Amps back in the day...

#21
I had a Silvertone piggy-back with 6 tens in it. I think the amp was 50 watts, (might have been 100W), then a Univox 100w tube head with the 15 inch folded horn cab. Had a Bruce amp for a while. This was a preamp head with powered cabs. Finally landed my V4B with the SVT 8X10. Loved it and rocked it for many years. (I still have my V4B).

I used to get the 810 in the back of my VW super beetle (by myself) along with the head and my Jazz bass. Cheers!!
 
#22
This was my workhorse amp for club gigging in the late 60's ... Man I miss that amp, but not hauling it around.
sunn.jpg
 
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#24
not only amazing gear back in the day but in the 90s I picked up my 370 head for 150 bucks lol and my 301 cab was only 100. I bought my first V4B for 100 dollars....working
good luck finding those deals
 
#27
I started playing thru my dad's homemade sound system (mono & all valve{tube}) then as I got more n more into it he could see I was about to start jamming with others n forming a band etc. ... he - in his great forethought- bought me a 100w all tube Vase Bassman (Aus made Fender Bassman copy) with a 215 cab that was being sold with it. He could've got me a 'practice' amp but. ... I'll be for ever grateful that he got be this 100w valve amp & 215 cab as it did me fine for near 10 yrs.
Here's a pic of the same amp (not mine- I don't have any decent pics of my actual rig )
Screenshot_2014-10-17-08-29-49_zpstmyo7qw6.png


But. ... I'm far happier now with my Fender Super Bassman & matching Bassman Pro Neo 115 cabs. And, of course, my lazy option of the Aguilar TH500.
 
#29
My old days were the 80's.... Peavey Combo 300 (amp chassis torn out and put in a head box) on top of a Peavey 3620. Sometimes biamped with a Crate B150. Also had a 215 huge DIY cab with Cerwin Vegas. Volume was 85% of my concern. Probably sounded awful but I didn't care. I smiley-faced the crap out of everything I ever touched that had an eq and just turned it up.

Good times, gooooood times.....

Of course these days I tend to say "what?" A lot more than I should.....
 
#32
My first bass rig in the 70s was a used Fender Bassman head and a 4x12 cabinet. However the cabinet wasn't anywhere near like the cabinets of today. The top speaker was angled down at 45 degrees, the middle 2 speakers were angled inward towards each other at 45 degrees and the bottom 12 was angled up at 45 degrees. If I remember right I paid between $400-500 for the pair. The rig kicked butt!!! But I started playing keyboards and traded it off for some keyboards. I ended up getting back into bass and relocated the rig (the guy I sold it to still had it but trashed it). I ended up getting an Earth 2x15 cabinet and used a Yamaha 31 band eq for the preamp into a QSC power amp. I set the input for -20db and the output for +4 and that gave me the boost I needed to feed the power amp.
 
#34
The 60's was Ampeg PFs then a Silverface Bassman with 2 big 212 cabs. By the 70's it was Sunn 200S w/215 JBL cab which was used for several years. Then a rackmount BGW amp with various pre's. Then GMT (GK), SWR, Eden. 95'to05' was Glockenklang. Then GB SHuttle and SM.
PS: 10cc, around here those Sunn cabs go for $500 each easy, so $700 for 2 is a deal I'd jump on. If for no other reason than to get the JBL's.
 
#38
I switched to bass in 1969 after playing guitar for two years. I started with a Bassman, and struggled with that underpowered distortion generator for too many years, through various speaker cabinets.

In the mid 70's, I bought a NORLIN SG bass amp (100 watt tube SS hybrid with a 15 and two 10's) and finally, I was loud enough. I tried a Road amp, and then bought a huge Carvin 2X15 folded horn cabinet and SS head.

I stumbled on an SVT head with an 18" Cerwin Vega bottom for $300 and went for it. I used the SVT with different cabinets but usually with a couple of 15" EV SRO speakers in TL cabinets I built. I also used an ARB tall cabinet with four 12" SRO's. The SVT served me well until the biamped years of the 80's.
 
#39
10cc said:
Thanks B. The price for the JBL loaded one he is asking is about half of the CL price. Hmmmm... Tempting.
Click to expand...

There was most definitely a polarization in those days between JBL and Altec for bass players (EV's didn't really make it on the radar then as anything more than OEM). I prefered Altecs for a more natural bass and quick response, other prefered JBL for a more wooly sound. It all depends on the player's tastes.
 
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#40
I started the 70s with a Bruce amp , 2 -15s and 100 watts , decent tone but broke up early volume wise . Then I moved to a Bassman 100 with a Dual Showman cab with JBL D-140F speakers in it . The tone was awesome at lower volumes but competing with three guitar players was too much for it . After that I bought a Sunn concert Bass head when they came out and a used Sunn 200 cab with JBLs in it . Very good amp and good speaker cab but couldn't play an open E string really loud without breaking up , that was what I was after back then besides good mids .

About that time I auditioned for a band whose bass player used an Acoustic 360 with a couple of the folded horn cabs . The guitar players both used 100 watt Marshalls with two 412 cabs . I didn't get the gig and couldn't have kept up volume wise anyway but it made me want to upgrade . I tried the Peavey short folded horn with Cerwin Vega 18s in it and loved it . Even though it was a folded horn I could still hear good mids from it and could play an open E as loud as my Sunn Concert head would play . I bought two . They were 4 ohm so my Sunn could only run one of them but it was still plenty loud . About that time , probably 1973 , a friend of mine got Magnavox built SVT and when I tried that I was hooked . I traded a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe and a 60's Fender Showman amp and cab for a used SVT head and used it the rest of the 70s till I retired from playing in 1980 to help raise my kids .

Even though I had great times playing back then and had a very good tone I much prefer the cabs and amps we have today . Hauling a 90 pound tube head and a 130 pound cab wasn't that bad when I was in my 20's and 30's but my amp and cab I have today weighs about a quarter of my 70's rig and I enjoy the tone and volume just as much . The classic SVT head and 810 cab are about the only rig I would consider using from back then and then only if it was a backline rig I didn't need to haul .

Hooray for modern amps and cabs ! Here's a pic from 1974 with my SVT on a tall Peavey 18 folded horn .

Scan00022.jpg
 
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