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Obscure bass amps...
- Thread starter Muziekschuur
- Start date
that is more an indication of faulty mains wiring. I had the same issue with my old YBA1a. I would get nasty shocks in venues with bad power. I finally started carrying a "christmas tree" outlet tester to gigs. I have even re-wired outlets (after cutting power from the breaker box) so that they were correct.
For those stages where I had no other option I would make do with the ground switch. But as anyone else can tell you, those ground switches won't fix a bad ground, only make it less noisy .
What a crazy-ass bass sound from DFA! Love it.My 1973 Peavey F800-B
A true solid state titan from a bygone era.
260 watts at 4 ohms, 410 watts at 2 ohms.
Those numbers are @ 1 % THD. Not bad at all for it's day.
In it's original configuration, driving dual 18" Vega loaded folded horn cabs:
The late Leon Wilkeson of Lynyrd Skynyrd can be seen with a couple of them stacked on top of a mass of Peavey cabs on just about any live performance in the '70s.
More recently Jesse Keeler of Death From Above 1979 got part of his unique sound by cranking the built in distortion on his F800B (and running a clean signal through a separate Acoustic rig).
Online manual at Peavey Archives:
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In the early 70s had one of these. Never seen anybody else play thru one, actually, never saw another one.
A little about it.
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There was one of these beasts at my high school in Omaha, during the 70's. The school had a wide ranging music education curriculum, including a swing and 50's rock band. It did the job as a bass amp.
Sinmarc. This brand is obscure even in Spain. They were made in the late 60's thru late 70's-early 80's, due to the market restrictions made by Franco, the dictator who rules in Spain from 1938 to 1975. Mostly are fender copys(bassman) with el34 in the power section. They also made hiwatt copys but are even rare. This photos show a couple owned by my uncle, one in pretty bad shape aesthetically, its a 100watter. The woody "tolex" its just a crappy sticker. Ir also needs a tech revision due to the crappy wiring job made when it burst in flames while my brother was playing it. Even with this problems, it sounds pretty good to me, even has all the original tubes(less the one who burst in flames) The other is a 50watter, in better shape tech and aesthetically. The sound is very sweet in both, with a very musical high end, limited bottom, due to the sealed 4x12" with near to guitar specifications drivers, I think (the cab needs a restauration too, if you look close there is no tolex, just black paint)but plenty of low mid. And apologizes for my english, as you could imagine, is not my first language.
Booth in top of 412
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/109/imgp7034t.jpg/
Sinmarc B-2280C back (you can see the non original power tube, the first one)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/513/imgp7023.jpg/
Sinmarc B-2090C (non original power tubes)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/198/imgp6933f.jpg/
Are this obscure enough? because we have even obscurer brands from that period, for example, tenoxy(fender copies too), mariscal(marshall copies, with a funny looking logo, it looks exactly like a Marshal logo, but if you look twice, you read mariscal), CMB(centro musical de barcelona, they made orange clones if im no mistaken), Alto(tall in english, more fender copycats), musicson(musicman inspired brand name? I don't know, the amps made by them, afaik, were not clones, at least aesthetically, they are pretty wierd looking, like post-war german amps). Google the brands, its worth a look.
Booth in top of 412
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/109/imgp7034t.jpg/
Sinmarc B-2280C back (you can see the non original power tube, the first one)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/513/imgp7023.jpg/
Sinmarc B-2090C (non original power tubes)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/198/imgp6933f.jpg/
Are this obscure enough? because we have even obscurer brands from that period, for example, tenoxy(fender copies too), mariscal(marshall copies, with a funny looking logo, it looks exactly like a Marshal logo, but if you look twice, you read mariscal), CMB(centro musical de barcelona, they made orange clones if im no mistaken), Alto(tall in english, more fender copycats), musicson(musicman inspired brand name? I don't know, the amps made by them, afaik, were not clones, at least aesthetically, they are pretty wierd looking, like post-war german amps). Google the brands, its worth a look.
And apologizes for my english, as you could imagine, is not my first language.
Trust me sir, your english is much, much better than my spanish! Thanks for joining in.
Ace Tone. Had one of these briefly before I got the hacksaw out. The head is actually only a preamp. There's a 150W power amp mounted inside the cab. I cut the preamp chassis down in width to share a rack case with a home-made 300W mosfet power amp. The pre/power case still gets occasional use in a friend's studio and the power amp is used as a monitor amp.
Attachments
That's one I've never seen. Put it together and you've got "acetone". 
I saw a video of the early Kinks playing through those Echolette amps - I think it was filmed in Germany.
I saw a video of the early Kinks playing through those Echolette amps - I think it was filmed in Germany.
I've got quite an one-off amp+cab combo.
As I started playing 5 years ago, I had (which I still use for home practice) cute little Hartke B30. But a couple of months ago my band started to get some more gigs where I had to bring my own amp, but I didn't have that much money. So my drummer dug up an old amplifier+cab.
