good solid state amps from yesteryear.

[chrispunx]

so i've picked up a randall rba 500 es from my local pawn shop for $75 and absolutely love it. i was wondering if there are any other ss bass amps from the 80's-early 90's that are no longer in production that are worth finding.

[cableguy]

The Peavey Pro Bass 1000 bass preamp is a great no frills preamp that can be found for under $100. I found one for $50 last year. It's my back-up/practice pre. It can bi-amp and has an aux input (MP3 player) and head phone out. This and my BDDI can almost sound as good as my SVP-Pro for less than 1/2 the price. A lot of old Carvin and Peavey stuff sounds prett good. It's just heavy and not as sexy as the newer amps so they go cheap.

[5 Wire]

Nice score with the Randall.

I miss my first bass head.

[UncleFluffy]

My first head:



More late 70s / early 80s, iirc.

[Edword]

[countrybass007]

I toured with a Standell that did a great job and took lots of abuse without any problems. Six hundred watts and 4 fifteens, powered bottoms with a pre-amp head.

[WingKL]

Yeah the original 80's GK 400RB and 800RB, out of production now but still kick ass.

[humble1]

Acoustic 370.

[bassgod0dmw]

Originally Posted by WingKL

Yeah the original 80's GK 400RB and 800RB, out of production now but still kick ass.

[Catbuster]

Originally Posted by WingKL

Yeah the original 80's GK 400RB and 800RB, out of production now but still kick ass.

I was like when the 800RB went out of production last year. It was a sad day, and really the end of an era for GK... I think

[BassmanPaul]

Originally Posted by UncleFluffy

My first head:



More late 70s / early 80s, iirc.

H&H were just coming out in the UK when I left in 1973. On a trip back, i picked up a used IC100S. It was not a good bass amp. I pulled out the pre-amp board and substituted a tube preamp. That was much better. I intend to pull the 100W module out and replace it with a 400W Class D module and a Switch Mode power supply to run it.

[shwashwa]

Obscure bass amps...

i have one of these old yamaha's and it sounds great.

[Lowbrow]

[UncleFluffy]

Originally Posted by BassmanPaul

H&H were just coming out in the UK when I left in 1973. On a trip back, i picked up a used IC100S. It was not a good bass amp. I pulled out the pre-amp board and substituted a tube preamp. That was much better. I intend to pull the 100W module out and replace it with a 400W Class D module and a Switch Mode power supply to run it.

Yeah, but it's not a bad guitar amp - Marc Bolan used it for a lot of the T-Rex stuff. The VS series came along a bit later - the history is here. (Spares and schematics available from those folks as well, might be useful if you're wanting to tinker more).

[sanderic]

Yamaha B100, Peavey Mark lll, Sunn Concert (not a lot of love for that one here, but the one I used was pretty good), Acoustic 370 ( lots of love for that one, but be cautious with how much you pay, especially if you are looking at a cap job). Also like the old Kasino 200 (essentially a Kustom), not much tonal variation on that one (pay no attention to that Varitone switch, not much notable difference) but a great basic sound: the thing people don't know about those old amps was the way Kustom wired the input jacks. The high and low inputs did not mean input sensitivity, they routed the signal into a different EQ. If anyone tells you they played through an old Kasino and it sounded horrible, I bet they were plugged into the high input jack. Use the low input jack: you will be amazed.

[bassfran]

Kustom, baby. There are a lot of them still around and you can find them dirt cheap. Tuck and roll cabs are comfy!

I pulled the amp out of my Charger combo and it's built like a tank and still rockin'.

[BassmanPaul]

thanks for the link Uncle. I brought the schematics for the IC100 series amps when I came over here. I've book marked the link just in case.

[jazzbo58]

Acoustic 370 head, this thing is a monster!!



Cheers,
Jim

[gwangi]

Lab Series L2 & L4.

[tdoody]

standel 2 15's in two cabinets i think 600 watts the cryan shame's from 1966 to 1970. we must have played 800+ times with this rig.