Satellite Amplifiers resurrects the fabled White Higher Fidelity Amplifier

SatelliteAmps · #1 06-01-2011, 08:54 PM

I've spend a number of years (25+) dealing with guitars and amplifiers. One of the best ones I've ever run across was a little White Amplifier, made by the White Amplifier Co. These amps had punch, and fire, and warmth, and anger, and everything I was looking for in a small amp.

I started obsessing, getting more and more involved in the history and story of these amps. Most of the original info is very inaccurate. The people who were involved are either gone, or they weren't directly involved.

The story goes a little like this. Leo Fender decided to make an amp and lap steel set, and named them after his right hand man, Forest White. He didn't tell Forest about it until they were coming off the production line. Forest really didn't know much about any of the actual product, but he did receive one with a serial number of AS0001. This was not the first amp as a lot of people like to believe. There was an earlier serial number system like the earlier tweed Champ, so there are amps with a 9000 series serial number that came a while before Forest got his (they also have earlier date codes).

There have always been rumors as to how many of these amps were ever actually made. A good guess is under 1000, but how many under is really a mystery. No one has seen any sales figures, catalogs, ads or really any reasoning as to why Leo even decided to do this lineup.

Anyways, the circuit is very similar to a tweed Princeton. They used any one of a dozen different transformers and had at least 3 slightly different circuits. They all sounded amazing. The White amps seemed to be more alive than their Princeton counterparts. We spent the last five years determining everything about what makes these amps tick. And then we reproduced it.

We will be bringing the first three prototypes to the NY Amp Show this weekend (we're in room 205). Stop by if you would like to check one out. The prototypes will be for sale. We are also currently taking preorders now. The production line will start shipping in two weeks.

Retail price $950.

BBender · #2 06-01-2011, 09:06 PM

F'in A! Would love to hear one of these bad boys!! Lance Keltner...I want a demo done dude!!

LavaMan · #3 06-01-2011, 11:12 PM

What a cool back story....I would love to hear one...

Mountain Cat Guitars · #4 06-02-2011, 03:46 AM

Such a cool idea!!! Cant wait to try one!!!!!!

Cornbread · #5 06-02-2011, 05:25 AM

Adam, any more info?
Watts, Speaker, Tubes, etc....???

SatelliteAmps · #6 06-02-2011, 06:04 AM

We did it as close to the original spec as humanly possible. Haven't measured the wattage, but it should be right around 4 to 5 watts.

Single 6V6, single 12AX7, and a 5Y3 rectifier (personally, I like a 5AR4 in it though. Gives it a little extra oomph).

Speaker choice was quite the ordeal. We spent about ten days total testing speakers. New and old were all put to the test. I really like a few of the old Jensens, like the P8S, or the PM8C. There were two reasons why we didn't go that route. Consistancy and supply. The old Jensens don't all sound alike. Some were insanely great, while otehrs were dark and dreary. We tried every new model speaker we could get our hands on. Ceramic and Alnico alike. We narrowed it down to two speakers, the Jensen reissue P8R that has been specially broken in by us (to remove a bit of the high end harshness) or a newcomer for us, the VOR P8R. This was my first time hearing one of the VOR speakers (made in the USA) and I must say, it is a phenomenal speaker. Tonally it is rich and luxurious. The Jensen is a tad louder though. For the three we are bringing to the show, we have both speakers (one VOR and two Jensens). The production model will ship with the VOR though.

We went through a bunch of our vintage White amps (and a few other vintage amps) to accurately re-create the old iron. We went with Mercury Magnetics, as usual for us. The PT was something they had off the shelf, while the OT is a custom built one to true vintage specs. The only question up in the air is whether we are going to offer the amp with a multi-tap output.

For the wood, we had a bunch of conversations with some wood guys (luthiers mostly), about varieties of pine (over 100 varieties). We narrowed our choice down to a #2 grade Sugar Pine. It's very lightweight, straight, and dry. The cabinets are nice and light, and the dry pine gives a resonances like nothing else can. Baffle is made of real Baltic Birch Ply. This is a slight variation off the original. We couldn't find pine ply that was decent. Everything we could find had voids and would rattle.

One other aspect of the amp was the covering. That was extremely difficult to unravel, but now we know where a lot of the old companies got thier "tolex." This stuff is amazing. It is fiberous, but also extremely durable. It is also thinner than what a lot of companies are having made. This thin covering allows the pine to really resonate.

dr.morton · #7 06-07-2011, 01:22 AM

Looks great!
Now we want clips :-)

SatelliteAmps · #8 06-07-2011, 01:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dr.morton

Looks great!
Now we want clips :-)

Thanks. We did a short video with Premier at the NY Amp Show, which will be up soon. MountainCat is also doing one as well. When I get back home I wllalso be getting one together.

Mountain Cat Guitars · #9 06-07-2011, 03:53 AM

Love the White amp!!!!!! Adam did an amazing job on these, they have a very distinct sound. We are going to do a video tomorrow and try to capture how well these were thought out and built. A great idea!!!