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L-O-N-G Shot! "Bruce" Amps????

FranF

FranF

Jul 25, 2004
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Northeastern PA
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#1
Well, this is nuts but some "older" :hmm: fellas here may need to chime in! Anybody remember "Bruce" amps? All I know is Joe Schermie of Three Dog Night had them in '70-72. Most likely a Californy made amp. For the time, it was a respectable setup. The head was just the preamp, ala Acoustic 360, and the cabs had the power module. Joe had the 2 2x15 cabs loaded with Altecs. VERY nice for the time. Thing is, I can't find anything on the web. I'd love to see or copy some pics, catalog info, ads, anything. Whatcha think???
 
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#2
They were made in Englewoood, Colorado from '68 to '72. Early endorsers of Bruce amplifiers included Michael Allsup and Jimmy Greenspoon from Three Dog Night. Jimi Hendrix used Michael Allsup's Bruce amp at live jams at L.A.'s landmark Whiskey Nightclub in 1968 and a picture from one of those shows is on Jimi's CRY OF LOVE album.

http://www.live-audio.com/messages/archive4/5447.html

I wonder if he ended up working at Peavey? :D

155a_3.jpg
 
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#3
I bought a Bruce bass amp for my first bass amp back in about 1969. Mine had 2 15"speakers and the 100 watt amp built into the back of the cab with the preamp-head sitting on top. You could get them with JBL D 140s but mine had the standard speakers,whatever they were. From what I remember it sounded pretty good but I was playing some pretty poor sounding basses through it,a Conrad beatle bass,a large hollowbody Framus and a Gibson EBO.

A couple of the best local bass players used them back in the late sixties and they sounded great with them. In fact the PA at one of our bigger venues that drew 1000 people on Friday and Saturday nights had a Bruce PA and it sounded pretty good too.

For a 100 watt amp it seemed pretty loud. They were heavy and were made with something like MDF,not plywood.The head was just a preamp and you used a sheilded cable from the head to the poweramp in the back. They also made 4-12 and 6-10 cabinets for guitar players. I think they were a little ahead of their time.
__________________
US Peavey club #10/ Dr Bass club #13 /Mark Bass club member #174 Millennium USA club #2
Millenium 5 plus
 
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#4
I have also been looking for info on this amp! My first amp was a Bruce with 2x15's it was the same amp stated above with the pre-amp top and powered bottom. I somehow remember it being more than 100 watts though. I also used a Kustom Casino brain (that's what we called heads back then:D) with it using the line out jack making the Bruce power bottom a MONSTER! I had the amp from 72-78. Oh I forgot to mention the bottom was HEAVY AS HECK!!! The wheels would come loose after rolling it 100 feet! you had to carry a screwdriver just to tighten up the bar that the two wheels on each side where mounted to!
 
#5
My first gigging rig was a 1970 Fender Jazz Bass with 2 Bruce amps 2-15s in each. The power amps were built into the speaker cabinets and the head was a preamp. Killer sound, but soooo heavy for gigs. I used this setup for all my gigs from 1972 to sometime in 1985.
 
#8
jphilauren said:
I remember them, almost bought one. Choice of Bruce, Ampeg SBT powered cab or SVT
Made the right choice and bought SVT which I still have today
Click to expand...

Of the three amps you had to choose from you made the best choice. Many of the earlier solid state amps had issues. The Ampeg solid state amps weren't as reliable as their tube counterparts, and Bruce amps were known to have issues as well. Meanwhile the SVT is still in production today.

Ric
 
#9
Local Brooklyn bands discovered Bruce amps in the early 70s. At the time, they were revolutionary. I bought one used from one of those bands and still have it. It works fine, sounds good. I don't gig with it as it's pretty old and hasn't really been serviced since it was built. It's also really heavy. It uses a "mystery module" sealed in epoxy in both the pre-amp (head) and powered bottom. Once those modules go, the amp is toast. It's fun having it available to play now and then and to remember how great it sounded to have two of the bottoms hooked up to the head. I could feel the bass pounding me in the chest from across the gym! No wonder my hearing is shot.
 
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#10
FranF said:
Well, this is nuts but some "older" :meh: fellas here may need to chime in! Anybody remember "Bruce" amps? All I know is Joe Schermie of Three Dog Night had them in '70-72. Most likely a Californy made amp. For the time, it was a respectable setup. The head was just the preamp, ala Acoustic 360, and the cabs had the power module. Joe had the 2 2x15 cabs loaded with Altecs. VERY nice for the time. Thing is, I can't find anything on the web. I'd love to see or copy some pics, catalog info, ads, anything. Whatcha think???
Click to expand...
BRUCE amps were built in Englewood, Colorado 1967-1970 by a team of only 4. I personally built all of the pre-amps and amps while 2 of the guys built the cabinets and loaded them with JBL and Altec speakers.
 
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#12
JanH said:
BRUCE amps were built in Englewood, Colorado 1967-1970 by a team of only 4. I personally built all of the pre-amps and amps while 2 of the guys built the cabinets and loaded them with JBL and Altec speakers.
Click to expand...

i don't own one of these, but i wonder if it would be appropriate almost 50 years later to reveal the what was inside the epoxy?
Just to save these from the landfill in the event they topped working.
I was thinking of buying a custom preamp once from a guy who epoxied his stuff, and then he started having health problems, so i thought better of it.
 
#13
JanH said:
BRUCE amps were built in Englewood, Colorado 1967-1970 by a team of only 4. I personally built all of the pre-amps and amps while 2 of the guys built the cabinets and loaded them with JBL and Altec speakers.
Click to expand...
beans-on-toast said:
Those were the good old days. Perhaps not as glamorous as this :laugh:.


View attachment 799984
Martha Hyer
​
Click to expand...

And this is why I love this site!
Great thread with lots of interesting stories and info.
JanH; what was manufacturing like back then?
 
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#17
JanH said:
BRUCE amps were built in Englewood, Colorado 1967-1970 by a team of only 4. I personally built all of the pre-amps and amps while 2 of the guys built the cabinets and loaded them with JBL and Altec speakers.
Click to expand...

So cool that you made those amps. I would LOVE to know about those epoxy filled modules! My amp works fine now, but once those modules are fried, game over!
 
#18
I've got a Bruce Amp. It's a B212 model. The "Funk" / Fuzz distortion feature works great. The tremolo is also pretty nice although the reverb just produces feedback. The head and cab are in pretty good condition overall and very clean. I may be consider selling. If anyone is interested let me know.

Here are some pics.


image.jpeg image.jpegimage.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpegimage.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg
 
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#19
Here's a video demo I took a couple days ago. I'm playing a 1996 Fender Duo-Sonic. I'm a lefty playing this right handed guitar upside down. Just basically testing the EQ (Bass, Middle, Treble) and also getting a little bit of the Funk distortion and tremolo as well as the reverb feedback. Pretty clean sounding amp but that Funk effect has some serious garage rock tones!

 
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