these and the sunn amps are some of the nicest vintage tube ampts ever made? what are your favorite models? ofr me its prolly the sun 350TL and the fender vibrolux (i'm actually looking for both, in owrking or broken contdition or parts or whatever) but what do you guys like for amps?

The Sunn Coliseum was one of the baddest bass amps this side of an Ampeg SVT. The SVT is probably the best bass amp of all time...six 6550 power tubes and a hundred pound power transformer....Hi-Watt's were really nice guitar amps,too...hundred watt Marshall's have always been the standard of the industry.....

As far as guitar amps go, two of my favorites share the same name but different vintages. I've owned them both. The original tweed 4x10 Fender Bassman combo and the later Bassman head which was decent thru 1972 or thereabouts. (I don't like any of the "master volume" Fenders, let alone anything they've made in the past twenty years.) I used my Bassman head with a 15" folded horn cabinet and it was devastating for bass and guitar. The trick on these is to patch the Bass and the Normal channels together. The bass and treble controls for each channel have different centers on their equalization points. When patched together, you have four eq points plus deep and bright switches. There are several Ampeg amps that I like as well. The SVT's and the B-15 flip-tops are classics.

nice! i'm about to send away for a fender bassman 10, 110$ shipped, to canada is a good deal! i would love to find an old sunn, but they're dam near impossible

Here's a pic of the Bassman 50 with the 15" folded horn cab. The cabinet was tuned to 40 Hz (Low-E) and was fairly smooth up to around 5000 Hz and then kinda spikey up to 10,000 Hz (which is unheard of for a large MI speaker!)

This is a small set up I made for El Buho http://www.elbuho.com/.
The cabinet is small, sealed and weighs only 45 lbs. Flat response of 40 to 40,000 Hz with a three position switch for the Vifa dual-concentric tweeter(On/-6dB/Off) and a 12" Woofer. The small box you see on top is a 300 Watt digital Acoustic Image amplifier with very flexible equalization. I like this early version of it. The newer models are goobed up with gimmicks and have a higher price tag.

nice! i have an old fender power speaker amp i need to design a preamp for, do you dabble into that? i can design tube preamps, but SS is something foriegn to me...... those are some nice amps though...... i have a nice acoustic rig out in the garage right now wow..... and i thought low E was 42 hz? j/k

Nah. My bread and butter is in restoration of tube amps and building speakers.

dang, smae-ish ah well i'll learn eventually this amp was originally part of the fender "Super showman" setup...... its pretty nie sounding amp too

mesa boobie blue angle
into two vintage altec lancing 1201A insterment cabnets

hah i got a chance to play one of those blue angels.... WOW.... the cabinets sound nice but i'd have to say all my 15" jbl bass stuff sounds ncie and as well the two d-130f's i got from carl here are most fantastic!

When I actually played guitar, I had a blond Gibson ES-175D...Incredible sound with a vintage Fender Twin Reverb with the JBL driver, and tubes, of course.....

When my friend would plug in his 60's vintage Les Paul, it was the sweetest tone I have heard to date....

your right the d-130's have a swwet tone.... i'm working on a real bluesey amp right now, 50 watts el34 based just massive amounts of preamp coloration and a lot of controllable poweramp distortion....... gonna be sweet when its ever done

I always liked Mesa Mark III's & IV's. Sunn's for bass.

That's an easy one for me...hehheh

Sears Silvertone "Twin Twelve" Model 1484. Danelectro-made knock-off of an early 60's Fender twin...approx 50 watts of dual 6L6 power. I feed it thru a pair of Vintage 30's in a closed 2x12 cab.

I also have a Magnatone M-15A that I am awfully fond of.

i have never played through one of those yet... but i have played a blackface twin and wow that was nice!

Are sunn amps and speakers the ones that "the who" were using ,in the videos"you better, you bet" and Just another tricky day"? I could not tell, but some of the amps looked like they said hi-watt, but I am not sure what the cabinets, which it looked like there were about 20(with 4 15" drivers or so, each), of them. Were those sunn speaker cabinets?

Townshend played thru Hi-Watt amps and stacks for years. Enthwhistle at some point went to Mesa Engineering for his bottom end.

yes in the videos there he uses sun 8H something's i think

Ent probably went to Mesa because Randall Smith will custom-build any amp that you and he can possibly think of, and you'll get the sound you want. He started out custom-modding amps for Jerry Garcia & the Dead and other bands around Frisco back in the 60's.

I'm not a guitar player but a drummer, and I've always had a problem with guys coming into any of my bands that otherwise might have been a great player/musician, but if he had a fairly sh!tty sound and didn't try to make it right, he was out.

