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mystery valve power amp!

stuv

Member
hi there, i'm a new member so bear with me! i have an old valve power amp made by a company called wellington acoustic laboratories ltd or WAL who, according to the engraved chrome nameplate on the front of the amp were based in farnham surrey. i've been trying to find out any info on this for years without any luck. has anybody heard of them at all and did they make a pre amp to match the groovy looking power amp i have? i can send pics if need be. any help would be gratefully received. cheers, stu.
 
hi there, i'm a new member so bear with me! i have an old valve power amp made by a company called wellington acoustic laboratories ltd or WAL who, according to the engraved chrome nameplate on the front of the amp were based in farnham surrey. i've been trying to find out any info on this for years without any luck. has anybody heard of them at all and did they make a pre amp to match the groovy looking power amp i have? i can send pics if need be. any help would be gratefully received. cheers, stu.

No idea ... but we want pics now!!

Its the rules of this part of the forum y'know. Ask anyone ;)
 
Hi Stu, Uncle Ants et al
I suspect that what you have Stu is the "Twin Ten stereo valve amplifier" that uses LN309 valves in the output stages. According to Johnathan Hill's book "Audio Audio" WAL made a matching pre the "Twin Twenty stereo control unit" Don't ever remember seeing one though, but my memory isn't what it was

John Caswell
 
hi john, thanks for the quick response and the info. that is indeed the amp i have. now though how do i find the matching pre amp!!? any one out there have one?
uncle ants, i can send pics direct if i have your email but how the heck do i get pics up on the site here?
cheers,
stu.
 
Hi Stu.
I know this one quite well as I did a total rebuild to one about 3 years ago. There's a picture of it in one of the BVWS bulletins from 2/3 years ago.
Turned out rather nice.
Henry
 
I bought a used WAL power amp and preamp way back in the early 1960's when I was in the US Air Force. I was at Brize Norton AB on temporary duty at the time and bought them plus a pair of WAL cabinet speakers. The amp overheated due to being in an unvented cabinet when someone closed the doors. It was too far gone to fix so I junked them. Sorry no pics but the preamp had an horizontal oval face with a large cream colored knob at each end. There were some other switches and controls between the large knobs. I still have the speakers however and they are undergoing a cosmetic refurbishing. They were residing in the basement for some 30 years and I recently bought a Sherwood stereo receiver. I thought they would be a good match so I got them out. The innards looked good, no rust, so I tightened a few loose connections and started sanding. They're not quite done yet, restain and varnish in progress, so I can post some photos when they are ready. I ran across this thread when I searched WAL to see if they were still in business. I don't know if this helps but I thought it made a good story.
 
I bought a used WAL power amp and preamp way back in the early 1960's when I was in the US Air Force. I was at Brize Norton AB on temporary duty at the time and bought them plus a pair of WAL cabinet speakers. The amp overheated due to being in an unvented cabinet when someone closed the doors. It was too far gone to fix so I junked them. Sorry no pics but the preamp had an horizontal oval face with a large cream colored knob at each end. There were some other switches and controls between the large knobs. I still have the speakers however and they are undergoing a cosmetic refurbishing. They were residing in the basement for some 30 years and I recently bought a Sherwood stereo receiver. I thought they would be a good match so I got them out. The innards looked good, no rust, so I tightened a few loose connections and started sanding. They're not quite done yet, restain and varnish in progress, so I can post some photos when they are ready. I ran across this thread when I searched WAL to see if they were still in business. I don't know if this helps but I thought it made a good story.

Makes a great story, but is of course useless without pictures :)
 
I bought a used WAL power amp and preamp way back in the early 1960's when I was in the US Air Force. I was at Brize Norton AB on temporary duty at the time and bought them plus a pair of WAL cabinet speakers. The amp overheated due to being in an unvented cabinet when someone closed the doors. It was too far gone to fix so I junked them. Sorry no pics but the preamp had an horizontal oval face with a large cream colored knob at each end. There were some other switches and controls between the large knobs. I still have the speakers however and they are undergoing a cosmetic refurbishing. They were residing in the basement for some 30 years and I recently bought a Sherwood stereo receiver. I thought they would be a good match so I got them out. The innards looked good, no rust, so I tightened a few loose connections and started sanding. They're not quite done yet, restain and varnish in progress, so I can post some photos when they are ready. I ran across this thread when I searched WAL to see if they were still in business. I don't know if this helps but I thought it made a good story.

Ah, Brize Norton air base. We lived about 10 miles away and, as small children, we were frightened by the big
aircraft.
An organisation called CND told us that these aircraft were carrying atomic bombs.
As you can imagine, it traumatised us.
I’ve never forgiven the American government for frightening me so much.
Oh, and I have heard of WAL...
 
Guys, Wellington Acoustic Laboratories Ltd. was a branch-out company from another company called Sound Sales, if you want to learn more about it you could pay the 'Sound Sales UK' group a visit. Besides, it'll be useful if you could share some pictures or useful information/ links in the group!
 
Fairly sure there's no connection, Wal guitars came onto the scene in 1976 when Ian Waller (hence WAL) built a bass guitar for a session player called John Perry.
The WAL amp came from the 50's from Sound Sales as noted by Ethan.
 
WAL Duo-Reflex

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Ah, sorry for the delay in replying, just had to go and get some batteries for my camera, haha! So (after 12 years) I finally got around to taking some pics! I'd still love to get hold of a preamp for this amp, though i did find a micro preamp (for a turntable perhaps) to go with it in the intervening years since first posting my query! Glad to see the thing is still stirring some thoughts and creating comments. Btw, as far as i know they have nothing at all to do with WAL bass guitars but funnily enough i actually do own an old MK1 4 string as well! Anyway, here's some pics (finally :)).

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