What was your first amp???

[tele_jas]

I have a couple of first......

The first amp I learned to play on for a few years was a 1972 Fender Deluxe Reverb of my Dads

The first amp I actually owned was a gift from my Step-father and it was a late 70s or early 80s Harmony 2x12. I don't even remember if was solid state or tube, I just remember being ashamed of owning a Harmony amp!!

The first amp I bought when I had a job and had my own money was a Peavey Classic Chorus 2x12, I only had that about a month before I got my DREAM AMP of all time (remember this was back in 1986).... A GK250ml..... I still have nightmares about that amp!!!

There is good news in this story.... I used the Fender Deluxe in a country band from 1993 to 2003 as a loaner from my Dad, when recently he finally said I could just have it since he really doesn't play anymore and an old backup amp I gave him a few years ago is more than enough.

 

[cheekymonkey]

My first was our family's stereo. I butchered a quarter inch jack with an RCA plug and I had sound ... crappy sound, but it was sound out of my prized Harmony guitar that I bought from a friend for $20.

My first real amp was a Peavey Studio Pro 40. It was very and looking back, I was further ahead with the family stereo .

 

[jong]

Fender 30 watt 1x12 combo. New in 1987. Don't remember the model type though.

 

[pau_leader]

Guitar--->mic preamp(tube)--->digital recorder--->monitor speakers.

Hey it did the job!

 

[Angstwulf]

Peavey Classic from God knows what year. It was a 4x10 combo hybrid: tube power section and solid state pre-amp. Clean it sounded pretty decent (had a built in tremelo which I'm always a sucker for). Dirtied up it sounded, well, um...unique.

Lent it to a friend some time in the early 90's and sort of let him pay it off in beers over the course of time.

 

[RR]

'66 Fender Deluxe Reverb. Paid the princely sum of $100 for it, back in 1979. Didn't really understand why it distorted so much, wasn't very loud, sold it in 1981...
**** sure wish I still had the Deluxe.

Doh!!! :x When you say it distorted so much do you mean it did not have enough headroom? Was this distortion a nice sustaining drive or was it obnoxious as though it needs to be retubed?

My friend had a Marshall Blues Breaker JTM-45 with Greenback and claimed it had a beautiful Eric Clapton sound. But after past "4", it just got saturated, distorted more. He thought the amp was broken, it did not get clean as you went up the volume.

He finally realized that vintage amps are like that. They hit 'that' sweet spot but anything higher the distortion gets more saturated, not really bad thing either.

Live and learn. He resents it this very day getting rid of it.

 

[Kyle]

I played through my Dad's Radio Shack Kit amp which he put together. My axe back then (I think I was maybe 8 or 9 years old) was and old Hagstrom that my Dad repainted. The Radio Shack amp worked great until I got too crazy and blew a speaker in it. After that I had a Roland Bolt-60....yea baby!

 

[redmax61]

I'm bigtime dating myself here, but I bought a brand new Tiesco Del Rey guitar and amplifier at K-mart when I was 14.

 

[Michael]

A GK250ml..... I still have nightmares about that amp!!!

:shock: :lol:
That why i started this thread its funny to read some, i was like :roll: about my first amp (Rebel) if ne of you guys have time i actully found a review on them LOL http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data/Rebel/K40RC-1.html

Tried many guitars with this piece of lame *** crap. None of them can give this Rebel-mofo any kind of improvement. It just sounds like ****.

Michael

 

[Surfcaster]

if ne of you guys have time i actully found a review on them LOL http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data/Rebel/K40RC-1.html

Michael

:lol: Those reviews cracked me UP! Sound like some frustrated players wanting their money back!! While those Fender solid states I started out with weren't anything worth writing home about, they really weren't too bad for starter amps, I guess. But then I was 28 when I bought my first electric guitar and amp and had a guitarist friend helping me out, so that all helped me avoid some of the bigger potholes.

 

[OneMoreAugust]

Mine was a Road King full stack...and a PRS.
















that's a lie, Gorilla tube cruncher w/ a white Charvel Jackson. Still have them both! :twisted:

 

[user 696]

Definately wierd, but in a good way. My first amp was a used Rickenbacker B-16. It had a tube rectifier and cathode bias ala AC30, but with 2 6L6's.

