Obsolete bass amps

[DavidEdenAria]

Ok, we know the SVT and V4B are still viable but what about all of the other brands (mostly SS amps) that appeared in the 80's until the latest class D amps sort of 'took over'?

I have an Eden Metro and a GK 800RB both of which i think are solid even today....even my Music Man HD150...getting into bass from a guitar world i was taken with the number of brands to choose from that i saw on stages thru the past decades.

Which of these amps that were at one time considered 'top tier' are now relegated to the scrap heap, possibly in terms of weight and size being a factor?

Are many not even worth repairing even though they may have been among the preferred examples just a few years back?

The old Fender, Vox and Marshall circuits have survived in the guitar world...but what is still viable in the bass amp world?

 

[teemuk]

I don't quite follow the supposed logic of this topic. In some form of thinking newer amps and technologies will obsolete the older ones but in another form of thinking we may find - if not usefulness - then at least nostalgy and appeal in the older stuff. Musical instruments and technology doesn't neccessarily "age" like common household Items such as dishwashers and microwave ovens.

If we, for example, compare good modern violins to Stradivarius the modern ones are built better and in a blind test the modern ones even sound better. By all means in theory modern bulk instruments should have obsoleted the Stradivarius violins but in practice it just didn't go that way. In other fields of life people are still getting their kicks from more than 50-year old tube technology or 200 years old steam engines. Art and hobbies are a strange thing.

Even from old amps with horrible reliability and very limited functionality some folks will always find some sort of vintage appeal or just the right unique tone that works in that single specific arrangement and nowhere else.

 

[BassBeginer64]

I find interesting that many new solid state amps try to emulate the SVT sound, while giving ease for portability.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Which of these amps that were at one time considered 'top tier' are now relegated to the scrap heap, possibly in terms of weight and size being a factor?

Yeah, I remember the stuff that made me go "wow!" 40+ years ago. Now I look back and go "what the hell was that all about?!?".

Riis

 

[alembicguy]

Obsolete is in the eye of the beholder

 

[teemuk]

Times have changed too. I understand that in late 1960's a 100-watt amp was "hi tech" and that one just had to have two monstrous W-bins because PA... what PA?

Now it's cheap to produce 100-watt amps and even 1000 watts isn't uncommon... and those W-bins would suck with modern arrangements where most of loud sound is produced by PA and cabs rather work as stage monitors.

Bass amps have gone far from days of early Portaflex Ampegs, SVTs, Acoustic Control and A.M.P. amps but are those things neccessarily obsoleted.... I don't know. But I do know that there were dozens and dozens of imitations of such successful classic designs we have forgotten though.

 

[Samatza]

Well at least we’re getting modern versions that are reliable with great vintage tone.

I don’t think gear becomes obsolete as much as it becomes frail and not something you’d want to take on the road. I have some great tube amps but they stay in the studio these days, they did the hard yards for 50 years.

 

[jthisdell]

Those amps are less obsolete than say a television from the era. But like TV's, the technology has improved greatly in bass amps and cabs and the new ones are overall much better, more powerful, better lows, more even response, lighter, smaller

 

[T-boneParish]

"Which of these amps that were at one time considered 'top tier'..."

Acoustic 360/361 was the bomb back in the 70s.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Two issues:

1. Weight. I went from a 150+ pound Trace Elliott rig to under 50, with 90% of tone and volume (and my old rig was SS).
2. You just can't beat the tone of an overdriven tube guitar amp. I would bet 95% of the rock tunes from the 60s through today were recorded with a micced Fender or Marshall tube amp. With bass, it's not as big a factor. Lots of DI even with pros.

I'll happily play an SVT if it is part of a backline. But after a gig, within 10 minutes, I'm carrying everything (bass, amp, etc.) to my hatchback in one easy trip.

 

[JMarkD]

I don't think any amp is obsolete if it works and someone likes it (and can still lift it!). Once they stop working and literally can't be repaired I suppose that would be obsolete.

 

[The Nameless]

Great tone does not age. And I'll take my "ancient" rig over anything I've heard from today's current crop of amplifiers. Mainly because I already own it. I'll never consider weight over tone. Just isn't in me.

 

[Standalone]

I traded my Eden Metro for my 800RB a dozen years ago, so I can comment. Part of it is that the calculus of how heavy is too heavy has changed. The Metro is a heavy combo, full of features, but with a 1990's sounding scooped cabinet that defines its tone.

