What was your first ever bass amp?

[eriky4003]

I wish I knew. It was a Traynor head I bought used in late '77. Was heavy as hell and had tubes.

Update: I can't believe there is an old Traynor amps website! I believe my first dedicated bass amp was the Traynor YBA-1. There were a few runs of this amp as I thought my amp was 100 watts + but the website indicated only 50 watts. Still, the picture looks like my memory says it should. So I'm going with that.
I did ditch the amp in the early '80s so I'm no expert on how it sounded, etc.

 

[Personatech]

Mine is long gone but, like others, here's a photo I pulled from the web: Fender Musicmaster Bass amp.

 

[dubmaster]

First amp was a Crate BX-15 which was too small to jam with a drummer. I "upgraded" to a Fender BXR60 a few months later in 1996. I had the BXR until a few months ago. Finally let it go this year and gave it to a coworker who was starting out on bass. The BXR was a tank!

 

[sandman357]

As a high school kid I could not afford a bass amp. I bought a very used set of Sony house stereo speakers and a Fischer stereo amplifier. It had a mic input and a mic level control. Worked great for years.
I could blend the bass and song I was trying to learn from the cassette player. I went through two cassette players learning songs. The constant play, rewind, play over parts of a song was tough on them

 

[Jamvan]

Mine is long gone but, like others, here's a photo I pulled from the web: Fender Musicmaster Bass amp.

How did you adjust the low mids and high mids and tweak your midpoints?!

 

[ExaltBass]

'63 Fender Bassman... (not mine, but it looked just like this)

 

[sandman357]

As a high school kid I could not afford a bass amp. I bought a very used set of Sony house stereo speakers and a Fischer stereo amplifier. It had a mic input and a mic level control. Worked great for years.

Here I am in 1986 or there about with my first guitar. My awesome setup in the background

 

[Personatech]

How did you adjust the low mids and high mids and tweak your midpoints?!

When I had it, I was far more concerned about hitting the right notes than whether or not I had any "tone" to speak of.
BTW, I bought it new along with a gently used Gibson EB-1 reissue bass sometime in 1978.

 

[scubaduba]

For me it was a Peavey TNT 150. Big 'oh 15" woofer in that beast. Weighed a ton. I think it did fall down a flight of stairs once and kept on thumpin.

 

[pnchad]

Vox Westminster - 1970ish - cool gift from a 16 y/o girlfriend but...

POS blew fuses every 15 mins

 

[Keithwah]

Mine was a 1967 Marshall Super Bass 100 head I purchased from then local guitar hero Gary Richrath of REO Speedwagon who had it hot rodded but without a master volume and purchased in 1977 for the grand sum of $300. Very, very loud. I sold/traded that for something or another and eventually wound up with an Ampeg V-4B head which became a Sunn Coliseum and then I went to Peaveys in maybe 1981 and am still playing them...until my new Ashdown arrives. And yes that was a Plexi. Sounded amazing when I played guitar through it, but outside of being loud, the Marshall Plexi did not give me what I thought I was looking for. That Plexi was traded to a guitar playing buddy (ah yes, I traded it to him for my one and only Harley!). Guitar player was opening for Roadmaster over in Indy and the head was stolen from their van that night.

 

[Jotha]

Mine was an old Fender BXR60 combo... As a poor school kid, I saved my lunch money for a long time to buy it!!!! I remember it was very heavy!!

 

[BassmanPaul]

Didn't we already do this?? What the heck mine was a VOX AC50 Foundation. A 50W tube amp with a separate 18" speaker cabinet. This was around the mid Sixties.

 

[busmandan]

Mine was an Acoustic 140 head with the matching 106 cabinet that had 2 15" CTS speakers. Played that rig for about five years, then sold it for what I originally paid for it.

 

[Barisaxman]

Too young for really cool vintage stuff. Mine was big and lound, and sounded pretty good really. BBE 383 preamp, Crown CE1000 power amp (my back!!!), and a 2x10 and 1x15 cabinet from Steel Sound. Not big on mixed cabinets...even then...so most of the time I just used the 2x10. Good stuff!

 

[Michael Sayers]

Greetings from the North,

1969 Realistic 115 Combo by Radio Shack. It was ..... Well it was a start lol

I also plugged my Gerrard turntable directly into it for the loudest HiFi on the block!

Rezdog

Yep, plugged mine into my stereo

 

[BigDanT]

Got a Fender Musicmaster silver face for $25 in 1983 (not this actual one of course) put in a new tube and it was great. Sold it later for $50 along with an Arp Odyssey keyboard. Talk about the ones that got away.

 

[ed morgan]

I can't remember the brand, some unbrand amp, but it was a 2x12 guitar amp my dad and I put Radio Shack bass speakers in! It really was very bad.

 

[Altitude]

Peavey Basic 40, bought brand new in 1984. It sounded like a transistor radio, yet somehow weighed as much as a motorcycle.

 

[pfschim]

1968 - first was a 30w Heathkit stereo amp and my Dad's homebuilt stereo speakers with 12" Jensen drivers, with a Gibson EB-0 (the zero was for the amount of tone it had).

1969 - first actual bass amp that was not a stereo was a Baldwin Professional. 2x15 Combo rig in a heavy-a** aluminum housing that had colored "tone" switches. Sucked hard, but not as much as the Heathkit stereo.

1970 - first real bass amp was a Kustom 200 amp & 215 "chrome porthole" cab in blue sparkle tuck and roll vinyl, and a Fender Jazz bass, black with a bound and blocked maple neck. I used that rig through the mid 70's, until I went to college in '75, when I used 1 or 2 Showman amps through a variety of cabs. Kept the Fender through the '80's.

ha, old guys, old gear.