Bass Amplifiers & more!

&

as one might expect,

the early days Paul is using.

 

The Royal Command Performance, has Paul with a combo style amp.

Perhaps it's an Essex(without the dolly) or a Foundation (with the head off to the side like with the AC-50ST)

 

these amps gave way to larger amps, as time progressed.

theT-60 , T-100& AC100/Mark I

were used as bass amps although not exclusively so.

A model 4120 bass amp (not pictured here) was used on

Revolver ,

Sgt. Pepper

& MMT

The attraction for amps, came as a natural out growth from their use of guitars.

Not all instrument manufactures were as successful at making quality amps, as they were with guitars and basses. was, and still is, at the forefront of the industry in both Guitars & Amps.

Numerous amps can be seen on stage with the boys, many of them were back ups no doubt, but it wasn't until they quit touring, that the love affair for began to blossom.

Studio sessions gave way to more & more experimentation with different instruments & amps.

The blackface '65 Deluxe Reverb

 

this 22watt 1-12 combo amp, has excellent clean tones as one might expect from , and can get some pretty cool natural distortion when turned up, even at moderate volume, and is a studio favorite among nearly every style of music. This amp can be seen in the

Hey Jude video

from the David Frost show, being used by John, to drive his Epiphone Casino . George is running the Bass VI through a Bassman head and cabinet rig

 

all.

The silverface Twin Reverb a 100watt 2- 12 combo

seen here on the rooftop, during the movie sequence from

Let It Be and below a *close-up front & back.

 This event was nearly all , with the exception of John's Casino

 & Paul's Hofner 

(and Ringo's drums) Everything was , even the electric piano being used by Billy Preston was a Rhodes,

 

yes that's a rosewood Tele

 in the hands of George.

 3 Twin amps were used in addition to the Bassman! (seen above)

*this is not one owned by a Beatle, but is the same model.

this model amp (the Twin) the '65 Deluxe Reverb & the AC-30 are among the top 5 most collectable amps in the world!

The Fender Bassman carries a legendary heritage from the early tweed tone dogs, to the modern Bassman series today. Seen behind Paul below is probably a prototype, a 50watt head with 2 -12s in the cabinet , later the specs call for 2-15s. Silverface styling was a '70s thing, so since Let It Be began filming in January '69 these may have been sent to the boys to try out.

prototype guitars were sent for them to try, see

John's Fender Gear

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

amps seem to be a rather obscure brand and equally unlikely to be used by the Beatles, one might think. When one considers that was in charge of distributing

the connection is clear. On the local scene most bands used Selmer or Vox. But as bands “made it” they almost always swiched to Vox.

the TRUVOICE can be traced back to the Cavern days

Paul is seen here plugged into the TRUEVOICE Stadium

pre Ringo even...yes that's Pete Best on drums

it looks like a low watt 1-12 combo, but it was more powerful than the Elpico amp he was using with his Rosetti Solid 7 before he switched to bass,

In those early days. Paul would drive a "Coffin" speaker cabinet with his Truevoice amp. Later the Quad II would be paired with the "Coffin".

The "Coffin" cabinet was made for Paul by a fellow named Adrian Barber. It was a 15" speaker mounted in a bass port designed cabinet. Its size fostered its nickname.

According to the web site, Ampeg amplifiers was purchased as an acquisition in the 70's and was sold in the 80's so I don't think we can make any connections there. They are completely out of the Rock n Roll side of the music industry at this time. But in the 60's was marketing an amp called the Treble 'n' Bass  ( a.k.a. Zodiac Twin 50 Mark II )

a 50 watt 2-12 combo amp. It's said to be used during the Sgt. Pepper sessions.

Well here it is!

contrary to the caption, the Fender is not a Stratocaster rather a Telecaster variant called the Esquire (bridge pick-up only) and of course the Epiphone is the Casino. We know that Paul used the Esquire for the lead on SPLHCB and Good Morning, Good Morning perhaps we can assume that this amp was used on one or both of those tracks too.

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Strings & Things

 

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