What was your first amp (old guys only)

[Bassmickeyd]

The first amp that came into my house, as a kid was my brothers Traynor Bass Master. Tube head, about 60/80 watts and a twin 12" cab. And after he moved out I bought a Traynor Bass Mate. It was a combo tube head, about 35/50 watts with a Jensen 15" speaker. That 15" Jensen would sell on Ebay now, for more than the whole amp cost me. ... A few weeks before Christmas I did rehearsal with a band, and the drummer had an over-halled Traynor Bass Master in the rehearsal hall. I plugged my upright in, not knowing what to expect, and I was blown away. All big and warm, a great sounding amp.

"Who are the ones that we kept in charge.
Killers, thieves and lawyers.
God's away, God's away, God's away, on business."
Tom Waits

 

[DJ Bebop]

My Dad's 1965? Ampeg B-15N. He used it for his Wurlitzer wood cab piano.
I still have both!

 

[elmohoof]

Maybe I'm the oldest guy! I'm 49! Still play regular in up to 4 different bands. First amp was a VM tape recorder, Then my dad got me a Silvertone with the 15 and head that stored in back, then I got a little Supro with an 8" speaker after that a Haynes Bass King ll with 2-12s, a Coral Stentor 100 with 3-15s,a pair of Showmans,a Sunn 200S, Ampeg V4B head with B-25B cab(2-15JBLs)a Twin Reverb w/2-12 SROs, Peavey 1-18(Cerwin-Vega),1-15BW, Yamaha B-100.finally an SWR SM-400 w/Goliath 4/10/horn Also have a Ampeg B-100 combo amp w/1-10

 

[jgsbass]

Originally posted by elmohoof
Maybe I'm the oldest guy! I'm 49!

Maybe not I got you by a couple of years and a couple of amps. I tried to remember all that I have actually owned and kept remembering more stuff that I actually owned. What confused me was I could not remember what happened to some of thes amps that I owned, Now thats old! Just in Fenders alone I have had( in order I hope) Princeton, Blond Bassman, Silver faced Bassman, Vibrolux Reverb, single Showman,and a silver Twin reverb. Not all at once, tho'.

 

[Thor]

Originally posted by Thunderfunk
Sequentially I had 3 beetles and 2 squarebacks. In 1977 I got a company car, and my brother wrecked my last squareback (upfitted with front leather seats from a Volvo!) and my VW days were behind me.

The real beauty of the Beetle was they would never leave you stranded. One could always hobble home with bubble gum and a string or some other improvised fix. Squarebacks weren't so reliable, I never found a carb'd engine for mine.

I want to tell and hear more VW beetle War stories
so I am going to start a thread on that in OT.
I don't want to totally hijack this one.

Will post the link in a sec.

And Elmohoof, I am also older than you.

 

[Thor]

Here you go, BUG OUT!

The old Beetles Thread

 

[wjr5]

Dad got me a little Noble combo amp in '68. It may have had a 10" in it followed a couple years later by a Silvertone with the head stored in back mentioned above. It doesn't seem to me mine had a 15" but two 10"'s.

 

[Treena Foster]

Do old girls count??

My first amp was a 1961 Fender bassmen.

We use it for guitar nowdays!

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Treena

 

[mike ranger]

my 1st amp was a 60s premier twin 12 that my dad had that was soon traded in on a piggyback fender bassman (in 66) after he saw i was serious about bass playing.soon after that i traded it for a b/15 ampeg that i've kept all these years. i've had a whole slew of amps but i always hung on to the ampeg.

 

[jgsbass]

Treena,
Thats the Fender heads I once had. It was ( and still is ) a great guitar amp. What is the unit between the head and speaker cabinet?

 

[Bluesbarrister]

A mail order Silvertone (39.95 Cdn) in 1964 - unkown wattage (prob. around 2) with a 6 or 8" speaker. Along with a Kent electric 6 string for $69.95 (I was going to be the next Hank B. Marvin), I was set (paid for by selling off my 4-H steer).

A year later I upgraded to a Magnavox stack - power head and two huge cabs - with one lone 12" in each. That blew in about a week, so I swapped it for a Harmony with one 12".

Started playing bass in '66 - Hofner Beatle Bass through our guitar player's Single Showman - one 15" JBL D-130.

Until I got my GK800RB, my favourite bass amp was an Acoustic 371 - I would have kept it forever, but the head blew and the dealer couldn't (or wouldn't) fix it.

 

[basstrader]

First amp: Univox UB252 head with all of 20 Watts, and a 1x15" bass cabinet that went with it.

First real amp: Original Peavey TNT circa 1975. 45 real watts and 1 15" speaker. I think Dr. Hook was their only real endorser back then.

 

[ccbass71]

My first amp was a Peavey TNT130. I bought it in 1987. It was a workhorse. It got beat up pretty bad and still worked great. I had to change the speaker out once. I had it for 4 years before selling to a modular rig.

 

[Thor]

A mail order Silvertone (39.95 Cdn) in 1964 - unkown wattage (prob. around 2) with a 6 or 8" speaker. Along with a Kent electric 6 string for $69.95 (I was going to be the next Hank B. Marvin), I was set (paid for by selling off my 4-H steer).
.....

Until I got my GK800RB, my favourite bass amp was an Acoustic 371 - I would have kept it forever, but the head blew and the dealer couldn't (or wouldn't) fix it.

I think you and I are the only people on this board who
know who Hank Marvin is ...

Too bad about the 371, there is a thread in amps somewhere
on one at ebay that was listed for the sublime sum of
three grand US, much to everyone's amusement. A few pics
came out of the 371 in that thread ...

I morphed your s/n, an old TB tradition, welcome to TB...

 

[konabass]

My first amp was my dad's ol Heathkit, through a homemade speaker mounted in a plywood "L" contrivance. Ok, I guess you want a serious amp. My first amp back in 64 was an Epiphone with twin 12s. Too much gray hair to remember the model. Played a Dan Electro through em.

 

[oddio]

I think you and I are the only people on this board who
know who Hank Marvin is ...

Raises hand. Count one more.

 

[Bluesbarrister]

...

I morphed your s/n, an old TB tradition, welcome to TB...

I've killed people for less ...

Seriously, thanks for the welcome. It's good to see that the love of bass (and bad jokes) recognizes no age barriers.

Your avatar - is that a duck**s? Reminds me of my first rock 'do.

 

[bgavin]

Sears Silvertone tube amp. Two 6L6.

1963

 

[FR5]

I started of in the late 70's (or was it early 80's?) with:
Peavey TKO115, followed by a
Peavey TNT130, then a
Kustom amp head and 2x15" Kustom cab (I still own this cab, never wanted to move it), then a
Trace Elliot amp and 2x15" TE cab, then a
G&K MB150 with Eden D210T, then added a
Eden D115T and a Hartke 3500, and finally
Glockenklang Soul + Epifani T410

Sounds like a lot of changes but this is over a period of more than 30 years (and increasing financial means, that is at time of purchase).

 

[nozzlenut]

A 66 Ampeg B-15 with a matching ext cab. When that couldn't keep up, I got a Fender Super Bassman with a 2-15 cab which I still own.