The oldest amp I've played through...

speakerjones

my hat is all
My bass player brought this over to the studio the other day. Totally cool little amp. It's a Supro/National Dobro amp made by Valco sometime in the early 40's. It's got a 10" field coil speaker and is about 12 watts burning a pair of old RCA coke bottle 6V6's. Controls? Just volume. Very nice, warm sounding clean tones low on the dial with yummy gain and some bite as you get closer to diming it. Definitely sounds best on 10.
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very cool. I don't believe I have played on anything older than a pre cbs Bassman I had a long time ago.
 
the oldest amp I ever played thru was Gary Blanchard


:wink:

and BOY, did he get mad when I plugged in!
 
very cool amp.

oldest one i've ever played thru was a buddies 1948 fender princeton. (he was a collector at the time)
 
Oldest amp I played through was one of those Silvertone amps in a case.

It sounded like an amp in a case.
I should mention that the amp was not considered old or vintage at the time. Neither was I.
Probably a mid 60's Vox.

It didn't make me sound like the Beatles, and can we just leave it at that?
I owned a mid-60's Vox when it was slightly used. I didn't sound like the Beatles, either. I must not have had the right guitar. :rolleyes:
 
This when I was teaching back in day. It was the original amp of the studio's owner..Howard Early.
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From what I can remember, a 50's Tweed Princeton. This was back in high school where a dude used his dads amp. Very sweet sounding.
 
I've playd a couple tweed deluxes TV front and wide panel, and a gibson ga-40...... All sounded great to me
 
I wonder when this fascination with older "vintage" shit is gonna stop.

I mean, 90% of "vintage" stuff played and sounded like crap.

The SS and especially the new tube amps rule all of those pieces of shit with an iron fist. Speakers are better, etc....

You want tone? Buy a new amp. It's almost a joke now.....it's old = it must be good.
 
About 20 years ago, in the first band I was ever in we used a rehearsal studio that had a '60s Marshall JTM45 with an 8x12" cab in it as studio backline. Sounded awesome cranked with a Crybaby in front of it.
 
Oldest amp I've ever played through was my Grandfather's old 50's Silvertone. Looked exactly like this. It's still at my Grandmother's house, and as of around 2004 was still working.

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I wonder when this fascination with older "vintage" shit is gonna stop.

I mean, 90% of "vintage" stuff played and sounded like crap.

The SS and especially the new tube amps rule all of those pieces of shit with an iron fist. Speakers are better, etc....

You want tone? Buy a new amp. It's almost a joke now.....it's old = it must be good.

Did some vintage amp kick your dog or hit on your woman or something? I don't think the fascination with vintage stuff is going to end any time real soon. Maybe drop off a little as the baby boomers die. Most of the vintage stuff I've owned or played has sounded pretty damn good. There are exceptions, of course. With amps, though, reliability is certainly a factor. My main amp is a boutique copy of an old AC30 circuit because I wouldn't want to spend the money or rely upon an old AC30. My bassist, however, traded a shitty 60's Fender acoustic for that Supro. I believe it was marked at $300 or so. If you were to get a similar Victoria or Clark or whatever, you'd probably be looking at close to a grand. For an amp that you can't even gig with. Sure you could get a Blues Jr. or some Behringer tube amp for the same money, but I'm sorry, it's just not as cool!
 
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