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History lesson - Thunderfunk/SWR/Eden, etc.

#21
Waabs said:
David Eden was recently in Australia and from what I heard from one of the stores he visited was that he designed the Goliath 4x10. A bit of a second hand story but just thought I'd add that.
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That's a heck of a trick, considering that there is no "David Eden". Its the David SERIES of products, by Eden. Its a play on words, "David" vs. SWR's "Goliath". I always shake my head when I read Ebay auctions for a "David Eden Speaker Cab". LOL.

Perhaps you are thinking David Nordschow . . . . read the first post above a little more closely . . . :hmm:
 
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#22
Great story Ivan!

The story of the 360 is puzzling me lately. I'd heard for years that Harvey Gerst (now a small studio engineer) designed them, but I'd been hearing here in TB and in this thread that it was Russ Allee:
So I did some googling, ang came up with this:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Looks like it was a team effort.
 
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#23
Eric Moesle said:
That's a heck of a trick, considering that there is no "David Eden". Its the David SERIES of products, by Eden. Its a play on words, "David" vs. SWR's "Goliath". I always shake my head when I read Ebay auctions for a "David Eden Speaker Cab". LOL.

Perhaps you are thinking David Nordschow . . . . read the first post above a little more closely . . . :hmm:
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Yeah sorry. I just always say that. But you get the idea of what I was saying.
 
#24
Eric Moesle said:
That's a heck of a trick, considering that there is no "David Eden". Its the David SERIES of products, by Eden. Its a play on words, "David" vs. SWR's "Goliath".
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Many people know that there is no David Eden, but in fairness to many who are unaware of that fact... get David Nordschow to autograph something. Chances are, it'll read "David Eden". :)


Eric Moesle said:
I always shake my head when I read Ebay auctions for a "David Eden Speaker Cab". LOL.
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Why do you shake your head at that? And why is it so funny? Go to www.eden-electronics.com

The big "David Eden" image on the center of the home page is more than adequate to justify the phrase "David Eden Speaker Cab" I think. :)
 
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#25
IvanMike said:
jeez, now i'm sorry i brought it up. :hmm: i could tell ya what i know in another thread, but that's a thread that i bet would get ugly and end up being closed awful fast.
All's I'll say in this thread is that i think Epifani and Bergantino cabinets sound fantastic. Some of the best new cabinets I've heard.
How about we keep the comments to Acoustic, AMP, SWR, Eden, Gibson, Thunderfunk, Raven Labs, and how great amplifiers with semi parametric EQ's are? :)
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Even greater when you don't "need" the EQ;)

For the sake of anyone Googling, the AMP is the BH-420 model, the Thunderfunk is the TFB420. Both are killer amps.
 
#31
Eric Moesle said:
The logo badging on my Eden speaker cab used to say David "by" Eden, the "by" in small print. I'm suprised the logo on the website doesn't appear to have the "by".

Good eye!
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I don't doubt you a bit. I think over the years, it had probably just been such a frequent misconception that Nordschow probably said "ahh to heck with it" and just started going by David Eden.

I know he does often sign "David Eden" when he signs a piece of gear for someone.
 
#32
Brad Johnson said:
BTW this thread was a trip...

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143521&page=1&pp=20&highlight=alee
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i skimmed thru that thread before but ignored some of th4e bickering. It looks like a lot of posts got removed, i see quotes of Finger Blister and SWR Engineering, but no original posts by them. Looks like that thread got quite heated.
I deliberately tried to avoid all the disputed in this thread. Facts are Rabe worked for Allee on the AMP. If He contibuted 100% or 1% of the preamp design is no biggie.
 
#38
IvanMike said:
Steve Rabe... was across the street from Groove Tubes
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Actually SWR was a couple of doors down from GT in Sylmar. I was visiting Aspen in 1992 (?) and was surprised when I left that I saw SWR there. They were in a small "mini-mall" style "industrial park." As I remember the building wrapped around the parking lot and SWR was to the right at 90 degrees. So it wasn't even across the street.

IvanMike said:
the world tour series amps was very similar to the AMP-420 and SWR studio 220
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Except the way the preamp tube was used. Eden has it incorporated in the circuit better but SWR runs it at a higher voltage (better).

IvanMike said:
AMP folded in 1988 and was reportedly bought by Gibson. Either Russ Allee designed the GB-440 for Gibson or Gibson just continued making the AMP-420 under the new Gibson GB-440 moniker.
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I have the jigs, sample boards, and a "prototype power amp" for the GB-440. It is NOT the same as the AMP BH-420, but is obvioulsy designed by AMP.


IvanMike said:
Rumor has it that Gibson made some changes that destroyed the reliability of the amplifier.
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Not true. Any changes made were made by AMP (Gibson had no in house electronic engineering capability) and the Gibson line of amps also included two guitar amps. A 100-watt "hybrid" with solid state power out and preamp tubes. A single 12" combo amp. And a larger 200-watt stereo chorus amp with 2x12" speakers. This was total solid state with a bucket brigade time delay circuit for the chorus. I got all of this "stuff" from Gibson. The reliability that sunk the amp line was in the guitar amps. Gibson employees told me the problem was a TO-220 transistor (regulator? I haven't looked) was mounted from the circuit board to the chassis for heat sink and vibration caused it to break. The warranty problems this caused lead Gibson to drop the entire line.

IvanMike said:
Production of the GB-440 was halted sometime around 1990
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I believe it was in 1992.

IvanMike said:
Recently Dave Funk was involved with Gibson as a consultant/contractor, and was doing repairs for them. One of the managers approached him and asked if he wanted to purchase the contents of a warehouse they were cleaning out. When he bought it he found the remnants of the GB-440 line, including enough spare parts to build about 30 amps.
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80 amps with serial numbers TFxxx.

IvanMike said:
Since then Dave has made several improvements to the design, including... a timbre control
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The Timbre Control is original to the Gibson.

Dave "Thunder" Funk
 
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#40
This Tread keeps getting more and more informative! Really good stuff. I guess that it's amazing to me that the amp I used for 14 years (SWR SM400, 400S & 500) is so closely related to the amp that I recently feel in love with, the TFB-420. I can see the simularities in EQ but IMO the amps sound so different that I wouldn't have made the connection. I certainly would never have made the connection to the Acoustic 360 amps either. I actually wasn't a hugh fan of the Acoustic line (especially the folded horn design). I played through the original Sunn concert amps back then. Now if you had told me that those original Sunn amps were earlier decendants of the AMP, SWR & TF amps, I'd have believed that. IMO those were the best sounding bass amps in the early 70's! :bassist:
 

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