First amp I played through was a 1966 blackface Fender Bassman. It was a 50-watt all-tube amp with a large cabinet holding two 12" Jensen speakers. I bought it new in 1966 and it was great at the time. In 1971 I started touring with a nightclub group playing 5-nights a week, 50-weeks a year, for three years. A few months into that the guitarist and keys bought Vox Super Beatle amps and just buried my poor Bassman amp.The first amp I ever played through was an Ibanez IBZ10B. Rather cheap and super small but it got the job done for a little while. I guess its still and ok practice amp.
PS: If you like this thread be sure to like this post!
Thanks!
While we were playing a club in Lincoln Nebraska for 2-weeks, I went into Hospe Music looking for a Dual Showman amp. They had sold out and their other store in Omaha had also sold out. I tried every bass amp they had and was ready to leave when the salesman said that he could give me a good price on this piggy-back Standel amp. It was a "new" solid state design and had two 15" powered speakers in the speaker cab. Tried it out and about shook the room apart. Traded in my Bassman amp towards it and then found out I could never turn it above 9 o'clock (#3 on the dial) indoors. Also found out my days of being buried by guitar and key amps were a thing of the past.
Don't have a shot of my Bassman, but here's a shot from 1972 and you can see part of it hiding behind the guitar player. The photographer had us crowd together and play some songs while he shot some photos. It wasn't a tall amp but it was deep. It was a bass reflex where all the sound coming out the back was channeled around the side and came out 4 round ports mounted vertically alongside the speakers. It would push enough air through those ports to make my bell bottoms flap if I was within about 3 or 4o feet of it. You should have seem me fit that in the back of my '69 VW Bug!
