barrymclark Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Mine was an old Silvertone amp. Two 12" speaker cabinet with the matching head. I was 17 and I actually just aquired it for free. The only thing i had to do was wire in a new jack for the cab. I did. BUT.... since I was only kid... I really didn't respect what I had. Sold the head.... eventually traded the cabinet. It belonged to my, at the time, girlfriend's father who, since the divorce, 10 years earlier, had not returned to pick up his stuff which included this amp. The then girlfriend and her mother, since i played guitar, would like it. I thought it was cool that I got a freebie... but I just didn't respect what it was I got. I know others have stories about the one that got away. What's yours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoslate Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 After I dropped out of college...the first time, I think...money was a little tight. Even though what is now prohibitively expensive was selling for next to nothing, all things are relative. Had a '66 Fender Vibrolux Reverb, which had stunning tone. Wanted a Marshall. Let the Vibrolux go, so I could pick up a '69 100W head, also killer, which I also let go for a song a few years later. Maybe seven years ago, just before the Fender blackface stuff really started to appreciate, I let a nice '65 Princeton go. Former girlfriend had given it to me as a birthday present in '75. I think she paid $75 for it.... Best not to look back, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gitfiddler Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Without a doubt, an early 60's Fender Pro Reverb with matching 12" extension speaker. Letting that sweet amp go when I was 19 is proof positive that youth is wasted on the young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitArtMan Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Hmmm... Can't really think of one. Some might call me crazy for letting go of my original Mesa Boogie Super 60 (Mark I) that I bought new in '77, but my tone improved so much when I did I've never looked back. I should have never given my brother his Black Face Princeton Reverb back, but I can always steel it agin some time if I really wanted to. Amps, can't think of one I've sold that I wanted back; now guitars - that's another story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smurph1 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Mine would probably be my tweed Peavey Classic 50 2x12..Probably not well known to a lot of players, but it had a great reverb and singing over drive..I had a nice Tele at the time, (I regret selling that too) and the amp and guitar sounded great together..In overdrive, I could just roll the volume back on the guitar a bit, and be in semi-crunch heaven..SIGH.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mars_hall Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 My first Marshall, and the one I really miss, was a '68 200 watt Marshall Major I found at Massimino's Music in Detroit. We were young and arguably dumb naive at the time, so a bandmate and I drove up on a Friday night in his tiny Toyota pickup, with hopes of catching a few winks in the back while parked along the streets in the "hood". The plan was to hit the scouted store first thing in the morning, before the Major could get away. Try sleeping on the open streets of Detroit these days and you'll probably be mistaken for a displaced autoworker waiting for the "cash-a-check" to open on the way to the liquor store. Some cutesy girls drifted by in the night and woke us on their way home from a hard night of clubbing. We, just the smiling bumpkins, took it all in and gleaned a few new phrases from the local tribal dialect of the day. The music scene in Detroit apparently was "I mean really bomb", as were most other things in the area. Massimino's was about a 5 hour drive from home and it was well worth that nighttime adventure. I digress. The Major had a master volume circuit added, so I never really had to open up the KT88s in it. At lower volume settings a Major is very clean yet still loud, so the master volume allowed me to get some decent edge without the need for any hairspray. I used a small 12" fan sitting on a "questionably procured" high school cafeteria trey held in place by lodging half beneath the amp head. This worked fine and would keep the head from going into total thermal meltdown throughout a night. KT88s were fairly rare and salty in the US at that time (still are) and I was trying my best to maintain the role of starving musician with aspirations. Most of the time I would drive a pair of Heil 4x12s (Fanes) that I rarely stacked because I never really enjoyed that much sound in my face when I was up close and personal. I could get a more controlled acoustic sustain loop by placing them side by side in a slight arc. At other times, I would include an extra 4x12 (Eminence) placed on the opposite side of the stage for better bass/guitar player reference there, not volume. When you have a pretty boy diva prancing