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Attic find gods smile on me again!

#62
Bass Vance said:
Hey, i'm in St. Albert! We should discuss me helping you lighten the load by taking one off your hands.....
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One of my cabinets was owned by Laird from the Mahavishnu Orchestra, but yeah, let's connect sometime. If you don't own one already you can come try them out.

Here are mine:

59377DDA-DBED-4492-88FC-1C4663F31113.jpeg
7DADE976-EAD2-427C-A76B-A40B487D8425.jpeg
 
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#64
Ross McLochness said:
Boy, that would never happen to me. My "attic find" would be something like a solid state Crate from the 80's....ha ha ha
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Hah! reminds me. Ages ago I had an acoustic 1-15" combo amp I bought I think it was 100 or 200 watts I got it b/c I thought that would be enough to compete with a loud drummer & 2 guitarist with 50w amps. had a good sound, but boy was I wrong! I barely had enough power to compete with the drummer! ended up blowing out the speaker twice, & put a hole in the new 2nd speaker while installing, Sold in the "recycler"(ages ago!) for a 100 bux. it was very heavy, I was glad to unload it! nice amp though.
 
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#69
SJan3 said:
To me, it was genius. With today's lightweight amps, perhaps it's a concept worth bringing back?
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I had purchased a used 360 in mid 80's...had nothing but trouble with the power amp, had to replace one of those big Coke can capacitors several times, I couldn't afford to keep repairing it, yanked the amp and wired it as a straight cab.
My non scientifically schooled brain thought putting a potentially sensitive amp in a cabinet that will vibrate when used, and get banged around during transport was not a very good idea. I'm guessing the current crop of powered cabs use digital power, so likely less susceptible to vibration/impact damage?
When the amp worked correctly, it was glorious!
MJ
 
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#70
JW56789 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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RE: Someone Reinvented Physics

Andy may not have been Reinventing physics, but he sure has this engineering thing down.

Good post. I had a SVT and V4B (2-15 reflex cab), and before that, an Acoustic 371 rig (nowhere near as good as the 360 series) back in the 70's. Funny thing back in the day, I never though of it being heavy, or transportation being an obstacle. In the early days, I had a Volkswagen squareback which was more than adequate. Eventually, the band bought a truck because in addition to my rig, we'd hauled a pair of Altec A-7s with two Altec 16 cell mid horns with 2 drivers each, the keyboard player had an upright piano, B3, and a 900 series Leslie. After pitching in to help the keyboard player move his gear, mine felt like a feather. And we all survived 6 years of mostly one night stands.
 
#71
dbsfgyd1 said:
RE: Someone Reinvented Physics

Andy may not have been Reinventing physics, but he sure has this engineering thing down.

Good post. I had a SVT and V4B (2-15 reflex cab), and before that, an Acoustic 371 rig (nowhere near as good as the 360 series) back in the 70's. Funny thing back in the day, I never though of it being heavy, or transportation being an obstacle. In the early days, I had a Volkswagen squareback which was more than adequate. Eventually, the band bought a truck because in addition to my rig, we'd hauled a pair of Altec A-7s with two Altec 16 cell mid horns with 2 drivers each, the keyboard player had an upright piano, B3, and a 900 series Leslie. After pitching in to help the keyboard player move his gear, mine felt like a feather. And we all survived 6 years of mostly one night stands.
Click to expand...

Ah, but we were so much younger then, and it's simply what you had to do to make the gigs.

Once, when I had the Peavey 215 stack, after we packed everything to move to the next joint, we'll say I was distracted by some sudden female companionship . . . . . I missed the van that night (I was busy !), and had to go back the next day to round up the amp. NOBODY had time to come help me in a truck or van, so I had to go get it RIGHT NOW in my . . . . . Volkswagen Beetle Convertible. Hmmmmmm.

I get over there right as the new band is starting to load in. I roll it out to the car. How in the hell am I gonna . . . . then it came to me. The little light went 'DING!' over my head.

I put the head on the front seat and floorboard. Put the top down. Got the 215 up on the back bumper . . . . and flipped it over into the back seat. I drove away with the caster end of the cab pointing skyward at about 45 degrees. If Only Peavey had a pic of this for a print ad !
 
