Old but great

[razze06]

Last weekend I got one of these bad boys, together with its matching 2x15 cab, for not much money (£100). I don't know why I did it, it's not like I am short of amps or cabs

Made in the late 70's, probably 1977. Gigged heavily for the following 20 years, but in not bad nick.

Well, I played through the amp for the whole of a 3 hour band practice last night. What a sound! Hard to explain, but the clarity is great, yet it retains a certain warmth and fuzzyness in the lower range. The higher notes have a brittle quality to them, and may lack some depth in the lower harmonic components, but to me that's just amp voicing.

It's just 100 watts, yet I found that even through a not very efficient 8 ohm cab (ashdown MAG 410 or its own H/H 2x15) I never had to go to full whack to be heard (not felt) in a rock band setting. It may be a little underpowered for very large gigs or places with bad acoustics.

On top of it, it's not very heavy. Ok, it's much heavier than my RH 450, but you can easily carry it in one hand while carrying something else in the other.

Just to tell you how impressed I am with, I am going to use it for my my pub gig on friday. I am taking the TC RH450 as backup, but I don't think i'll need it.

They can be bought for not much money at all, and I can only recommend you try one.

[attachment=76804:HH_vs_bassamp2.jpg]

[yorick]

Great amps, while they work. I had the VS MusiciaN head, and you could fry an egg on it after a gig. It eventually fried itself....

[razze06]

[quote name='yorick' post='1190342' date='Apr 6 2011, 12:01 PM']Great amps, while they work. I had the VS MusiciaN head, and you could fry an egg on it after a gig. It eventually fried itself.... [/quote]

Some of the earlier HH stuff used a really antiquated power stage, I believe. They later upgraded to something a little more standard and reliable.

Anyway, I hope it lasts

[Low End Bee]

I had one of these when it was only a couple of years old.

Match it with an ex sound system 18" bass bin with a smoking revolver painted on it for my early signature sound.

[Monckyman]

I used one of these fitted in a 1x15 combo in the late 80s early 90s,I used it in all manner of gigs from murky goth clubs to working mens cabaret, never let me down and sounded fine.

[razze06]

I've used this on friday night for our pub gig. Probably its first working night in about 25 years.
Being the daredevil I am, I never checked the "mixer output" and "slave output" at the back. I assumed they were for... erm sending the signal to the mixer or to a secondary power amp.
They didn't work, so I had to do the gig without PA support.

The little old head performed admirably through the ashdown MAG 4x10, never had to crank it to full power, and the tone adjustment did work their magic. I managed to take a grainy picture with my crappy phone camera.

[attachment=77181:HH_malones_8April.jpg]

When I saw it all lit up, with its very old school opaque aluminium effect finish, its cylindrical knobs with scalloped tops quite worn and discolored at the edges, it remimnded me of the high-end hifi amp my uncle never let me touch when I was a kid!

[andy67]

I had the combo version of that amp, it lasted me for years and years - gigged it to death literally speaking! It blew up on stage, however, it was so well built that it was only the caps that had fried and it cost £30 to repair! Traded it in 92' for a Session 410 100w combo.

[dmccombe7]

Great stuff.
I had a 2nd hand one in the 80's used initially as a stage monitor but eventually became my main amp.
Loads of different sounds including a great overdriven simulated "tube" sound.
Used it with anything from 15's to 12's to 10's and sounded great with them all.

Was well used and gigged regularly. Used at quite high volumes in a rock band.

They have my thumbs up and as you mentioned already they look great when powered up with the old neon style back-lighting.

Still have it although its on loan to my younger brother who uses it regularly and had never even heard of these amps before i gave him a loan off.
P.S. never seen it since -

Aaahhh those heady days of transistor amps.
They'll never be popular you know

Thanks for the memory and reminder.

Cheers
Dave

[watchman]

HH stuff, at least the later ones, was very reliable (and loud!). I think they were one of the first to get the whole MOSFET thing together, although at this point my memory's hazy..

[Pete Academy]

This takes me back. I went to a launch of HH amps at a local hotel in Stoke back in the day. They had stacked loads of them in the room. We sat down and the lights dimmed. They turned all the amps on at once. All these green lights came on and you could literally hear the sound of money coming out of pockets.

I bought one and every night in my outhouse at home I'd turn off the lights and play away. Awesome.

It's a testament to their build quality that they are still out there.

[nick]

First amp was a V-S head, loved that amp. Stupidly P/X'd it for a Session 4x10 combo, which I hated.
Would love to find another V-S at a reasonable price.

[razze06]

[quote name='nick' post='1196183' date='Apr 11 2011, 08:45 PM']First amp was a V-S head, loved that amp. Stupidly P/X'd it for a Session 4x10 combo, which I hated.
Would love to find another V-S at a reasonable price.[/quote]

They come up quite regularly on ebay and local ads. That's how I got mine

[EssentialTension]

I had one of these new from about 1977 to 1979. I had the slave version as well and used to run two Electrovoice 1x15 reflex PA bins with them. Loud.

[Muzz]

Yep, my first 'real' amp, too. Traded it for an Ampeg B25, which was a let-down volume-wise.

