Christmas Past Meets New-Years Sneak-Peek!

Ho Ho Ho from the frozen north land … of WGS.  Okay, that’s corny, but hey, ‘tis the season to be silly … fa la la la, la la la la!  I hope Santa brought all of y’all a bunch of super-cool guitar goodies.

As I reflect upon 2013 (wow, we’re already “reflecting” on 2013) I gotta say that, while the year has not been without it’s challenges … it was a banner year for WGS.  We’ve released some new models, which in itself would be no big deal, but oh, what awesome models they are.  The ET90 is a big wow-factor speaker that more than delivers on its promise to take the ever-loved and ever-popular ET65 into new territory, and the little G12Q is quite possibly the best sounding low-wattage, small magnet lightweight vintage 12 this side of 1965. 

Also new for 2013 is WGS’s worldwide acclaim.  The U.S. and most of the “western” world have known of the superior tone and quality of WGS speakers for years now; in 2013, however, the gospel of tone has found its way into most every nation on the face of the earth.  In an era of decline among most American manufacturers, WGS stands out as a phenomenal story of success.  Don’t ya just love it when the hard-working, good natured underdog comes out on top?  It’s sort of the “feel-good” story of the year :-)

And now on to the sneak-peek I promised.   In 2014 I will officially launch my own all-tube amp line, creatively named after myself!  (Hey, if Leo Fender can do it…)  These amps have been nearly 40 years in the making, since I tore my first cassette deck apart at age nine to turn it into a guitar amp.  They actually sport a logo I first used on drawings of amps I dreamed of building at about age 14.  Those amps looked like the proverbial “wall of Marshalls” so famous in the late 70’s.  The amps I actually have ended up building bear little resemblance to those dreams of youth.  However they do, in fact, bear much resemblance to the Woody, Tweed, and Brown Fender amps that were among the first amps I owned and grew up playing through.  As the amps mature, I’ll do my best to keep y’all informed of the progress.  For now, here is a sneak-peek of three models: A 12” combo, an 8” combo, and a head.  All sound downright amazing, and I’ll be using WGS speakers exclusively, of course (except for possibly a true vintage speaker from the 60’s from time to time).  The 12” combo, with a Black & Blue Alnico sounds fat and brilliant in a way never before experienced, and already has enough pre-orders to keep me busy for the first part of 2014 … but the 8” combo is the real startling surprise.  After hearing the amazing luxurious tone of the 1x12’s, I almost didn’t continue with my plans to build a “champ sized” 1x8” combo; I’m SOOO glad I gave it a shot.  The combination of an extremely fat & juicy, very vintage amp and unique tube complement with a cabinet of hand-selected finger-jointed pine and walnut, slightly oversize from a traditional tweed Champ, and outfitted with the WGS 8” results in the biggest, warmest, fattest, juiciest little combo the world has ever known.  Okay, enough tooting my own horn!  Here are the first pics :-)  Talk to y’all in 2014!

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