• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

What was your first amp (old guys only) Pt 2

#161
first amp was in Junior High. At school, I took the needle off the record player, cut the end off the guitar cord, and plugged the wires into where the record player cartridge wires were. It worked fine.

I also took a similar cord and opened up an old transistor radio. I tried those two wires everywhere inside and it finally made a sound.
 
#164
My first actual amplifier was a Bell 3010 P.A. amp, connected to a Zenith TV with a patch cord that terminated into dual alligator clamps, attached to the 12" speaker.
It was not exactly portable.

Ric
 

Attachments

  • 3710a_433590.jpg
    3710a_433590.jpg
    23.9 KB · Views: 71
  • 1956-Zenith-Y2670RZ.JPG
    1956-Zenith-Y2670RZ.JPG
    24.1 KB · Views: 64
#167
Since it was 1975, nobody should be surprised that my first amp was a Univox.
Open back combo, 12" speaker, +/- 40 watts solid state. Vol/Treble/Bass/Reverb. Footswitch jack for the reverb--made my own in metal shop.


Plenty loud enough for the bedroom but needed a pedal to distort for guitar, and with bass it was hopelessly unable to keep up with a drummer in the same room.

Hated it eventually, but for $100 new it did the job long enough.
 
#168
I had a small practice amp, but I used the house Fender Bassman 100 in my first band, circa 1980. Before I left that band, I bought a Peavey TNT with a 15" Black Widow and used it with several other bands through the early '80's. Then I took a brief 23-year vacation from playing. In my next band, I used a Little Mark Tube amp with Eden cabs.
 
#170
Besides running through a stereo, I played through a small Peavey guitar amp turned all the way up. Wasn't loud enough. Added a friends small guitar amp. Loud enough for us, but distorted as he'll. first real amp was a Peavey Mark III with a 410. It seemed like Pesvey is all we had back then. Drag it around town, beat it up, turn it to 10 and repeat every weekend.
 
#172
Cool first amp story.

My first amp was a Sound City Bass Concord 2x12 combo that I got in 1982. Although it originally was bought for use with guitar, it obviously became my first bass amp when I started playing bass a couple of years later.

Since it was prone to breaking down and heavy to move, it eventually got "rehearsal" duty in the early 90's so that I could leave it at practice. Our practice space was broken into at one point and the amp was stolen. The thief thought he could use it as a bass box for his car stereo system and stripped off the grill cover, screwed up the wiring, and painted it. When the police recovered it in about '91 it looked like this:

Invalid Link Removed

I stashed it in my garage and looked at it with disdain for the next few years, thinking I might restore it but knowing it wasn't really a valuable amp and probably not worth the effort.

Fast forward to last year, I went through a divorce and moved out of the house. A friend of mine who does electronic repairs stopped over to grab some things that needed to be fixed to help lighten the load of the move. He was instantly interested in the Sound City and offered to fix the rest of my gear in exchange for giving him the amp.

He finished it earlier this year, and THIS is what it looks like now:

Invalid Link Removed

I'm STILL working on getting it back from him, and I WILL eventually prevail... ;)
 
#176
Fender Bassman 50, with 15" speakers (I think); the sound volume to weight ratio was pretty low, but was a good muscle-building opportunity. Parents sold it when I moved to college. Then a Gretsch Pro-Bass with a Jensen 15" speaker; crappy bass amp, but guitar players drooled over it when I sold it two years ago for $400.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back