What was your first ever bass amp?

[Zcruz]

Started off on a first act 30w that burnt to toast and everything had heavy overdrive type sounds after a year, bought my first "real" amp shortly after, an ampegBA115HP combo, still use her to practice, still kicking with heavy use after 8 years

 

[fjadams]

The first Amp I ever got was in 1965 or so, my folks got me this one. It somehow disappeared a few years back. Might be in my son's
black hole room or something. It had reverb and tremelo. 12" Jensen speaker iirc. Kind of heavy, point to point from Kalamazoo and transformers built like a tank. Built in limited numbere in 64 and 65, Nowadays I have seen them offered for a grand. Sheesh!

That CTS speaker is not original - I found this listing on eBay. With it came a really a really crappy guitar for Xmas. Swapped that out in 1970 for a 1969 LPB strat now listed somewhere in the Gear Stolen forum (lost in 1977). A TB'er did possibly sight it at a show in NYC. I had tried to remove the poly, so it's messy, and it has a yellow sun painted on the upper horn.

Upon transition to bass in 1975, I got a new 1974 EB-3 (also stolen in the same robbery in 1977 in Boston area) and this bad bay, which did not get stolen later as the cab alone weighed in at 135 lbs. For it's all "100 watt" rating, (Acoustic watts are a lot louder than today's watts), it is the loudest bass amp I have ever owned. I still own it thought this is not an actual picture of mine. Acoustic 146 rig. (140 head and 2x15 106 cabinet).

Here's a 150 with a 106 pic from a TB'er Bill Goodwin. Very similar. Guitar version, similar chassis.

Specs from catalog page:
View attachment 599455
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I had the same exact Acoustic 150 head and 106 bottom from early to mid 70s. They were great little amps but heavy as blazes.

 

[Mattster]

A used circa 1980 25W "QUANTUM" head with what I think was a 4x6 cab. Sounded awful. Still have the head, I use it as a step stool/door stop.

 

[vin*tone]

A Daison 15 watt tube amp.

The first studio recording I ever did had it kicking around. They felt sorry for the kid with no shoes and gave it to me.

Looked like this one...

 

[Ed Bass]

My 66 Bassman, bought it when I was in High School, 1968, still have it. was and still is a great amp.

 

[BuffaloBob4343]

Hah! I had one of these. Used the cab upside down as a coffee table in my dorm room for two years! God that 2-18 was a hellatiously heavy beast!

 

[bikeplate]

50 watt bassman

 

[000_Unknown]

My first tower of power - Circa 1988
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Unlike myself, I see many of you were pissing in high cotton..

 

[Stormchaser]

Fender Musicmaster Bass Amp.

 

[shawshank72]

Peavey TNT
Im sure im not the only one.

 

[moody]

I just realised that I told a lie on my previous post.

I played guitar for a couple of years before starting on bass. As part of my guitar arsenal I had a fender super twin combo.

Several years after starting playing bass I converted that into a bass head. but I actually owned it before any other amp I had previously used for bass.

 

[DinoRock]

Hah! I had one of these. Used the cab upside down as a coffee table in my dorm room for two years! God that 2-18 was a hellatiously heavy beast!

View attachment 599538

I had that head in a brown wood that I used with a Sunn 2×15 cab. Boy that brings back memories. I saw a picture of that rig a few weeks ago but couldn't make out and didn't remember who made the head. Thanks!

 

[DinoRock]

Hah! I had one of these. Used the cab upside down as a coffee table in my dorm room for two years! God that 2-18 was a hellatiously heavy beast!

View attachment 599538

Found it

Road / Sunn rig

• DinoRock
• Apr 17, 2015

 

[RRDieselbass]

Univox combo with 15"
I bought it in '78 when I barely knew what an amp was or did. All I know is it blew a lot of fuses.

 

[Bassman822]

IIR I started with a blackface Bassman head (50 watts), and a homemade cabinet with a pair of 12s.

 

[vistacruiser]

View attachment 599041 This was the closest I could find. Mine was a re-purposed 50 watt class A, double rectifier and four 6L6GCs. Speaker was a 12" EV whizzer cone HiFi speaker in a 3/4 bass reflex.

That looks a lot like the 25 watt Fisher Hi=Fi amp my dad gave me to use before I got my Ampeg B25B, except I only had a volume pot on mine.

 

[vistacruiser]

I got my first when I was like 15 in 1975.

Hey wait...I thought this was about AMPS!

Either way, nice score! That Kustom was a Beauty!

 

[vistacruiser]

Ampeg B100R. Paid $200 in a local pawn shop about 5 or 6 years ago.
I just thought all bass amps sounded this good. It's still the imprint of good tone in my mind.
Sold it because it had a bad line out. Mistake. Wish I had it back.
Heavy though.

Yeah, if you ask me thats a great amp bro! I've got 3 other Ampegs now, but I still needed to find one of these and did, just a few months ago.

 

[vistacruiser]

So a friend of mine had something called a Gallien Krueger amp. No trouble hearing that guy. And it was way easier to deal with than the enormous Acoustic stacks that some of the other guys in town used. And the GK guy was selling; it seems that Ozzy Osbourne had just released his first solo album and GK guy was shooting for _that_ sound. Go figure... Anyway, I buy his GK 400b (not a typo) and all of a sudden I'm screamin four string terror much to my guitarist's consternation. So that was my first real amp.

I still have it too. It's in storage with some preamp issues. Maybe I should dust it off and giver 'er a rip.

Heard this GK 400b was a pretty cool amp from the early '70's, wouldn't mind foolin' around with one of those for a spell. Didn't JPJ use them in Zepplin?

 

[MegaSwing]

Fender BXR 100. Didn't cut the mustard, but it got me by until I realized that.

I had one. It wasn't altogether hateful. You just knew that your next amp had to be on a higher level. It was almost OK.