One very good lead player once had a 50-watt Marshall head and Marshall 4x12 bottom. This guy could cut lead riffs like a bastid, and right on the money every time. The cab was fine, (I think it had Celestion drivers) but when he cranked that 50-watter up it sounded like total aZZ. He wouldn't part with it or use a different head or even try changing the tubes a little so we booted him. I don't think it was being overdriven so bad that caused the bad sound, I think that amp just sucked. So did the rest of the band.

Yeah, Pete played Hi-Watt's. I'm not sure which cabs Ent used on a steady basis.

well a 50 watter can be nice, prolly just didnt know how to use it too well...... most really amazing natural guitar players dont..... i had to do a write up for another forum i visit so here's most of my gear list.......

haha i've got a westone thunder II with actives and a homebrew onboard preamp, thru neck very epxensive, a bunch of el degas's turned frankenguitars (i want more el degas guitars! sell me them!) a duct tape vee made from about 6 others, a fender f-65 acoustic from 76' an "elk" archtop electric, a home made fretless, and all my amps are custom, but i prefer ACOUSTIC series cabs or amps if i had to choose (sell me those too) but i put costom becuase for those hwo konw me all my stuff is so heavily modded none of it resembles the originals except a couple cabs and my westone (externally at least) oh and i have a jag master copy with a crazy screwed up paintjoband a harmony bnajo and another harmony acoustic, and soon i'll have me a 59 or 67 gibson archtop not sure on the year as its not here yet, but its a wicked project thats gonna be sweet when its done (diamond plate acessories, totally fixed up and super customized beyond belief! ) for amps, my main rix is a hafler 100T preamp with some modding done to that to control tube voltages for a manual gain control and also on the rc filter. i have a dukane 30 watt that i'm half way done turning itno a marshall plexi clone but a bit smaller and with 5881'ws instead of el34's a fender-marshall, a 200 watt traynor repair jobby (yba 3 w/ 6550's (basically my ampeg) ) a ramsa 16 channel studio mixer, a couple more tube amps i'm repairing and turning into clones for people (bogens, a 60 and a hundred watter) and also a ross 400 watt power amp, a traynor crossover a pair of altec lansing a7's and a bunch of drivers tyhat are for restorations, on the way still is a fender bassman 10 (4X10") which i'm gonna make something out of, and also that gibson, and probably a bunch more i forgot

please ignore my horrendus spelling

I'd say my faves would be blackface Deluxe and Super Reverbs. I played through a restored '65 Super...oh man was that thing sweet. A great little sleeper is the Peavey Classic 30, 30 watts from 4 6BQ5/EL84 firebottles, run as close to class A as you can get a quad of those and still get 30 watts of output. My neighbor has a Fender Blues Junior and a Tele...she doesn't play it at all and I'm scheming to buy that rig from her. :)

As for what I've got...Line 6 Spider II 112, not bad for what it is, but not like a good tube unit. I've also got a cheapie Epiphone Galaxie 10, a 10-watt single-ended 6L6 jobbie with a 10" speaker. I've tried different 12AX7's in it but haven't gotten my paws on any other 6L6's...the stock Sovtek 6L6 isn't all that great. I did remove the negative feedback loop which lets it break up earlier and more controllably. The weakest spot in this amp is the output iron methinks, it's a really cheap transformer. New tranny and decent AlNiCo speaker should wake this little guy up... :D Goes without saying it's class A seeing as it's single-ended like a Champ...should be able to make a good-sounding amp out of it, out of the box it sounded a bit blah, but has potential. But for $99 on sale I figured it would be fun to tinker with, my wife saw me drooling so she got it for me. She rocks. :D

TP

heh i've got a pair of tre latecs form a "santana" modded twin, wow they're nice.... and wow i gotta find an amp for them..... if m y bassman 10 comes i'll put thme in there or else my d-130f's from carl

It all depends on what phase that you're going through musically. I went through a lot of phases and have owned an amp or two for every phase, what amps that have passed through my hands are as follows, 1987 Mesa/Boogie MKIII, 1964 Fender Deluxe(blackface),1971 Marshall superlead 100 watt,with 4x12 cab with 30watt celestions,1975 Mesa\Boogie MKI(cream tolex) 1968 fender deluxe reverb(dripframe), 1974 Marshall 100 watt Superlead w\4x12 25watt celestion greenbacks, 1987 marshall JCM 800 100 watt, 1966 Fender Bandmaster head 50 watt Marshall 50 watt 2x12 6550's. Currently in my collection is a 1978 Fender Vibrolux reverb 40 watts tube rectifier (luv it), Soldano Astroverb 16 20 watt 2x12 eminence spkrs.(EL 84's chimey) I am planning to add ( my buddy has an extensive Marshall collection) Marshall 50 watt Lead and Bass. I have tried modeling amps, no warmth, or character.It's gotta be tube.

