Vintage Amp Porn

[kesslari]

The only pix I have of my Fender 400 PS show how it's kind of buried in my studio and I can't even find those right now so here you go:

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"Don't be fooled by it's 210 lbs..."

 

[Bikeguy57]

Here you go, I saw this at the NAMM show a few years ago, and touched it inappropriately
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View attachment 4000424 Then, at the Marshall booth, maybe not ‘vintage’, but the dream of every adolescent guitar player(of a certain age).

Saw "Ten Years After" a couple times back then. They had eight double stacked Marshalls on stage. As a young teen, it left quite an impression, and probably contributed to my hearing loss!

 

[D.M.N.]

Here you go, I saw this at the NAMM show a few years ago, and touched it inappropriately
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Recently I managed to pickup an even older one than that Hiwatt, an early '69 with mostly Dec '68 internal components:



And of course, some Sunns:


And they still get dragged out as my main gigging rig:



And not fully vintage, but a JTM 45/100 dual output transformer model built to the same specs as the first for Townsend and Entwistle:

 

[Michedelic]

Recently I managed to pickup an even older one than that Hiwatt, an early '69 with mostly Dec '68 internal components:



And of course, some Sunns:


And they still get dragged out as my main gigging rig:



And not fully vintage, but a JTM 45/100 dual output transformer model built to the same specs as the first for Townsend and Entwistle:

SWEET! Did you score all that stuff privately, or from some place like Caveman or Future Music? There’s a guy down in the SD area that has some killer Hiwatt pieces on CL, I think he used to be in the band Armoured Saint.

 

[D.M.N.]

SWEET! Did you score all that stuff privately, or from some place like Caveman or Future Music? There’s a guy down in the SD area that has some killer Hiwatt stuff on CL, I think he used to be in the band Armoured Saint.

The Sunns I've all acquired privately, one came out of the Yale School of Music, one I believe came out of Chapman, all off eBay or CL. But I started collecting those about 12 years, so it's been a slow accumulation. I've actually been trying to sell the 1200s, but neither Future nor Caveman were interested.

The Hiwatt I actually picked up off eBay as well, it was listed under Consumer Electronics instead of Musical Instruments by a Pawn Shop, and I don't think they really knew what they had. Not cheap, but cheaper than the typical going price of a standard DR103. I've seen some Hiwatts on CL, a pair fo DR201s and a DR405 I believe, up in the valley, the seller is actually a fellow TBer I believe.

 

[Michedelic]

The Sunns I've all acquired privately, one came out of the Yale School of Music, one I believe came out of Chapman, all off eBay or CL. But I started collecting those about 12 years, so it's been a slow accumulation. I've actually been trying to sell the 1200s, but neither Future nor Caveman were interested.

The Hiwatt I actually picked up off eBay as well, it was listed under Consumer Electronics instead of Musical Instruments by a Pawn Shop, and I don't think they really knew what they had. Not cheap, but cheaper than the typical going price of a standard DR103. I've seen some Hiwatts on CL, a pair fo DR201s and a DR405 I believe, up in the valley, the seller is actually a fellow TBer I believe.

All of my Sunn stuff(and there’s more that I didn’t post)has been aquired over decades, sometimes relatively cheaply, from Santa Barbara to San Diego. One of my Model T heads was picked up from a guy in Pasadena who in turn got it on the east coast from the bass player in Elephant’s Memory, a NYC band that earlier on backed up John Lennon(using a 2000s).

The “Lord Sutch” head I got from the son of the deceased owner, who had been in a band organized by Sunn PR guy Buck Munger to demo their gear at teen fairs and other promo events. Munger was also behind the recording of that album; Sutch had moved to LA, and Munger was ‘managing’ him. When all these Brit notables would come into town for gigs, they were talked into doing “demos” with their old drinking mate. Reportedly, Page was livid when the album was released; it was recorded at Mystic Sound, where Zep had been before(the space is now a Trader Joe’s on Vine). The(then)kid in the promo band, Martin Kohl, did a lot of the tracks(the guitarist was Kent Henry, later of Steppenwolf), but Noel Redding was on a few, and I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t have used Kohl’s Sunn gear. Redding had already been bounced out of the JHE, and probably didn’t have access any more to the 2000s rigs. When Kohl’s son was clearing out all this gear(via a CL ad!), he didn’t seem to know any of this trivia, and I learned it all by doing research online. I had heard rumours of the 4xKT88/24” chassis experiments, it was a spin-off of the old tube Coliseum PA heads(like what Leslie West used), and it would stand to reason that Kohl was given that to play through instead of a sellable production model...

So, how bad was that album? Here you go...

 

[D.M.N.]

