Acoustic Control Corp. out of Van Nuys, CA were very progressive for their time. Their amps were LOUD and had some interesting configurations like that fabled 18" folded horn but lots of people played ACC besides Jaco...Creedence and Pacific Gas & Electric ("Are You Ready?") are two that I heard personally. But did you ever hear of these guys? (courtesy of Wikipedia) "Robbie Krieger of The Doors was the most high-profile early user of the Acoustic 260 head and 261 cabinet--the first models ever produced by ACC. Krieger's Acoustic amps were a major public-relations boost for the fledgling company. Albert King and Chuck Berry also used the 260 and 261. Canadian guitar virtuoso Frank Marino used 270 model amplifier as did Frank Zappa and Ernie Isley. Pat Metheny created his famous guitar tone partly by using Acoustic 134 model combo amplifier. Some prominent bassists who played through Acoustic amps included Jaco Pastorius, probably the most famous user of Acoustic bass amplifier, and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Carl Radle (Derek & the Dominoes), Ric Grech (Blind Faith), John McVie (Fleetwood Mac), Tony Stevens (Savoy Brown, Foghat), Peter "Overend" Watts of Mott the Hoople, Danny Sheridan (Eli Radish Band / David Alan Coe) and Kirk Powers (American Tears), the latter using an Acoustic 371(combination of the 370 amp & 301 bass cabinet). The Mahavishnu Orchestra members (bass, keyboards, violin excluding John McLaughlin (gtr)) used Acoustic amplifiers. Verden Allen, organist with Mott the Hoople used a 260 head amp. Latter-day employee and designer Steve Rabe went on to establish specialist bass amplifier manufacturer SWR (now owned by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation) in 1984, then Raven Labs in 1998."
Acoustic was one of the first to use external horns protruding from the cabinet (Bud Ross' Kustom Electronics out of Chanute, KS -- the famous "tuck 'n' roll amps -- also had protruding horn cabs). Over the years I owned a 126 combo amp (a single 15" model, 125 watts) which had great tone and still own two of their early 80's PA cabs (PA115) which still sound great. I also picked up a used 106 2-15s cab about 25 years ago which I hardly played but picked up a 120 amp head on eBay after all these years and paired them together and they sounded awesome. And that 106 spent many a winter in my garage and still sounded great.
Just today I stumbled upon the new Acoustic stuff at Guitar Center (apparently GC owns the line now) and that B600 into the 8-10s cab is as good as the Ampeg equivalent as I've heard (maybe not as loud, 600 watts vs. 1000, but how deaf do you really want to be?) but the price was under $1000. I'm thinking of getting their B200 head with a 4-10 and a 1-15 cab which delivers 300 watts with a warmer tone. Apparently the new Acoustic stuff was designed by a former St. Louis Music Corp./Ampeg/Crate employee so this could be interesting. So far the stuff is getting good reviews, basically.
I never had a problem with anything Acoustic (for that matter, I've never had a problem with anything Peavey and I have a lot of their gear, too, but that's a whole other post). I worry about guys who say they have repeatedly had amps blow up on them -- like my brother-in-law who blew out 32 transmission in the same car in one year. He liked fixing them so it didn't matter -- but it sure wasn't the car!
