SPECIFICATIONS

Headway Amps have the talented John Littler and Gremlin Music behind them. King of the castle or a bit of a horse? Sam Wise plugs in...

Review.

32

ShireKingSK60

Model: Headway Shire King 60Price: £475Manufacturer: HeadwayBuilt in: KoreaType: Solid-state comboPower: 60 wattsFeatures: 2 independent channels, XLR mic input, passive magnetic, high impedance and instrument inputs, phantom power, DSP section with 26 Alesis effects, effects loop, line out, tuner out, headphones out, XLR DI out.Speaker: 1 x 8 inch driver, plus moving diaphragm tweeter.Dimentions: 375(h) 385 (w) 270(d) Weight: 11kg (24lbs)

Gremlin Music T: gremlinmusic.co.ukheadwayelectronics.com

“The more time you spend with the Shire King, the more you feel that every detail has been thought out by somebody who understands the needs of acoustic musicians”

It’s an old cliché that first impressions count, and like most clichés, there’s a great deal of truth in it. When the SK60 arrived for

review, along with it came a request to contact John Littler, the creator of the amp, and the owner of Headway Electronics, for more details. This is not something which happens when you get a product from more well-known manufacturers of amplifiers, and the first impression it created was of a boutique product, whose creators take a personal interest in its success. That was enough to set it apart in my mind from the offerings of many corporations, and set me in mind of the early days of companies like Paul Reed Smith and Mesa Boogie; I loved that this amp had a daddy who was looking out for Junior’s success! At £469.95, the SK60 is not a product priced for the beginner, but neither is it the most expensive in its sector, by a long chalk. It seems to be aimed at the serious player, be they amateur or professional, and would be at home in a rehearsal room, on small stages with a band, or used as a pre-amp for bigger gigs. It’s most natural environment, however, would be amplifying a solo guitarist or singer songwriter on stage in a small venue, and for someone who takes their art seriously, it’s well worth the money. More than anything, the Shire King looks professional, by which I mean that it’s unfussy, not flashy, and looks like it means business; it looks like a piece of pro audio equipment. The downside of that is that pro audio kit is designed to work, and to be unobtrusive, rather than to impress your mates; if you’re looking for an amp with a large helping of ‘bling’, this isn’t it. The SK60 is housed in a small birch ply cabinet, with the speaker angled slightly back

from vertical. All the bottom corners are protected by metal reinforcements, as are the top rear corners, though the top front corners have not been given the same protection. The controls, inputs and outputs are all mounted on a simple, easy to read top plate, with clear white lettering on a matt black background, and the back of the amp boasts only the power socket, and an on/off switch. The speaker cover is a subtle brown knotted material, with the Headway logo (which again is more redolent of a pro audio firm than the

more evocative Marshall, for instance) in the bottom right corner. Overall, it has a nice, understated look; it’s an amp that says “I know what I’m doing”, rather than “I’ve got more money than sense”. The more time you spend with the Shire King, the more you feel that every detail has been thought out by somebody who understands the needs of acoustic musicians. Even the manual is excellent, and continues the feeling of personal attention to detail. I was charmed by the first page, which says; “Congratulations on your astute purchase”! The amp has 2 channels, one of which has two inputs for passive pickups, the other an input for an active pickup, and a balanced XLR input for a mic. Whilst many people will use the mic input for their vocals, in a mini-PA approach, the input also has phantom power, allowing you to use a condenser

mic to amplify your instrument. In fact, the SK60 offers a lot of possibilities for blending two pickups, or a pickup and a high quality mic together to get you just the sound you want. Each channel has a 3 band EQ, and a gain control, and there’s a master volume as well. There’s also an Alesis digital effects unit, giving you 16 reverb, chorus, and delay effects, which can be stirred into the mix with the FX level control. The effects, however, cannot be individually controlled for each channel, but then, if you want that level of processing,

maybe you’re getting away from the acoustic ethos? The inputs and outputs on the Shire King again betray an excellent understanding of the different ways this amp might be used. There’s a tuner out jack, crucial for stage work, an effects loop, a headphone jack, and a line out. There’s also a DI output, allowing you to use the unit as a preamp to feed the main PA with a perfect sound. Each of the 3 instrument inputs is voiced for a different sort of pickup, one for very high impedance passive pickups, such as piezo film type pickups, one for high impedance pickups, for example most undersaddle pickups, and one for pickups with active preamps, or for passive magnetic pickups. In practise, most pickups can be used with any of these inputs, with each having its own sonic character.

Review.

33

ExceptionalExcellentGoodAveragePoor

Acoustic Ratings

Build QualitySolid and simple, it’s hard to fault the way the SK60 is put together.

SoundOutstanding, so easy to get a great sound that you’ll barely think about it.

FunctionalityVery good; only the lack of a notch filter and a sweepable mid kept it from 5 stars.

ValueNot cheap, but an excellent piece of kit you can rely on every night.

Wow FactorNot much wow to look at; if bling is your thing, it’s the wrong amp. Plug it in, however, and it will blow you away!

ACOUSTIC RATINGS

All in all the SK60 is very complete and easy to use, but with a couple of caveats. Its bigger brother, the SK120, has a notch filter, allowing the user to find a particular feedback-causing frequency and eliminate it, and also high and low mid controls, giving more tone shaping. I would have liked to see both these features on the SK60, but at the price, you can’t have everything. In ease of use terms, it took me a moment or two to realise that the effects acted on both channels, and that could perhaps be made clearer. It’s not often that I have cause to praise a manual, but the Shire Kings instruction book is outstanding. Every section is written with care, not only describing the features, but giving advice on how to use each control effectively, and even how best to position microphones, so that it’s less a manual, more a beginners guide to getting a great sound. I can’t praise the sound of this unit enough; it’s just incredibly straightforward to get a really nice tone. Starting with the appropriate input for my guitar, I found that whilst the EQ gave me excellent control over my tone, it was hard to find extreme and unusable sounds. To me, this is the sign of a well chosen EQ, in a well voiced amp; after all, why would anyone want to spend their sound check avoiding terrible sounds, when they could simply choose from a range of great ones? A little cut on the mid took out a slight muddiness of tone, and boosting the treble just a little compensated fantastically for the tired state of my strings. The SK60 is also amazingly quiet, so that your guitar sound is not competing with hum, even at high volumes. Experimenting more with the tone, I was able to get a nice, dry, hollow sound for muted blues thrumming, but just as easily a really sparkling, singing tone for fingerstyle, even with my elderly strings. Also very useable were the FX, with a range of subtle, rather than dramatic sounds which instantly enhance the natural sound of the guitar. If you’ve ever been to a gig, and wondered how the guitarist got such a lovely, full sound, with loads of projection and clarity, then this amp

could be your answer. It took no time at all to get a really fabulous sound, and it was all to easy to stop listening critically and just let the sound take me away!

SummaryThe SK60 is an amp which will suit those who want lots of go, rather than show. Plug it in, turn it on, and with practically no effort, you sound great. To my mind, there can be no higher praise, and whilst the looks are plain, they’re very functional. After all, how easy is it to read the settings on a flashy amp, on a dark stage?. This is an amp which will give you a great sound, day in day out, and after all, an amp is supposed to make you sound great, rather than look great. I highly recommend it.Sam Wise

Shire King 60: Bird’s eye view of the control panel.

“I can’t praise the sound of this unit enough; it’s just

incredibly straightforward to get a really nice tone”