Bass Amp

Started by drogulus, February 21, 2009, 07:07:56 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

drogulus

    I bought a little bass amp to fool around with in my bedroom, and now I'm sad because it sucks mightily. I might be able to adjust it to make some good sounds if I play around with it. Still, I'm not satisfied, and so I'm bidding on an 1965 AC50 head like this one:

     
     Maybe I want someone to talk me out of it, or tell me that I should follow my dream. Anyone out there who plays guitar/bass or likes vintage equipment of various kinds, I'd like to hear your comments.

    I think.  ;)

    This is the actual item:

     
     

     
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:123.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/123.0
      
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0

Szykneij

A Polytone like this one is the last amp I bought and what I still use on the occasional gig I might pick up: 



In my younger days, I lugged all the usual big, heavy gear around but as I got older and started playing smaller rooms, I wanted something lighter. A bandmate had a vintage Polytone amp that sounded incredible for its size. The cabinet had a fuzzy finish and I think it was even smaller than this model I bought new sometime during the 1980s.
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. ~ Satchel Paige

drogulus



     I know Polytone was used by jazz players. I must have tried one since I tried everything.

     I found out that John Cipollina used Standel solid state bass amps in his big tower rig that's in the R'n'R Hall of Fame.

     

     In my avatar I'm using a Traynor (visible), a Bruce solid state amp, and a Sound, a nice Italian tube amp. We had to scrounge every amp we could find to keep up with the lead guitar, which was my brother playing through a prototype version of Ampeg's new Super Valve Technology (SVT) amp. So in the picture we're terrorizing the audience in a high school auditorium. This was when most bands were playing through Bandmasters and Reverb-O-Rockets and B-15's.  ;D

     The AC50 has been delisted by eBay, so I just saved >$1,000 for now.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:123.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/123.0
      
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0

drogulus


     So now what do I do? This would be perfect, but....

     

     ....the reserve is $1,600. My estimate is it will go for $3,000. That's way beyond my range.

   
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:123.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/123.0
      
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0

Szykneij

Quote from: drogulus on February 21, 2009, 07:07:56 AM
    I bought a little bass amp to fool around with in my bedroom

Quote from: drogulus on February 22, 2009, 08:16:33 AM
     So now what do I do? This would be perfect, but....

     


You must have a very large bedroom ...   :o
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. ~ Satchel Paige

drogulus


    No, Tony, those amps weren't that big. OK, compared to the Polytone.... ;D

    I was surprised to find out recently that these old B-15's like the '63 in the picture only put out about 30 watts. Later they got more powerful. They worked so well because the cab was well designed with an efficient speaker. Anyway it's the tone I'm after, not the volume.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:123.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/123.0
      
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0

drogulus



     The AC 50 is relisted, but now the starting bid is $1,700. That's too much for me, so I'm not going to bid. These used to be a bargain.

     This is the little amp I bought, the one I'm not happy with:

     

     Acoustic B20

     It has a CD-in, so I might try to run my preamp into it to bypass the tone controls. That might help some.

     

     
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:123.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/123.0
      
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0