Wharfdale Music Instrument brochure 2009 - Jedistar

www.wharfedale.com

Contents
History 1
Designer's Words 3
TCT Series 5
WHB Series 7
WGR Series 9
WD Series 11

HISTORY
Gilbert Briggs, one of the forefathers of modern
audio and founder of the 'Wharfedale Wireless
Works' in 1932 (standing right)

History
Wharfedale History
Wharfedale, as a brand, was one of the very earliest pioneers of high-quality audio reproduction. Founded in
1932 by Mr. Gilbert Briggs, the company started life as a tiny cottage production line. Indeed, the first drive
units ever made by Wharfedale, the 'Bronze' model which won first prize in the 'Bradford Radio Society' annual
competition was manufactured in Gilbert's own attic in the sleepy village of Idle, near Bradford in the valley of
the river 'Wharfe'.
Today, to remain at the very forefront of audio, Wharfedale has a dedicated 1.5 million square foot
manufacturing operation in which every single product and process takes place in-house. Instead of having to
use off-the-shelf components from a catalogue as most other purported 'Hi-Fi' companies choose to, we are
able to build a complete vision - to engineer every single component from scratch to achieve a harmony in
performance and balance.
With a Wharfedale loudspeaker, you get 75 years of experience, the most advanced research and development
programme - and the most integrated and thorough manufacturing and quality control process in the industry.
In Brief
Founded in
Founder
Country of origin
Brand portfolio
Price range
Philosophy
Product range
1932
Gilbert Briggs
England
Hi-Fi and Home Cinema Loudspeakers
GBP100/pair to GBP14,000/pair
Good value and well-built. Best value in every price category.
Airedale Heritage, Airedale Neo, Opus2, EVO2, Diamond 9, Diamond 8, RS-10
2

Designer's Words
Designer's WordS
For four decades I have devoted myself in harnessing my skills in designing amplifiers.
Establishing a name now recognized as synonymous to equipments used for high class guitar
playing styles from world-renowned guitarists on countless records and concert stages, to
local amateur bands playing at a pub on a Saturday night.
I discovered my desire to broaden my knowledge of live music technology when as a young
struggling musician, I could not afford neither the latest nor the best products. With a naturally
enquiring mind, I sought to learn how the instruments worked and how to improve them by
combining the existing with the advanced technology, a vision that marked the beginning of
my passionate journey to creating affordable tools that deliver the goods for working musicians
– a Philosophy I still apply until now.
Steve Grindrod
Wharfedale, with its vision of providing consumers with the best audio-video products,
recognizing the reputation I have established in the music industry as well as my philosophy
in creating “value for money” products, presented an opportunity to build a partnership and
further explore my abilities as a designer and as a musician as well – an offer utterly difficult
to turn down.
The collaboration eventually resulted to the formation of Wharfedale Musical Instruments (WMI)
Division in August 2008. Equipped with probably the most advanced audio manufacturing
facility available, we plan to bring you world leading amplifier products at honest “value for
money” prices. They may never be the cheapest, because to me, being the cheapest means
they have been designed to be cheap – but we will always endeavor to present you with the
best products we can, without charging you “over the odds”.
Thank you for reading our first catalogue and for showing interest in our products. We assure
you loads of exciting new products in the coming months. We hope we can satisfy your
musical ideas for a long time as we have put all our hearts and exerted all our efforts into
producing them.
Director
Wharfedale Musical Instruments Division
4

TCT Series

TCT Series
Twin channel tube – a range of high level tube
(valve) amplifiers comprising of:
A very comprehensive range of high end professional quality tube amplifiers and speaker cabinets, all designed by Steve Grindrod, who has
put all his many years of design experience into these products. The “boutique” cosmetic design, tough build quality, and the advanced and
unique features, as well as catering for a very broad spectrum of classic and modern electric guitar sounds make these amplifiers a “must
have” product range for any discerning guitarist.
The TCT (twin channel tube) amp range consists of 2 combo amps (TCT35C, TCT50C), 2 heads (TCT50H, TCT100H), and 2 loudspeaker
cabinets (W212, W412).
The TCT range all feature 2 channels that can be footswitch controlled for A/B switching and also channel MIX operation.
Although each channel is harmonically different in their tonal spectrums, they have a full set of very flexible controls enabling the creation
and control of beautiful clean to outrageous overdrive sounds.
The power amplifier section also has unique controls to alter not only the attack dynamics (presence), but also the depth of the speaker
inter-reaction, the amount of feedback for a tighter or looser sound, power level switching, and also output phase for guitar/room acoustic
response (this feature is also invaluable when using multi amp set-ups).
A sweet sounding Digital Reverb circuit and series FX loop complete the sonic capabilities of these products.
All our transformers are designed and built by ourselves, the output transformers are built on Z-11 laminations. Z-11 is one of the best High
Grade lamination materials, and is used for superior sound quality, being on par to custom made “boutique” transformers.
The TCT Series will be available in Spring 2009.
TCT Tube Guitar Amp Series
TCT100H
TCT50H
TCT50C
TCT35C
WMI 212
WMI 412
100 watt twin channel tube head
50 watt twin channel tube head
50 watt twin channel tube 2x12" combo
35 watt twin channel tube 1x12" combo
2X12" closed back speaker cabinet
4X12" closed back speaker cabinet, X pattern
EL34 output/footswitch incl./digital reverb
EL34 output/footswitch incl./digital reverb
EL34 output/footswitch incl./digital reverb
6L6 output/footswitch incl./digital reverb
140watt handling
280watt handling
6

