I hope you are not speaking literally. If you are, we want pics!
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Weird Amps Nobody Remembers
- Thread starter Pablo504
- Start date
I hope you are not speaking literally. If you are, we want pics!
My father was an avid Heathkit hobbyist in the 60s and 70s. He built a couple televisions, several home audio amplifiers, a Thomas Electric Organ and even a microwave oven (!) which iirc he had to mod himself for safety purposes because the kit did not provide adequate shielding and the instructions didn't see fit to mention this.
I had a chance to take in his home audio gear (including some pre-stereo tube amps), but he was eager to get rid of them at a time when I wasn't able to take in strays, so those are lost forever. Some years later though, I found a Heathkit AR-1500 stereo receiver in a recycling bin. It's just like the one Dad built except this one works properly. There are a multitude of service stickers attached to the chassis, which indicates to me that even the factory technicians struggled to get these to work properly. That AR-1500 is magnificent, though. I took it to a hi-end audio meetup and the guys with $5,000 headphones and $10,000 amplifiers were spending more time with it than with each others' boutique gear.
Those old Macintosh amps are highly collectible even when they've been modified.
I also started out with a Heathkit combo bass amp that I bought used for $25 back in the early 70's. I was SOOO musically unsophisticated at that point, it's hard to say how good it sounded (particularly with my novice playing at that point). It did make sound and got me started, though. When I started gigging six months later *, I got my first "PRO" quality amp (relatively speaking, anyway) ... an Acoustic 136 1x15 combo which served me well for my first few years of playing.
* No, I was not, I repeat not a prodigy ... far from it. There was a high demand for bass players back in the early 70's when I first started playing so just by virtue of owning bass equipment and being willing to try enabled me to play with people who were WAY more advanced than I was which enabled me to get the basics going much faster than if I were left to my own devices. My first paid gig was in 1973 ... a Bar Mitzvah at a Holiday Inn where I made $35 and got a free meal.
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I built a Heathkit TA-16 when they were introduced. It was awful but our guitar god could finally be heard at a party. Unfortunately, I played bass and despite my adolescent wishfulness the TA-16 was beyond wrong in that role. Here’s a Heathkit catalog page for it:
I still have the empty cab and front panel in the shed. I just never got around to disposing of them for no better reason than sloth.
I still have the empty cab and front panel in the shed. I just never got around to disposing of them for no better reason than sloth.
My dad was working on an old MacIntosh amp a few years ago, and he asked me to find a schematic for it. It was a transistor AB output, but MacIntosh hung an output transformer on the output. I really didn't see the point of adding a distortion producing component like a transformer, when the output was capable of driving a low impedance speaker load without it.
Apparently Rickenbacker made a bass amp (although I have never seen one in person). Traynors have been popular up here in Canada, although I don't know how often they turn up in the US. I hade a Mono Bloc with the parametric EQ at one time. Now I have 2 of their combos, a 500 watt head and a 2 x 10 bass cab.
That's pretty wild. So I guess Road did make a go of it for a year or two before it got gobbled up. I think I also remember reading that they got bought by Rickenbacker who used to them to make a line of amps that fizzled out pretty quickly.
My brother and I had lessons at a Yamaha autorized dealer in the 70's. Your gear was what I aspired to but never got there (paper routes didn't pay that well!).
My first amp was a 1x12 Supro.
Dimed it on the front porch and abused it with my shiny red 4 pickup Teisco
1964 or so. Didn't take long before I had an audience of patrol cars.
I had one too, along with 2 folded horn 18" speaker behemoth cabinets.
How did you manage to make it sound OK?
Mine made some cool sounds when it melted down, but not with a bass.
For the money it absorbed, I coulda bought a SVT...
Except for an inoperable Standell bass combo and a Polytone Mini-Brute II, and the aforementioned home brew, all of my stuff now is Yorkville.
Except for an inoperable Standell bass combo and a Polytone Mini-Brute II, and the aforementioned home brew, all of my stuff now is Yorkville.
Those were desiged/manufactered by Bud Ross, of Kustom/Kasino fame. His take on providing gear that would withstand the rigors of touring, the speaker cabs looked like roadcases themselves, an idea not lost on Mesa Boogie. Ironically, I would see more country bands than rock use them, so they were known.
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I'm going to leave this here. Old company from Montreal. Made some stencil brands and cheap 1*8 combos. I've seen a head and cab but never heard them. Bargain basement things, I've got a "Ford" combo and it'll basically need some modification to accommodate a three prong plug with grounding for safety. As a bedroom amp it's fun, though. Or at least it was, it's been ages.
Pepco tube amps: History
Pepco tube amps: History
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Old farts from the Chicago area may remember Wilder amps. I still have this head, vintage 1971, which worked with a powered cabinet with two 15s. I pulled the power section and mounted it in a separate cabinet, and used it with other cabs.
Bought the amp after my garage band played at a mod boutique opening at Marshall Fields downtown. The band we opened for was this awesome Chicago band with an amazing female singer. They had all Wilder equipment.
Band was called Ask Rufus (later Rufus) the singer’s name is Chaka Khan.
Bought the amp after my garage band played at a mod boutique opening at Marshall Fields downtown. The band we opened for was this awesome Chicago band with an amazing female singer. They had all Wilder equipment.
Band was called Ask Rufus (later Rufus) the singer’s name is Chaka Khan.
I know there is a nostslgia and following for Sears Silvertone amps, but did anyone suffer with the poor relation, Wards Airline? What about Concord or Conrad amps? Those are Tiesco level, electronics mail-order catalog type gems.
**EDIT: Mine was the 440 version"
I came into this thread SPECIFICALLY looking for this! This was my first "real" bass head, but I had the wood sided version. And I mean WOOD. Huge slabs of something on each end. I drove all manner of weird homemade and bargain basement cabinets with this. I learned, however, that hard way that the output circuit had ZERO short protection. I plugged in a cab, turned on the power, and the magic smoke left the head.... had it repaired and... repeated the process. THEN I bought new cabinets...
Never owned this brand, but used to see a fair amount of them back in the day. An SG 215 tube bass amp
Great list you guys.
I don't think I saw Music Man listed. They used a solid state preamp and tube output stage.
Eico was another brand of tube hi-fi gear that started in the mid 40's with test equipment. I was given a tube tuner and an 18 watt integrated amp that sounded great assuming you liked mono.
As I understand it, Dynaco tube hifi gear is what Sunn was modeled after and I still have a Stereo 70 and a couple PAS tube pre amps.
Which one made the biggest difference for musicians? I have to go with Fender as the most important single brand.
I don't think I saw Music Man listed. They used a solid state preamp and tube output stage.
Eico was another brand of tube hi-fi gear that started in the mid 40's with test equipment. I was given a tube tuner and an 18 watt integrated amp that sounded great assuming you liked mono.
As I understand it, Dynaco tube hifi gear is what Sunn was modeled after and I still have a Stereo 70 and a couple PAS tube pre amps.
Which one made the biggest difference for musicians? I have to go with Fender as the most important single brand.
Beats the heck out of me. I had an EB-0 and a Sunn 118MH folded horn too. I doubt there was much *sparkle* to my sound. Memory is a bit hazy .......