[Booooooom]

That takes me back, a V-S Bassamp was my first 'real amp' too!

Got a mint 100W combo version (I think it was badged '115 Combo'?) second hand in around 83/84 and used it as my main amp until around '95. Could get a good range of sounds (inc Bass Boost and 'valve sound' controls) and for a 15 it always seemed to cut through and the green lights were uber cool! I had to replace the driver (direct from Celestion) but the amp and cab were so well built even the vinyl cover was still intact when I sold it!

Mate had the pa head version too and for some trivia: HH was also the amp of choice found at the other end of Wilko Johnson's (Dr Feelgood) curly red lead whose son later used his 100W combo as a bass amp.

I stumbled on this site a while a go - worth a look for anyone wanting to reminisce [url="http://www.hhamplification.co.uk/ampcom.asp#"]http://www.hhamplification.co.uk/ampcom.asp#[/url]

[gafbass02]

My first amp too, nearly bought one last year before realising it would be purely for nostalgia and i was too skint for that

[JTUK]

To the OP.... REALLY..???

I accept that they were ok at the time but that was in a very shallow pool of anything decent.

My local studio has a combo for use so I can attest to their present day use...and all I'd say is I lug my gear up or use an Ashdown combo which knocks it into a cocked-hat..and that thing has had a caning and runs out of puff around 3.5khz...

Sorry.........just a counter-view..!!

[nick]

[quote name='JTUK' post='1226433' date='May 10 2011, 05:03 PM']To the OP.... REALLY..???

I accept that they were ok at the time but that was in a very shallow pool of anything decent.

My local studio has a combo for use so I can attest to their present day use...and all I'd say is I lug my gear up or use an Ashdown combo which knocks it into a cocked-hat..and that thing has had a caning and runs out of puff around 3.5khz...

Sorry.........just a counter-view..!![/quote]

Really?
That's interesting.

Edited May 10, 2011 by nick

[Spike Vincent]

I had a VS Musician guitar head with the 2 x 15 cab ( and yes,I used the reverb ). Sold it,bought another one,sold it,and my only regret was to get the first one I sold a Selmer Zodiac valve head.....Duh.

[razze06]

[quote name='JTUK' post='1226433' date='May 10 2011, 05:03 PM']To the OP.... REALLY..???

I accept that they were ok at the time but that was in a very shallow pool of anything decent.

My local studio has a combo for use so I can attest to their present day use...and all I'd say is I lug my gear up or use an Ashdown combo which knocks it into a cocked-hat..and that thing has had a caning and runs out of puff around 3.5khz...

Sorry.........just a counter-view..!![/quote]

Hey fair enough! We can't all like the same things, it would be boring!

My experience with these has been great, and I just love the sound. It's also different (and cheap), and that goes a long way for me!

I agree it's not as loud as the peavey 400 mark III or the RH450, but I don't need that kind of volume most of the times.
I also agree that there was precious little around at the time in terms of good bass amps, but I've only used mine in 2011, and i'm finding it as good as or better than several current offerings.

[johnbassdoherty]

This brings back memories big time, I had a HH VS bass amp with matching 2 15 cab when i was only 15 back in about 1979, and I have to agree by todays standards, they probably do suck, but its the whole nostalgia thing, it's like trying to compare todays car's with all the trimmings, air con, traction control, cd/mp3 players, with an old Capri, it's the memories, and this does bring me back, thanks (good times).

[escholl]

HH were amazing, I've been using a 30 year old Bass Machine for a few years now, with two matching cabs. Best head I've ever used, and one of the best designed/constructed amps I've ever come across. Used a V/S head at a local rehearsal space, LOVED it, would love to get my hands on one of those too. Would never sell my current amp though, not even when I'm too old to lift it lol.

Laney has revived the brand by the way, [url="http://www.hhelectronics.com/index.php"]here[/url]. I've been in touch, and it's coming on the market soon, supposedly they are just sorting out their distributor network for worldwide release. No guesses as to how long that will take though. Anyway, the new stuff -looks- good, especially some of the PA stuff, can't wait to have a go on it.

[scalpy]

The last time I saw my HH it was sticking out of the top of the skip I had thrown it in. Never been happier to see it.

[MoonBassAlpha]

[quote name='escholl' post='1272223' date='Jun 16 2011, 11:05 PM']Laney has revived the brand by the way, [url="http://www.hhelectronics.com/index.php"]here[/url]. I've been in touch, and it's coming on the market soon, supposedly they are just sorting out their distributor network for worldwide release. No guesses as to how long that will take though. Anyway, the new stuff -looks- good, especially some of the PA stuff, can't wait to have a go on it.[/quote]
The backline stuff doesn't look that special to me - similar technology to what they used in the 70's, not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but things have moved on a bit since then, you'd have thought? I don't see any innovation, what is the USP?

[escholl]

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' post='1273586' date='Jun 18 2011, 11:18 AM']The backline stuff doesn't look that special to me - similar technology to what they used in the 70's, not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but things have moved on a bit since then, you'd have thought? I don't see any innovation, what is the USP?[/quote]
You could make the same point about Ampeg. What are you expecting?