Thread: Rock N Roll Gearheads

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Does anyone know who is responsible for the high output amps of the 60's other than Leo Fender?

Danelectro / Silvertone (rebranded for Sears) 100 watt with 6 x 10” speaker stack
Sun 100 watt with 2 x 15” speaker combo
Vox 100 watt with 6 x 10” speaker stack
Marshall 100 watt with 8 x 12” speaker stack (for the Who) later made as 4 x 12”
Boogie 100 watt with 4 x 12” speaker stack (late 60’s)
HiWatt 100 watt with 4 x 12” speaker stack
Randall 100 & 200 watt with 4 x 12” speaker stack (200 watt came at the end of the 60’s)
Ampeg 100 watt with 4 x 12” speakers stack
Gibson 100 watt with 4 x 12” speaker stack

In my first band in the 60's we used a Danelectro 6 x 12
Owned a Fender in the mid 60's
Owned a Gibson in the late 60's
Owned a Sun in the learly 70's
Owned Fender, Marshall, Vox and Boogie amps in the 90's
Own and use Vox amps now

The old tube high wattage amps were beasts. I built a Sunn 2000s 120 watt bass head for my brother, the transformers are massive, just the head is about 50 lbs. On the other side of the spectrum I made a 1/4 watt guitar amp that is plenty loud in the house. I played it once with a drummer, had to turn it all the way up but it worked and would sustain forever at full volume.
Now days my brother doesn't even use a bass amp on stage, he just plugs into the PA and uses in ear monitors, no more massive stack to haul around.

what I was getting is there was a particular artist that keep blowing up Fender's ampand there are those that consider this artist to be the father of heavy metal.

Are you referring to "Richie Blackmore" and his boosted 200 watt Marshall heads that he blew up regularly?

Nooooo! You mean Dick Dale!!! I had forgot about him and his Fender's!

When I was stationed at Camp Pendleton in 1963 he played at the Riverside National Guard Armory and my dad lived in Anaheim so I'd borrow his car and drive to Riverside. He was something to see in person.

i sold a 59 les paul to buy my sg in 73 . had i only known
i put it under my bed some time in the late 70's and never touched it again . sold it a few years ago. better to be played than stored .

That's purdy!

I had one of the old Sunn Coliseum 300 watt bass heads. That thing was deadly; loved the old fuzz bass sound.

Sunn made some great sounding amps. Did you have the unique folded horn speaker cab too?

Originally Posted by v8nutz

Sunn made some great sounding amps. Did you have the unique folded horn speaker cab too?

No, I had it sitting on an Acoustic 2-15 cabinet. Had that cabinet for years with several different heads on it.

My latest one, did a bass guitar for a friend, still in the booth, I'll cut and buff it tomorrow.

Purdy color, looks good.

Not the same, but when I was in school after the Navy another USN Vet built a set of speakers for his apartment that stood 4' tall and had huge woofers, like 16" or 18", plus an array of mid range and tweeters in each box. Got them all finished, and set them up in the living room, about 8' apart facing each other, room for him to sit on the floor between them. He put on the intro for 2001 Space Odyssey that starts out with the bass note so low you can feel it, but not really hear it, cranked the amp and sat down. As the volume increased and frequency came up to the hearing range he grabbed his ears and then noticed that the speakers were starting to rock back and forth as the opposing sound added together and bounced back. He managed to get to the volume knob before they destroyed the room. I laughed until I cried when he told about the "first fire" the next day.
Sorry for the hijack....