one before? what you make of them?

IvisonGuitars

@lustycourtier had/has a Wienbrock I believe....

lustycourtier

Gringo is a great amp. 20w deluxe type output with Marshall type front end. If its priced well, get it. Build quilty is outstanding. If I saw another for for under £500, Id grab.

thomasw88

It looked in good nick.

Was a head and matching 1x12 cab with a tayden (think it was true brit) speaker.

price wise they they were looking for £700 firm which seems possibly a bit high?

lustycourtier

Rob still occationally sells the combos via ebay (he wrapped up the company a while ago I think) for not much more than that, but its a great price for a great amp. Steve Cradock used one for a while, so if you like a vintage marshall eque tone, itll be a keeper. Later ones had half power switch.

 Wienbrock shouldve been a  massive brand. Robs and James' backgrounds and building pedigree are second to very few.

4114Effects

Excellent amps, and rob is a decent guy. He often comments on my builds on Facebook offering advice. They go for a fraction of what they would have cost new. Not sure why, the build quality is second to none no would rival any big name boutique builder. Perhaps they weren't marketed well enough or aggressively enough. I know rob still builds and tinkers, but not as weinbrock officially.

thomasw88

the bit I don't understand about this amp is the relationship between the different controls..

Regarding the amp controls  -  they seem to act very differently and although it sounds wonderful I'm a bit confused by them.

There is a volume, tone and bright pot, plus a couple of toggle switches (one on the front and one on the back.)

The one at the back doesn't seem to do anything that I can discernibly hear to be honest.  - but as I can only play it at shop volumes I'm guessing it could be some kind of half power switch??

the one on the front is a bright switch, but depending on where it is seems to have a different action with the bright/tone pots.

I'd be interested in seeing what the thought was behind the bright/volume pots as even wiht the volume right down if the bright pot is turned up there is some volume. 

Also the bright switched off seems to cut off the tone pot entirely  depending upon the front toggle switch.  

Its a fab amp tho and sounded awesome! Played it again today.

mgaw

is that the one at Coda?

thomasw88

no its in leeds

mgaw

i have had a couple of Robs amps think they are well worth the money....£700 for a top notch head and cab bargain...you will have difficulty moving it on though, but hey ho its a whole lot of amp for that money,,,,,cheers

John_A

I had a Gringo head that I wish I hadn't got rid of, really nice sounding amp

4114Effects

Never played one, but sounds like a variation on the 5e3 Fender tweed deluxe circuit. Bright and normal controls will essentially be separate channels but interact with each other in a strange way, as on the real one.

The switch on the back will likely be a pentode/triode switch which is kind of a half power switch but will make the amp less powerful, a little darker and distort more early on the volume knob.

beed84

I had the ME-1 and it was incredible. Extremely well made and sounded great. In all fairness, I wish I'd kept it.

thomasw88

after much searching... did find this:

I think the Gas man may cometh...

The Wienbrock GRINGO is our take on 'the' classic mid-1950's American 12W recording amplifier now modified with an uprated power supply featuring BLS transformers, F&T electrolytic capacitors and the choice of two output powers. It is capable of delivering 18 or 30W of soulful clean right into sizzling saturation with unrivalled clarity and sustain from either a pair of 6V6 or 6L6 output valves.

A single input feeds the mixable normal and newly revoiced bright channels; with the vintage/modern switch modifying the response of the normal channel and a master tone control... simple... effective. Input gain can also be customised simply by swapping the standard 12AY7 preamp valve in V1 for a 12AU7/ECC82, 12AT7/ECC81 or 5751 to either decrease or increase the gain of the input.

4114Effects

Yep. 5e3 circuit with bigger transformers and a few mods. :-)

4114Effects

And for what it's worth, the 5e3 I built is my go-to amp for gigs.

simonk

Project Music had a couple in a few months ago and they seemed very nice. Bernie Marsden ended up buying them both if that's any seal of approval.

thomasw88

oops look what I Just bought...

Went to another shop today, tried out another gringo 2x10 combo which sounded pretty good but was quite a bit bigger n heavier..  Also tried out an orange rocker combo -  meh....,  a Handwired Vox AC15 - which I did like alot, and a matamp which was great but confusing as hell control wise..

then nipped back to the other shop to get this bad boy.

have to work out how to get it back up to aberdeen now.

http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac351/thomasw88/P_20150716_175258_zps4uch8gzj.jpg

http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac351/thomasw88/P_20150716_175220_zpsvktixk9j.jpg

http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac351/thomasw88/P_20150716_175158_zpsf1iurdux.jpg

mgaw

a very good buy that mate wish i had kept both of my Wienbrock well worth the money

beed84

Have a wisdom. You did the right thing 

SunDevil

Nice amps indeed

A 5e3 derivative with the tone on the 'right side' of the vol pots, I believe.