Conference napalm::guitar

    Send in the amps...
    
    don't worry, they're here!

    Some of them are in my basement.  There are also a couple in my parents
    attic that they mention everytime I go home (actually, it's not the old
    amps that bother them, it's the dinette set that really gets them).  Now,
    the amps in the attic don't work, but I can't seem to just tell my
    folks to throw them out.  Then, there's this amp that I've lost track
    of over the years. I can't remember where I put it (it's not real big), 
    but I suspect that I'll wake up one morning and there it will be at the
    foot of my bed saying "I'm baaack".
    
    So, if I'm typical, and every guitar player has old amps in the
    basement, and the garage, and their folks attic, or have somehow just 
    lost a few, that adds up to a lot of amps.  That's where they are,
    we've still got em (we just forgot where we put them).      
    
    So, that's my theory.  Now, about those socks....
    
    Al                                             

    
    hell, i got a real cheap yamaha that only needs to scream into a
    microphone.  I specialize in cheap no-name gear.

    Amp companies have become rich off of 12-15 year olds that want to be
    the next {insert guitar monster here} and end up quitting the
    instrument in less than 1 year.
    
    Mike

Yeah man - I have a 150wt "Marlboro" Head and a matching 60wt 1x12
combo...  Boyoboy was that thing LOUD !

:)

    I used to have a SUN coleseum lead, 400 or so watts i think...
    *Loud* and crappy. probably 5 watts with 395 watts of distortion and
    rattle and buzz. It actually made a better PA at low budget Wedding
    gigs. But i was 16 when I got it. 
    
    Its probably owned by a dog now.
    
    :-)

  I have this feeling that like said before, they end up going into the
basement. That is the "Parents" basement (or attic)! I still have my
little Traynor practice amp - over a friends house...

Here's a list of places I'd guess they are:

1) At the dump. When you moved out and got married your parents threw it
     out. Then 15 years later, you ask where did I leave that thing...
     Your parents don't remember if it ever existed. They really do though.

2) In your parents basement getting moldy.

3) You left it with a friend that ruined it.

4) It got stolen.

4) It's in the barn covered with lumber.

5) Your normal everyday person is acting like a antiques collector and it will
     never be heard from again.

6) Your friend lent it to someone who moved to europe. Only because you'd said
     you would pick it up later... nine years ago.

7) You forgot that you still have it...somewhere...?

8) We are all guilty of hoarding those amps. They will only go as far as the
    other corner of the room so that you can clean the dust off that section.

9) Only a very few people in the world are actively using them to gig with,
    You can probably count them on your fingers.

10) The oil companies bought the rights to all your solar powered amps, and
      will not admit that they exist.

11) Michael Jackson has them all in a warehouse.

12) All the people who used to use them have them in there storage buildings.
      with the lost Lennon tapes...

13) Who knows?

    14) At the bottom of the Mill pond.
    
    15) NASA has been sending them up into space, in the hopes that alien
    life on some other planet will come across them and try to use them to
    communicate with us - in which case, 99.9% of the population will fold
    their hands over their ears and turn up the TV. The other .1% won't
    hear it anyway - because their ears are already blown out from playing
    in garage bands!

    >15) NASA has been sending them up into space, in the hopes that alien
    >life on some other planet will come across them and try to use them to
    >communicate with us 
    
    Yo, Ram, you been listening to that National Lampoon record again?  You
    know, the one where they interview guitarist Sid Gormless of the Dog's
    Breakfast who is raving about how the record company won't pay to have
    his band and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra lifted into space to
    record their next LP.  "Wot a cheap lot of bastards" he moans..."The
    music, it's like a symphony, really.  We'll be floating about in these
    bubbles with bloody huge Marshall amps..."  
    
    Agagagagagagagagagagagaga....
    
    Seriously, anyone with blown amps they wanna give away, gimme a call!
    
    						Brian
    				      off_to_dredge_the_Mill_pond

	Actually, Daddy's in Nashua has a good collection of them
	this week. There's a small Mitchell amp a coupla old Crate
	amps, a recent-vintage Kustom KLA-50 "Lead Guitar Amp" for
	$139, a Yamaha G20-12II and the usual collection of Squire
	and Peavey castaways. Old GK amps have joined this pile.

