• 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)

Status
Not open for further replies.
#1,141
After suffering in the late 60's with a 15 watt no-name from the Aldens catalog, Dad helped me get the 'beast'. Kustom 200, 3X12 cab, silver tuck n roll, with the very desirable purple pilot light cover. You could crush out a cigarette on it and never find the mark.
 
#1,142
The year was 1962 and I was playing through a piggyback Sears Silvertone with 2-12's. At the end of the night the head fit convieniently in a slot in the back held by two plastic swivel's. With the volume ablove 4 it was just a constant buzz. It didn't take me long to aquire a bassman, followed quickly by a Single Showman that I played through until I bought a 65 Dual Showman, that I still own to this day.
 
#1,144
First amp - a Kustom head. Grey, padding, the usual, and a SUNN 2x12 bottom..it didn't matter whether it was ok or not..'twas I that mattered..I played a brand new National Beatle bass - Xmas 1970..had that nice tuba-y sound..like an EB2. I dumped that bass for a 72 PBass so by then the amp and I sounded 2 years better..
 
#1,145
My first amp was in 1965 it was a Hayes Bass King was a solid state amp and it sounded like poop. I moved on to a Fender Bassman in 1966 I guess, but it was not loud enough. In 1968 I began real serious work and gig'ed regularly on the road and at home. I played through a Kustom 2 cabs, 2x15s (ea) or 12s, I think 15. Do not remember the wattage. After 4 years traveling all over the world (I was in the US Navy). I got in 1973 a ampeg 350 watt blues line amp with 2 by 8x10 cabs. Too Heavy Too Big but OMG what a sound. In a big Hall standing in front of them doing Temptations stuff was a thrill.
 
#1,146
first was this crazy amp my music teacher built me in 7th grade. It had a 1-15 and some sort of 4U size head in it- back in 82-83 or so. Then I got a PolyTone Mini brute for free. Sold it after high school and didnt know it was worth so much as it was given to me. From the proceeds my first big amp was a GK 800RB and Peavey 2x15 cab - WOW loud but PITA to haul that cab!
 
#1,149
Reading some other replies reminds me that my first "amp" was actually a big old wooden tube radio/record player with a 6x9 inch speaker I picked from somebody's trash. I removed the turntable and plugged in the harmonica piezo pickup I had on my Upright Bass bridge. Probably around 1962.

After the mid-60's Ampeg SB-12, starting in 1970, I had to step up to
- a tall padded Kustom with three twelves (barely fit in my '70 Opel Wagon), followed by a
- Sunn Sorado tube amp with one, then two 2x15 cabs, after which I got a
- high power Peavey bass head and built two 18" folded horn cabs modeled after Peaveys, with JBL speakers, and after they were fried in a club fire, got
- Acoustic 450, then added a 370 which I biamped with a Acoustic 2x15 and Bassman 2x12 with a Biamp electronic crossover.
- Later went to a Polytone, then a MusicMan 1x12 combo around '79.

...and I wouldn't trade any of my more powerful and far lighter modern gear for any of it!
 
#1,151
Bob Gollihur said:
Reading some other replies reminds me that my first "amp" was actually a big old wooden tube radio/record player with a 6x9 inch speaker I picked from somebody's trash. I removed the turntable and plugged in the harmonica piezo pickup I had on my Upright Bass bridge. Probably around 1962.

After the mid-60's Ampeg SB-12, starting in 1970, I had to step up to
- a tall padded Kustom with three twelves (barely fit in my '70 Opel Wagon), followed by a
- Sunn Sorado tube amp with one, then two 2x15 cabs, after which I got a
- high power Peavey bass head and built two 18" folded horn cabs modeled after Peaveys, with JBL speakers, and after they were fried in a club fire, got
- Acoustic 450, then added a 370 which I biamped with a Acoustic 2x15 and Bassman 2x12 with a Biamp electronic crossover.
- Later went to a Polytone, then a MusicMan 1x12 combo around '79.

...and I wouldn't trade any of my more powerful and far lighter modern gear for any of it!
Click to expand...

I am so in this camp
 
#1,154
Bob Gollihur said:
...After the mid-60's Ampeg SB-12, starting in 1970, I had to step up to
- a tall padded Kustom with three twelves (barely fit in my '70 Opel Wagon), followed by a
- Sunn Sorado tube amp with one, then two 2x15 cabs, after which I got a
- high power Peavey bass head and built two 18" folded horn cabs modeled after Peaveys, with JBL speakers, and after they were fried in a club fire, got
- Acoustic 450, then added a 370 which I biamped with a Acoustic 2x15 and Bassman 2x12 with a Biamp electronic crossover.
- Later went to a Polytone, then a MusicMan 1x12 combo around '79.

...and I wouldn't trade any of my more powerful and far lighter modern gear for any of it!
Click to expand...

Interesting. I started with a little Harmony 15 watt all-tube bass combo (two 6V6's) with a single Jensen 15 in it. Nice tone, but it didn't have enough power to push a pea off a glass plate. I went on to all sorts of big rigs, including a massive Gibson Les Paul bass stack.

To this day, my favourite guitar amps are '50's and '60's all-tube designs. But I wouldn't go back to any bass head (SS, hybrid, or all-tube) or cab made before the mid-2000's, even if you paid me.
 
#1,155
steve_rolfeca said:
Interesting. I started with a little Harmony 15 watt all-tube bass combo (two 6V6's) with a single Jensen 15 in it. Nice tone, but it didn't have enough power to push a pea off a glass plate. I went on to all sorts of big rigs, including a massive Gibson Les Paul bass stack.

To this day, my favourite guitar amps are '50's and '60's all-tube designs. But I wouldn't go back to any bass head (SS, hybrid, or all-tube) or cab made before the mid-2000's, even if you paid me.
Click to expand...

Was it (the Gibson) the one with the two round bullhorns in it? :eyebrow: :rollno: :D

Like this http://www.0rigami.com/gg/lp1_lp2__DCP28062.JPG

http://www.0rigami.com/gg/lp1_lp2__DCP28062.JPG
 
#1,156
1966 Mine was an amp I scavenged from a Seeburg Jukebox with a cabinet that I cobbled together. Sounded horrible and no volume. All I accomplished was to ruin the value of the Juke Box. Traded it in on a Vox Essex Bass amp touted to be 50 watts. Found out much later that it was actually 40. For what I spent, I could have bought 2 used Fender Bassman amps and had twice the performance with just one of them.
When I got out of the Navy, I bought a GMT B300, with a Webb Cabinet and 2 Altec 421's.
 
#1,157
My first amp was a blonde Fender Tremolux with a 2-10" cabinet. I was playing keyboards back then and, when I switched to bass in 1965, it wasn't really cutting it in my band. I bought a new Sears 150 watt amp that had 6 10" speakers. I remember that it sounded pretty good. In the late 60s, our band was endorsed by Fender and we all got new amps and guitars. I got a new Coronado II bass in Antigua and a Dual Showman with 2 15" JBL D140s. To me, it sounded very mediocre.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back