and promenading about stage center, you might not get that many opportunities to go visit your bud guitar players on their side of the world. Decent monitors were in the future. As the years passed and the wife's hooks pierced deeper, yet deeper, into my reckoning of a gentle world, I sold the amp to a buddy for $900 and used the funds to help acquire, you guessed it, carpet for the living room. Now sadly she's gone and so is the carpet. Oh, and with the exception of a distressing email every now and then, so is the ex-wife. The buddy moved on also so now he's gone, but he still has the Major and it still holds a dear place in my heart, right there next to the stent. It's become quite a collectible piece for him and he will never sell it back, telling me he already has his own carpet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoslate Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 900th post, and my kind of narrative! Nice one, Mark! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smurph1 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 A sad and funny story..The good news is, we all have 'em.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrymclark Posted July 15, 2009 Author Share Posted July 15, 2009 Hi-jacking my own thread: there was an amp I wish I had gotten but I always made excuses to not get it. Crate had this great amp. I think it was the V58. 5watts Class A into a Celesion 8". It was, honestly, a SPECTACULAR sounding amp. They were only about $250 or something. Maybe I will run across another one someday used or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJLII Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 A Silverface Bassman Head I got at a swap meet in exchange for an old reel to reel some guy gave me earlier that year. It sounded great, but had no reverb so I flogged it off on a buddy for $150. He used it through a 4X12 sealed back Marshall bottom. Talk about tube grind! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffB Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Ive kept everything until just the last couple of years. Everything. My first amp was a dynachord hybrid valve guitar/bass head. el34s. From memory it was warm sounding. Still have it. Hasnt worked for a couple of decades. I still use the 112 cab though. 1st electric guitar was a 79-81 Hamer Phantom. Still have it. Have a RAT from around the same time and a TS9, and DS1 I bought back then. Just recently I started clearing stuff out. Ive been quite brutal about it. Hope that doesnt come back and bite me. Goal is just to keep stuff that has stood the tests of time. Looking at keeping 3 electric guitars, 2 acoustic guitars, 1 bass and two amps. Oh and a drum kit......and keyboard.....and mandolin..... Finding it hard to pick which speaker cabs to lose. But Ill end up with a 212 412 and 112. Once Ive decided, Im going to have more floor space. Actually, one of the Fenders Im keeping is not the most toneful amp Ive ever had. But I gigged with it for15 or so yrs not knowing any better. Im just really attached to it for sentimental reasons. It was one of the tools I used to earn money to feed my family for a year when work in my real job dried up. But to stay on topic, Im looking forward to look back through the nostalgic haze and regret selling my DSL50, Jtm45, Fenders, and others in a decade from now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fxdx99 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Wow - Mars_hall's post nominated for post of the week. Excellent story, Mark! I don't really pine for any of the amps that I've traded away, although one that served me well and that I should have maybe kept for nostalgia is a Yamaha G50-112 II, circa around '81. Popular solid state amp, combo w/single 12, parametric eq, dual footswitchable channel. Weekend gigged with that amp for years and treated it terrible - left in the car frozen in sub zero temps like a block of ice, bring it in the bar and start to play, roll it around the back of the van... the amp ALWAYS worked and never had any need for repair. Sold it a few years ago as I just wasn't using it anymore. Really good and tube-like overdriven sound, but not a warm/deep enough clean tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tulk1 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 I have two amps that I wish I had back. When I joined a cover band back in the early 90s the Fender SS amp I had just wasn't cutting it. Not near warm enough. Tho' it probably wasn't that noticable to anyone but myself. Anyway, found a Marshall JCM900 4250 (50w) that a music store couldn't unload. Finally talked the wife into letting me get it. But when I got there they had just sold it. I mean, c'mon ... 