WHB Series

WHB Series
Wharfedale Hybrid Bass
A comprehensive range of professional quality Bass guitar products, featuring state-of-the-art tube powered preamps, and very musical highdefinition
Bi-polar transistor power amplifiers. This mixture of technology allows the WHB range to produce bass sounds to have the warm,
harmonically-rich high headroom of good tube design delivered with the dynamic punch that a musically designed bi-polar power amp section
can deliver.
Our EQ system is very wide ranging and extremely versatile allowing the goods to be delivered from warm intimate jazz to hard driving rock – and
all points in-between.
As with all Wharfedale speakers, we design and build our own speaker drivers – from the ground up, including our own speaker cones – we
build what we want to do the job properly, not make do with what speaker companies want us to use. From the lowest note through to our special
angular dispersion compression horn that puts the sound in your ears, not at your feet.
All WHB Bass series products feature massively internally braced cabinets for rock-solid resonant free performance. The WHB power amplifier
has a soft-clip circuit that allows the transition from clean to overdriven to be smooth and musical without any harsh clipping to be apparent. All
cabinets are designed for 8ohm impedance.
The range will be extended with WHB600H (600 watt head) and WHB215 Cabinet (2x15”) mid-2009.
Lower powered bass products to follow.
The above WHB series will be available first quarter 2009.
WHB Valve/SS Bass Amp Series
WHB300H
WHB200C
WHB115
WHB210
WHB410
300 watt hybrid bass head
200 watt hybrid bass combo
15" 300 watt ported bass speaker cabinet
2x10" 200 watt ported bass speaker cabinet
4x10" 400 watt ported bass speaker cabinet
300 watt/4 ohm - 200 watt/8 ohm
2x10" + angular horn
1x15"
2x10" + angular horn
4x10" + angular horn
8

Series

WGR Series
Low cost combos with high voltage tube
hybrid preamp, solid state power.
A range of competitive priced, superior performance combos (and future released heads and cabinets) for mass-market semi-professional
appeal.
Ergonomically designed cabinets house radical hybrid (tube/solid-state) electronic circuitry providing professional sound performance no matter
at what power level and at what cost level.
The range has increasing features and complexity with the increase in power level/model size, providing the right capability of performance for
beginner, serious practise, semi-pro and pro-musician alike.
All models (except WGR10) have high performance in-built digital reverb.
WGR Valve/SS Low cost Guitar Amp Series
WGR10C
10 watt hybrid combo
WGR40C
40 watt twin channel hybrid combo
WGR80C
80 watt twin channel hybrid combo
1x8" speaker/no reverb/boost panelswitch
1x10" speaker/digital reverb/boost footswitch
1x12" speaker/digital reverb/boost footswitch
10

WD Series

WD Series
Radical shaped all metal construction, twin
channel solid state with digital effects system.
This range of products consists of 3 combo models (W15D, W30D, W60D) 15 watts/1x10” speaker, 30 watts 1x12” speaker, 60 watts/2x10”
speaker respectively. Each amplifier uses a common preamp design, but with the increasing size, power amplifier, and speaker combinations, as
is required.
The construction takes a massive departure from traditional guitar amplifier construction and does not use any wood at all. Instead the entire
cabinet structure is made out of pressed steel and painted parts and plastic moulded side-panels. This has enabled a very unique product styling
that would have been impossible to do using traditional methods of construction. A very unique design style is the very impressive result.
The preamp delivers a widely variable range of sounds from sparkly clean to warm blues to British crunch to US style west-coast High Gain.
WD Valve/SS Low cost Guitar Amp Series
W15D
15 watt twin channel combo
W30D
30 watt twin channel combo
W60D
60 watt twin channel combo
1x10" speaker/digital FX/retro-fit wireless
1x12" speaker/digital FX/retro-fit wireless
2x10" speaker/digital FX/retro-fit wireless
12

IAG House, Sovereign Court, Ermine Business Park, Huntingdon, Cambs, PE29 6XU, England
The information in this brochure is subject to change without notice.
All rights reserved 2009 Wharfedale. Wharfedale is a member of the International Audio Group.
www.wharfedale.com