#1338274 - 05/17/01 01:31 PM
What was your first amp?
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Tedster
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Remember it? What was it? Funky or cool?
Mine was a Sound City 50 watt...like a mini half stack...had 4x10s in a straight cabinet. Eventually sold it for a Marshall 50 watt half stack. What ever happened to Sound City amps? Anyone remember 'em? I think they were made by Dallas Arbiter...looked kinda like a Marshall or a Hiwatt.
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#1338275 - 05/17/01 01:37 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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strat0124
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Mine was an early sixties Deluxe that I thought sucked (youthful indiscretions), and sold in favor of bigger louder. Now just where was that time machine??????
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#1338276 - 05/17/01 02:52 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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SteveRB
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Music Man 210 I bought in the late 70's. I think it was a standard in country music, and I still see them occasionally. I ruined it by playing a synth through it.
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#1338277 - 05/17/01 02:58 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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Lee Flier
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LOL Gene... I hear ya. My first amp was a Fender Princeton Reverb. I loved the tone of it (at least I knew that much at the ripe old age of 15), but when I started gigging it just wasn't powerful enough. And I didn't have any money. So I went to the music store and asked what they'd trade for the Fender straight up, that had more power. They gave me a Peavey! LOL... it was some 40 watt thing, I can't even remember the speaker configuration. It kinda sucked, tone-wise, but at least it cut the mustard on stage, and it made me a believer in "you gotta get your tone from your hands."  I played it for a year and then it went up in smoke on stage one night, like most Peaveys did in those days. Just as well though, I was making a little money gigging by that time and ready to get something better. That's when I got my Ampeg, which I still have to this day and never have found an amp I love better. I do have a Fender again now, too, though.
--Lee
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#1338278 - 05/17/01 03:03 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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Dylan
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Fender Sidekick Reverb 15. It was 15 watts with an 8" speaker if I recall.
-Dylan
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#1338279 - 05/17/01 03:39 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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Emile
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Sidekick 15 me too but no reverb. I'd be curious to ear myself thru one of those now. I don't recall it having a nice sound but that was 13 years ago what did I know.
Emile
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#1338280 - 05/17/01 06:28 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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stanner
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well,just like lee i had a blackface princeton that was the bomb-more neighbors complained about that amp...then i *got*(had) a peavey 'artist' thinkin similarities and of course they were never there.
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#1338282 - 05/17/01 06:46 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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KHAN
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'71 FENDER DUEL SHOWMAN WITH A 15" JBL-E130...CCCCLEEEEEAAAAANNNNN!!!!
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#1338283 - 05/17/01 07:03 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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art
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Silverface Fender Champ. I was 16 years old. A few months later I got an MXR Distortion + and I was in rock-n-roll heaven.
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#1338284 - 05/17/01 07:17 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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stanner
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i envy you khan-do ya still got it? wanna sell it?? i covet those beauties... if that was your 1st amp there was no place to go but down, imho.
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#1338285 - 05/17/01 07:33 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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ricknbokker
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Jeez,.....Fenders??!! Sound City??!! Stacks??!!!
My first amp was a Sears Silvertone. Not a nice one. Solid state...8" speaker...it might have even had a tone knob, but I'm not sure.
Two things made that amp sound better. When I threw it out the window of my cousin's '67 Chevelle at 35 mph, all the buzzing noises stopped.
Shortly thereafter, my friend shot up the speaker with a BB gun. Awesome fuzz tones after that.
Fender indeed!!
Steve
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#1338286 - 05/17/01 08:15 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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Scott from MA
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Wow... I don't even remember my first amp, I was just a little kid. I do know that it was some tiny little no-name piece of garbage. If I remember right, it had a toggle switch on it that turned on the world's worst distortion.
When I was in my early teens and wanted to put together a garage band I picked up a Peavey Bandit 65. Worst sounding amp EVER, but I was happy 'cause it was loud.
Later I started running an MXR+ into an old Woodson PA head (which I still have hanging around) and into a 2x12 cab. That actually sounded really good.