2 years that amp sat there and they sold it moments before I walked in with cash? So .... I got the JCM900 4102 (100w) that was sitting next to it for $50 more. Ha!! It even had a 50w switch. Not bad. Played that amp for over 10 years. Recorded with it, dragged it everywhere. What an amp. But I got the itchin's for something lighter. Sold it for a Mesa F50 - bad move. Sold that thing right away. Ended up with the Mesa Lone Star, which actually weighs more than the 4102. Oh well. The other amp was my brother's '74 Fender Dual Showman, with the larger 2x15 JBL loaded cab. He didn't have enough room at his house so I took the amp when I moved to a larger dwelling. Kept it many a year until he decided he wanted an acoustic guitar and a couple of other goodies. We traded it straight across for a Dean acoustic. I forget the other piddlin' stuff. About a year after the "vintage" market really took off. Besides trading away something that we both had a great deal of history with, the trade just wasn't that good. My own fault because I wasn't as up on vintage value as I should have been. So, those are my two ... for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smurph1 Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 This isn't an amp story but.....I had a BEAUTIFUL Guild single cutaway acoustic/electric, called a F-45-CE-NT..Oval sound hole..nice tone..I had moved to Florida and the change of climate was really giving it fits..I tried to adjust the truss rod to get acceptable action, and broke the rod in the process..I took it to a local shop in Orlando, they said it was at least a couple hundred bucks to fix. That was out of range at the time, so I traded it for a (gulp) Fender acoustic..Pretty paint job, but it was basically a plywood guitar..Oh Well..Live and learn.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slider313 Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Around 1987, I saw an add in the garage sale section that said; among other things, amp and guitar. I get there early and buy a '67 Fender Showman with the tone ring cabinet loaded with a JBL D130F for $175. I was pressed for space living in a small house with the wife and two children. It didn't last more than two months. It was the best clean tone I've ever heard from any Fender. I sold it for $350, which was still a great price for this rig. Here's a shot of one that didn't get away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoslate Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Here's a shot of one that didn't get away. Ya know, Mike, there are enough new guys in the HOC, that retelling the story on this would be cool. It really is one of the best gear folktales, ever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pegleg32 Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 A Silvertone combo amp with 2 12" speakers I bot new in 1962 along with a beautiful red Silvertone 335 knockoff. My first electric guitar and amp when I was a junior in high school. In 1967 I purchased a Fender Bandmaster and gave the Silvertone to Dad who also played guitar. I gave up trying to make a living playing guitar around 1971, sold the Bandmaster and reclaimed the Silvertone. Played that thing off and on for the next 25 years and finally decided I didn't even want to play guitar anymore, gave the Silvertone to goodwill and gave my 64 Medlody Maker to my grandson. When I retired a couple of years ago, I decided it was time to restart that activity that gave me so much enjoyment as a youngster. In the last two years I have bot and sold a dozen guitars, keeping 5, and now have 2 amps, but nothing sounds as good as that old Silvertone with the worn out tubes did. On the other hand, I have noticed that my hearing isn't as good as it used to be either!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredZepp Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 I used a "hot rodded" blackface Dual Showman for many years. It was quiet at 1 1/2, loud at 2 , and crazy loud when set to 3. It used 6L6 tubes with 2- EV SRO speakers in vented cabinet underneath it. In a bonehead move, I decided I needed another acoustic and traded it for a classical guitar.(must have been a phase I went through). I kept the cabinet because I was impressed with the 16 lb. magnets on the speakers. ( yeah cool right?) I always thought that the Showman was just unusable at reasonable volume levels, you had to be outdoors or in a large place to turn it up to 3. I now would be able to work around that issue..... As much as that, I miss my old Supro Thunderbolt head ( 50 watt ? 6L6's ) I've never seen another like it. It was an example of a very straight forward amp with great tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philipgustavson Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 1976 Marshall 100 watt JMP head... I sold it to get my first Heritage though! But I never got to hear my H-140 THROUGH it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul144 Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Wow - Mars_hall's post nominated for post of the week. Excellent story, Mark! I don't really pine for any of the amps that I've traded away, although one that served me well and that I should have maybe kept for nostalgia is a Yamaha G50-112 II, circa around '81. Popular solid state amp, combo w/single 12, parametric eq, dual footswitchable channel. Weekend gigged with that amp for years