That's the other part -- the tone. The Parametric EQ seems, in retrospect, best designed to decide what kind of scoop you want. The Metro/XLT tone is of an era, and not really a classic.

The 800RB on the other hand is a classic. It's still on the lighter side of class A/B solid state amps, and having the portability and flexibility of a head, is less likely to be obsolete. I sold mine off in favor of a 700RBii, but mainly to skip out on likely upcoming maintenance with a few scratchy pots. The 700RBii responds and sounds basically the same.

Some solid state amps are true classics and will see long use, just like some of the Ampeg tube gear. I've been to giant festivals within the past decade and seen 800RB's in the rack (Levon Helm's bassist at the Vibes in 2011, iirc)

John Rider of Max Creek still rocks his Eden preamp -- the same preamp as the Metro basically. Lesh was using his forever, not sure what he plays now.

But the old Acoustics aren't in use in the same way -- GK's eighties stuff seems to be the inflection point of solid state obsolescence.

 

[Jay Corwin]

I don't know about obsolete, but back in my rocker days I had a nice Hartke rig. The 3500 head in particular was exceptional. I whipped the absolute crap out of that thing, and it never skipped a beat. That was back when you could smoke in bars...ahhh those were the days...

Eventually I traded it to a friend because it was collecting dust for years, but part of me still regrets it.

 

[JMarkD]

Great tone does not age. And I'll take my "ancient" rig over anything I've heard from today's current crop of amplifiers. Mainly because I already own it. I'll never consider weight over tone. Just isn't in me.

Very true. I don't want to turn the thread into a discussion about amp weight, but I must admit, weight does become a factor. If I didn't like the tone of my current light weight amp, I would still use my older heavy stuff. I have used many amps over the years and I can get my tone out of all of them. There is nothing obsolete about older (heavy) amps.

 

[coyote1]

‘Obsolete’?? It’s story time....

Once upon a time, a clockmaker decided to build musical instruments. He used the technology with which he was already familiar, and crafted a thing that sorta sounded like a pipe organ. It was huge and heavy, reliant upon electromechanical gears and circuits. But it sounded good as it’s own entity, and began finding itself in homes across the land as well as on stages everywhere. That thing is the Hammond organ. It was in baseball stadiums, on gospel church stages, it got hauled around by big bands like Deep Purple and ELP.... and by your local band, playing to 50 people at a backyard party.

The sound was awesome. The hauling, not so much.

Combine that with the constant desire for ‘new’ sounds, and in the late 1970s and into the 80s you started to see bands literally putting these things out on the curb for the trash man as they acquired new technology like the DX7 and the various other polysynths. And then came samplers, and the Hammond was dead. Obsolete.

Or was it?

We all know about the resurgence. So by the year 2000, a B3 that in 1983 might have been kicked to the curb would, if in good shape and paired with a good Leslie 122 or 147, fetch $6K or more.

Now these organs are finally becoming truly obsolete. The reason is that rebuilding one (I’ve done two myself) is a huge PITA, and the parts are becoming unavailable as they age out and become non-functional. Thank goodness that ‘modeling’ technology has finally gotten to where it is sonically indistinguishable from tonewheels and vibrato scanners and filter capacitors and electronic crosstalk.
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Anyway, the moral is that nothing is ‘obsolete’ if it helps you make the sound that’s in your head. Yeah a Hartke amp from1998 is far heavier than a current class D amp. But it sounds great, and that sound might not be available from another amp. So ‘obsolete’ is entirely subjective.

 

[TinIndian]

LOL. Every Amp I own is Obsolete. 1968 Oliver Powerflex, 1980 MusicMan HD150, GK 400RBII and my "Newer" Genz Benz Streamliner 900. I love them and gig them all, except the Oliver. Mainly the 400RB and the Genz but the HD150 goes out periodically too. In fact I have a show this Sunday and I think I'll bring the HD150 for a change. I think they all sound fantastic and are completely viable.

 

[iiipopes]

Now that we have access to good digital PA systems and monitors reasonably priced, all bass amps are obsolete.

 

[TinIndian]

Now that we have access to good digital PA systems and monitors reasonably priced, all bass amps are obsolete.

Very true, except that doesn't make you pants flap.

 

[dalkowski]

I would take back my old 80s Sunn SS amps.