Hi guys, first post and I'm hoping to make someone happy. First of all I'm not a bass player, I used to play things with keys.
I had dealings with Zoot Horn, mid to late 1977, and bought their TS200 cabinet from them, containing 2 15 in RCF speakers, with an RCF horn and compression driver. This was built into a marine-ply cabinet, had an XLR socket on the back and handled 200 Watts RMS at 4 ohms. It was sold as a guitar and synth cabinet, to compliment the SD18 for bass.
You can see a picture of it at myspace.com/bedroominburntisland
It is at the left hand side of the stage behind me, in 1984. I have more pictures and will put them up soon , along with scans of the catalogues and brochures I still have.
In use it could be overpowering above any guitarist, and although it did not have deep bass capability, it could cut through anything. My bass player loved to play harmonics on it, because the sound rang. I only let him try the bottom end once.
Eventually, I bought an Orange 120 valve amp to go with it, after it destroyed a Peavy amp first time I turned it up. I always reckoned it was because of an impedance dip.
With a valve amp though, either an Orange or a Matamp, it was a really powerful rig, with huge projection. At the time the RRP was £350, but mine was exdemo and was bought direct from Zoot-Horn for £250. They even took the cabinet onto the pavement and photographed it for me, as it was too late a development for their new brochure. Their address was Station Road and the railway station showed in the background. The cabinet was delivered wrapped in heavy brown paper and parcel tape.
The amplifier in question, the G500, cost £600.
For the bass player, there was the SD18, which had an 18in Gauss driver, in a folded enclosure. It was built into a sackbarrow, with rear wheels and handle for transportation. I think this was about £400 or £450.
I first became aware of Zoot Horn from the back cover of the album Soft Machine Seven (1973), where there are two examples of the early logo. Wanting the same Fender Rhodes sound, I approached Zoot-Horn, who wrote back giving me details of the bands backline equipment. All featuring JBL speakers, and costing £400.
I believe most of their work though was in PA, and mixers, and that most of it went to Germany, although I saw Hatfield and the North and they had the 750 Watt PA, to play Dundee Uni in 1975/6.
They offered me an agency for their equipment around 1980, but everything was so expensive. Because these were quality products, built with the best of stuff, there was only 10% profit for the shop. With Fender stuff having 200% profit, it's not hard to see why this company's equipment was not widely available.
I still have my TS200 and restored/customised Orange amp.