Jess Oliver's legacy - AMPEG PORTAFLEX CLUB part 9

[Bass 45]

I think it would be Little Walter's or possibly his bass player's. I could not imagine someone else putting his name on there in '64.

Edit: Or his guitar player, or piano or X?

[spacebassed]

...here's someone who DEFINITELY used a Portaflex in '64 - Brian Wilson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89tPuyL1ruY

[ddbassGA]

Originally Posted by spacebassed

...here's someone who DEFINITELY used a Portaflex in '64 - Brian Wilson.

Interesting how they're lined up in front of each other's amps, rather than their own. Or, is Brian playing through that Dual Showman?

[ddbassGA]

Never mind. Brian walked over to the B-15 and flipped the standby switch in the beginning of the clip. Al went up to the Bandmaster and so I guess Carl played through the Dual Showman. Note the ribbon mics on each of the amps.

[spacebassed]

Originally Posted by ddbassGA

Interesting how they're lined up in front of each other's amps, rather than their own. Or, is Brian playing through that Dual Showman?

Originally Posted by ddbassGA

Never mind. Brian walked over to the B-15 and flipped the standby switch in the beginning of the clip. Al went up to the Bandmaster and so I guess Carl played through the Dual Showman. Note the ribbon mics on each of the amps.

I noticed the same thing (Brian walking over to the Ampeg), plus that loose, almost delayed, thump is pure B15. That Dual Showman is nothing to scoff at though, especially with the JBL D130f's that are likely in there. the Ampeg B15 (or B18) into a double baffle and a Fender Showman (or Dual Showman) through JBL D140f's are my two favorite "vintage" bass rigs - two awesome, but different sounds.

I also noticed the Fender Reverb units on the floor beside the amps, one looks to be the rarer '64 unit with blonde tolex, while the other is the more common brown tolex version.

...and check out that mic placement!

[xoir]

g'night guys,

I recently grab one 59' M15, I didn't have time to check his background before the deal, I was on a foreign city with a couple hours before my flight, but for $270 I was ready to take the risk.

To my surprise, all tubes are original and all of them test strong, electrically is in original state with the three cord plug mode, unfortunally the speakers was a Jensen P15Q (reconed and rewired) but it's random navy with gray white swirl.

I didnt have time to test the amp until a couple of days ago, with very lows expectations of this amp and not reading anything before about them, I removed the speaker and put an alnico woofer that I took from old 2x15 AIMS cab and... yes!!! my ears were in heaven!! I connected to my B18N cab with original cleveland, B12XT with originals 12" jensen and same experience... the first thing to came to my mind was... how the heck! I've had 6 or 7 portaflex and never ever any of them sounded like this, may be close but.. how's this possible?

After looking for some general info in the great book and googling, ¿do you agree that this amp it may th the antecessor of the B15? I been looking for pictures and have not found any M15 with random navy + gray white swirl on the net, just few's with navy with diamon or blue with black silver tan or diamon, I've never had a pre 63 portaflex, but if this is the sound from that era it is simply amazing...

I'm not complaining, I just feel cheated by all the others portaflex that I've owned.

some inside photos

[beans-on-toast]

Nice amp and how can you go wrong with that price. These amps do have a great tone. Something about the early ones.

There are some interesting differences from the B-15. As a guitar amp, it has smaller capacitors in the power supply. It makes it easier to distort, less on the low end. The tone circuit was different than the B-15's. On one version at least, they had 4 input jacks on the first pre-amp tube (V1a), and if that weren't enough, they had 3 accordion inputs on the other half of the tube. The M series amps had a nice sounding tremolo. They used the door stop tremolo switch which were common at the time. As you mentioned, the amp had a lighter Jensen speaker intended for guitar. It was an interesting choice because an accordion can pump out a lot of bass.

In my first band we used to plug guitar bass and mics into a single amp. It worked for gigs at parties.

The M-12 was another amp in that series. What is interesting is that the M-12 wasn't just an M-15 with a different cab. It used 6V6 power tubes vs 6L6, it also used a 5Y3 rectifier vs the 5U4. It was a very different amp. The B12 and the B-15 were the same amp with a different cab.

Here is a pic of an early 1959 M-12. This one has a green Jensen C12R speaker in it. The cabinet looked the same as the M-15, only smaller.

[pgk]

Originally Posted by spacebassed

How many Little Walters can there be?

... but, you're right, without provenance there's really no way to prove it.
I will say that a lot of the Chicago blues guys used smaller "Champ" style amps because they could get them to distort easily, but Little Walter had a cleaner tone - and I have heard recordings where there WAS obvious reverb on his harp.

the two 4" speakers/horn could have been to satisfy the needs of a harp player who needs the sound to project more, sure. it makes total sense to me. i ask because, in my world, it would be absolutely Monumental news if it were proven definitively to be Walter's amp; a pic of him with it, a mention in print etc. geez, for harp players that would be the equivalent of finding more dead sea scrolls! his famous Premier suitcase amp with eight 8's we all know about, but This?!!!? omg if it's true...

