Jess Oliver's legacy - AMPEG PORTAFLEX CLUB part 9

[JimmyM]

I have a PF350 and it rocks. Played the PF500 many times at stores though and it's pretty great, too, plus has some better features. Sure, it's not a B-15, but it's also less than a tenth of the price new and it sounds like Ampeg to me. I use it on some of my gigs and always bring it as a backup if I don't.

[Muziekschuur]

Thanks for the information about the 18 inch Portaflex amp. I have an 1x18 Bagend cabinet wich would make a good companion for that particular Portaflex amp... And make it really stage ready.

[Brams77]

Ok new update from my side...
This concerns the little test I wanted to do with putting a 15" B15 type of speaker in my B18N double baffle fliptop.
The decision fell on a Eminence Delta 15a speaker, I have thought about buying an old JBL or CTS speaker but was unsure on the outcome of buying an expensive vintage speaker and finding out it needed to be reconed anyway... plus in Europe there is almost no market for these vintage speakers.. so the Eminence Deta was easy to get and I still didnt need to be selling anybodys kidneys...
Anyways I bought some great looking multiply board made an adapter ring to sport the Delta in fitted it today...
And the result is just amazing!!! I was affraid a Delta would make the sound a little more modern, but my B18 still sounds as vintage as it should. The sound has less sub bass as the Cleveland had... but the low-mids are more prominent. Actually my B18 sounds like a tuned B15 meaning it has more balls,tho it has all that sweet 60s B15 flavours, and I'm d*mn happy with how this turned out. Definitly a big step forward towards my sound goal!

So thanks everybody involved in advising, making clips sharing info to help me further... This turned out incredibly great thanks to the members of this forum

Nouroog, Anderbass, ddbassGA, Mr Fingers and ofcourse JimmyM

Take care,

Bram

[ddbassGA]

Awesome!

[JimmyM]

Glad it worked out. No, the Delta definitely isn't what you'd call "modern" sounding. That's what I use in my B-15 cabs, BTW

[Duke21]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Glad it worked out. No, the Delta definitely isn't what you'd call "modern" sounding. That's what I use in my B-15 cabs, BTW

Jimmy and the rest of the members of the non virtual club, you are welcome to visit the virtual Portaflex club and try to guess which bass is which in 2 recordings I've placed yesterday in the virtual thread. All basses are played through the B15R on Amplitube iOS.

[anderbass]

Yer welcome Brams,
I keep thinking a good 15" in a B18 might just be the ultimate vintage-fliptop combination, more power and a larger cab!

[Brams77]

Originally Posted by anderbass

Yer welcome Brams,
I keep thinking a good 15" in a B18 might just be the ultimate vintage-fliptop combination, more power and a larger cab!

I can tell you this I was thinking about getting myself a b15 a while back as you prolly know... but with this delta speaker it has that b15 midrange, that growly low mid punch also it sounds a bit dirtier than the original B18 speaker... The original Cleveland has a very different character to it wich is cleaner with smoother high end and more sub low, but it's harder to control once cracked up. The 15 inch speaker offers more control and also the notes cut throught he mix more if you get what I mean. I like both sounds very much but with the 15inch speaker it's more useable for me.
I definitly would recommend anybody having a b18 to give this setup a try... if you want more of a b15 on steriods kind of sound that is

[nouroog]

Originally Posted by Brams77

Ok new update from my side...
This concerns the little test I wanted to do with putting a 15" B15 type of speaker in my B18N double baffle fliptop.
The decision fell on a Eminence Delta 15a speaker, I have thought about buying an old JBL or CTS speaker but was unsure on the outcome of buying an expensive vintage speaker and finding out it needed to be reconed anyway... plus in Europe there is almost no market for these vintage speakers.. so the Eminence Deta was easy to get and I still didnt need to be selling anybodys kidneys...
Anyways I bought some great looking multiply board made an adapter ring to sport the Delta in fitted it today...
And the result is just amazing!!! I was affraid a Delta would make the sound a little more modern, but my B18 still sounds as vintage as it should. The sound has less sub bass as the Cleveland had... but the low-mids are more prominent. Actually my B18 sounds like a tuned B15 meaning it has more balls,tho it has all that sweet 60s B15 flavours, and I'm d*mn happy with how this turned out. Definitly a big step forward towards my sound goal!

So thanks everybody involved in advising, making clips sharing info to help me further... This turned out incredibly great thanks to the members of this forum

Nouroog, Anderbass, ddbassGA, Mr Fingers and ofcourse JimmyM

Take care,

Bram

Congratulations, I'm glad you found what you were looking for!
And you are very welcome if we helped you make a good choice.
I wish i could hear your amp now, from your description it seems to be a really great combination!