Then the day came when the gods smiled upon me and I was introduced to the miracle that is LabSeries. I've been a devoted Lab user ever since.
This message has been edited by Scott from MA on 05-17-2001 at 05:16 PM
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#1338288 - 05/17/01 10:41 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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jef5f
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Registered: 12/14/00
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1979, a brand new Montgomery Wards 20 watt single channel amp with a 10" speaker, I think, made by the Marlboro amp company. Bought a Electro-Harmonix LPB-1 in 1980 to get distortion. I moved down in the 80s, and traded it for a Crate 2x12.
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#1338289 - 05/17/01 11:21 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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ricknbokker
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Thanks so much, Tedster! I feel a lot better now. 
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a DJ for the longest time. I found out that if you run an extension speaker off one of those basic tabletop cassette players and hit record, it acted like a PA.
What a trip! Sorry I didn't own an electric guitar back then!
Steve
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#1338290 - 05/18/01 03:32 AM
Re: What was your first amp?
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Lisa
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My first amp was a real gem - a solidstate Marlboro G-20R. Talk about tone.... or should I say, lack of tone! Two years later, I bought a Fender Twin Reverb. It was another ten years before I took the plunge into the wonderful world of Marshall amps and got my first 50-watt head.
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#1338291 - 05/18/01 03:50 AM
Re: What was your first amp?
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Chip McDonald
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Peavey Backstage. At least it had gain.
I was asked to join an established group a few months after I started playing: had to get something fast. Enter the Peavey Heritage. Louder crappy sound (thick phaser, though). Hmm. The funny thing is that I can remember what that amp smelled like, the brand new tolex....
That lasted about 3 weeks; once I started playing with the band I realized it wasn't happening. Did some research, realized that 99% of my favorite players used old Marshalls (the 1% being Brian May). Another trip to Atlanta - old 50 watt Marshall combo, Greenbacks... which sounded perfectly rock and roll. Less than $300. I still have it.
Originally posted by Tedster:
Mine was a Sound City 50 watt....
Circuitry wise I think those were basically Marshall clones, but with some weirdness on the input jacks. Hmm.. Haven't seen any of those around in a lonnnnnnnnggg while. Used to see them now and then, oh well.
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#1338292 - 05/18/01 04:28 AM
Re: What was your first amp?
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Tedster
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Lisa said...
>>>Two years later, I bought a Fender Twin Reverb. It was another ten years before I took the plunge into the wonderful world of Marshall amps and got my first 50-watt head.
Yeah...but, a TWIN...that's a sweet amp!
And yep, Chip, I haven't seen a Sound City for a long time either. Although I did find a site that has a lot of used amps...and a Sound City among them. I'll try to find that site again...
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#1338293 - 05/18/01 04:39 AM
Re: What was your first amp?
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fantasticsound
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originally posted by Lee Flier
They gave me a Peavey! LOL... it was some 40 watt thing, I can't even remember the speaker configuration.
Could it be a Peavey Pacer Lee? My parents bought my brother a Peavey T-60 and a Peavey Pacer Amp (40 watts, 1 - 12" speaker) when the knobs were metal. Of course that didn't make it sound any better! The overdrive was garbage. I bought it from him in 1984 along with an MXR Distortion+, an Ibanez phaser (great sound, but had to retrofit a new button on it from Radio Shack.) and a Boss Chorus. (All pedals pre-1980)
The best feature of the spring reverb was the sticker, claiming "This reverb was built under controlled conditions by beautiful women in.." (Too lazy to go downstairs and read the rest. Yes, I still own the amp AND the guitar, but both need repair. I own the pedals, too! The worst part is, I got suckered into buying a used Peavey T-40 bass 12 years ago, and I jumped because both my T-60 and the bass were natural finish. They sure look nice! Of course this was when you had to spend thousands of dollars for an axe with translucent finish. Now they're a dime a dozen and colored. Yeesh!)