Any of you know of a BEDROCK amplifier?

I have tried modeling amps, no warmth, or character.It's gotta be tube.

Yep. Even-order harmonics is good :yes: (if not overdone).

yep i've gotten around to making some amps lately, and i was a/bing them with a brownface deluxe for a couple local guitar guys and the one is now determined to find me an old traynor to hack up and mod for him like the one i showed him. it was pretty sweet.

Purchased from an older guy who was the original owner. Bought it and stored it under cover in his den. He said he played it about 20 times. Original everything.

I plugged in and was amazed at the sound. Better than my Victoria Amp Co. late '50's Bandmaster repro. Couldn't believe it.

I know it's not pre-CBS, however by 1969 the "bad" circuit changes had been removed.

yeah theres a guy on here with a blonde bandmaster w/ matching 4-12's and a blonde reverb..... man do i want them, but i'll never have enough dough. i've been working on some homemade ones. and am in fact selling a marshall 18 watt clone (the guy didnt want the non tremolo channel?)

I have an Ampeg Reverberocket with octal preamp tubes, 2X 6V6, 5Y3 rectifier through a Jensen C12R. Tickle it and you get sweet blues tone. Whomp on it and you get great 70s rawk tone, think Foreigner or Humble Pie.

mmmmm foriegner. i really like those guys. i'm really gonna have to change back the 12au7 in my fender to an ax7 so i can get some gain back.

What do you guys think of a Sunn Studio Lead? Local pawn has one for $200.

Grab it! basically anything Sunn is pretty nice!

Rockmonton, a little advice if you please...

I am a beginner as far as guitar goes. I want to buy a real amp tho as I am getting pretty gol darn tired of using my computer for amp purposes.

The pawn shop had two amps that caught my eye, the Sunn and a Marshall Valvestate 2000. I guess my first question is does beginner status make a difference here?

My first instinct is to grab the sun for the same reason I like vintage stereo. And another question, are there any tricks for testing an amp to make sure all the functions work?

well most of the lead amps (beta lead and collesium lead) were pretty damn nice. if its tube, go for it. i had a VS-100 which wasnt bad, and pretty good for a beginner but most of these Sunn amps are nearly indestructable, i missed out on a Sceptre with the original 2-12 cab for 350$ here, and saw it a week later for about 2K on ebay. but i'd say go for the sun. make sure all the knobs work like they should. make sure it isnt too noisy. check the speakers (if there are any) for little tears and cone rubbing. and crank it to make sure!

Watch out for solid state Marshalls. My bass player, or maybe his brother, has one and it sounds great by itself but the sound gets buried easily by drums and bass. And it isn't a matter of volume level, the tone just blends in and becomes hard to distinguish. Admittedly I didn't spend a lot of time trying to dial it in because hey, it isn't mine.

A friend of mine had an Orange amp that was pretty rad. That orange puffy vinyl
was pretty cool. Also played a 120 watt Chorus amp that was very bodascious! Real
nice sound for jazz. I've owned a couple of Fender amps, Super Reverbs, they rocked!
They couldn't be turned up more than 3 out of 10, oodles of power. And, oh yes,
that was with a distortion pedal. Leo Fender was a pretty cool dude! I once owned
a Sears Silvertone tube amp that was rated at only aruond 30-35 watts but when you
got down on it, sounded great for blues. Playing through a Carvin SX amp, 200 watts
twin twelves right now. I do prefer four tens though. Seems to be a more full sound.
Regards, Bill.

yeah orange amps are really rad! i wish i could get a super reverb, man they're nice!

I just inherited this puppy from a friend who owed me money.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a315/Bogframe/Bal-pro.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a315/Bogframe/bal-protop.jpg
It sounds good, everything from a high whiny sound to a nice fat one, but it has developed a ground problem somehow that I found the last time I turned it on and it straightened my hair! I wouldn't know a capacitor from a cap gun, but if there's anyone in this forum in the Brooklyn NY area that knows how to fix this monster without bankrupting, I'd be eternally grateful instead of potentially dead.

A great little sleeper is the Peavey Classic 30, 30 watts from 4 6BQ5/EL84 firebottles, run as close to class A as you can get a quad of those and still get 30 watts of output

I regrettably sold a little Peavey Classic 20. Two EL84's. Great little amp. Peavey got it all right with that series.

I regrettably sold a little Peavey Classic 20. Two EL84's. Great little amp. Peavey got it all right with that series.

