Whatever happened to the Hellborg Warwick amps?

[MHensleyJr]

Just wondering if anyone else remembers the Warwick Hellborg rig from back in the 2000s. I remember when they dropped, it was treated like it was going to be the holy grail of bass tone —studio-quality preamps, great power amp, etc..

What happened? I can’t find much on the forums about them TBH. Did Warwick quietly kill it off? I remember they were crazy expensive! Or did it just fall out of fashion when Class D heads emerged?

 

[agedhorse]

Very limited appeal, and expensive too.

 

[ardgedee]

I've noticed Hellborg-endorsed equipment tends to be top-of-the-top-of-the-line stuff. For example see the relatively recent Hellborg strings from Dogal -- price start at €140 (US$158) for 4-string flats. Really nice but you have to pay for what you get.

 

[brianrost]

Jonas Hellborg using flats? The sky is falling!

 

[Aloe]

I don't believe, they were extremely popular back in the day. Warwick did claim to use some design elements from them in the BC combo and WA heads line, I think, at that moment they've already discontinued the Hellborg line.

at some point Warwick just stopped producing amps in Germany and started to order them from China, and this was a different line of amps. the Hellborg line was dead along with other Germany-made amps. the successor was a Chinese line of WA heads, followed by short-lived LWA (class D) line.

 

[lomo]

Very limited appeal, and expensive too.

....but at least they were bulky and heavy.

 

[Slade N]

They live in maybe studios, museum's and in dusty corners

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[Luke the Fluke]

Oh I wish I had kept my hellborg preamp. I plan to make a clone of it.

 

[ThomasTronics]

I've seen many reviews of them being of the highest quality and clarity.
Years ago they were cheap and now I think the community has picked up on how good they are.
If you can find one that is reasonably priced I'd scoop it.

 

[Diddywah]

I had the stereo power amp. It was insanely heavy; like you looked at it and thought; can't be that bad, and then you pick it up.....
They're discontinued long time ago.
Picked mine up used, and the $/kg ratio was quite good. So was the sound

 

[HolmeBass]

I always wanted to try one out. Supposedly they sound fantastic.

 

[Altitude]

Very expensive, esoteric, and cool. Narrow market.

I’d guess the Sadowsky tube amp from the same period was similar.

I’d love to have one of each.

 

[D.A.R.K.]

I recall reading the preamp was based on Neve? Is that correct? Always wanted to try one. I don't think they ever intended on making a lot of these, kind of like a Sadowski SA200 it's labor of love, high end super nerd stuff that is possible from Normie product sales.

 

[baxter_x]

I think the SA200 As actually supposed to set new standards for bass amplification. That's what Roger Sadowsky said on Facebook a several years ago.
Unfortunately some reliability issues and Dolf Koch retiring plus a euro dollar change not so favorable ended the production of that great amp.

 

[D.A.R.K.]

I think the SA200 As actually supposed to set new standards for bass amplification. That's what Roger Sadowsky said on Facebook a several years ago.
Unfortunately some reliability issues and Dolf Koch retiring plus a euro dollar change not so favorable ended the production of that great amp.

Yeah, pretty much the same promotional lingo around the Hellborg release. Actually, checking a 2012 vid on them and "new standard" was used verbatim.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Wonder if they sold more than 50 and I wonder if that’s being generous?

 

[agedhorse]

New standard, I would presume, would include a long and well accepted lifecycle too?

 

[winegamd]

The Hellborg was unique because he followed Neve's philosophy of using transformers for all of the level and impedance matching, similar to a tube amp. He thought that this offered superior sound over solid state circuits. It is a very pristine sounding preamp that can be driven very hard without breakup.

From what I remember of a conversation with someone at BNW back in the day, they were just too expensive and didn't offer much of a profit margin. The few Hellborg items BNW had, I remember them selling for well below MSRP.

 

[MHensleyJr]

I vaguely remember P-Nut from 311 using them for a while. Were they any other well known players using the hellborg amps?

 

[J Wilson]

A guy here in Nashville (I could never quite figure out if it was someone famous with an endorsement deal, or a monied hobby player) had a full Hellborg rig
(preamp, power amp, and one each of those unique cabinets) and had it on CL . . . . for 15 grand. Don't know if it found a new home or not.

Expensive to make, Expensive MSRP, and a specialist piece. After all 17 people who could afford them bought them, I'd bet Warwick lost interest fast.