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Double Bass Bass amplification in 1963
- Thread starter fdeck
- Start date
Earl
Supporting Member
The times I have put an amp out in front of me have been more satisfying musically because I don’t have to hear that direct sound 
B-15’s were/are unique in several ways to the other bass amps built in the 60’s. Each of the three instrument inputs was set higher than 1 Meg ohm.
The primary input on Channel One is 4.6 Meg Ohm. The Double Baffle Reflex cabinet is actually a bit to small for the 15” speaker so it acts like low cut
filter. The amp only got a 25 watt RMS output. So it’s a “clean” signal at low volumes. I used to set mine pictured below on a wooden ballistics ordinance box. Just something I experimented with. The Chassis is shock mounted so it “floats” above the cabinet when it’s flipped up. I tried setting mine in front of me like that a couple of times in a small club. If you ever heard Art Blakey play in a small club you’d get why Reggie moved the amp like that, I guess, hard to say. I had that good fortune at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago. Art could “peel the paint” and “shake the dust of the rafters”.
UGETSU is a watershed album.
The primary input on Channel One is 4.6 Meg Ohm. The Double Baffle Reflex cabinet is actually a bit to small for the 15” speaker so it acts like low cut
filter. The amp only got a 25 watt RMS output. So it’s a “clean” signal at low volumes. I used to set mine pictured below on a wooden ballistics ordinance box. Just something I experimented with. The Chassis is shock mounted so it “floats” above the cabinet when it’s flipped up. I tried setting mine in front of me like that a couple of times in a small club. If you ever heard Art Blakey play in a small club you’d get why Reggie moved the amp like that, I guess, hard to say. I had that good fortune at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago. Art could “peel the paint” and “shake the dust of the rafters”.
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I had one. Was good in Michigan where I drove to gigs which were usually more than one night and you could leave the amp. I kept it for 2 years after moving to NYC. 5th floor walk-up. Ah youth! If you thought Blakely was loud back in the day, you should have heard him at Mikell's near the end when he was going deaf. Yikes! Wear earplugs guys.
The B-15N was a far better amp than the pickups that were available in the 60’s. I had a Barcus Berry Silver Sliver that putty’ed to the underside of the bridge or a Polytone that screwed between the inside of the bridge feet no adjusters. Both of them sucked eggs. I played bass guitar until the early eighties and I got the Underwood. 
We're fortunate that things have improved so much.The B-15N was a far better amp than the pickups that were available in the 60’s. I had a Barcus Berry Silver Sliver that putty’ed to the underside of the bridge or a Polytone that screwed between the inside of the bridge feet no adjusters. Both of them sucked eggs. I played bass guitar until the early eighties and I got the Underwood.
1975. my first double bass - a Kay - had a Barcus Berry bridge. The pickup was built in to the bridge. When that bass was smashed in a band-bus accident, I needed a pickup for the bass that replaced it. I took a saw to the old bridge, cut out a piece containing the pickup element, and glued it to the bridge on the new bass. Never sounded very good, but it worked.
I had the same two pickups starting out. I thought the BB was far superior to the PT which had a tendency to unscrew and lose contact or fall. The Barcus had its own preamp.The B-15N was a far better amp than the pickups that were available in the 60’s. I had a Barcus Berry Silver Sliver that putty’ed to the underside of the bridge or a Polytone that screwed between the inside of the bridge feet no adjusters. Both of them sucked eggs. I played bass guitar until the early eighties and I got the Underwood.
Around Detroit all the guys jerry rigged magnetic pickups. Mounted a d'Armond guitar pickup at the end of the board. Worked great through a B15. Much better than those pickups described above. The piezo that worked really well was the Barcus imbedded in the bridge. You had to buy the bridge with the pickup installed and then go to your luthier for the labor intensive job of fitting it to your bass. Too expensive for me. Rufus Reid had one which he ran through one of those squishy sided Kustom amps and it sounded great.
Been there Eric,
It also feed back pretty often. I had to get way to the side of the Portaflex Speaker Cabinet. My father had to help me machine down the knurled screw so it would actually fit inside the bridge arch. I remember that 9v preamp and the putty the included to affix the sensor to the underside of the bridge.
