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Attic find gods smile on me again!

#44
Tim Rinkerman said:
Well, no they weren't in an attic, storage shed actually. I called it that because I posted a bit of a story on here a few years ago about a 1954 Precision I actually did find in an attic and restored. They haven't been used or moved in at least 15 years according to their former owner. They were used, and used, and used..power cords were repaired about a dozen times. They are un-molested, un-hacked, one looks like it was never opened up, the other one looks like the speaker was removed and replaced, the screw heads show signs of the wrong size phillips jammed into them. I temporarily wired them up to a variac and brought the voltage up slowly and took readings on the test points as they came up to 120V....everything works! One is very early ser. no. 1447, the other 3447. The heads are in really nice shape, a little rust on the hardware, the tolex on the bottoms is a bit chewed up, and the bottom of the bottoms has a little moisture damage, but they weren't abused, or jammed sideways into a back seat..(you know what those look like..). I was a half a**ed, left handed bass player starting in 1969, and have had a blank line on my bucket list for one ever since. These were the MacDaddy bass amps back in the day, and I don't really have a need or use for one, let alone two now, but I don't care! I'm over the moon, and happy as a pig in s**t! I'm going to turn my restorative skills loose and re-tolex the bottoms, re-cap the amps and pre-amps..make sure they play cleanly, clean up or replace the pitted hardware and bits so that after I'm gone, some lucky bass players will still be able to taste the good stuff. I'll post some pics as it goes.
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OH YES :thumbsup: nice one
 
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#45
BassPilot said:
I hope you own a small tractor trailer and forklift.
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Mannyinnewyork said:
My favorite amp - here I am in1970 with View attachment 3826852
mine and my Fender. Best sounding combination I ever used.
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Blaze Barlow said:
back in the early 70's I had a 360 head...played it through a sunn 4x12 that was supposed to have been owned and played by JH himself..
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what did you use for power? A 360 head is a preamp only. The power amp is in the bottom of the cabinet, so the setup is referred to as 360/361
 
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#46
J Wilson said:
Terrific. I was thinking someone would have to find an old grill or knob and clone new ones !

These were (along with the SVT and the rare PS300 Fender) the first big bass amps, and ruled their world in their day, they were big medicine. Folded 18, power amp down in the cabinet and the head was actually the preamp for it (for the benefit of our younger readers . . . . .). Back in the day, things this size and weight were the only choices we had. My first rig in the mid 70's was the Mk 2 Peavey Bass head (with the built in fuzz !) and a 215 cabinet. Rigs ALWAYS weighed between a 100 and 200, 250 lbs. Back then, if you didn't have a van or pickup, a lot of us had those big 60's or 70's cars what would actually fit the cabs across the back seats.

These were the 'OG' Acoustics, from the Acoustic Control Corporation. The 'Acoustic' brand that Guitar Center sells is simply someone buying the name rights and have nothing, ZERO to do with that era of amps. Almost a cruel joke, really . . . . . .

Before these amps, you'd show up on a gig and a guitar player with a 50-watt single 12 amp would bury you; God help you if he had a Twin Reverb, Super Reverb, an Orange or Marshall stack, you were toast. When those amps came in, we evened the odds. And ruined our backs !

For those of us that bought and used these amps new back in the day and carried them everywhere we had to play, that's why things like Andy's Subway cabs and W/WD amps are like some impossible dream come true: Far louder, lighter, and easy to move, it seems like someone MUST have re-invented physics.

Now all you need is one of those rack mount blue-faced MXR Digital Delays and a fretless Jazz . . . . . .
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The "best" of times. Moving a 360 among other gear in my keyboard player's grey primed Chevy van. If moving the 360 was work, we had to move a B3 and 2 Leslie cabs too. Friggin Hammond was HEAVY!!! But, as teenagers, we were indestructible.
 
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#49
SJan3 said:
what did you use for power? A 360 head is a preamp only. The power amp is in the bottom of the cabinet, so the setup is referred to as 360/361
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Maybe he's thinking of the next generation 371 set up.

I had a 360/361 for a couple of years in the mid '70's. Bought them used for a great price and with my 4001, it was heaven on earth. I sold them a couple of years later for a 370/301 but I never bonded with that setup and sadly lost them in a house fire.

Congratulations to the OP, a pair are insane, especially in an age where amazing cabinets can weigh 35 pounds and 800 watt amps can weigh 6 pounds. While I wouldn't want to have to lug them around these days, it's a shame a lot of younger players will never have the opportunity to be moved by the magnitude of Classic amps like these. Best of luck with the restoration and ownership of a pair of amps that have earned their place in the pantheon of rock equipment.
 
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#51
Spupilup said:
Maybe he's thinking of the next generation 371 set up.

I had a 360/361 for a couple of years in the mid '70's. Bought them used for a great price and with my 4001, it was heaven on earth. I sold them a couple of years later for a 370/301 but I never bonded with that setup and sadly lost them in a house fire.

Congratulations to the OP, a pair are insane, especially in an age where amazing cabinets can weigh 35 pounds and 800 watt amps can weigh 6 pounds. While I wouldn't want to have to lug them around these days, it's a shame a lot of younger players will never have the opportunity to be moved by the magnitude of Classic amps like these. Best of luck with the restoration and ownership of a pair of amps that have earned their place in the pantheon of rock equipment.
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Yes, he was likely thinking of a 370. I didn't think the 370/301 had the asthmatic charm of the 360/361. Everything about the 360/361 pushed the right buttons for me. In fact, I was grossly disappointed when Acoustic abandoned the 360/361 concept in favor of the more conventional amplified head. Why not install the perfect power amp for the cabinet in the cabinet? I used 2 but as I recall, you could use up to 4 361s w/1 360 head.
No need to worry about amp/speaker compatability.
To me, it was genius. With today's lightweight amps, perhaps it's a concept worth bringing back?
 
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#54
bolt on some wheels or a handtruck to those and i'd be happy......nice find, its really all the "ooomph" any bassist would need


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#57
Something I've never seen anyone talk about is using the 360 preamp with other power amps or using other preamps with the powered 361 cabinets. I guess there was no interest, since they worked so well together, but surely some must have gotten separated from each other during their lives.
 

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