[Brams77]

Originally Posted by nouroog

Congratulations, I'm glad you found what you were looking for!
And you are very welcome if we helped you make a good choice.
I wish i could hear your amp now, from your description it seems to be a really great combination!

Well if you can lend me your Heil PR40 mircophone I would gladly record it... As I do not have a good recording mic. And I have looked for these but they are really expensive.
IS there any cheaper mic out there that is great for recodring? Or what would someone advise me to use?

Regards

Bram

[christw]

I went to practice with the B-12XTC tonight with intentions of trying it through the Goliath III. I had low expectations since the Bugera 1960 Infinium didn't really cut it when loaded with the four Aggie 6550's. I felt like I brought a knife to a gun fight-I had a 7027A amp loaded with two of those 6550's. To my surprise, it kept up with practice all night against a Peavey Classic 30 and a medium loud drummer!

The B-12XT is such a clean, deep, and clear amp. You really get in when you put out with the 6550. I couldn't really get any noticeable overdrive out of the amp like I do with the 6L6/7027. It just squished with a very musical compression when I dug in and bloomed when I played softly. The low end between the amp and cab was ridiculous so I dialied it back a little bit and boosted my volume with an Fdeck HPF series II. I ran it for a three hour practice and only one transformer bordered on warm. This head is still probably one of the best I've ever tried for upright bass and quite an experience on the electric. If you guys ever get a swing at one of these heads, I'd definitely try it out. Now I wish I picked up that B-18X from a while ago...

Pic! Too bad it's so dern wide...

[JimmyM]

Pretty cool!

[ddbassGA]

Originally Posted by Brams77

I definitly would recommend anybody having a b18 to give this setup a try... if you want more of a b15 on steriods kind of sound that is

Yup! Love my B-18 head on B-15 double baffle cab.

[Ric Vice]

Originally Posted by ddbassGA

Yup! Love my B-18 head on B-15 double baffle cab.

That's a very nice combination, you get the 50 watts of the B-18 with the goodness of the Double Baffle 15. Ampeg didn't have the sense to do that until they built the B-15N(D) which are scarce as hens' teeth, and from all I can tell would be single baffle cabinets.

Ric

[stiles72]

Chris - I may have missed this back in the thread, but were the 6550's a direct swap for the 7027's, or did you have to mod the head to accept them?

[ddbassGA]

Originally Posted by Ric Vice

Ampeg didn't have the sense to do that until they built the B-15N(D) which are scarce as hens' teeth, and from all I can tell would be single baffle cabinets.

Ric

Right Ric, those were single baffle but killer stacks for their day. Central Jersey boys like me saw custom stacks like that coming out of the back of the Linden factory. I met an Ampeg employee in 1966 who had that B18 head over 2 stacked single baffle B-15N cabs - at least a year prior to the B-15ND release. It was awesome. He sold me a real Ampeg extension cab for my B-15N, with cover, for $25! The dude played a F-jazz bass and smeared the neck and his hands with Johnson's Baby Oil so he could play fast. I guess you could say he made an impression on me. ;->

[JimmyM]

They had the sense...just not the speakers that would handle it. Even the CTS and JBL 15's of the day were pretty low handling. The 18"s handled more so they built accordingly.

[spacebassed]

1961 'pilot light' B15n

[spacebassed]

couple more...


btw, these are just a couple shots the UPS store took for insurance purposes. I can take some more detailed, higher quality pics once it arrives if there's any interest.

[spacebassed]

Originally Posted by stiles72

Chris - I may have missed this back in the thread, but were the 6550's a direct swap for the 7027's, or did you have to mod the head to accept them?

Stiles, since portaflex's don't use the extra 2 pins on the 7027a's, no wiring mod's are needed to run 6550's (other than checking/adjusting the bias). The important thing to consider is that the 6550's will draw more heater current than 6l6gc/7027a's - so you need to keep an eye on your PT (some can handle it, some can't). My mid/late 70's VT40 actually says 'use 7027a or 6550' right on the chassis. You may also have to remove the "bear trap" tube clamps (if your amp has them) in order to fit the larger bases of the 6550's.

I have read online that there has been at least one B18 that DID have pin one connected to screen voltage...and with 6550's, that's connected to the metal base, which means if you'd plugged a 6550 into THAT B18, you'd get a 500+ volt shock if you grabbed the metal base! So you should probably double check this before plugging in 6550's just to be safe.