Amen!........The Classic 20 is the one! It's got "The Right Stuff". So naturally Peavey stopped making it! What's with those guys anyway!!!

Another intresting Peavey is their rack mount stereo tube power amp i think it was the Classic 50/50. Naturally they stopped making this one too!
bellavoce

Another intresting Peavey is their rack mount stereo tube power amp i think it was the Classic 50/50. Naturally they stopped making this one too!
bellavoce

Had one of those, also! Sold it to buy my Mesa 2:90. I mated it with a preamp I again regret selling. A Hafler (designed by Bogner) Triple Giant. :sigh:

Fender Twin Reverb _ It has great reverb and the punch you get with low notes and power chords is so powerful....One of the best i've played till today. :yes:

clint.

Silvertone 1484 50 watt head. 2 6L6's and 4 12AX7's, original Silvertone tubes.

Or, if you can find one that won't break the bank, might I recommend it's big brother, the 1485. Cosmetically identical, but with 4 6L6's and 100 watts.

for guitar:
65' Blackface twin w/ JBL's.
Musicman HD150
Ampeg Jet (old)

Had an old gibson amp w/ 4-10's that was pretty nice too. Sold it dangit.

For bass:
Ashdown pre thru old altec amp w/ 2-15's works for me in garage setting.

Currently I've got the hots for a Fender DeVille. Sixty watt tube w/four ten inch speakers. I could kick myself for selling my Super Reverbs so cheap in the past. I cannot believe what they're selling for now. Even on ebay where they have to be shipped. I owned two of them in the past. Now I can't afford one!

I have a Crate Vintage Club Series tube amp for my guitars and a Baldwin Professional for the keyboards. I still need someone to find and fix the nasty short in the Baldwin; it has a slight hum, but touch anything metal on it when it's on, and it'll straighten your hair!
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a315/Bogframe/bal-protop.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a315/Bogframe/Bal-pro.jpg

I use an Eden Metro for my bass. I think its pretty badass.
For my keys I use a Pioneer sa-8100 :D

okay guys, i picked up an old acoustic 361 (300 or so watt power amp + 18" cerwin vega) and i reckon i'm going to be building a Bass there with a DIY version of the 360 preamp in it, sweetest combination ever! neck-thru maple bass with some nice bubinga sides and some crazy home-done jerr-rigged to the max electronics in it.

Way to go Rock! Work with a guy played bass your life-span ago (and still does), loves acoustic bass amps. You can't go wrong with 'em. Keep us updated.

Back in 1983 worked in a music store got to try out everything. Randalls were pretty good, but I went with the 'name' Marshall. Had a Marshall stack with twin heads. 1982 & 1972 heads running parrellel into two cabs loaded with Celestions. Sustain and crunch was not as abundant as I would have liked. Switched to a Crate Excalibur solid state head and Celestion cab with great results. Prior to all this I started with a Carvin SS head and Kustom 4 speaker cab back in 1982 that was pretty wild for a first amp but lacked the massive crunch I needed until the MXR distortion stompbox was added. Then I played a 1976 Gibson Explorer & 1981 'V'. Nowadays its stricly Charvel Model 6's for me. :guitar:

1964 Sears Silvertone "Twin Twelve" model 1484 head (two 6L6's, four 12AX7's and a couple oddballs) into a closed back 2x12 cab loaded with one Celestion Vintage 30 reissue of the original, and one standard Celestion Vintage 30, both 8 ohms.

BARK! BARK! BARK!

Have to post my faves!

My beloved Mesa Boogie DC-5. Warm, rich tube tone for jazz, country, and blues, and an amazing array of rock sounds. Fifty watts, two channels, recording direct out, FX loop, assignable 5-band parametric EQ, gain and master for both channels, footswitchable reverb and EQ, and full tube electronics (2-6L6s and 6 12AX7s). The only drawback is that it's a little too powerful for smaller club gigs, so I'm on the lookout for a small 15-20 watter with tremelo/vibrato and reverb.

My bass rig is a very rare 1965 Ampeg Portaflex B-18X--a mighty beast in pristine shape. Unfortunately, I'm missing the little plexi Ampeg logo which is set aglow by the tubes shining behind it.

so I'm on the lookout for a small 15-20 watter with tremelo/vibrato and reverb.

.

If you can find an Ampeg Reverberocket, grab it. But then I am preaching to the choir since you are already among the blue checkerboard faithful.

I have an R12R model Reverberocket with dual 6V6s and octal pre's. I got lucky and found this one cheap because its cabinet was not in mint condition. A cheaper choice might be one of the Crate VC series amps which have also been mentioned in this thread.