I didn't think the amp was that good, until I started playing some friend's amps, like Bandmasters, Bassmans, and Super Reverbs. I still didn't hink it sounded that good, but compared to the Fender amps I've just mentioned, it was way better. I didn't know what I had AND I'm still looking for better tone. It must be a sickness or something.

http://jzu.free.fr/rick/amp/MB.html

and scroll down to see a picture.

And yeah, I wish I still had it... (LOL)

 

[ctoddrun]

For the first year I played, I played through an old school stereo, and headphones (not worn on my ears) were the speakers.

Then I upgraded to a Peavey Backstage 30.

From there I graduated to a Crate...

:roll:



Thank Jesus I started making some money not long after that.

 

[RR]

Mine was a Road King full stack...and a PRS.

that's a lie, Gorilla tube cruncher w/ a white Charvel Jackson. Still have them both! :twisted:

:lol:

Mine was a Howard Dumble.

Yes, I jeopardize my childrens future tuition to go to college, yes took an equity loan on my house, collectors are pounding on my door but that's o-kay if I have live back with mom at the mobile home estate (I refuse to call it a trailer park :evil: ) and live on food stamp and mom's welfare check and drive an uninsured unregisture '68 VW van.

I still have a Dumble. 8)

Yeah, right! Seriously, mentioned above my first amp was a SilverFace Fender Princeton ... and Pignose. I will eventually get back my Princeton [previous post above].

 

[Michael]

Geez :? some of you guys had awsome amps, and some are what i hoped to find down right funny.

Sutton Why did you sell yours??

Ctoddrun :lol: LOL what can i say i had advice like that on my first amp, how did it sound?? :?

Yes, I jeopardize my childrens future tuition to go to college

funny. why the face over a Fender Princeton, i played on one once and i though it was a loud bugger.

Michael

 

[RR]

Hi Michael from down under.

Yes, I tried to be funny. If you haven't heard of a Dumble Amp used by Robbin Ford, Carlos Santana, Eric Johnson to name a few cost something like $15,000. There's this mystique about these amps. Personally I'm not losing sleep over them knowing its in the guitarist's hands that makes tone.

Its just that owners of these amps that are not Stars try to justify why they bought such amp and make a big issue as though they are "privilege one" to own such amp, a real snob appeal.

The waiting list for these amps is infinitely long. On the internet you'll hear stories about Howard Dumple. Anyway, Two Rock was the closest thing to a Dumble amp and has been the substitude for Dumple.

Anyway, personally I like vintage amp (which includes Fender Princeton) or vintage kit amps (e.g. Weber, Allen). But when it comes to gigging, nothing is like Boogies => channel switching, modes, independent controls, many gain structures, and I was never into distortion pedals, rather kick in another pre-amp the way Boogie does.

Look for my past post what happened to my Fender CBS Silverface Princeton. I sold it and resent it since.

RR

 

[user 696]

Sutton Why did you sell yours??

Michael

Two reasons -

The output tranny had gone bad and the repairman didn't inspire confidence in me. He said he could put a Fender output tranny in it and "see if it worked". I should have let him fix it!

The second reason was that I was young and dumb. OK, I'm now old and dumb, but I don't get rid of anything. When you're young and dumb, everything has to fit into the back seat and trunk, when you're old and dumb, you refuse to move anything.

 

[Timbre Wolf]

First amp was in '82, and was a used, silver face Fender solid state small amp of some sort. I thought it had been a "Champ," but I can't find any references to this one. Probably for good reasons.

Went to a black-face Fender Twin when I began performing, and then I got another Twin when I discovered the dimensional qualities of stereo chorusing. Hey, they were called "Twins" so I just had to get two of them!

In the early '90s, I downsized from the Twins when I got into the world of Mesa/Boogie, using two 1x12 Satellite 60s on either side of the stage for widespread stereo chaos. From there on, I was in Boogie-land (Triaxis-2:90, then Triaxis-20/20). Always in stereo.

 

[Michael]

Hi guys,
RR, yeah i hadn't herd of Dumble Amps, i ran a google image search and not to many results eaither. But going on what you've said sounds like an awsome peice of equipment.

Michael

 

[Sanchez]

My first amp was a Randall RG-150.

Sanchez