Whatever happened to the Hellborg Warwick amps?

[kevk]

………..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.

Lol—guess I was one of the “17”…back in the day! : ) Bought my Hellborg Preamp new (can’t remember what I paid)…still resides in my wall rack…

I rarely use it…last time I fired it up was probably 2 years ago. The preamp indeed has a Neve flavor. Kept it this long—I’ll never loan it out, or sell it…

Mine is in pristine condition…typical to see an HB Preamp with one or more (sometimes all) knob lights that have burnt out. I actually have some replacement bulbs that Warwick sent me many years ago, but would have no idea how to properly solder/replace. Always assumed it was a design flaw. Funny, every time I turn it on, I wonder: “Is this the day a light will stop working?”

[Edit/add:]
I also had (for a very short while) the HB Big Cab (2x15); High Cab (2x12); Mono 250+500 amps…iirc, one of the Big Cab 15’s was facing downward. The preamp has two line outs—>to each amp; really nice being able to adjust the cab volume(s) separately. The stack sounded freak’n amazing, but ridiculously heavy and overpriced!

 

[Luke the Fluke]

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.

The circuit is a transformer that seems to have some similarities to a neve one into a THAT1512 preamp.
The Eq has induction coil based mids, with the frequencies tweaked for bass more than the neve EQ …

so kinda modern take on neve sound rather than a clone.

 

[agedhorse]

The circuit is a transformer that seems to have some similarities to a neve one into a THAT1512 preamp.
The Eq has induction coil based mids, with the frequencies tweaked for bass more than the neve EQ …

so kinda modern take on neve sound rather than a clone.

That was a common topology back in the day, Neve wasn't the only one to do it this way... in fact far from it.

 

[Luke the Fluke]

That was a common topology back in the day, Neve wasn't the only one to do it this way... in fact far from it.

Which part? using a transformer into a THAT1512 or the midrange EQ schematic being similar to the eq on a 1073?

 

[agedhorse]

Which part? using a transformer into a THAT1512 or the midrange EQ schematic being similar to the eq on a 1073?

Both

 

[Luke the Fluke]

Both

ahh - ignoring the EQ, do you know who would have been taking that kinda approach? I couldn't work out who was using similar topologies, I found examples of preamps using the THAT IC, but not with the input transformer infront of it - I'm guessing the design process was Jonas trying to recreate some kind of existing studio gear he liked.

 

[agedhorse]

The THAT IC is just a specialized op-amp. Lots of studio and broadcast gear, especially older gear, used this method with an input transformer.

The Kelsey +3 and Pro series consoles used exactly this topology back in the mid 70's IIRC.