I'm really hoping for an old Epiphone/Gibson EA-series, a Guild Thunder I reverb, or if I can get the scratch together, an old Magnatone! I like the Ampeg reissue Jet J-12T because it's got both tremelo and reverb, but they're solid state circuitry. Nothing beats vacuum tube vibrato or tremelo. :rockon:

find a nice garnet tube combo, some of those are really reminiscent of those ampeg type combos.

Being a bass player primarily, I can't comment with any great knowledge on the guitar amp side of things - most of the players I've worked with have used Fender Twin Reverbs or Princetons for country/rock or blues although my friend Terry Robb of Portland plays his Strat & Duosonic through a totally screamin' Champ (check out his CD's, blues fans). I'v been using my Acoustic 370 since the mid-70's (through the original Acoustic 408b and now a David Eden 410). Great club combo and the Acoustic head is stone reliable (still has the same fuses it came with 30 years ago), quiet and will drive a 2 ohm load w/ no problem. There might be plenty of better combinations out there but I'll stick with with what I've got.

I have to vote for my roland jazz chorus 120, smooth, smooth, smooth. Love the fact it works great with both my strat and ovation. You will never get the sound of a fender twin reverb out of it though. Well, maybe someday I will be able to afford one...... :scratch2:

Sansui louie: a buddy of mine has one of those sears tube amps, I think that thing is pretty cool! Talk about a sleeper amp!

nice! i have an old fender power speaker amp i need to design a preamp for, do you dabble into that? i can design tube preamps, but SS is something foriegn to me...... those are some nice amps though...... i have a nice acoustic rig out in the garage right now wow..... and i thought low E was 42 hz? j/k
if you want to build your own go to the website at www.firebottle.com/ampage you can get info from lots of builders, links to parts suppliers, and talk with lots of techs that do just music electronics full time.

Has anybody seen a kit to build a big champ amp?
I'd like a class A champ amp with with bigger transformers and using a KT88 for an output tube. What do think? A pine cabinet and 15" Jensen alnico. Might sound pretty cool and very straight easy circuit.

bellavoce

Unfortunately, I'm missing the little plexi Ampeg logo which is set aglow by the tubes shining behind it.
Easy to come by. http://www.tubesandmore.com has 'em and other hardware for the Ampeg flip-tops.

Hey there Celt,

I've been able to find'em on the net, I just haven't gotten around to overhauling that amp to the extent I'd like. I've moved 5 times in the last 7 years, and I have a family with 2 little boys. Hands full!!

But thanks for the link! That site is fantastic. Especially all the caps, tubes, and resistors! I don't know how I've never come across it before with all my googling!
:thmbsp:

I'm gonna spend lots of time there starting now.

My FAV amp ALL time.... Fender Twin ... Had this one for such a long time and was IN LOVE with it. :banana: UNFORTUNATLY, I was going thru a D I V O R C E and was made to sell it.. :tears: Since then, Ive had MANY MANY amps, One that I have had recently is a FLOT A TONE 500 from the 1950s, Nice rich warm sound.... :thmbsp: Now I am looking for another GOOD tube amp, poss another twin.....Michael...

I have had many amps in my time from Fender, Gibson, Sunn, Ampeg, Kustom, Crate, Marshall, Messa Boogie, Legend and Kingstom to name a few off the top of my head. I have owned many different models of Fender and a couple Ampegs, and my all time favorite of all my amps is the one I have owned since 1980. It is Fender Concert 65 Watts RMS. Fully tube with Channel switching and master volume and reverb for both lead and rhytm channels. When I would use it at Jamborees or playing gigs, other musicians would come up to find what kind of Pedals I used. They were suprised when they found out I did'nt use any. I researched the amp before I got it and after finding it I found now reason to replace it. I have had it for 26 years.

Played through quite a few different amps and a couple of my favorites were a Fender Twin and Fender Bassman head into a 4x12 cab. At the time, though, my band was playing pretty heavy stuff and metal, so I opted for a Peavey 5150 combo. I just love this amp for rock. Our other guitar player had a Marshall JCM900 (or 800, I don;t remember???) half stack and the 5150 would just blow him away every time. We were both playing Les Pauls through our rigs. Only problem with the 5150 was that I had to put a noise gate on it, otherwise the gain was so high the hiss between songs was a bit much.

For guitar, I love the old Fender Vibrolux Reverb amps. I also love my '70's Fender Champ and newer TopHat Club Royale. For bass, I run an Alembic F-2B into a QSC or Crest power amp.

Check out the Samamp web-site to see my favorite amp. I have two Samamps. I've tried lots of amps through the years, I mean LOTS of amps and hands down, these are the best amps I've ever used.