and treated it terrible - left in the car frozen in sub zero temps like a block of ice, bring it in the bar and start to play, roll it around the back of the van... the amp ALWAYS worked and never had any need for repair. Sold it a few years ago as I just wasn't using it anymore. Really good and tube-like overdriven sound, but not a warm/deep enough clean tone. wow, I just picked up this amp's more powerful brother, the G100-112 off Craigslist. Needed a new reverb pan and a good cleaning. I replaced the 15 pound speaker with a Weber F150 and it sounds great. Nice warm full clean tone, very tube like light overdrive (not hi gain at all). Switching out the speaker lightened it by about 8 pounds too. These are really heavy SS amps BTW! Anyway, the one I wish I still had was the '65 Super Reverb I sold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TalismanRich Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 I've only sold two amps, an old Univox 2x10 combo, and an Ampeg EchoJet that added the reverb. The perfect solution to sellers remorse it to set aside a section of the basement to store the old stuff after you buy new ones! When you run out of room, it's time to move to a bigger house. :-) Luckily, I took about 15 years off between the time the band broke up, and the time the band "got back together". Now I'm trying to make up for lost time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neanderthal Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 I weep for Mark (mars_hall) for having to let go of his Marshall Major, especially seeing I'm a big Blackmore head. I've made lotsa dumb guitar trades, but not so much in the way of amps. The one I miss most, I guess, is a 5150 combo I hade to trade for some band PA gear. I don't regret it that much, I needed the PA stuff, and the 5150 would not give me any needed clean. Wait a minute, I traded away a Fender TRRI in a stupid deal. I never even gave that poor thing a chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
111518 Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 My first amp was a silverface Deluxe Reverb. Wish that one hadn't gotten away, but when I started gigging I was convinced I needed more juice. Wish I had it back. More recently, I had a little Marshall JTM30 1-12 that I thought sounded great when I bought it and for the first 30 minutes every time I played it, but would always crap out if played for any length of time. After wasting money on a new output transformer a clueless guy selling himself as a amp repairman told me I needed, I traded it for an SG (and everyone here knows I really don't like SGs). I considered it a fair, crap for crap, trade. Month before last, Vintage Guitar ran a story that said all you had to do was switch the 5881's that came in the amp for 6L6's, and it would run cooler and not have the problems that I guess they all had, and, now that people understand the heat issue, that now those little amps were gaining a new following. I didn't really need to know that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrymclark Posted September 2, 2009 Author Share Posted September 2, 2009 I weep for Mark (mars_hall) for having to let go of his Marshall Major, especially seeing I'm a big Blackmore head. I've made lotsa dumb guitar trades, but not so much in the way of amps. The one I miss most, I guess, is a 5150 combo I hade to trade for some band PA gear. I don't regret it that much, I needed the PA stuff, and the 5150 would not give me any needed clean. Wait a minute, I traded away a Fender TRRI in a stupid deal. I never even gave that poor thing a chance. I used to own a 5150 halfstack back in the early to mid-90's. Could believe how LOUD that thing was? Got a recording of me and my 5150 here: Clicky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrymclark Posted September 2, 2009 Author Share Posted September 2, 2009 My first amp was a silverface Deluxe Reverb. Wish that one hadn't gotten away, but when I started gigging I was convinced I needed more juice. Wish I had it back. More recently, I had a little Marshall JTM30 1-12 that I thought sounded great when I bought it and for the first 30 minutes every time I played it, but would always crap out if played for any length of time. After wasting money on a new output transformer a clueless guy selling himself as a amp repairman told me I needed, I traded it for an SG (and everyone here knows I really don't like SGs). I considered it a fair, crap for crap, trade. Month before last, Vintage Guitar ran a story that said all you had to do was switch the 5881's that came in the amp for 6L6's, and it would run cooler and not have the problems that I guess they all had, and, now that people understand the heat issue, that now those little amps were gaining a new following. I didn't really need to know that. I am an SG fan.... I am just not willing to encourage Gibson by buying a new one. haha. Would rater get a used one... especially if it has P90's in it. Sorry... I was raised on Black Sabbath. What can I say? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.