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What was your first amp (old guys only)
- Thread starter TheCreature
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my very first amp was a Fiko? 15 watt practice amp that I used with my Karina (P copy) bass.
My first real amp was a Rockit 120 combo - had the speaker re-coned, then a few months later amp started cutting in and out at rehearsal and drummer said "Nick - what's that smoke coming out the back of your amp"?
Amp had officially died!
My first real amp was a Rockit 120 combo - had the speaker re-coned, then a few months later amp started cutting in and out at rehearsal and drummer said "Nick - what's that smoke coming out the back of your amp"?
Amp had officially died!
I am pretty sure that I started off further down than any of you. My first 'amp' was homemade using a Sears portable cassette recorder.
All you had to do was to cut the leads to the read head and attach them to a 1/4" jack and there you were. And it even had a LOT of distortion of a kind that was popular back then.
And you could pump out a blazin' TWO WATTS! Yeah, that's right. You heard me. Two Watts.
Oh wait. I see. You DIDN'T hear me because it was only two measly pathetic can't-hear-it-across-a-room Watts.
All you had to do was to cut the leads to the read head and attach them to a 1/4" jack and there you were. And it even had a LOT of distortion of a kind that was popular back then.
And you could pump out a blazin' TWO WATTS! Yeah, that's right. You heard me. Two Watts.
Oh wait. I see. You DIDN'T hear me because it was only two measly pathetic can't-hear-it-across-a-room Watts.
a watkins westminster 15 watt guitar amp. i was told by the roadie guy who gave it to me that a certain soon to be famous african american guitarist used it to tune up before gigs in england. who knows? i wish i still had it though, famous( now dead) guitarist or not.
The first bass amp I owned was a Peavey 260 1x15 combo, bought around '79-80. I'm pretty sure the amp was rated at 400W while the speaker could handle 140W. Nice tone & versatile tone shaping with its parametric EQ.
Peter
Peter
My very first amp was a Kay 704 [or was it 703?], a 1x8 transformerless tube combo amp. I took the amp out and used it for a head on a 1x12" cab my father assembled for me from salvaged wood and speaker. It did not make any difference in the sound, I just thought it looked cool not knowing how dangerous it was! That was around 1967 or so.
Later I came home with a used Ampeg B15-N that I bought with caddying money. A friend and I snuck it into the house. My mom was livid when she heard new sounds coming from upstairs (how could I resist not playing it?). At the time I had no idea how much on a shoestring we were living, and I just spent the equivalent of a used car on it. This was when a NEW VW was $1800
Later I came home with a used Ampeg B15-N that I bought with caddying money. A friend and I snuck it into the house. My mom was livid when she heard new sounds coming from upstairs (how could I resist not playing it?). At the time I had no idea how much on a shoestring we were living, and I just spent the equivalent of a used car on it. This was when a NEW VW was $1800
1969, 200 watt solid state Kustom tuck & roll head with matching vertical 3x15 cab. Extremely clean sound and one of the loudest rigs I've owned in 45 years!
My first amp was a little tube combo called a Bonham made by Don Bonham and very similar to this AGC he also designed.
I've been through a ton of gear most of which I'm OK with letting go but I wish I still had this one. It was way too cool for a know nuthin' kid who thought an Acoustic 360 was the end all be all.
I've been through a ton of gear most of which I'm OK with letting go but I wish I still had this one. It was way too cool for a know nuthin' kid who thought an Acoustic 360 was the end all be all.
1967 (the year I was born) Giannini Thundersound bass II. Bought it in 1984. All tube 50W amp, Fenderish sounding. Funny that, at the time, 50W felt enough...
I found two naval wood cabinets in a dump, put some Selenium "musical instrument grade" 12" speakers on them, some fiberglass wool and made them my cabinets for the next 15 years: Ugly, but functional.
It is not my amp in the picture.
My first amp was a tube Wurlitzer juke box amp I rebuilt into a big cabinet my dad built. It had a 15" field coil speaker (which had an electromagnet wired as a choke in the power supply of the amp.) I added a 12" speaker to it in that cabinet. My first real bass amp was a 50 watt Bassman with a 2X12 cabinet, which was a miserable bass amp, only loud enough in my bedroom...never loud enough with any band. (1967) In 1975 I got my first "decent" bass amp...a 100 watt Gibson/Norlin SG. Finally loud enough, but soon replaced with a Carvin head and 2X15 folded horn cabinet and that head was soon replaced with an SVT. No more volume problems, ever. I used the SVT with the folded horn and a 2X15 EV SRO West cabinet. No PA support needed, not that there ever was in the 70's.
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