Double Bass Which Polytone Mini Brute is for Bass?

[Ben Esparza]

I think the title says it all...which one of the Polytone Mini Brutes is made for bass?

 

[iiipopes]

Mine is the 15 inch version from the late '70's that says MiniBrute III/IV. It has volume, treble, & bass knobs, and a switch for bright-normal-dark.

 

[Mark Perna]

Minibrute IV with the 15 inch speaker is the one I have but it's quite a few years old. I really love mine for electric.

If you go to their website (Invalid Link Removed), they have a list of their current amps which include a bass amp with a 12 inch speaker as well as the Mini Brute IV with the 15 inch speaker.

mark

 

[Ben Esparza]

Minibrute IV with the 15 inch speaker is the one I have but it's quite a few years old. I really love mine for electric.

mark

Old is good. The only thing I buy new is condoms.

 

[Mike Carr]

I'm pretty sure any of them, old or new that don't include knobs for reverb or distortion are intended for bass.

 

[Ric Vice]

I think the title says it all...which one of the Polytone Mini Brutes is made for bass?

After checking for reverb etc. the later ones were blue vinyl as I remember it.

Ric

 

[TimmyP]

Unimpressed as my coworkers and I were with the Mini-Brute for guitar, I can't imagine them making an amp that's good for bass.

 

[Wilbyman]

Mine is the 15 inch version from the late '70's that says MiniBrute III/IV. It has volume, treble, & bass knobs, and a switch for bright-normal-dark.

yup, cool amp

 

[Mike Carr]

In fact they were very, very good for bass in low to med volume situations. Very nice tone. Workhorse amps for real life gigging musicians. Industry standard for jazz in the 70'/80's many prolly still in service now. Was the best of the small combo amps for many years. Everyone who was anyone in the Los Angeles music scene in those days had one.

 

[kane612]

I scored a 78' polytone "Baby-brute" this past summer for $350. It's 80 watts, with an 8" speaker, and distortion/reverb.

It is great for small/medium gigs, or as a monitor for larger rooms (i like to send an re 20 mic to the house) My bass is decently loud and on the darker side, so the 8" speaker helps me cut a little more, especially in chatty restaraunts. I also like how putting the distortion at 1-3 takes some of the fake piezo click out of my crappy pickup, without sounding too weird. And reverb with arco? don't get me started.

I was under the impression that regardless of whether the older ones have dist./rev., they are the same preamp in both guitar or bass models. Anyone care to shed some light on that?

and i must add, the 70's polytone amps just flat out look cooler. There, I said it.

 

[Mike Carr]

Pretty sure the pre-amps are the same. The speaker type too. The amps with effects were marketed to guitarists. I've played out of both types, they sounded the same to me. My Polytone pre-dated the Brute type amps. Mine was a Model 101, 2 channels each voiced a bit differently for upright or electric with one 15 inch speaker. That's right, back it the 70's the common term for Double Bass was "Upright". No one I knew except people from the UK called it a Double Bass. My old Los Angeles Local 47 Musicians Union book us listed as "String Bass" players in those days!

 

[mr mastodon]

Mine is the 15 inch version from the late '70's that says MiniBrute III/IV. It has volume, treble, & bass knobs, and a switch for bright-normal-dark.

i have the same one. got some nasty static sometimes from old/bad wiring. but it's a workhorse when it wants to be. have to slap it around sometimes a la the fonz but. ayyyyyyyy.

 

[Ben Esparza]

Pretty sure the pre-amps are the same. The speaker type too. The amps with effects were marketed to guitarists. I've played out of both types, they sounded the same to me.

So if I play the URB on a Mini-Brute that has reverb on it (meaning it's made for guitar), it's essentially the same amp as the models made for bass? As long as I don't use the reverb, I'm playing the bass version of the Mini-Brute?

 

[Mike Carr]

Both pretty much the same I think. I only know about the older versions. The ones with the "sonic" feature I don't know. But the 70s and 80's ones seem and sound the same to me. I'm not an expert by any means!