Weird Amps Nobody Remembers

[Element Zero]

Surprised these haven't come up in this thread yet:
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I bought one of these brand new in '96. The amp controls were really cool, with the deluxe knobs and detents, and the overall construction was quite robust.
It sounded about how you would expect now from looking at it. Actually pretty good if a drastic mid-scoop is what you are wanting. In the designers' defense, that sound was kind of "in" at the time. But even young '90s me decided I needed to keep searching for a better stage blend.
I had the model with the tweeter.

In the 90s one of the local high school that hosted the yearly jazz competition always had one of those.

 

[Steven Ayres]

My high school in the 90s had a single 15 combo with that head in it. We used it for the pit keyboards for marching band.

I gave mine up in Ventura in the mid-'80s before I left the country. It's fun to think that the one at your school might have been mine.

 

[Element Zero]

I gave mine up in Ventura in the mid-'80s before I left the country. It's fun to think that the one at your school might have been mine.

I have no idea how long they had it before I got there in ‘94. We also had some other Yamaha combo that was smaller with a 5 or 6 band EQ and 15. We used that for jazz band.

 

[Aussie Player]

WASP, great for the time in the 70's but long gone.

 

[The Owl]

Tiesco SS30"coffee table" amp

 

[The Owl]

 

[5StringBlues]

Tiesco SS30"coffee table" amp

View attachment 4654752

Did the cone-like upper structure affect the tone?

 

[Five String]

Tiesco SS30"coffee table" amp

View attachment 4654752

Looks pretty eild. How does it sound?

 

[agedhorse]

Did the cone-like upper structure affect the tone?

Increases the mid and hf distortion.

 

[pfschim]

I too used a Heathkit amp way back. My dad and I built a Heathkit shortwave radio, and then a ss stereo set with JBL loaded speakers. I originally used the stereo as an amp before moving on to real amps .... well at least a bit more real anyway.

I also had a Baldwin amp ... terrible thing. Heavy as heck and sounded pretty bad. Although with the band I was in at the time, we did run the Baldwin on top of a Kustom 200 rig (in blue tuck and roll vinyl) ... running the Kustom clean(ish) and just cranking the snot out of the Baldwin for distortion. I recall this arrangement worked better than a Big Muff pedal I also owned at the time for massive distortion.

Finally, here is an oddity (not my picture). A Gibson 800B, which my highschool guitar player friend owned and let me use. The top is just the preamp and the power amp was built into the speaker cab (much like the Acoustic 360). I recall that it was loud-ish but pretty mushy. I've never seen another one in the flesh in 50+ years of playing.

 

[agedhorse]

I too used a Heathkit amp way back. My dad and I built a Heathkit shortwave radio, and then a ss stereo set with JBL loaded speakers. I originally used the stereo as an amp before moving on to real amps .... well at least a bit more real anyway.

I also had a Baldwin amp ... terrible thing. Heavy as heck and sounded pretty bad. Although with the band I was in at the time, we did run the Baldwin on top of a Kustom 200 rig (in blue tuck and roll vinyl) ... running the Kustom clean(ish) and just cranking the snot out of the Baldwin for distortion. I recall this arrangement worked better than a Big Muff pedal I also owned at the time for massive distortion.

Finally, here is an oddity (not my picture). A Gibson 800B, which my highschool guitar player friend owned and let me use. The top is just the preamp and the power amp was built into the speaker cab (much like the Acoustic 360). I recall that it was loud-ish but pretty mushy. I've never seen another one in the flesh in 50+ years of playing.

I've never seen one myself... and I work for the company!

 

[ardgedee]

Did the cone-like upper structure affect the tone?

The idea is to provide even 360 degree dispersion of the sound. The main problem with the idea is that to the extent it works as intended (not a whole lot) it's not actually how you want speakers to work anyway.

 

[pfschim]

I've never seen one myself... and I work for the company!

ha! good one!

I believe there was a guitar and bass version of these things

 

[wcriley]

"Back in the day" I played through the guitar version for a few weeks. It was a loaner from a music store while my MusicMan amp was in the shop.

 

[The Owl]

 

[Passinwind]

The idea is to provide even 360 degree dispersion of the sound. The main problem with the idea is that to the extent it works as intended (not a whole lot) it's not actually how you want speakers to work anyway.

I had some "hi-fi" speakers" just like that. Don't remember the branding off hand, but Sucktastic would've been appropriate.

 

[KenB]

My first "real" bass amp was made by a company out of Cleveland, Ohio, EMC (Electronic Music Corporation).
The company made a line of amps, PAs and extension cabs. The amps were named after the signs of the Zodiac, like Gemini for the PA, Sagittarius for one of the guitar amps, etc.

It was a large combo (about 33" tall) with three 12" Eminence speakers, rated at 300 solid-state watts. I believe it was called the "Libra". I bought it in 1972.
It had a normal channel and a bass channel. I used it with a matching EMC compact reflex cabinet, containing a 18" Eminence driver. Made some noise!

I can't find any specific info or pictures, but it looked something like this (imagine this as a combo with three 12" aluminum-centered drivers in a two-over-one configuration):

 

[wcriley]

I remember that at one time my local music store had what was likely the entire line of EMC products.

 

[ardgedee]

I had some "hi-fi" speakers" just like that. Don't remember the branding off hand, but Sucktastic would've been appropriate.

It seems to be a perennial design choice for startup hi-end speaker companies that try to make their mark in the industry by doing a very lavish and elaborate "why doesn't anybody make speakers like this" design. And then you never hear of them again; the question answered itself but there wasn't enough evidence left behind for the next generation of startup companies.

 

[Passinwind]

It seems to be a perennial design choice for startup hi-end speaker companies that try to make their mark in the industry by doing a very lavish and elaborate "why doesn't anybody make speakers like this" design. And then you never hear of them again; the question answered itself but there wasn't enough evidence left behind for the next generation of startup companies.

Yep. Remember these?

Duke LeJeune and I had a pretty fun offline discussion a while back about Walsh drivers and various other things along the lines of what you're talking about.