who used ampeg svts in the 70s?

[bon viesta]

the svt is such a legendary bass amp, always touted as being the biggest and best and one of the most beloved amp of the 70s. but… who used them?

i've watched, to this point, maybe 2 or 4 instances of svts being used in the 70s. that's video evidence, though. on talkbass, there's been quite a few more images of svt or v4b usage. but still, i'm not sure if svts really caught on the way ampeg and everyone else seems to insinuate they did in the 1970s.

maybe into the 80s and beyond they really became what they are today, but as far as the 70s are concerned it seemed to mostly be fender, acoustic, and all of the odd brands that are no longer around anymore.

 

[abarson]

The Rolling Stones were the first to use them for their '69 American tour. That's a pretty good start in my book.

 

[bon viesta]

The Rolling Stones were the first to use them for their '69 American tour. That's a pretty good start in my book.

yeah, the rolling stones were the "svt band" for most of the 70s. but i'd think that more guys used their stuff.

 

[Blues Bass 2]

Here's the ones I remember .
REO
Johnny Winter and with Derringer
Black Oak Arkansas
Van Halen
Small Faces with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood
Atlanta Rythm Section
Dave Hope with early Kansas
Me with whatever band I was in
Local band Enoch Smokey

 

[StyleOverShow]

Bought my first bass amp in San Francisco at a piano store, a used Fender Bassman 100. Had a gig in LA where the rig was determined to be under powered by the BL. I hustled a trade in and with a few sidesteps into an 18 inch reverse mounted cab ended up with a new 1973 SVT rig. It burned up in a fire in Albuquerque in 1976.

 

[Funk With Me]

I used an SVT with 2 8x10's from '76 on. I carried that stuff everywhere and never got tired of it.

 

[Redbrangus]

Chuck Panozzo with Styx used a pair of SVTs with 810 cabs until late '78 or early '79 -- I know because I helped build the replacement rig that was put together when he started having feelings of inadequacy about how they stacked up visually compared to the three double-stack guitar rigs each of the two guitar players had. Those were all fully functional amps and cabs, but only one amp and cab were in use for each guitarist. In fact, one of the guitarists was actually using a Marshall amp back behind the big wall of HiWatts that had been given to them in an endorsement deal. Likewise, his one functioning cab had Marshall-style Celestion speakers, not the ones that had come with it.

 

[Wasnex]

IMHO SVT lost popularity in the 80s and become popular again when Grunge started taking off.

 

[Iristone]

Brian May (NOT John Deacon IIRC)
Tony Levin used one inthe early 80's, so maybe he had it in the late 70's as well.
Chris Squire used an Ampeg along his Marshall rig for bi-amping; not sure when it started.
Other than those, most of my favourite bands from that era (The Who, Queen, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis) seemed to have used Hiwatts for bass far more often. Strangely, I still prefer Ampeg to Hiwatt in terms of tone!

 

[Funk With Me]

John Glasscock with Jethro Tull

Lee Dorman with Captain Beyond

 

[Steve Dallman]

I bought my SVT head with an 18" Cerwin-Vega cabinet for $300. I used the head with a 2x15 folded horn cabinet or. A variety of EV-SRO cabinets. I was in a hard rock band, a straight country band, a duo playing mostly Jerry Jeff and John Prine, and whatever else I could do. Fantastic head. What I liked about the SVT was what the head did, not the 8x10 fridge.

 

[Davbassdude]

Sorry! I used one in the early 80's. Most clubs I played in couldn't handle more than Volume 3, without all the glass shaking in the bar!

 

[2112]

Add @JimmyM to the list.

 

[Johnny Crab]

Johnny Crab did along(2 cabs one on each side of stage) with an Acoustic 370 with 301 cab on my side and Cerwin Vega baby earthquake(half horn) on far side next to other SVT cab. NEVER had issues hearing myself .

IIRC, the guitarist had cloned Shawn Lane's amp setup(Furman PQ3 -> Crown D60 amp->Marshall cabs) that we saw when opening for them and that is what is on top of my SVT head. Shawn was all of 16 or 17 playing clubs and an AMAZING talent. That guitar amp setup gave Boston/Al Dimeola sustain but cleaned up when backed off.

This photo looks to be from a club called "Ole Man Rivers"
(Log into Facebook Ole Man River's, Avondale, LA, USA Concert Setlists | setlist.fm ) that was on the westbank of the Mississippi River from New Orleans.

Played a lot of good music there, saw a LOT of famous folks playing there when they were just starting out. FB page has pics of them and pics of Sherman's receipt book.

 

[johnnynitro]

I had a square back cab in the late 70s. Got the head a bit later. They were popular. Just expensive & big. The 10inch speaker thing was backwards thinking of the day (for Bass)

 

[JimmyM]

Add @JimmyM to the list.

Wish you could. I had the 810, but the head was a V4B till about 89 or 90.

 

[JimmyM]

the svt is such a legendary bass amp, always touted as being the biggest and best and one of the most beloved amp of the 70s. but… who used them?

i've watched, to this point, maybe 2 or 4 instances of svts being used in the 70s. that's video evidence, though. on talkbass, there's been quite a few more images of svt or v4b usage. but still, i'm not sure if svts really caught on the way ampeg and everyone else seems to insinuate they did in the 1970s.

maybe into the 80s and beyond they really became what they are today, but as far as the 70s are concerned it seemed to mostly be fender, acoustic, and all of the odd brands that are no longer around anymore.

It took them a while to populate the world with them because they were totally caught off guard by the demand.

 

[carsbybigd]

Johnny Crab did along(2 cabs one on each side of stage) with an Acoustic 370 with 301 cab on my side and Cerwin Vega baby earthquake(half horn) on far side next to other SVT cab. NEVER had issues hearing myself .

IIRC, the guitarist had cloned Shawn Lane's amp setup(Furman PQ3 -> Crown D60 amp->Marshall cabs) that we saw when opening for them and that is what is on top of my SVT head. Shawn was all of 16 or 17 playing clubs and an AMAZING talent. That guitar amp setup gave Boston/Al Dimeola sustain but cleaned up when backed off.

This photo looks to be from a club called "Ole Man Rivers"
(Log into Facebook Ole Man River's, Avondale, LA, USA Concert Setlists | setlist.fm ) that was on the westbank of the Mississippi River from New Orleans.
View attachment 4455527
Played a lot of good music there, saw a LOT of famous folks playing there when they were just starting out. FB page has pics of them and pics of Sherman's receipt book.
View attachment 4455502

that looks like my buddy Carl Lauderdale playing bass ! Loved playing Old Man Rivers !

 

[Rip Van Dan]

The Rolling Stones were the first to use them for their '69 American tour. That's a pretty good start in my book.

Yes and the guy from Ampeg (@JimmyM will know who this is) went on tour with them to keep all the amps running. Had his hands full to keep everything functioning and they made a number of changes to the amps as a result of that trial by fire. If I recall correctly there was either a story about it on the Ampeg website or it was an interview from one of the online bass magazines. Was great info.

 

[Johnny Fingers]

I used Fender Bassman 2/15s, ACC 150b 2/15s, Sunn 2/15s, SVT 2/15 then 2-8/10s, finally ACC 370 2-301/18s for most of my gigs back in the day.
Would still like to have an SVT again today as it would fit right in.