I bought a Peavey Decade with an 8" speaker, used,for less than $100 because it cut out. Turned out there was a loose connection to the Mid pot. Took 5 minutes to diagnose and fix. Been good as new (not saying much!) ever since, and I found the 18v power supply that hooks on the cabinet. 2 9v batteries and I was totally mobile. It does sound a lot better than most of the junk they sell as portable. (DC powered)
Neil
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#1338294 - 05/18/01 10:31 AM
Re: What was your first amp?
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Mats Olsson.
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My first gtr-amp (back in 1979) was a 120 w Randall 212 combo, loud as hell, cold sounding bastard. Traded it as fast as possible for a Twin Reverb.
/Mats
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#1338295 - 05/18/01 10:37 AM
Re: What was your first amp?
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WFTurner
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1965, Mom and Pops got me one of those Sear's Silvertones
for X-Mas, got a job that summer and scored a used
Fender Deluxe Reverb.
Silly me I was so sure that reverb knob was
gonna make me sound like my favorite Rock
and Rollers.
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William F. Turner
Guitarist, Composer, Songwriter
turnermusic
This message has been edited by WFTurner on 05-18-2001 at 07:45 AM
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#1338296 - 05/18/01 04:25 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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Chip McDonald
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Originally posted by Lisa:
My first amp was a real gem - a solidstate Marlboro G-20R. Talk about tone.... or should I say, lack of tone! .
Aren't those as ubiquitous in the U.K. as Peavey is here in the U.S.? I always see Brits refer to them, and they're always in foreign magazines, but I don't think I've ever encountered one....
For whatever reason that reminds me of a weird little ss amp a student of mine had, called a "Radian". It had the most wide-band saturated sound I've run into I think, a very particularly weird sound. Anyone have one of these?
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#1338297 - 05/18/01 04:39 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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nrg music
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Originally posted by Chip McDonald:
Aren't those as ubiquitous in the U.K. as Peavey is here in the U.S.? I always see Brits refer to them, and they're always in foreign magazines, but I don't think I've ever encountered one....
For whatever reason that reminds me of a weird little ss amp a student of mine had, called a "Radian". It had the most wide-band saturated sound I've run into I think, a very particularly weird sound. Anyone have one of these
Hey Chip
I can't say I've ever heard of a Marlboro amp over here... Do you know anything else about it, like when it was made ? I'd like to find out some, although nobody I know has ever heard or played one of them.
Simon 
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#1338298 - 05/18/01 04:46 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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Scott from MA
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Anyone remember THIS one? My friend (and future bandmate) had a Gorilla amp. It was like 15 watts with one 8" speaker. He played a Squier Strat through it, producing the most nasal sound imaginable.
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#1338299 - 05/18/01 04:57 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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trick fall
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Yes, my first amp was a fifteen watt Gorilla. I played a horrible Carlo Robelli Strat through it.
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#1338300 - 05/18/01 05:10 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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strychn1ne@aol.com
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Yo Scott!
My first amp was a Gorilla! It was fifty watts, i think, and was a small bass amp. I had no idea what the knobs did(what is gain, if it is not distortion?) I know now but back then i didn't.
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#1338301 - 05/18/01 07:39 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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AlChuck
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I had an Ampeg V4 (was it?) I bought used in 1972, I guess it was, a 100-watt head with a pretty junky non-Ampeg 4x12 cabinet. Sold it the next summer because I had to leave it home when I went off to college and found I needed something smaller -- just having an acoustic wasn't enough. I sold it and bought a 1965-ish Fender Deluxe Reverb for $125 which I still have to this day... not very loud but a lovely sound.
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#1338302 - 05/18/01 07:45 PM
Re: What was your first amp?
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Gator Wing
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This goes back a ways, but my first amp was from a Japanese company called Guyatone. It was 50 cycle, since we were living in Japan at the time. When we moved back to the States, I kept using it and ruined it with the 60 cycle power. I do remember it was loud and clear.
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#1338303 - 05/19/01 12:53 AM
Re: What was your first amp?
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greed2000
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Registered: 02/19/01
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Mom's Zenith console stereo and some creative wiring...it sounded killer!
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