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Zoot Horn

A bit late! But just I happened upon this thread, and I can tell you something.

I designed the orginal Zoot Horn G500 in the mid 70s. I have a brochure somewhere, I'm sure, and I'll post a scan, once I've found it.

I believe it may have been the first amp to have a switchable pre-shaper contour, and switchable tube stage within a solid state preamp.
Hi John, you mention that you designed the orginal Zoot Horn G500 in the mid 70s i Don't suppose that you would have a schematic diagram for it would you as I would like to try to get mine sorted out ? All the best Mel
 
Hi John, you mention that you designed the orginal Zoot Horn G500 in the mid 70s i Don't suppose that you would have a schematic diagram for it would you as I would like to try to get mine sorted out ? All the best Mel

Yes I do have a schematic, if you let me have your email, I'll pass it on.
 
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Interesting! I have one that hasn't been used for lots of years, but in poorer condition than yours, I think.
Have you got any idea how many of the G500's were actually produced ? I got mine in the condition that it's in about seven years ago (2004/5?) with the intention of getting it up together again But not got there yet "lol" I got it from a guy in kent, a bass player by the name of "willy" who also did a lot of amp repair work for a couple of Music shops in his neck of the woods. Regards Mel
 
Have you got any idea how many of the G500's were actually produced ? I got mine in the condition that it's in about seven years ago (2004/5?) with the intention of getting it up together again But not got there yet "lol" I got it from a guy in kent, a bass player by the name of "willy" who also did a lot of amp repair work for a couple of Music shops in his neck of the woods. Regards Mel

The schematic I just emailed is dated 1980, a couple years after I'd left.

I don't know how many G500s were made. I would assume the number made is in the 100's, certainly unlikely to be 1000's.
 
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.
 
Adrian Shaw used one of thes 1977 to 79 in Hawkwind, he still uses his 60s EB3 but don't know if he still has the amp, will see if I can find out

I can confirm that he doesn't as I bought it from either Dave Brock or Harvey Bainbridge.

It was an awesome amp. Unfortunately I abused it and sold the GEC KT88s and Partridge transformers a while back.

I still have the remains, apologies John...

Zoot01.jpg


Zoot03.jpg
 
got one in cool condition.
serial 11 ,working great though some sliders have been broken..

Im considering what to do with the amp atm..

Do anyone have a good idea of the value
and what would be a reasonable price...

cheers / J
 
so was kerb crawler played thro this amp???
Looks like quite a lot of crawlers have been living in the amp and using it as a Toilet.
I used to work for Hawkwind every now and then, mostly when Alan Davey played bass for them and had to sort out Danny Thomsons
drum cases one day and some of the crawly things I found in that shed.:eek:
I have only seen previously in 50's B Movies.:bassist:
 
I recall an old friend of mine in England owning a G500 back in the days.
Think he sold it to someone in king crimson ,, well it was one of the big progressive rock bands that dave used to jam with.

If you got a g500 working i would assume you can get ********* of dough if you find the right buyer.
Not many know about the amp but the ones that do adore it!

I would say 10.000$ easy but hey thats my opinion and im stuck in that sea of vintage stuff ;) ..

Anyways congrats to the ones owning a working zoot and cheers / was fun finding this thread in the forum ..

/Steve :bassist: