Amps you love the look of

[WRGKMC]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moe I Beta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WRGKMC]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[t_e_l_e]

now some hiwatts and we have almost all classic amps covered

[Axisplayer]

HiWatts and Marshalls....LOT OF MARSHALLS.....

[Phil O'Keefe]

now some hiwatts and we have almost all classic amps covered

 

You forgot about these too...

 

 

 

 

Magnatone's amps have always had their own individual and unique look - one that I've always thought is very classy.

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

I always liked the dual-tone look of Supro's '59 amps, and the modern Supros that have the same cosmetics, like this Supro Comet, which I reviewed a while back. Like the Maggie Panoramic Stereo above (review coming soon - stay tuned!), it's another spectacular amp that's not from one of the larger, better known amp companies (Vox / Fender / Marshall).

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The picture with all the Kustoms is just insane.

[WRGKMC]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WRGKMC]

Plain crazy for sure.

[WRGKMC]

They definitely have the retro lunch box look to them.

[Emory]

I had a Supro loaner back when I was young, stupid and broke (mid 60's). Even then my ignorant ears knew they were something a cut above. Quite liked the Twin Reverbs of the time (WAY beyond my budget).

[Phil O'Keefe]

I had a friend who had a pair of VOTTs sitting in their living room as stereo speakers.

 

The Acoustics bring back memories too - we had a 360 for a bass amp in our high school music program.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Rickenbacker made some interesting amps - such as this Transonic 200 head / cab combo.

 

 

 

I always thought Randall had a distinctive look going on with their old solid state amps...

 

 

 

And sticking with the R theme, I always liked old Risson amps too. Unfortunately I can't find any good pics of the heads and 6x10 cabs a couple of my friends had. Those were cool amps back in the day... here's a more modern Risson instead.

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

At one point I really wanted one of the early Mesa Boogies with the wood cabinet and wicker cane grille. I never did get one - every Boogie I've had has either been black or blonde.

[Axisplayer]

Mine too. I was always afraid that they would look really bad after dragging them around. Truth is, most of the older Boogies I see have held up better with wood and wicker than with tolex and grille cloth.

[Axisplayer]

I always liked the look of these. I love white but I am afraid it wouldn't look like this after a couple of years.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n32064304[/ATTACH]

[Axisplayer]

Phil, back in the 1970's I went to a show near Baltimore with a friend at mine. There was place called Painter's Mill that was a theatre in the round. It was pretty small. Three acts set to play, but I only knew about two of them. The headliner was Roberta Flack, so I thought it was odd he wanted to go but he assured me it would be a great show. When we got there I had never seen so many A7 cabs in my life. Over the stage they faced out in a circle with each being about 3-4 feet from the next one. Stage was maybe 40 ft across so that was a fair number. Even more impressive was that on the outside wall, all around the building facing inward were more A7s about 10 feet apart. The place held maybe 1500 people so no one was too far from stage to begin with. We were about 30 ft away. Seemed like 200 A7s but didn't count. They were everywhere like ants. Oh yea, the bands.

 

The first band I knew, and it was Manfred Mann's Earth Band. They sounded just like the record. Ended with Blinded by the Light and I thought how do you top this? Well the next band easily blew them totally off the stage. I had never heard them but they were pretty fair, a little group called Return to Forever. Chic Corea to my left so I saw his side, Lenny White to the right so I saw his side. AL DiMeola in front of me, but with his back to me, and Stanley Clark across the stage facing me. I didn't know A7s could even sound that good, or that humans could play that well. They were just awesome. Flack came out, we heard one song, and left. She was an after though at that point. Never got over seeing so many A7s hung in one place though. I hear it burned down and is gone, but it sure is one of my best concert venue memories.

[WRGKMC]

Phil, back in the 1970's I went to a show near Baltimore with a friend at mine. There was place called Painter's Mill that was a theatre in the round. It was pretty small. Three acts set to play, but I only knew about two of them. The headliner was Roberta Flack, so I thought it was odd he wanted to go but he assured me it would be a great show. When we got there I had never seen so many A7 cabs in my life. Over the stage they faced out in a circle with each being about 3-4 feet from the next one. Stage was maybe 40 ft across so that was a fair number. Even more impressive was that on the outside wall, all around the building facing inward were more A7s about 10 feet apart. The place held maybe 1500 people so no one was too far from stage to begin with. We were about 30 ft away. Seemed like 200 A7s but didn't count. They were everywhere like ants. Oh yea, the bands.

 

The first band I knew, and it was Manfred Mann's Earth Band. They sounded just like the record. Ended with Blinded by the Light and I thought how do you top this? Well the next band easily blew them totally off the stage. I had never heard them but they were pretty fair, a little group called Return to Forever. Chic Corea to my left so I saw his side, Lenny White to the right so I saw his side. AL DiMeola in front of me, but with his back to me, and Stanley Clark across the stage facing me. I didn't know A7s could even sound that good, or that humans could play that well. They were just awesome. Flack came out, we heard one song, and left. She was an after though at that point. Never got over seeing so many A7s hung in one place though. I hear it burned down and is gone, but it sure is one of my best concert venue memories.

 

I used to see bands at the Philadelphia Spectrum back in the 70's and they used massive stacks of cabs at concerts. I remember seeing Johnny Winter for the first time there and the stacks of bass bins, Mid Bins, and horns were easily 40' high. God knows how many power amps they were using to drive it all. The sound man was known for blowing drivers on a regular basis. The echo in an arena that seats 18,000 people was amazing.

 

I later moved to Houston and saw concerts at the Astrodome and it seated up to 50,000 people. the sound system which consisted of bins hanging from the ceiling weren't ideal for music but it worked I suppose. They then built Reliant stadium which seats 70,000 people. Again, they have massive PA bins suspended from the ceiling that point at the different levels. They raise and cables or lower then bins to the ground for maintenance.

 

For concerts they have a stage which is on wheels and its driven out to the center of the stage then plugged into the sound system. Takes them about 30 minutes to get it up and running. The stage slowly rotates so people get to see the band from all angles. Its also got an amazing semi transparent holographic light show on the back side and the Biggest LED screens I've ever seen hanging from the roof. The do an indoors firework show during special events and the concussion of the mortars they set off and its echo is that go off is what you'd call Baptism by Fire. Bands commonly have a fireworks opener and those blasts will knock the floor right out from under you and send chills down you back.

 

These pictures give you some scale of it. You can see some of the hanging PA cabs here. The cabs have like 8 X15's bins and the drivers are like 2500 watts each. that's easily 20,000 watts per array and those are only for the lower levels.

 

 

Here you can see upper and lower level speakers but even the concession levels have speakers, and monitors. Even the rest rooms have speakers so you can hear what's going on.

 

 

The stage is hard to judge from these long shots. You see how small the people look form the upper levels.

 

Check out ZZ Tops Guitar Stacks. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of amps those are. I suspect thay are custom made. They don't seem

to have any kinds of branding. Love those Motorcycle muffler pipe style Mic stands too.

 

 

 

Another shot of the full guitar stack.

 

 

[Axisplayer]

Yes, I am very used to seeing large sound system. I spent years as a BE and have run some super expensive systems. But they are generally appropriate for the venue size. What surprised me about the one I mentioned was so many cabs in such a small place. That made it unusual. The last system I had even for local bar bands cost almost $80,000 with infrastructure included. (But it was very nice.) Big systems are common, but not in tiny spaces.

 

Now they are expensive but small. Recently saw McCartney in Philly in a baseball stadium, so lots of people. The system looked tiny, but it kicked.