fillmore west ear killer!!!

[bennieusmaximus]

anyone out there got a fillmore west?200 watt ear killer!!!

[Regis]

anyone out there got a fillmore west?200 watt ear killer!!!

Do you mean the West amps built by Dave West? There was a Fillmore model with four 6550's if I'm not mistaken. I had a West Grande that had two EL34's when I was a kid and it was loud as hell, a great amp.

[bennieusmaximus]

yea thats the one!mine had rca kt88's in it.It is a great amp to run with stomp boxes.Really kinda transperant in this way.i dont know if its the kind of tubes or the design.I think mine is all original.this amp will blow your ear drums and give you a hernia draging it to gigs.

[ETR]

yea thats the one!mine had rca kt88's in it.It is a great amp to run with stomp boxes.Really kinda transperant in this way.i dont know if its the kind of tubes or the design.I think mine is all original.this amp will blow your ear drums and give you a hernia draging it to gigs.

I had a West Avalon back in the day. Great sounding amp. It's basically a Sunn output section with a Fender preamp.

[bennieusmaximus]

this amp seems to be built very well and very simple.The transformers are huge.My cousin was gona pitch it out of his garage if I didn't take it.the head cabinet was rotted off from being in his garage for so long.It didnt work,took it home and touched all the points with an iron and it fired up.I made a new cab for it and it hasbeen running for 2 years straight.I dont know if i could trust it on any real gigs without being overhauled though.

[Gtr_tech]

Ya gotta watch the pwr/stby switches in some of those West amps. If they're the flat "paddle" style handle ones they're junk. They're actually telephone style switches....little open frame leaf jobs that aren't rated for the application. I'd advise getting them outta there ASAP and replacing them with heavier units.

I had a "Grande" in for repair a few years back......put in KT90 output tubes and it actually sounded real nice. THey're better suited to bass use tho....the ultralinear output sections he used are a little screechy in the upper midrange when used for guitar.

[ETR]

Ya gotta watch the pwr/stby switches in some of those West amps. If they're the flat "paddle" style handle ones they're junk. They're actually telephone style switches....little open frame leaf jobs that aren't rated for the application. I'd advise getting them outta there ASAP and replacing them with heavier units.

I had a "Grande" in for repair a few years back......put in KT90 output tubes and it actually sounded real nice. THey're better suited to bass use tho....the ultralinear output sections he used are a little screechy in the upper midrange when used for guitar.

I loved the power/SB switch in mine. It was off down, turned red (SB) in the middle and up was green. I used mine mostly for bass as well. I had 15" SRO cabs.

[Gtr_tech]

Well they *looked* cool, but they were not a good switch to use for that application. I've seen 'em with the contacts damn near burned right off. I actually found that series of switch in an old Switchcraft catalog and looked up the contact rating. I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was definitely a low voltage signal type switch.

[bennieusmaximus]

yea,i noticed a slight spark at times from that paddle switch .I thought about changing the switch but I realy dont know if the amp is "vintage material".I am really trying to figure out if I care if any amp if "vintage material".Between safety or original equipment wwhat is realy more important?This question is probably for another thead.:::

[Gtr_tech]

"Vintage" or not if its not safe to operate, make it that way. West amps are not all that collectable, so at least make it usable. If it sounds good, it *is* good. Keep it that way, and keep it up and runnin'.

[Regis]

"Vintage" or not if its not safe to operate, make it that way. West amps are not all that collectable, so at least make it usable. If it sounds good, it *is* good. Keep it that way, and keep it up and runnin'.

Maybe more collectible than you think, like I said earlier I had a Grande when I was a kid (In fact it was the second amp I owned, after a Silvertone 1482). I did a regular search on Ebay starting a few years ago for West amps and they are hard to find. Not surprising since they were local around the Michigan area. Grand Funk Railroad was the only band to use them professionally.

Only a couple West heads popped up in my search in more than a year and they went for stupid money. I have all the schematics, I guess the only thing to do is build one.

I remember Dave West started another amp line... It was around 1980 I think. I don't remember the brand name he called them, but I saw bands around the Lansing area using them, and they sounded pretty good as I recall. Or maybe not, that was 29 years ago and I was probably drunk at the time. Enzo lives in that area, maybe he would remember?

Good nostalgia, thanks for this thread.

[crazyb]

I just bought a West Fillmore from someone, and I can't find shit for information on it beyond the West labs website. Does anyone know what all the connections are on the back and what ohms the output is rated?

I think my trans is bad or something, when you turn up the volume, it doesn't get any louder from 3 on.

I wonder how much they are worth?

[bennieusmaximus]

Yea the 4 jacks next to the impedance switch are all speaker jacks and the othe 2 are preamp in and out.Good luck finding anything on the.I think vintage guitar guide had these listed in the last guide as $1500 on the low end and $3000 on the high end.I was told that by a freind though and have not confermed this.

[bennieusmaximus]

I forgot to tell you the 3 position switch next to the speaker jacks switches impedance.the top is 4 ohms middle is 8 ohms bottom is 16 ohms.If you have 4 16 ohm cabs hookem all up just once at the same time and make the earth shake.Feels like the 70's arena all over again.

[crazyb]

@bennieusmaximus thanks for the info! Too bad I only have 3 cabs and one is 8ohm ha!

Do you own a West?

I'm gonna play around with this amp for a while see what i think, read some where that they are great with stomp boxes, but I'm really looking for that marshall jcm800 sound and i dont know if i'll get close with these 6550 tubes.

I just hope it's not in need of too much repair, good thing I paid hardly nothing for it... with a cab!

[crazyb]

I forgot to tell you the 3 position switch next to the speaker jacks switches impedance.the top is 4 ohms middle is 8 ohms bottom is 16 ohms.If you have 4 16 ohm cabs hookem all up just once at the same time and make the earth shake.Feels like the 70's arena all over again.

Is there any way I could get you to email me pictures of the front and back of your amp?

[bennieusmaximus]

I am not very good at this computer stuff yet,but I could probably get my wife to help me out.My enclosure is somthing I made since the orig was junk,but still is cool.I kinda copied off my freinds marshal major.I'll try to do that as soon as I can.I would really like to se what an orig cab looks like.West's website does not have a picture or I would have copied off of that for my design.

[crazyb]

I am not very good at this computer stuff yet,but I could probably get my wife to help me out.My enclosure is somthing I made since the orig was junk,but still is cool.I kinda copied off my freinds marshal major.I'll try to do that as soon as I can.I would really like to se what an orig cab looks like.West's website does not have a picture or I would have copied off of that for my design.

No worries if you can't get it, I just wanted to know what the original labeling looked like so i can try to reproduce it. Can't find any photo's online.

I have a little section about all the stuff I've found on my website here