Back in the 60's until 1967 the Bassman amp used 2x12" speakers. 1965 was the last year of the smaller cabinet with the cab designed so the speakers were aligned horizontally. Folks started turning the cab on end and putting the head on top of it both to allow them to make any changes on the head and because it looked "cooler" even though the head would overhang the cab on both sides give the amp a ""T" profile.. Then in 1966, the new Fender Bassman came with a much larger cab that was designed to be used standing on its end with the speakers aligned vertically. I bought a 1966 Fender Bassman new in 1966 at either 15½ or 16-years of age. I started working at 15½ because I had a small motorcylce and could take deliveries around town with it at 15½ (had to be 16 to drive a car by myself).
Anyhow it was a great looking piggyback amp and worked fine for me until I started touring in 1971. When I started having to play at volumes to fill up medium and large clubs in the early 70's, that poor Fender Bassman wouldn't do it. If I turned the volume knob just a touch above #7 (2 o'clock) those poor 12" Jensen speakers just couldn't handle it and would fart out. And, that all-tube amp only put out 50-watts. There really was no design work done on it. CBS owned Fender at the time and 1966 was the last year of the black-face Fender amps. In 1967 the silver-face amps came out. They were all about making things more attractive and that taller cab looked a lot better, especially since it didn't have any overhang of the amp head. I blew three speaker out of that poor excuse for a cab before I replaced it. In 1967, the Bassman amp came with 2x15" speakers in it and that evidently solved the problem. The 2x12 in the smaller horizontal cabinet worked well and the the 1967 and later cab with the 2x15 speakers also worked well. The cab in the 1966 Bassman with the standard 2x12" Jensen speakers in it became notorious for blowing speakers.
On the flip side of that, the amp I replaced it with was a Standel Piggy Back amp, the MCIIb/SAM30b. It used a powered 215 bass reflex cabinet and it was definitely a nicely designed cabinet. This would have been about the time the Thiele-Small cab design parameters started commonly appearing. We were playing a 900+ occupancy club and had turn away crowds each night starting the third night we played there. The guitarist and keys player had just bought Vox Super Beatle amps (120-watts rms) and they were burying me at this large club. So I was at Hospe music in Lincoln, Nebraska looking for a much louder amp.
When I was complaining to the salesman about my Bassman distorting when I turned it up above #7, he took me over to this Standel amp along the end wall of their "Bass-ment" which was below ground level. Told me this amp never distorts. He told me that all the sound going out the back of the speaker was redirected around and come out through 4 round ports mounted vertically next to the 2x15" CTS speakers. That way, he said, "the sound coming out the back of the speakers doesn't bounce off the back of the cab and then hit the back of the speakers causing it to distort. Instead it diverts the sound coming out the back around and out the ports alongside the speakers. He had already shown me virtually every other Bass amp on that floor. He then told me that I could turn that amp all the way up and hit the low E on my Jazz and it wouldn't distort at all. I had already plugged into the amp so I turned it up to #10 on the volume dial and hit my low E. It literally shook the walls down there and everyone immediately looked over at us to see what the heck that super loud sound came out of.
Then we talked $$. It was originally prices at $1,150 but was marked down to $950 because it was last years model. there was also about a 2" vertical snag in the grill cover of the amp head and he gave me another $100 bucks off on that. So we were down to $850. When I asked if I could trade in my '66 Bassman towards that he said he had to see it. When he saw it he gave me $400 trade in value for it. So I left my amp with him, gave him $450 and I had a new amp. That amp was crazy loud. And it moved a massive amount of air through those four vertical ports. If I stood within 3 to 4-feet of them, they would flap my bell bottom pants.
That night I turned it half way up and the folks against the back wall in that long room started covering their ears. Our female vocalist took her mic with its 100-ft long cord out to in the audience and headed to the back wall. She came back saying I was way too loud. So I turned it down to 4 and tried again...was still too loud. 3½ worked OK there because it was a long room, but most indoor venues I played, I couldn't turn it above #3 on the dial (9 o'clock). Outdoors with no reflective surfaces I could turn it up half way. Crazy thing was that it never sounded that loud where I was standing and I used a 20-ft. straight cord, so I was never more than 15-ft. away. Had one of the guys play it for me when we were practicing and about 20-feet out from my amp it got much louder than it was closer to it.
Volume level with that 200-watt amp was comparable to the acoustic 360/361 (also 200-watt with powered speaker) and the "new" Ampeg SVT (325-watts all-tube). In fact the bass player for the Naval Band played a couple of sets before us one time at Lemoore Naval Air Station and when I remarked how loud his SVT 810 was he said my Standel was louder. All I did know for sure was that I never had to worry about having too little rig for the gig after that - at least not until 1976 about 2-years after I stopped touring when the house we were temporarily staying in was burglarized and they stole all my touring gear.
Here's a shot where you can see part of my Standel amp. It was either late 1971 or early 1972 when that was taken. It had a blue sparkle grill cloth that really looked good under the lights, and I thought that bass reflex design with the 4 vertical points were magic! That is of course my 1965 Jazz that I'm playing there. We played 5-nights a week, 50-weeks a year for 3 years, typically playing 2-weeks at each venue.
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Here's a shot with the whole group except for the keys player because he had given his notice and these were supposed to be publicity shots:
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