Heathkit WA-P2 (c. 1956)
A little gold-enameled control center that Heathkit sold as the "master control" for its Williamson amplifiers. The archive's own record barely remembers it.
Overview
The WA-P2 is a mono tube preamplifier, sold in kit form by Heathkit out of Benton Harbor, Michigan. It's an odd one in the catalog. It's a supporting player, but Heathkit's own copy treated it as the nerve center of a system. The company called it the "master control" for its Williamson-type amplifiers. That's a grand phrase for a box that selects sources, applies phono equalization, and hands a clean signal to a power amp. But that is what a preamp did in 1956, and Heathkit said so without blushing.
The documented record is narrow. No independent review has surfaced in the archive, though the manufacturer's own documentation provides measured specifications and an original price of $19.75. What survives is Heathkit's own advertising and a handful of owner and seller descriptions. The advertising is mostly about something else, the FM tuner kit the WA-P2 was paired with. Collectors chasing one of these will find far more questions than answers in the paper trail.
What the record does establish is the shape of the thing. It's a kit-built, tube, monophonic preamplifier with volume, treble, and bass controls. It has a steel chassis with an aluminum cabinet and subchassis, finished in what Heathkit's literature called a satin gold baked enamel. It was made in the United States. Beyond that, the archive is mostly silent.
Key Features
The "Master Control" Role for Williamson-Type Amplifiers
Heathkit positioned the WA-P2 as the front end for its Williamson-type amplifiers. The company's own literature described it as the master control for any of them, and by 1957 the W-6M was the most recent and most powerful example in that line. This is the clearest statement of purpose the archive holds. The WA-P2 was not a standalone product so much as the switching and equalization hub for a Heathkit amplification chain.
Volume, Treble, and Bass Controls
The control set is modest and entirely conventional for the period: volume, treble, and bass. One seller description calls the knobs smooth and responsive, allowing precise adjustment. The archive documents the tone control ranges, the number of inputs, and the equalization curves offered, so once you have the manual in hand, you can check any claim about the WA-P2's switching flexibility.
Kit-Form Construction and the Assembly Manual
The WA-P2 was sold as a build-it-yourself kit, which is why so many of these survive in varying states of assembly quality. An "Assembly Service Manual with Schematic" exists and is traded as a separate item. One eBay listing offers the original Heathkit assembly manual for the WA-P2 on its own. So the documentation is out there, and it is scarce enough that people sell it apart from the hardware. For anyone restoring one, that manual is the single most valuable accessory, because the archive holds no component values for this model.
Steel Chassis, Aluminum Cabinet, Satin Gold Finish
Owner and seller descriptions note high-quality construction with a sturdy steel chassis and a well-designed control panel, and Heathkit's own catalog language for the period describes an all-aluminum cabinet and subchassis. The finish was a satin gold baked enamel. Original finish condition is one of the few things that separates a clean WA-P2 from a tired one, and repainted units are common enough that the archive's listing record includes a restored pair described as "Re-Capped Painted."
Historical Context
The WA-P2's clearest moment in the record is as a supporting actor. Heathkit advertised its FM tuner kit through the audio press in 1956, and the WA-P2 appears in those ads as the tuner's matching partner. Audio (May 1956, p.49) carried the Heathkit FM tuner kit advertisement describing a new circuit and physical design and naming the WA-P2 preamplifier as its match. The same advertisement ran again in Audio (August 1956, p.39). Those ads detail the tuner's tube line-up, sensitivity, built-in power supply, and illuminated dial. They say nothing specific about the WA-P2 itself.
Dating is muddier than the advertising suggests. One collector's account states that the WA-P2, along with its companion W-6M amplifier and FM-3 tuner, was made in 1957. An eBay listing for the assembly manual identifies a 5/7/1954 edition of the manual, noting minor differences between editions. The two references are not necessarily in conflict, since one describes equipment manufacture and the other a manual revision. But they are the only date anchors the archive holds, and neither establishes a production run. The archive's own overview hedges the whole question with "c. 1956."
What is not in dispute is that the WA-P2 belongs to the monophonic hi-fi era, that it was built in the United States, and that it was sold as a kit. Beyond that, the historical record is thin. The archive's own summary is a tube-era kit preamp advertised in 1956 as the tuner's match, then largely forgotten.
Collectibility & Value
Prices for the WA-P2 are individual data points rather than a market. Undated eBay listings in the archive show an untested single preamp at $39.99, a "Choice 1-2-3" listing at $74.99, the original assembly manual at $19.00, and a back panel sold separately at $25.00. Those are single listings with no dates attached, and they show what someone asked, not what the model is worth. A HifiShark/Reverb entry shows a $4,000 package price for a pair of W-6M monoblock amplifiers sold together with a pair of WA-P2 preamps, described as serviced. That figure covers the amplifiers and the preamps together, and its "Sep 22, 2026" date is an aggregator artifact rather than a real sale date. It says nothing about what a WA-P2 alone commands.
The restoration picture is clearer than the pricing. Listings routinely describe units as "Re-Capped" and "Restored," which suggests recapping is the standard first step on any of these. At least one listing sells a pair "As Is," meaning untested or for parts. The archive holds no documented common failures, no repair procedures, and no maintenance guidance beyond that recapping signal. Spare parts are thin on the ground, and a back panel turning up as its own listing hints at how the supply of donor units works. For anyone buying, the record supports confirming that the assembly manual comes with the unit, because the schematic is documented there, and expecting to recap.
Several sources mix the WA-P2 up with other Heathkit models, and some seller descriptions carry claims about sound quality that read as marketing rather than assessment. The archive found no substantive reviewer or owner comparison of the WA-P2's sound.
eBay Listings
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