Sears bass amps

[DennisM]

This is for Lea Claypool. I owned an early 1970's sears bass amp which was (I think) bx200. It had 2x15 and 2x12 speakers in a slant cab with wheels on back and handle. Solid state 200 watt head with only 3 knobs. Volume bass and treble. Believe me,this amp kicked ass. Excuse language. Other bass players I associated with back then had fender bassmans and among etc. They were amazed at power and projection of this baby. If I could find another one,I would buy it in a minute. It was totally awesome. Used with my baby 74 Jazz Bass.

 

[Element Zero]

Ok.

 

[DennisM]

Les Sorry for mistype of your name. Autocorrect thing. Anyway,I think there's someone on this site who has one. He paid $50 for it. (ENVY) I am disabled now but if I could afford things, I would jump at one cheap like that. I had to get rid of my baby Jazz Bass,which I regret till this day,and all my instruments,for health reasons but oh well that's over. Now I just dream of the old days. Started jamming again though. So now reacquire all skills over again. Fingers and hands have to start moving again. Like a beginner after playing over 35 years. But it's all good just frustrating when you know how you played but fingers don't agree with mind. It's all good. Keep jamming guys.

 

[G-Dog]

Welcome to TalkBass, @DennisM.

Yes, the Sears Silvertone amps were actually pretty cool way back then, looking back on them from these days. 'Course we all just thought they were POSs, but we couldn't afford what we really wanted. The best I personally saw was a 150 watt 6x10" that looked something like this:

It was neat, too, that the head fit into the back of the speaker cabinet for a convenient all-in-one carry. That probably didn't help the sound of the speaker cab any, though.

 

[chadds]

I had the opportunity to play a jam with a plexi Ampeg bass through a 6x10 silvertone set. Great overdrive distortion.

 

[duncmill]

This picture turned up in a Reverb.com listing that has ended.

 

[DennisM]

That is very similar to the amp I had'except the racing stripe strip thing. This amp rocked and people would comment on projection. Once at USCG party, pilots heard me on runway almost 1/2 mile away.

 

[DennisM]

this is a better pic

 

[DennisM]

I found this pic on this site. A guitar player bought it for $50.

 

[pie_man_25]

Honestly I like a lot of older no name amps. Yeah sure, we're objectively in a golden age of well designed bass amps, but there was a much bigger "anything goes" kind of attitude, with a cool look to boot.

I'm far from about ready to lug a 610 made of 3/4" plywood that can only handle 150 Watts, but there's something to be said of style. Granted, lots of great looking new amps as well, and ugly older amps. I dunno, my best analogy is that Napoleon was wrong about a lot of things - especially rifles - but when he was wrong he was wrong with style.

 

[Copperhead]

I actually remember these things I had a friend buy one and it blew my 90watt Traynor and 6x10 cab out of the water in volume . Really ticked me off.

 

[nilorius]

This is for Lea Claypool. I owned an early 1970's sears bass amp which was (I think) bx200. It had 2x15 and 2x12 speakers in a slant cab with wheels on back and handle. Solid state 200 watt head with only 3 knobs. Volume bass and treble. Believe me,this amp kicked ass. Excuse language. Other bass players I associated with back then had fender bassmans and among etc. They were amazed at power and projection of this baby. If I could find another one,I would buy it in a minute. It was totally awesome. Used with my baby 74 Jazz Bass.

If you had a head with 200W power, how and why did you had 2x15'' and 2x10'' speakers ?

 

[Copperhead]

If you had a head with 200W power, how and why did you had 2x15'' and 2x10'' speakers ?

Two reasons:
In those days bass amps were highly underpowered and sold on " peak " power not rms, more really 100 honest watts.
Second, speakers were much lower in their power handling capabilities, and more speakers were the primary way in those days to get more spl.

 

[cnltb]

This is for Lea Claypool. I owned an early 1970's sears bass amp which was (I think) bx200. It had 2x15 and 2x12 speakers in a slant cab with wheels on back and handle. Solid state 200 watt head with only 3 knobs. Volume bass and treble. Believe me,this amp kicked ass. Excuse language. Other bass players I associated with back then had fender bassmans and among etc. They were amazed at power and projection of this baby. If I could find another one,I would buy it in a minute. It was totally awesome. Used with my baby 74 Jazz Bass.

How is this for Les Claypool?

 

[brianrost]

Anyone know who made those solid state Sears amps? I think Danelectro was RIP by that time.

 

[Bassist30]

I remember going to Jimmy's shop (Alleva Coppolo) when he was at 1600 Broadway NY NY. He had some kind of Silvertone in a kind of suitcase model. They still make silvertone but not sure about certain amps.

 

[rickster4003]

Take a step back in time. Look here maybe late 60's early 70's.

The Catalogs!

 

[tjh]

Anyone know who made those solid state Sears amps? I think Danelectro was RIP by that time.

Silvertone World - Amplifiers

… lots of info here … I had a black six string Silvertone guitar in mid 60's .. actually pretty decent … I think it was made by Harmony as they had a look alike

 

[brianrost]

I was over at Silvertone world...no info there on the mfr of the post-Dano amplifiers. Nothing found by Googling either other than a rumor that David Nordschow might have been involved.

 

[Ric Vice]

Silvertone Bass Amps were what most of us could afford, unless someone helped out with a Fender Bassman. I couldn’t afford either so I got a Montgomery Ward “Supro Thunderbolt” because it was within my budget. Apart from the open back, it was a well built amp with a high quality 15” Jensen driver.