The AMP BH-420 is among the landmark bass amps of all time—just a little ahead of its own time, and perhaps too esoteric for this list. It influenced everything that came after it for years.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Six classic bass amps
- Thread starter elgecko
- Start date
Moreover, and IMO, the SWR SM400 was far more influential than the Redhead.
The B-15 was the godfather of the tone, but the SVT brought the volume and became the enduring standard for bodacity. You can't pick just one.
Agree, and that's the swap I noted on my list. And IMO, perhaps the first widely used "Hi-Fi" class of amps.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
I respectfully disagree. IMO the classic status is not about the broadness of impact, at least not only. Instead, I refer to a document to be found on the double bass side of TB, an amplifier manual of a later Woods amp, including a "partial list of purchasers" (and we're talking actual buyers, not endorsers playing gear for free), and that list reads like a who's who in jazz guitar and bass terms (by far not only upright dudes). Just because a one-man operation can't afford or doesn't care to advertise big time doesn't take away the classic status.
Maybe even the opposite holds true- the allure these amps have to those in the know would likely be less of you found walls and walls of Walter Woods amps at your local guitar center.
I might recall wrong, but wasn't the term "legendary" used in the original list? If so, the Woods is even more list worthy- I mean, a one-man workshop without website, without email, with a builder that sometimes is rather cumbersome to get in touch with, and MANY big names play his amps paying full price? . A builder who protects his designs by un-marking crucial components? A repair process that (however rarely it happens) goes like "put cash in an envelope, put the envelope inside the amp and the amp inside a parcel, ship the thing to Walter and get it back in usually less then a week, sometimes done overnight"? And NOT a single picture of the man on the entire interweb? That's legendary in my book.
best
sidecar
you're one of the few who didnt hear of them, and i really surprised by that. in the 80's patitucci was using one, george mraz, marc johnson, rufus reid, mike richmond, just off the top of my head. they were literally the first micro high powered amp
Those are all DB guys, I admit ignorance when it comes to common equipment used by DB players. Of those players, the only one who's BG work I am familiar with is John Patitucci of whom I was a big fan of for his work with Chick Corea Electric Band, I am pretty sure he was using some sort of bi-amped modular rack rig for those performances (as were a large percentage of the big name BG players of that time). I saw them live here in Cleveland when they were touring with Herbie Hancock...what a show!
I don't mean to disrespect Walter Woods or his contribution at all. I guess "classic" can certainly mean different things to different folks. To me "classic" is a label earned from the combination of innovation and familiarity...that the item was ubiquitous for a period of time and set a benchmark for the standard.
I don't mean to disrespect Walter Woods or his contribution at all. I guess "classic" can certainly mean different things to different folks. To me "classic" is a label earned from the combination of innovation and familiarity...that the item was ubiquitous for a period of time and set a benchmark for the standard.
again, id have to say, that all the micro amp makers of today were chasing what walter started years ago, even though the amp makers today buy ads in electric bass magazines. walter had his stuff in the hands of some of the best players in the world, with no advertising. those who knew sought him out. pretty much everyone in NY, electric and upright, had one because it made getting around the subway easy, and you could throw it in your gig bag. (by the way, i saw patitucci use it a number of times on electric gigs. ) walter didnt advertise or give endorsements, but he innovated and inspired a generation of imitators.
My comments about Walter Woods were not intended to discredit Walter Woods, but to defend Markbass because I believe they deserve alot of the credit for the lightweight amp surge.
Just because one originates a concept, does not discount those that follow and expand on that. Markbass took the WW premise of making a lightweight bass amp a few steps further...they made high powered heads even lighter with innovative tone shaping circuits and then, perhaps more importantly, introduced the neodymium speaker to the bass amp world! That has undeniably made quite an impact on the bass amplification market.
I'll concede that Walter Woods stuff is indeed classic based not only being on the cutting edge but for their high quality too, but by the same measuring stick, Markbass cannot be excluded from being classic also.
Just because one originates a concept, does not discount those that follow and expand on that. Markbass took the WW premise of making a lightweight bass amp a few steps further...they made high powered heads even lighter with innovative tone shaping circuits and then, perhaps more importantly, introduced the neodymium speaker to the bass amp world! That has undeniably made quite an impact on the bass amplification market.
I'll concede that Walter Woods stuff is indeed classic based not only being on the cutting edge but for their high quality too, but by the same measuring stick, Markbass cannot be excluded from being classic also.
I saw Steve Swallow playing with Pat Metheny using a hollowbody Gibson EB2 around 1983; his amp was a Walter Woods(which I had heard of in Down Beat and Guitar Player interviews--no Bass Player back then)and even that far back it was a jazz player's best kept secret, like Polytone. I had a brief conversation with him after the show, he raved about it. He loved the portability. It looked pretty high-tech for the time, but it seemed like it would not be a suitable rock amp, a little too 'polite' sounding. Therefore, while it had a low profile in the Rock/Pop universe, it was always well regarded among the jazzers.
i wonder why that perception exists about the woods amp and rock? ive played the stone pony and other rock gigs many times with the walter woods. im in and out in one trip
I'm late to the party, but did anyone notice that the 360 depicted in the article isn't the Acoustic Control Corporation 360 but the Acoustic USA 360? Of course neither of them is a 200 W head...
Interesting but very incorrect about the VOX amps. The T60 was sold with a cabinet holding a 12 and a 15 within the same air space. Terrible unreliable amp. The AC 100 was a 100W tube amp with quad EL34s in a case with insufficient cooling air flow. They tended to go on fire.
Last edited:
I was gonna say "GK RB" but I guess it was obvious to all of us.....
Wow can't believe the GK 800RB and the 400RB aren't mentioned...