The cab used to be a combo (probably guitar or keys?) with a 150W 8Ohm 15" celestion speaker and a 120W 8Ohm tweeter.
The amp is an Main PA 170 Mixer with solid state with three 200W 4Ohms outputs and 5 inputs. To top it off, the reverb came with it in a bag xD
I don't know much about the brand Maine, only thing I do know is that it isn't there anymore :S (maybe someone over here can give me some more info on it)
When I tried it I couldn't really turn up the volume but I was assured that it would sound great... well it didn't the sound was utter crap but I soon found out that the speaker was an guitar speaker so it really couldn't handle the lows at all. Boy did I look stupid :S
At that point I decided to hook the cab up with new speakers. (still cheaper then a new cab) Found a good deal for two 10" celestion BASS speakers BL10-200X with 200W RMS at 8Ohm.
Hooked them up in parallel. Bought some hardware and a piece of wood.
I used WinISD to determine the size of the bass ports, made them with drainage pipes. Glued some foam to the inside of the cab and put nice black hard plastic covers in front of the speakers. Can't really decide if I'll keep it like this, or if I'll make a frame with some grill cloth to put in front of it.
The sound is amazing, really warm and has some Oomph to it and it has a slightly gritty touch cause of the amp. I love it!
As I started playing 5 years ago, I had (which I still use for home practice) cute little Hartke B30. But a couple of months ago my band started to get some more gigs where I had to bring my own amp, but I didn't have that much money. So my drummer dug up an old amplifier+cab.
The cab used to be a combo (probably guitar or keys?) with a 150W 8Ohm 15" celestion speaker and a 120W 8Ohm tweeter.
The amp is an Main PA 170 Mixer with solid state with three 200W 4Ohms outputs and 5 inputs. To top it off, the reverb came with it in a bag xD
I don't know much about the brand Maine, only thing I do know is that it isn't there anymore :S (maybe someone over here can give me some more info on it)
When I tried it I couldn't really turn up the volume but I was assured that it would sound great... well it didn't the sound was utter crap but I soon found out that the speaker was an guitar speaker so it really couldn't handle the lows at all. Boy did I look stupid :S
At that point I decided to hook the cab up with new speakers. (still cheaper then a new cab) Found a good deal for two 10" celestion BASS speakers BL10-200X with 200W RMS at 8Ohm.
Hooked them up in parallel. Bought some hardware and a piece of wood.
I used WinISD to determine the size of the bass ports, made them with drainage pipes. Glued some foam to the inside of the cab and put nice black hard plastic covers in front of the speakers. Can't really decide if I'll keep it like this, or if I'll make a frame with some grill cloth to put in front of it.
The sound is amazing, really warm and has some Oomph to it and it has a slightly gritty touch cause of the amp. I love it!
thumpbass1 said:
Might have been mine. Traded it to Doug at Dietzes for an Acoustic 150 and bottom in 72'.
Here's my "80's Yamaha B-100 III head i picked up online for $100. Works great with the JBL K-140. I also ran my Fender Hot Rod during this gig.
OK, not a bass amp, or a guitar amp really, but i'll take every opportunity to post my baby... hehe
I have been looking around for pics of this amp but I can't seem to find any information on it.
I bought a Gibson combo amp at the same time that I bought my Mosrite bass in 1965. I 'think' the amp was an Atlas combo - 40 watts, single 15" speaker, 3 knobs in a closed back trapezoidal shaped cabinet. Tilt-back lever and removable casters. The amp broke not long after purchase and the shop replaced the bass control that turned out to be 4 ganged pots on a single shaft. They may have wired something up wrong during the repair. I could never get a good sound out of that amp afterwards, but in the 60's we all turned the tone knobs off anyway and turned up the bass knobs on the amps. I sold the amp sometime in the mid-80's for probably $100 or less.
Rick B.
I bought a Gibson combo amp at the same time that I bought my Mosrite bass in 1965. I 'think' the amp was an Atlas combo - 40 watts, single 15" speaker, 3 knobs in a closed back trapezoidal shaped cabinet. Tilt-back lever and removable casters. The amp broke not long after purchase and the shop replaced the bass control that turned out to be 4 ganged pots on a single shaft. They may have wired something up wrong during the repair. I could never get a good sound out of that amp afterwards, but in the 60's we all turned the tone knobs off anyway and turned up the bass knobs on the amps. I sold the amp sometime in the mid-80's for probably $100 or less.
Rick B.
There was a guy who played all the bar mitzvahs, Al the Accordionist, and he had an Ampeg A-40 fliptop. Filled up a back yard for sure. It had a mic channel and an accordion channel. The mic plugged into the head on a gooseneck. There is no trace of its existence anywhere online, but I was a curious kid and had just discovered guitars and amps and I remember that amp well, the first pro amp I'd seen in person.
