You could hardly have two higher-performance careers than being an engineer in the RAF and then Formula 1. But Mark Woodward, founder and designer of Woodfield amps, did both – and when he was done with them, he started making amps.
“It was always just a background hobby – a fascination with valve tech,” Mark says of his passion for amps, which he sustained even while working within the highly pressured world of an F1 test team.
“But towards the end of my time working in F1, I started to get more seriously into it,” he says. “And the love of it just came back. I thought ‘I’ve got to make something, I’ve just got to create something’.”
The combo he created, the AFON 20, is built to the same exacting standards that Mark brought to his earlier work on radar and race cars. It takes the classic Marshalls of the ’60s as a jumping-off point for a more highly evolved modern amp that still has bags of sonic charisma and classic tones in an exacting, thoughtfully built package.
“It’s got a lot of headroom,” Mark says of the surprisingly loud and throaty combo that puts out 20 watts RMS in continuous power handling but peaks at 39 watts.
The power stage features a pair of Harma EL84s, which Mark says he chose after A/B testing with other valve brands for their organic compression that tempers the bright glassiness that some EL84 amps can exhibit. The amp also makes use of power scaling to offer precise volume control and a broad palette of responsiveness.
“We all love the breakup of an amp, but unfortunately that usually means you’ve got to upset the neighbours,” he says. “So I thought, well, how can I get around that? So I think I’ve achieved it through power control – basically if you tone down the power on to the anodes of the valves, you compress the output response of a valve. Obviously, you introduce other harmonics and so on, but it’s actually quite interesting.”
The power control works differently to a simple master volume (which the amp also has) and could be thought of as a ‘power delivery’ control offering everything from richly expressive squash and crunch at home-use volumes to gig-conquering projection and power at full tilt.
The feature-rich control panel also has a mute switch, a three-way brightness voicing control and the option to run the amp in single-ended or push/pull configuration, which also alters the feel and headroom of the amp.
“The way I look at the amplifier, it’s an instrument,” Mark concludes. “It is as important as your guitar.”
Builder Profile
- Name: Woodfield Amplifiers
- Founder: Mark Woodward
- Location: Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire
- Status: Founded 2024; prototyping from 2015
- First Amp Shipped: 2024
- Current Output: 4-8 per year
- Style: Head and combo versions
- Valves: Preamp: 2x Harma ECC83 (retro paired); power amp: 2x Harma EL84 (retro paired)
- Speakers: 1x 12” Celestion G12 Greenback, Qty 1 (in combo)
- Cabinets: Zilla Cabs, 12mm Latvian birch ply
- Repairs: Woodfield products only
- Custom Orders: Yes, 5 standard colour choices/3 control-panel finishes; further customer requests if required
- Deposit/Build Time: 50%/2-8 weeks, depending on supply
- Waiting List: 2-12 months, depending on size
- Dealers: N/A
- Price Range: Head £1,949; combo £3,299
- For more details, head over to Woodfield Amplifiers.
- This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.
