Things we didn't know or do in the 60's and 70's

[SoulReflection]

This is a list of hi-fi equipment manufactured by Danaco, copied from Wikipedia. Except some of the gear at the end of the list was solid state.

Dynaco tube equipment[edit]
Dynaco introduced tube audio amplifiers, tuners, and preamplifiers between 1955 and 1976.

Model Type Channels
(Power) Year Introduced
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed] Power Amp Mono
(50 watts) 1955
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed] Preamp Mono 1957
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed] Power Amp Mono
(60 watts) 1957
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed] Power Amp Stereo
(35 wpc) 1959
Did any or all of the late 1960's Dynaco's require a pre-amp? Preamp Stereo 1960
[This invalid link has been removed] Power Amp Mono
(40 watts) 1960
[This invalid link has been removed] FM tuner Mono 1961
[This invalid link has been removed] Power Amp Stereo
(17.5 wpc) 1963
[This invalid link has been removed] Integrated Amp Stereo
(17.5 wpc) 1964
Dynaco FM-3 FM tuner Stereo 1964
Dynaco PAS-3X Preamp Stereo 1966
Dynaco Mark VI Power Amp Mono
(120 watts) 1976

As you can see, there is an integrated stereo amp (preamp and power amp combined), the SCA-35, but at 35 Watts that wouldn't have worked very well with an electric bass. For one thing, there were no quarter inch phone jacks on those units. Just RCA jacks. The RCA line level inputs wouldn't have worked with a bass plugged directly into them, and the phono input that would have had enough gain to use with an electric bass had RIAA phono equalization, and wouldn't have sounded very good.

There are no quarter inch phone jacks on the Dynaco Mk III power amp. Unless you had an active bass at the time and installed a quarter inch phone jack on the Mk III or made some kind of adapter, I don't see how a MK III could have been used as you described.

Bogen made several integrated PA amplifiers both tube and solid state (mic mixer and power amplifier combined in one unit), and it's possible that some of those had quarter inch high impedance microphone inputs that would have worked fine with an electric bass. Shure manufacturers an in-line barrel impedance matching transformer in several configurations, and everybody used to use those to match a high impedance microphone to a balanced low impedance microphone input. They had a female quarter inch phone jack to plug the microphone into, and a male cannon connector to plug into a low impedance balanced microphone input. The Shure in-line impedance matching transformer would have worked to match your electric bass to a low impedance microphone input.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe you were using a Bogen PA amplifier to run you bass through, and got it mixed up with the Dynaco gear. A Bogen PA amplifier with a built in microphone preamplifier would have worked well as a bass head. If you were using a Dynaco Mk III for a bass amp, you would have required some kind of preamp. There's no way to plug a bass directly into a Mk III without modification.

If you figure this out, let me know. I'm curious.

Here's one possibility:

Did any or all of the late 1960's Dynaco's require a pre-amp?

 

[Nevada Pete]

Here's one possibility:

Did any or all of the late 1960's Dynaco's require a pre-amp?

Agedhorse to the rescue! Again! That must have been what happened if it was a Mk III.

 

[Nevada Pete]

I think we elder statesmen probably had to play a wider variety of music than the youngun's, probably because of AM radio. I remember listening to the Beatles which would be followed by a Frank Sinatra tune, then by an Al Hirt tune etc. I too liked playing polka music, great music to play bass along with country, it taught me precision, feel, length of notes, staying with the kick etc.

God Hirt was Great! The articulation on those notes is incredible. Thank you for putting that up there!

 

[bobyoung53]

God Hirt was Great! The articulation on those notes is incredible. Thank you for putting that up there!

I was a trumpet player when I was a kid and my private teacher used to always talk about Hirt's big fat sound, he was unbelievable.

 

[Nevada Pete]

I was a trumpet player when I was a kid and my private teacher used to always talk about Hirt's big fat sound, he was unbelievable.

I used to attend the Las Vegas Philharmonic with my mother when she was still alive. Believe it or not, we have a truly excellent symphony orchestra here. They had / have a first trumpet guy that was very good. One night after the performance I saw him in the parking garage and chatted with him for a few minutes. I told him a little about myself and complimented him on his playing. I also said that I recognized how good he was. Well, he apparently got self-conscious after that because he froze up comparatively speaking after I said that to him. Lost his fluidity. Like he was thinking about it too much. Maybe it didn't have anything to do with me, of course. I don't know. Maybe he got over it. I'm going next month, so we'll see.

Talk about freezing up, after my band which had become very popular broke up the other guitar player Craig K. hooked up with the guy who stared playing guitar in "Hair". This guy Craig was very talented, and as far as his playing was concerned, he could have gone on to stardom. No doubt about it. He was that good. I had started the sound company by the time he put a band together with the guitar player guy from "Hair", so they asked me for some microphones for their debut performance. There had been bad blood between us. Real bad. But I didn't want to hold a grudge, so I showed up at the gig and brought 8 SM57's for them.

Okay, so now they're playing away at this big club in Half Moon Bay, California, and the guy from Hair was lighting up those guitar cabs he had with the light bulb speaker protectors inside them that were brightly flashing on and off through the ports (which is what he did, if you ever saw "Hair"), and it was time for Craig K's big guitar solo. I don't have to tell you that record company executives were there, right? So I'm sitting at a table up front and just before Craig's guitar solo was supposed to start, we locked eyes. It was as if every rotten, underhanded thing he ever did at my expense must have come to mind in his head at that moment (which was plenty, believe me), and he froze up! Couldn't play a note. He just kept staring at me. The "Hair" guy was freaking out. I was motioning with my hands to crank it up and play! I actually wanted to hear him play. He was really good. Nothing! Not one note!

So that destroyed the show, pretty much. They finished up, I got my microphones and left without saying anything to him. What was there to say? I heard the "Hair" guy was so mad he quit playing music. Not sure about that. That's just what I heard. Kind of poetic justice, in a way. But at the time, I figured Craig's success didn't hurt me any, and why not help him out? I heard he went to Hawaii and got in on the construction boom that happened when they built up Waikiki. But that's the last time I ever saw or heard from either him, or his brother who was our drummer. Good riddance.

 

[Maartenaerts]

That London City head, who made that? It's definitely got Sound City/ Hiwatt vibes.

It was a Dutch mid 70’s brand, designed bij Piet Schagen for Jan de Waal’ Amsterdam musicstore. Quite popular and also copied a lot

 

[edmidlifecrisis]

OK, anyone else out there? Did any or all of their Dynaco's require a pre-amp?

My dad had Dynaco equipment in the sixties. He had an amp, preamp and a Thorens turntable and AR speakers as well as a Tandberg reel to reel. It all sounded amazing. They listened to classical and opera. When they were gone that system played rock and blues!!!!