Son of Giggles goes to London (includes HH amplification content)

[chriswareham]

So a number of years ago, a HH 2x15 bass cabinet nicknamed "Giggles" was sold on this here site by @itsat34. There ensued a fun tale of Giggles getting from Essex to France where it now resides with @Dad3353.

 

Fast forward to the present, and I'm on the lookout for a HH cabinet to match my HH Bassamp VS. One popped up on Gumtree near(ish) to me, complete with a HH Bass Baby head. I travel over to collect it in a ZipCar that the previous renter and chums had clearly smoked copious amounts of weed in. The car stank, had lots of detritus in the back from the bout of munchies the weed smokers must have suffered, and to top it all the heating didn't work.

 

It turns out I'm buying the HH stack from @itsat34, and after his lovely wife made me a cup of tea I learn the story of the original Giggles. So now I've christened the HH stack "Son of Giggles", although it's journey to a new home was far simpler - albeit in a freezing cold car that reeked of super strength skunk.

 

Lots of great sounds in the EQ section of the Bass Baby as it distorts in a very pleasing way at higher settings of each slider, while the compressor on the top channel goes from subtle to super squished. So now I have two, quite different sounding HH amps that I'm rather enamoured with. The temptation is to get another HH cabinet, and run them in a dual amp setup via my home made Ric-O-Sound splitter box.

 

[ajkula66]

Congratulations!

 

My first "good" bass amp was an H/H 100w/1x15" bass combo and to this day I have a very soft spot for almost anything and everything with that insignia.

 

Have fun and enjoy these classic, semi-forgotten yet (at least to me) great pieces of British amp history.

[Chienmortbb]

I also have a VS Bassamp and the later Bassamp 100, both  sound great. I have never thought of going to an HH Cab as the speakers may well be in a state of disrepair.

[chriswareham]

Email just sent to MAJ Electronic - looks like they have knobs available to replace the two mismatched ones! Also seeing if they have the service manual, as I'm going to strip it down for a service and give it a spring clean.

[Lozz196]

I used to love those V-5 heads, the local rehearsal studio had them and they sounded great.

[chriswareham]

Son of Giggles (hereafter SoG for brevity) had its first rehearsal tonight. Finished the first song and our drummer commented that it was the best bass sound he'd ever heard. He's right - the Bass Baby sounds awesome, even better than the V-S Bassamp, and is also incredibly loud.

 

The amp is going to get the full works:

 

- Plastic corners sanded and buffed to remove the scuffs.

 

- All electrolytic capacitors replaced with top quality new ones.

 

- All tarnished screws, handle fittings and so forth cleaned with wire wool and then nickel plated.

 

- All knobs and sliders thoroughly cleaned with Deoxit.

 

The tolex has barely any marks on it, so with the above work and a couple of new knobs I should be able to get it into lovely condition.

[KingBollock]

I have a Bass Baby 150w, 1x15” combo, that my wife picked up at a local auction.

 

It looks rough and some of the pots and sliders need a clean, but it does indeed sound very nice.

 

It weighs a bloomin’ ton, though!

 

 

Edited January 14 by KingBollock
Added photo.

[police squad]

On 13/01/2025 at 13:07, chriswareham said:

Email just sent to MAJ Electronic - looks like they have knobs available to replace the two mismatched ones! Also seeing if they have the service manual, as I'm going to strip it down for a service and give it a spring clean.

MAJ a great company. 

 

he has some tales to tell and is a fountain of knowledge

Edited January 14 by police squad