Conference napalm::guitar

    
    Take it, dude!!!  Ask questions later!!!
    
    J.

    Now *there's* a cautious person, checks out references on something
    before he lets someone GIVE it to him...

    Only WEM I can think of is (was) Watkins, best known for their
    analogue, tape loop echo unit, the Copycat. I first had one back
    around 1964 when I was with a band in the south of England, and
    I have the feeling they tried to get into amps, but Marshall and
    Vox had the market pretty well sewn up. As far as I know they went
    under a long time ago.
    
    FWIW,
    
    Andy
    
    PS - grab it anyway, valve amps are easy to fix up.
    

    
    As .3 says WEM was Watkins Electro Music.  They made lots of amps,
    check out the back cover of the Pink Floyd album "Ummagumma" for ashot
    of their all-WEM backline, circa 1968.
    

    
    	WEM (Watkins Electrical Music) I believe are still around.  They
    are famous for the WEM copycat as -1 said (Hi Andy..remember me from 
    Reading NAC days?) which was a multihead tape loop echo.  They're a UK
    based firm & back in the 60's & early 70's were almost industry
    standard over here.  Status Quo at one time used them exclusivly in the
    back line.  You still see them around, they seem to soldier on forever.
    The amps from what I remember were all valve but I don't think they
    went in for lots of watts, the popular one was a 75 watt head with 4x12
    (FANE I think) units, they also did these really tall PA columns like
    6x12 all in a row which just about all big club bands used in the 60's.  
    They seemed to dissappear from the amp/cab scene in the late 70's early 
    80's but carried on with effects (esp the copycat) for a while until the 
    digital delay lines caught up in price performance. I occasionally see
    what look like brand new copycats in stores over here  & relacement tape 
    loops are still in stock all over the place which is what makes me think 
    they're still around but they could have been bought out I suppose.
    
    	As regards your situation there's a saying over this side of the
    pond which goes "Never look a gift horse in the mouth".
    
    Hope this helps
    
    Cheers
    		Pete
    P.S. re -1 Andy, I still regret not buying your Ovation!!!
                                                 

    Hi Pete,
    
    I eventually traded the Ovation (Legend 6) for a Legend Custom 12
    about 18 months ago and still love it as much today! :^) That, along
    with a G&L Skyhawk are what I'm making a row with over here these
    days ,through a little BOSS delay/flanger into a Fender.
    
    Thanks for the update on WEM - good to know they're still around.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Andy
    

The last time I heard of WEM amps was back in 1969 at Fillmore East in NYC. The
Who were there performing a somewhat abbreviated version of "Tommy".  Apparently
the house system was not to their liking, so they used their own system -- huge,
tall, loud-and-clear stacks of WEM loudspeakers. Had never heard of them then --
have never seen them since...

Jack.......

    
    
      A friend of mine has a picture taken during a Tull concert long
    ago. Martin Barre standing in front of a WEM.
       Take it.
    
    RC
    

	We used to play thru a largish WEM (probably their 40-50W model)
	in the early 70s.  The amp was ugly as hell, but tough.  It fell
	off the back of our car (a 1928 Model A) and survived.  We lost
	the tubes and cracked some of the knobs, but that was it.

	All this talk about the CopyCat is bringing back memories.  Does
	anyone remember the HiWatts used by the Who?  They had a "Who"
	endorsement etched on the front panel.  Great amps!

	/ravi

    
    	Yeah, Hi-Watt were beasts.  The Who number "Long Live Rock"
    actually has a line in it which goes somthing like "....the place was
    really rocking to the Hi-Watt amps....."  
    
    	A pal of mine was looking at some modern Hi-Watt stuff but wasn't 
    impressed.
    
    	Cheers
    		Pete.