	Some of the old amps are great. I used to play in a band with
	a guy that played a no-name SG clone thru an Ampeg V4 head into
	a Sunn 2x12 cab. We thought it was great! I was playing thru
	a Traynor YBA-1A bass amp in those days.

	I'm now proud owner of 2 off-brand amps. A VEGA - that's a
	three tube amp (6SN7, 5Y3, 6V6) with a 8" speaker. It has a
	volume control and a tone knob. The other is a Traynor YGM-3 -
	that's 4 12AX7s and 2 6BQ5s, reverb (14" tank!), tremelo, and
	a 12" speaker. It puts out ~20wt and sounds amazing when cranked.

	There are lots of other off brand amps that are pretty decent:

		Lab Series L5, Ampeg Rocket, et al., Yamaha G50, the
		all tube Mitchell amps.

	Now what about them new Gibson amps? One way ticket to obscurity,
	or what?

Speaking of Gibsons - I'd like to find the preamp that Ty Tabor 
used on the Kings X stuff...  Yeow!  I love that doods tone !

jc

    I think I posted in HM and/or CCM what he uses.  Ty is another BIG Jimi
    fan.
    
    Mike

    Sheesh, I just remembered I used to have a Gibson amp in high school
    (1967/69)!  I forgot!!  I remember, I sold the head and used the 2X12
    cabinet with a Fender Bassman 50w head...great guitar amp!  I don't 
    even know what kind of speakers that guy had....
    
    Steve (gettin' OLD)

    My father once showed me how to use a tube Wollensak reel to
    reel tape recorder as a guitar amp. Talk about low budget.
    
    Stepped up to a Fender Bandmaster shortly thereafter.
    
    -Tom

    I have two Alamos sitting in my basement:  a guitar amp with a 
    5Y3GT/6V6 power amp and bass amp with 12AX7 pre-amp and what looks
    like an EL-84 power amp.  I've had the guitar amp for years...
    
    The speaker in the guitar amp used to have a nasty rattle that
    I "fixed" (for a while) by stuffing a couple of socks in between
    the cone and the frame.   Perhaps this provides a partial answer
    to both the amp and the sock questions...
    
    FWIW, I still use both amps from time to time.
    
    Jim

    You ain't live untill you've played through a Howard 20 watt amp with
    a massive 6 inch speaker!!!  Do you still have it Ron????
    
    Bruce
    

	Well, I have 2 Dean Markley's which I 'outgrew'.  A 12 watter and a 
	35 watter.  I think that all these amps get bought and then stowed
	because they get very little in terms of resale.  I'll probably donate
	them someday to an avid beginner.   

    OK, everyone's accounting for the *small* amps, but where are the big
    ones?  The Sunn Coliseums, the Acoustics, the Kustoms with 3-15 cabs,
    Plush, Earth, Randall, etc. etc.   ????
    
    							Brian

    Well Brian,I know I've got at least an Acoustic 270 in my basement,
    however the power amp section has been taken out of it....and there
    is no speaker cab. 

    
    
    re: .18
    
                    Isn't Jay collecting all of these?
    
    

Ever check the Want adds ??

Loaded with 5 of everything...


As for me, I have the same rig I bought in 1980...

Before that, it was a V4 Ampeg, and that I had for some time as well.

To me, to upgrade to soemthing like a boggie, or a marshall
stack,, two things have to happen...

1. I win the lottery


2. One falls off a truck on the way to the store...

I can justify the cost, given what I've got has never failed me,
gives me the performance I need and, hell, it's paid for, and
didn't cost me 15 hundred bucks.

Boogies are nice, no doubt about it, and as for marshalls, if your
looking for that sound,,,  you're only gonna find it with a marshall..

    This has been in the Mass. WantAds for a couple of weeks now:
    
    Vintage Plush G3000 Guitar and Bass amp, 275W w/slave multiplex,
    blue button upholstery, 6(!) new Boogie power tubes, 4 new Boogie
    preamps, 4 channels, reverb, tremelo, 4x12 cab.  $500

Suprisingly, there's no local equivalent of the "WantAdvertiser" here in the
Springs, so almost everything is done through shops, or the grapevine if you're
lucky. 

