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What amps did bassists use in the 70s?


1970

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[quote name='crez5150' timestamp='1331316845' post='1571377']
Like these


[/quote]

I remember our singer/guitard turning up with a brand new H&H PA system one day, pretty good as I recall :) (at least he could sing 1 out of 2 weren't bad)

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Selmer Treble & Bass 100 with a pair of Selmer Goliath 1x18s.
Marshall Super Bass 100 with various 4x12s and 18s.
Hiwatt 100 as above.
Simms Watts 100. Also as above.
Sound City 200w with 2 x Sound city 4x12s.
Marshall Super Bass 100 with 4 Vox 18" Foundation cabs.

Owned an Elgen 100w P.A. amp in the 70s, seriously brilliant amp. I could never afford the bass amp though, but I'd still like one. If it was as good as the P.A. it would be brilliant.

My first proper bass rig in 1968 was a Wem ER40 through a Wem Starfinder cabinet. 15" Goodmans speaker.

Strange to think that popular opinion is that we suffered bad bass sounds in the 60s / 70s. It's simply not true. The amps we used at that time are now lusted over for their great sound and in my opinion, there's not a lot of difference in sound between a 60s/70s 4x12 and current 4x10s and like now, there was good and bad and all makes sounded different. Power handling may have increased as years have passed but I still wouldn't use a single speaker for bass regardless of how good it's supposed to be.

I appear to have gone off topic a bit here so I may as well carry on. I don't care what anyone says or tries to prove with science, a valve amp is louder that a solid state amp with the same rated output. In the 70s it was said that a valve amp was twice as loud as a transistor amp with the same rated output and having tried it, it is very true and I'm not talking about flat out, just normal playing volumes and if you need 10 times the power to make it twice as loud, then you would need a 1000w transistor amp just to equal the volume of a 100w valve amp. Try it and see, I have.

Sorry about that, rant over.

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[quote name='bertbass' timestamp='1331344799' post='1571798']


Owned an Elgen 100w P.A. amp in the 70s, seriously brilliant amp. I could never afford the bass amp though, but I'd still like one. [b]If it was as good as the P.A. it would be brilliant.[/b]


[/quote]

They were/are better!

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Acoustic, Hiwatt, Orange and Ampeg were names in the 70's.
Before that you might have used Vox and Selmer and even Wem for bass.

I think H/H came later in the 70's I think.

Also, Sound Shity were about but no one in their right mind touched them..ditto Simms-watt

Edited by JTUK
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I used to use some kind of Fender bassman valve amp and 2x15 cab at one rehearsal space we used to use in the early 80's, I'm sure it's life before was on the road, so it could of dated from the 70's.. and that sounded sweet.
I only had a crappy Invader 50 head and a rooster 1x15 cab that was my own at that time... and that sounded like carp :)

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[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1331368163' post='1571880']
Acoustic, Hiwatt, Orange and Ampeg were names in the 70's.
Before that you might have used Vox and Selmer and even Wem for bass.

I think H/H came later in the 70's I think.

Also, Sound Shity were about but no one in their right mind touched them..ditto Simms-watt
[/quote]

H||H Kicked off in '68

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[quote name='crez5150' timestamp='1331377020' post='1572017']
This is from the 80's era...... We may look at these units again if there is interest


[/quote]

Had a Bass Machine 250 1x15 combo, these were nice, but I felt the sound got thin when playing in the higher registers. I bought this after trying a Bass Baby......that was a great small amp.

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[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1331377575' post='1572027']
The VS Bassamp 100w combo was my first dedicated bass amp. It was like humping a washing machine around and, frankly, a Hotpoint would have sounded better.

HH reissues by all means, but forget that one. ;)
[/quote]

Indeed.... there were some ropey products apparently. BassBaby I think could be a winner..... have to make it a lot lighter though....

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My first 'proper' amp in 1978 was a Yamaha YBA100 bought secondhand from SAI for £280 which was a fortune then.
The power amp was in the 3 x 12" cab , top part was just a very capable graphic pre-amp with push button band pass filters.
It weighed a ton and I lugged it down from my bedroom and pushed it through the streets to band practice every Saturday morning.

Rated at just 100 watts it was extremly loud, and I wish I could find one today.
Probably one of the coolest looking amps ever made.
I progressed to an Orange Bass head and a home brew 2x12 to save my back.

Edited by Prosebass
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[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1331318223' post='1571412']
I used to see lots of Marshalls on stage as well. Marshall isn't the most popular brand of amp for bassists nowadays, and I think they tend to get overlooked when people talk about old bass amps.
[/quote]

Because they were awful...
Hiwatt beat out them all of that ilk... and Orange were rare and very expensive.

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[quote name='crez5150' timestamp='1331377020' post='1572017']
This is from the 80's era...... We may look at these units again if there is interest


[/quote]

I lusted after one of these in the early 80s when all I had was a horrible little Carlsboro with farty speakers.

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Started with a few home made amps, then I had a RSC version of the Linear cage amp.

Mid 70s, I had an Elgen 100W horrible purple thing, with a homebrew 2 X 15, then a Vox Supreme guitar amp with the same cab, then a Marshall SL100 with a 4X12 and a 1X18, Swapped the Marshall for an HH IC100 guitar amp, used with various cabs, great bass sound through the clean channel. I still have the HH as a spare in case my 70s Bassman 100 silverface packs up.

I have used the HH and the Bassman for pub gigs recently, and tbh, while not as loud as my Hartke rig, theyre plenty loud enough. Bearing in mind that our guitarist used a 70s HH 100w combo.

Edited by BRANCINI
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Linear Conchord 30w
Sound City 120
H||H VS Combo
Marshall Super Bass II 100w

The H||H sounded better when it was properly stuffed* with wool insulation material - less 'honky', but it ran out of steam very quickly. The 'Valve Sound' was the source of some amusement. The Marshall was OK, but getting any really deep bass out of it was a trial, as it too ran out of steam. The best sounding was the Linear Conchord, a better tonal frequency spread, but with only 30 watts, it never went loud enough.


Edit: * Lined rather than completely stuffed would be more accurate, as there was a crude attempt at 'folded horn loading' with this combo. All that did was overemphasis the boxy nature of the sound.

Edited by ShergoldSnickers
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MB1. B)
First Combo i had was a Sound City 2x10 with a Valve head and a graphic eq...Now that was heavy (from a guy out of The Cheetahs)
i then got a more transportable OHM GC60 combo which was remarkably loud for its size and gigable.

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