[pgk]

btw, as an aside towards the end of his career chess wouldn't let Walter blow thru an amp in the studio anymore. they got into many famous fights over that unfortunate scenario. Leonard would only let Walter blow thru the vocal mic, and any 'verb on the harp was added after the fact during the mix stage. legend has it that for "reverb", in the beginning, they had a speaker in the basement on one end of an unused drainage pipe that led up to the control room. and they simply stuck a mic on the control room end for the reverb effect. they'd pump the track to the basement speaker and simply grab it on the other end! i don't know if that's really true or not, but that studio (Bill Putnam's) was famous for recording the first pop hit with reverb in history, the Harmonicats' "Peg of My Heart"

[adambomb]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Hmmm, just did a google search on Little Walter to see if I could find that amp with him, and it's a funny thing...it seems that nobody likes to take pictures of harmonica players with their amp in the shot.

I haven't seen anyone wanting to take a picture of the harmonica player......amp or not. (Wink wink)

[spacebassed]

Originally Posted by pgk

the two 4" speakers/horn could have been to satisfy the needs of a harp player who needs the sound to project more, sure. it makes total sense to me. i ask because, in my world, it would be absolutely Monumental news if it were proven definitively to be Walter's amp; a pic of him with it, a mention in print etc. geez, for harp players that would be the equivalent of finding more dead sea scrolls! his famous Premier suitcase amp with eight 8's we all know about, but This?!!!? omg if it's true...

I agree, I made a futile attempt at a google search but there is a company called "Little Walter" that makes tube amps (superb sounding amps, btw) and the results are polluted with mentions of THAT Little Walter's amplifiers.

... and Xoir, plug a jazz box with flatwound strings into that amp and prepare to be amazed!

[pgk]

[quote=spacebassed;13470185]I agree, I made a futile attempt at a google search but there is a company called "Little Walter" that makes tube amps (superb sounding amps, btw) and the results are polluted with mentions of THAT Little Walter's amplifiers.

hmm, there's a very old Living Blues magazine double interview with Walter and Louis Myers out there, and i think they talked gear iirc. been many many years since i saw it, see if that comes up in a search

[xoir]

Thanks!! I was not sure of buying the amp, I had to go for it to the seller's house before going to the airport and as the amp was already packed I could not check the inside, has the tremolo pedal in perfect condition, the tolex only has some minor scratches, no handle, cloth has a big hole, no way to repair..

I was thinking of changing the capacitors, but at this point I decided to leave it and enjoy it for a while before changing them, as you say it sounds great with mids and lows or at least I do not notice any distortion even with the volume all the way down, with highs tends to distort a little but in a pleased way, I'm very happy with it.

Originally Posted by beans-on-toast

Nice amp and how can you go wrong with that price. These amps do have a great tone. Something about the early ones.

There are some interesting differences from the B-15. As a guitar amp, it has smaller capacitors in the power supply. It makes it easier to distort, less on the low end. The tone circuit was different than the B-15's. On one version at least, they had 4 input jacks on the first pre-amp tube (V1a), and if that weren't enough, they had 3 accordion inputs on the other half of the tube. The M series amps had a nice sounding tremolo. They used the door stop tremolo switch which were common at the time. As you mentioned, the amp had a lighter Jensen speaker intended for guitar. It was an interesting choice because an accordion can pump out a lot of bass.

In my first band we used to plug guitar bass and mics into a single amp. It worked for gigs at parties.

The M-12 was another amp in that series. What is interesting is that the M-12 wasn't just an M-15 with a different cab. It used 6V6 power tubes vs 6L6, it also used a 5Y3 rectifier vs the 5U4. It was a very different amp. The B12 and the B-15 were the same amp with a different cab.

Here is a pic of an early 1959 M-12. This one has a green Jensen C12R speaker in it. The cabinet looked the same as the M-15, only smaller.

Can't wait!!!

spacebassed
... and Xoir, plug a jazz box with flatwound strings into that amp and prepare to be amazed!

[JimmyM]

The earlier Ampeg bass amps don't get much love these days, but the fact remains that they were the very best bass amps you could get for the time. Cool score...would love to see some more pics.

[MoWBass]

Has anybody tried svt cl or a svt v4bh on a pf210 or a pf115?

[spacebassed]

Originally Posted by MoWBass

Has anybody tried svt cl or a svt v4bh on a pf210 or a pf115?

I believe stiles has a V4BH and one of the new portaflex cabs, maybe he can chime in once he sees this. I don't have any experience with the new portaflexes, but I see no reason to think they wouldn't be a good match.

[beans-on-toast]

The PF cabs are rated at 8 ohms. So one would work just fine with the V4BH, which can run 4 or 8 ohm cabs. The CL wants to see a 4 ohm cab so the pairing wouldn't be optimal. You could use two daisy chained PF cabs with the CL.

[ddbassGA]

I hooked my c1975 V4 to a PF115 for grins the other day and was pleased with the sound. Probably won't ever use that as a rig but it worked.

[stiles72]

I tried the PF with my V4BH once and it worked, but I preferred the PF500 or the 3-Pro. Haven't tried it since I added a second cab, so maybe I'll give it a shot at tomorrow nights gig.

[coreyfyfe]

Originally Posted by MoWBass

Has anybody tried svt cl or a svt v4bh on a pf210 or a pf115?

I e used my PF-210 and B15 for a smaller stack with my SVT. Sounded good, though I certainly prefer a more "vintage" sounding cab with the SVT.