Since I'm in the market for a new bass amp (80-150w combo, compression/limiter,
and 1-12 or 1-15 internal speaker with external speaker jack, in case you've
got one...), I went out to a few music stores and pawn shops at lunch.

Tucked away in some dark corners I found the following, which sort of fit into
this "missing amps" category: 

	Sun Colussium (?sp) head only - $150
	Sun <something> 300 watts into 2 ohms - $175
	A used 5150 (already?) head only - $599 
	Lab Series L5 2-12" 100w combo - $249
	Gorilla (didn't get specifics)
	Bunches o' Peavey MKIII heads - high $1XXs to low $2XXs
	Acoustic 150 $1??
	Acoustic 260 $1??  (I used to like these amps, but boy do they look
			    dated now!)

If anyone wants any info on these let me know.  For instance, that L5 is a
good deal at the price (IMHO).

-- Sam

Oh, one I forgot to mention:  One of the infamous (non-famous?) Marshall Bass
amps.  Solid state, rack mount, didn't get the price or the power rating.

-- Sam

Those Marshall Jubilee series bass rigs are 600wts methinks...

jc

    Well, in my unending search for enlightenment concerning old amps I've
    added yet another one to my mongrel pile in my basement.  
    
    This one is a Peavey Pacer, or as it says on the PC board "Pacer 76". 
    There's a date of 1975 on the PC board and as I know the ex-owner used
    it during his high school years, I guess it really is 16 years old. 
    This sits alongside my Ampeg Gemini G-20, Silvertone-no-model-name-
    or-number and my Traynor Bass Mate (that Traynor was a big purchase for
    me, $65!!).
    
    The Pacer is a meat and potatoes amp: single channel with
    footswitchable "overdrive" (typical 70s solid state grunge tone) a
    decent spring reverb and a respectable clean tone.  45 watts, 1-12",
    the sort of amp that can take you from playing in your buddy's garage
    to small club gigs.   It's got that "vintage" Peavey look, with the
    plastic control panel (with raised lettering) and the large aluminum
    knobs.  
    
    I guess most of those 70s-era Peaveys have long since died, I see very
    few of them around anymore.  But this one is still kicking and no doubt
    will sound a few more Chuck Berry licks.
    
    							Brian
    
    P.S. Believe it or not, although I've spent more on bass amps, I have
    yet to pay more than $25 for a guitar amp.  Still looking for a Park in
    my price range  8^)  8^)

    I bought a Pacer from ScaryJerryWhite in 1989...it was kicker!  Sold it
    to another Deccie who's still using it, I hear!
    

   I was up in Denver last week and stopped in a few music stores.  One of
   them, The Guitar Merchant on S. Broadway, had a Park head for $400 (probably
   negotiable).

   In case anyone's interested...

   -- Sam

    Re: .11
    
    Since there's no Ty Tabor note...
    
    Popular opinion says he uses a Pearce GR100 preamp.  This is based on
    an old interview he did with Guitar Player and comments from folks that
    have seen King's X in small clubs.
    
    I only know of one other guitarist that uses this preamp (especially
    now that Pearce folded last year).  Both of them have similar dynamics
    and sustain in their solid state tone.  It is also no coincidence that
    the other is Ty's mentor.  Ty speaks VERY highly of this guitarist,
    especially after spending a year or so writing, playing, and touring
    with him back in 1983.  Hint: He's also a Christian.
    
    Mike

Must be that Keegy dood eh ??

    Ty's definately got a cool tone, but I don't think I could use it
    myself.  I think it'd sound out of place for me.  
    
    Greg

    For you Park freaks, I saw one in a catalog recently.  Looks like the
    littlest Marshall Valvestate, but cheaper.  My guess is it's the same
    amp but built in the Orient (or maybe even the US) to keep the price
    down.  Cool idea to trade on the growing awareness of the Park name
    here in the US.
    
    					Clyde

    Designed by Marshall too.