All of my Sunn stuff(and there’s more that I didn’t post)has been aquired over decades, sometimes relatively cheaply, from Santa Barbara to San Diego. One of my Model T heads was picked up from a guy in Pasadena who in turn got it on the east coast from the bass player in Elephant’s Memory, a NYC band that earlier on backed up John Lennon(using a 2000s).

The “Lord Sutch” head I got from the son of the deceased owner, who had been in a band organized by Sunn PR guy Buck Munger to demo their gear at teen fairs and other promo events. Munger was also behind the recording of that album; Sutch had moved to LA, and Munger was ‘managing’ him. When all these Brit notables would come into town for gigs, they were talked into doing “demos” with their old drinking mate. Reportedly, Page was livid when the album was released; it was recorded at Mystic Sound, where Zep had been before(the space is now a Trader Joe’s on Vine). The(then)kid in the promo band, Martin Kohl, did a lot of the tracks(the guitarist was Kent Henry, later of Steppenwolf), but Noel Redding was on a few, and I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t have used Kohl’s Sunn gear. Redding had already been bounced out of the JHE, and probably didn’t have access any more to the 2000s rigs. When Kohl’s son was clearing out all this gear(via a CL ad!), he didn’t seem to know any of this trivia, and I learned it all by doing research online. I had heard rumours of the 4xKT88/24” chassis experiments, it was a spin-off of the old tube Coliseum PA heads(like what Leslie West used), and it would stand to reason that Kohl was given that to play through instead of a sellable production model...
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So, how bad was that album? Here you go...

What's that head labelled as on the front? Is it just labelled as a 100s? That's fantastic, even the Coliseums are rare, but the early small chassis ones I think I've only seen maybe one or two of. I remember chatting with Conrad at some point and he said they were produced as test models to be sent out and road tested, so it stands to reason a promo band would have received one!

 

[Michedelic]

What's that head labelled as on the front? Is it just labelled as a 100s? That's fantastic, even the Coliseums are rare, but the early small chassis ones I think I've only seen maybe one or two of. I remember chatting with Conrad at some point and he said they were produced as test models to be sent out and road tested, so it stands to reason a promo band would have received one!

Yeah, just “100s”, it must have been before they even conceived of marketing a ‘thousand’ line, let alone going to a 30” wide head(not only to disperse heat, but also go up against Marshall cosmetically).

 

[Michedelic]

What's that head labelled as on the front? Is it just labelled as a 100s? That's fantastic, even the Coliseums are rare, but the early small chassis ones I think I've only seen maybe one or two of. I remember chatting with Conrad at some point and he said they were produced as test models to be sent out and road tested, so it stands to reason a promo band would have received one!

Some more trivia about Mystic Sound...before all that got wiped out for development, it had originally been a bank(the final occupant was a DMV). Sometime in maybe the late 50’s, early 60’s, it was the Del-Fi label studios, and they utilized the bank vault for an echo/reverb chamber, an awesome, big sound heard on the Bobby Fuller Four recordings, in particular. We’ve all heard “I Fought The Law” enough times, here’s a couple of my favorite other tracks...


Love that fuzz bass!

 

[D.M.N.]

Yeah, just “100s”, it must have been before they even concieved of marketing a ‘thousand’ line, let alone going to a 30” wide head(not only to disperse heat, but also go up against Marshall cosmetically).

Well if you ever want to off-load some, you have an interested party!

 

[nixdad]

This was mine about 30 years ago...

 

[nixdad]

 

[Gordo350]

I got this recently in a trade. Early seventies, Australian made. Sounds like nothing I've ever played through.

 

[CosmicRay]

Here's my offering.....

 

[shadven]

how about amp boudoir
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For the win!

 

[shadven]

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I love those power flex amps (I wish I could find one). They record great!

 

[shadven]

Suspiciously, it's also true that the only pix of my Plush 1000s also show it's kind of buried too and I can't find those either so here you go:
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Ding, ding, ding! Damn! I need that amp. Let the hunt begin!!!
BTW - do you have the cabinet too?

 

[Pauly 4001]

Ding, ding, ding! Damn! I need that amp. Let the hunt begin!!!
BTW - do you have the cabinet too?

Yep:
I’ve got a black 1000s with the matching 3x15” stack which was never too easy to transport without ripping up the Naugahyde.

 

[bobyoung53]

Saw "Ten Years After" a couple times back then. They had eight double stacked Marshalls on stage. As a young teen, it left quite an impression, and probably contributed to my hearing loss!

I did too, 100 watt heads.

 

[bobyoung53]

I've posted these a bunch of times and they're also in my avatar but 1977 and 1978 SVT's with two early 70's flatback cabs.