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#72
I'm repeating a story but here goes. We used to play St Albans coffee house regularly. One evening we two bands were sitting around and word was St Albans didn't have an act that night so we volunteered. Calling ourselves Silver Wing we rolled up there, two whole bands. Two drummers two guitarists and another bassist. Two Marshall stacks two drum kits and the other bassist poor guy had two Fender Bassman heads and two 2x15 cabs.

Never heard the other bassist all night and out volumed the two guitarists when I turned the 360/361 up to 8. It had never been past 3 in any gigs or practices. It was clear and the tone got real warm and phat. Whole night no sign of strain.

Sold it later because for my touch it just didn't develop any good tone at reasonable volumes. We didn't have efficient loud portable small amps in those days. We didn't have funds to have a variety of amps either. Plus our egos wouldn't have us going back to tilt piggyback Fender Showman or Bassman after being embarrassed by their lack of performance in regular gigging. So I was hoisting a Marshall 4x15, the tall one, up stairs with a SuperBass 100 head just to practice with an unmiked acoustic guitar player singer. Yes the Sunn 2000s had the sound.

What I wanted to try but didn't was this. The 361 has a mid/highs speaker out. A Marshall 4x12 cab would have given me that sweet treble & mids and removed the lows it couldn't handle. It would have given that stage present addition of front loaded speakers. If there weren't other amazing gear available now I'd so do that again.

Yes my drummer had a late '60s Chevy Biscayne and yes the 361 fit through the door easily and fit on the back seat with room for a passenger next to it. :)
 
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#74
Mildew Jones said:
I had purchased a used 360 in mid 80's...had nothing but trouble with the power amp, had to replace one of those big Coke can capacitors several times, I couldn't afford to keep repairing it, yanked the amp and wired it as a straight cab.
My non scientifically schooled brain thought putting a potentially sensitive amp in a cabinet that will vibrate when used, and get banged around during transport was not a very good idea. I'm guessing the current crop of powered cabs use digital power, so likely less susceptible to vibration/impact damage?
When the amp worked correctly, it was glorious!
MJ
Click to expand...
Yea, it was one of the 1st of its kind. Acoustic probably didn't do a good enough job isolating the power amp. I'm sure current designers could lick that problem.
After all, a combo amp is suseptable to the same rigors.
 
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#75
JW56789 said:
Ah, but we were so much younger then, and it's simply what you had to do to make the gigs.

Once, when I had the Peavey 215 stack, after we packed everything to move to the next joint, we'll say I was distracted by some sudden female companionship . . . . . I missed the van that night (I was busy !), and had to go back the next day to round up the amp. NOBODY had time to come help me in a truck or van, so I had to go get it RIGHT NOW in my . . . . . Volkswagen Beetle Convertible. Hmmmmmm.

I get over there right as the new band is starting to load in. I roll it out to the car. How in the hell am I gonna . . . . then it came to me. The little light went 'DING!' over my head.

I put the head on the front seat and floorboard. Put the top down. Got the 215 up on the back bumper . . . . and flipped it over into the back seat. I drove away with the caster end of the cab pointing skyward at about 45 degrees. If Only Peavey had a pic of this for a print ad !
Click to expand...

That's quite a visual lol!

'Our Keyboard player had one of those old Karmen Volkswagen Ragtops back in the day. I don't recall him hauling musical gear, but it's seems to me I remember him hauling a step ladder to his girlfriend's house....

'Yes, it was good to be young, but I'm still hauling about 150lbs of gear to gigs at age 67. It's just not all in one box.
 
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#77
Hurricane Jimmie said:
So Anyway, I didn't realize that there was a power amp inside the cabinet and the head was a preamp. Wonder how many were fried by mixing other power heads? Did they have a special jack to prevent this?
Congrats on a great find and getting them back out into the world.
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When you saw the 110 volt cord on the cab ( see pic ) your dare not drive it with the Ampeg head !! Most who bought one of this monsters got the low down on how to set it up. Check out the 4 output jacks, so you can drive 4 bottoms from one pre-amp head. I used 2 bottoms once and its like thunder in the night! Good bragging rights Too
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Vintage-Acoustic-360-361-Bass-Head-and-_1.jpg
 

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