Metropoulos Forum

Mine was a small Valco. I still have it, but it needs to be reworked. My next amp came out of a Seeburg jukebox along with a big old Jensen 15" speaker. I scrounged around and got some scrap doors from a cabinet shop and made cabinets for the amp and the speaker and covered them in black naugahyde that I got from an automotive scrap yard. That thing actually sounded pretty cool.

I actually started out plugged into my dad's Dynaco tube stereo. My first actual "amp" was a Peavey Pacer, and I use the word "amp" loosely.

Peavey Classic here. Then, gulp, Dual Rectifier........ (ducks)

A little Gorilla!

Some cheap Fender.....

A Marlboro . I was in the jazz band and jazz chorus in high school so I got to use a Gibson ES-345D (?), a Fender Twin, a Fender Super, an Apmeg bass amp (the one where the top flips over) and a couple of other amps I can't recall. They let me take anything home I wanted.

I remember riding my ten speed with a guitar case on one side of the handlebar and that twin on the other side. It was like a three mile ride home.

Hey Dan, I don't suppose you have any pics of the inside of that dual recto? I want to build one, or get close, but I woudl like to at least have an idea of what I'm going to have to do.

oh almost forgot....

my first amp was a peavey transfex 208

I'd used my bass amp double-duty while I was learning to play, but my first guitar amp was a Fender Solid State 'Stupor Chorus' or some such thing. 180 SS watts, 2x12, as I recall. Looked like a red-knob evil twin, about as heavy and probably as loud. Couldn't go past 1.3 on the volume knob, which I now understand was a result of the vol pot taper, but hey, I was young, dumb and full of...strange ideas. Swapped that for a Marshall 50watt SS combo, which I still have and am considering gutting for better bits. The Marshall is still on hand in case someone drops in on a jam unprepared.

videocat23 wrote:Hey Dan, I don't suppose you have any pics of the inside of that dual recto? I want to build one, or get close, but I woudl like to at least have an idea of what I'm going to have to do.

No. Their around though. Ive seen them. Their nothing special really. Try here http://acplink.com/

The DR is very very close to the schem of both a 5150 and SLO100. It just adds 2 sets of tone stacks to switch between as well as sets of other things like cathode Rs and Cs to switch between etc.. Thats how it gets its 4 'channels'. It really just switches between values, 2 stacks, and masters for each channel and mode. If you didnt need to have all that or you could set up many of those things on toggle switches you dont need the extensive switching matrix.

Traynor YB-1 with a homemade 1x12 cabinet. Wish I still had it. Next real amp was a Sovtek MIG-60 (I don't count the PEavey Bandit in between).

An el-cheapo solid-state single ten inch Ram that put out about 5 watts (with tremolo though!) I then "graduated" to a 50 watt tube Traynor bass amp with a six-ten inch cab. Next was first "real' amp, an '81 pre-JCM 2204 MV 50 watter.

I had the same sort of thing, though mine was a telstar amp with vibrato/depth....I used to drive my mom nuts by getting it to feedback and making siren sounds with those two knobs. First (real) tube amp was a music man HD130 4 x 10".

LOL I had a Peavey Backstage solid state with like a 1x8 or 1x10 speaker. The reverb unit was cut out, the pots scratched, some functions didn't work but I played it. Its good to start with something like this because ANY amp you upgrade to will sound better. It sounded absolutely dreadful, especially at my talent level. My poor mom.

Sunn Beta Lead. 2-12, 2 channel POS.