What was your first Bass Amp?

[Texican]

OLD Peavey TKO... and this was the 90’s. It would be a fossil now.

 

[LBS-bass]

Acoustic 136 1970s Black | Westgate Music Co.



AKA the fart machine.

 

[osv]

Peavey Basic 50

 

[terlewine]

I think it was 1968, the first thing I played through was an amp I pulled out of a Magnavox home stereo/radio console. I took the speaker out on its baffle, and leaned it against a chair. (No cabinet!)

Played a borrowed Decca bass through it. I cannot imagine how awful it must have sounded, but I played it with a band at the small-town intermediate school dance. Yikes.

That didn’t last long. Next amp after that was a 1963 Ampeg B18, and things started looking up.

 

[Thorsoundcore]

First combo, Crate bt15 from nearly 12 and half years ago. Always heard the Crate brand was nothing but crap and most of their amps don't last, but this boy still kicks.. Handle completely came off, crackly pots, rat fur is now worn and accompanied by my pup's white fur. Not really a lot of low end for what's supposed to be a bass amp, but it served me well all the way up until last Xmas when I received my Eden. Learned a lot using that amp. Now it's been retired to be used with my synth or as a beater backup if I need to bring a combo somewhere.

First rig, Acoustic B200h + B410. Bought it with my HS graduation money 10 years ago when I was joining my first legit band. Strangely, it could keep up with both guitarists in that band at the time, and it had also worked for a few temporary gigs I had in the following years. But when trying to get a band together with friends a few years back, suddenly it just couldn't cut it (which is odd, as it was with the same guys I had been jamming with for years already). Thus, the fine people of the TB amps/cabs forum helped me decide in trading up for my TH500 head, and here we are. Still using the Acoustic cab btw.

 

[sstillwell]

A Peavey Mace open-back guitar amp...playing a hollow-body bass. It sucked, but it sucked LOUD.

 

[tubedude]

My first real bass amp was my first bass amp. A brand new 1971 EMC 1x15", solid state, 100 watt(?), combo on casters that looked a lot like this, but I don't think this was exactly it. It was heavy and it got loud, even if not always with the tone I wanted. I had been playing rhythm guitar and singing in middle-to-high school garage bands for about 6 years before, often coaching the bass owners (players wannabe).

My college girlfriend wanted me to join her pop music group class, in the Music Department, for college credit (elective)! She said the actual music major bass players didn't take this new pop group, with new professor, seriously, and she was right. I won the audition by default! But, I was happy to take it, since I wasn't a music major.

We played lots of local society events, making local TV news, representing the university. Our star rose to the local congressman getting us in the new Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in D.C. We toured down to Miami Beach and hopped a cruise ship to The Bahamas, playing for room and board and representing our university, as we went! After a couple years we recorded a demo tape that won a USO tour of Europe!

But, my new wife and I were expecting, so we both dropped out to make way for a couple from the mobs of wannabe replacements. Yep, the music major jazz bassist even auditioned, and I was flabbergasted that the professor chose my doppelganger instead, who also needed to buy a bass and amp! I didn't really miss the EMC amp much, though it had been very reliable, but it just rarely had the tone I wanted. I missed my Fender Mustang Bass the most!

View attachment 3211915

I'd love to have that nice JBL out of it though.

 

[Nashrakh]

The first "amp" I owned was a small and pretty awful Kustom practice amp. My first real amp, and still my main player, is a Traynor YBA-200, bought in 2008 or 09? I have played many others over the years, but that amp is my benchmark and the only one that has yet made it onto any and all recordings I've ever made.

 

[Thornton Davis]

My first bass amp back in 1967 was a Traynor YBA-1 Bassmaster head and a Traynor YC-10 cabinet (4x10"). I wasn't overly happy with the YC-10 so I traded it for two cabs with a single 15" Goodman's Audium speaker in each which was better but still not quite what I was looking for. Ended up trading it all for a YBA-3 Custom Special and YC-810 "Big B" cabinet. I used that rig for years with my Hofner 500/1 and my 4001.

TD

 

[dog1]

A 50 watt, 2-12 Bassman that I bought used in 1968. While I would like to have it back, it really wasn’t a great amp.