50's/60's amps

[Bill Bowley]

Paul,

Thanks for that!

[Graylion]

Hi Martyn, those were the days eh! I'm in Southampton too - born & bred - but I don't think I ever played at Ford's. I do have a Golden Eagle 4/25 like the one in your photo. It's my second as the first one - bought new in 1962 - expired. (long, sad story!). The second one is from ebay and I just bought it for nostalgia! It's a 1963 model and is partly made with chipboard, like yours was. The first one was made from birch ply so easier to fit castors. They both have/had the original 15" Goodman speakers - the best at that time. Later models were fitted with Fanes - then the new kid on the block but cheap, budget speakers. They must have been cheap because RSC fitted them in their amps!
My current Bird G-E is the quietest valve amp I have ever owned! Virtually no hum!! It might be because the trem and echo sections don't work. Yes, they were made by Sydney Bird's Organ Works in Poole - info on the web. I had only 2 accidents with my original in the years 1962 to 1964. 1st, a drunk knocked it over at an outdoor wedding reception when it was in full flow. That burnt out the speaker coil, which Goodman's (then down Portsmouth way)replaced for about £10; 2nd, whilst playing at the Silhouette Club in St. Micheal's Square, I knocked my pint of beer over which poured down the inputs! It broke an EL34 valve but luckily no other damage! Couldn't use it for the rest of the gig though - can't remember what I did! I bought a new valve later. Didn't know about re-biasing in those days! What the amp needed was the bass and treble channels paralleling so you could get top AND bottom end if you wanted. Those were the days before Bass & Treble controls were standard on amps. At the beginning, when I used to play in the Kasbah (1962, in London Road), we had all 3 guitars running through the Bird! That's why they had so many inputs. A good old workhorse but with many "foibles" - e.g. dodgy caps, tremelo and reverb! All fixable nowadays. What happened to your old kit? Cheers, Lionel

[John M]

My dad had one of these Linear 30 watt jobs in the early sixties, but the peculiar thing about it was the input sockets.
Instead of the 1/4 jack socket it used a pair of co-axial sockets (TV aerial type) for the low and high gain inputs.
He matched it to a 15 inch Fane speaker in a home made wooden cabinet.... It was his Hi-Fi.
He also used to frequent the Glasgow branch of RSC, at that time in Argyle Street.

[cockroach]

That was one feature that most amps had years ago, which is rare or non-existent these days on modern amps...namely, more than ONE input..

You're lucky to get two inputs, let alone more these days. Even these modern amps with multiple channels only have one input...All the old two or three channel amps (Fender, Vox etc) had 3,4, or even 6 inputs, and even the small cheap models had at least two inputs, so that you could jam or practise with another player- and as we old blokes all know, if there were multiple inputs, you could put the whole group through it, mics, guitars, bass etc etc...! Which I'm sure many of us did!

My current amp has some nice inbuilt effects, but the only one it doesn't have that I would have really liked is a good old fashioned tremolo effect....!!

[Bluesnote]

That I remember well. Our bass player bought a brand new Vox AC 30 bass amp(he was the only one with money) and he myself on lead and the rhythm player went through it too. I shudder to think what it sounded like as we were in our early teens and very green. And not very well up on the ear training I imagine Still we got gigs so it could'nt have been too bad

[Martyn]

I'm in Southampton too - born & bred - but I don't think I ever played at Ford's.
. . . whilst playing at the Silhouette Club in St. Micheal's Square . . . used to play in the Kasbah (1962, in London Road). . . Cheers, Lionel

Hi Lionel,
That's brought back memories of places I'd almost forgotten about, having lived in Plymouth for many years now - is the Silhouette still there - or was that the club that moved to Stoneham Lane? I visited the Kasbah a few times but it was more of a mods' hangout and I was a Triumph 650 rider along with a suitably hairy bunch of leather clad Rockers. I preferred the trendier clothing but liked bikes so was often referred to as a 'mocker'. I can remember many a fight breaking out between rival factions in or around that place. I was born in Chandlers Ford (home village of the actor who plays Lou Carpenter in Neighbours - how sad is it that I should know that . . .)and Eastleigh Dairies was where Benny Hill worked and I believe the singer Heinz worked at the local bakery before fame arrived and departed - more trivia . .
Sorry to go somewhat off topic but don't often get the chance to wallow in nostalgia with someone else who knows the area .

[ecca]

Here's a very early gig from us lot, The Jaguars, in March ( at the latest ) 1963, I was still a paperkid.
I'm in the middle playing lead on a pinkish Colorama that my Dad made a chrome scratchplate for through a Selmer 5 watt amp behind me, just visible through the legs of the piano
Dennis,the bass player on the right is playing a Futurama , ordinary 6 string, Tony, on the left playing rhythm on a cherry Colorama through a Watkins Dominator.
Note no mikes at all, everything was instrumental.

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[Graylion]

Hi Martyn - no, it was the Concorde Club that moved to Stoneham Lane - and is still there and STILL run by the same guy who used to run it at The Bassett (long gone) in the early 60's - Cole Matheson. The place is a Hotel/Motel too now. They're having an annual 50s/60 rock-n-roll night there this Friday. I was invited along to perform a few Shads numbers but couldn't get a group together!
The Silhouette moved to the Town Quay after it was driven out of St. Michael's Square many years ago. They built an old people's home/accomodation on the other side of the square and they complained about the noise! It's still at the Town Quay, according to listings, but I've never been there. In fact I was only there that once when I played the gig in the 60's! I was on crutches because I'd crashed my first Norton (not my fault and I got compensation) so that's why the beer was stood on top of the amp - I was sitting in a chair next to it! You couldn't make it up could you? I only played the winter season of 62/63 at The Kasbah so that was before Mods & Rockers. It was a peaceful coffee bar then. I was a rocker later, but a Norton man. I'm re-building the one I bought in 1965 from Pride & Clarke. (not the one I crashed as I sold the frame to an Isle of Man racer - still got the engine though - a 1955 500cc!) Cheers, Lionel

[wattybluesman]

hi John

In my early days (1961).I tried loads of amps all the usual stuff Vox included but I ended up with a Watkins Monitor 2x12 , I think it was about 30 watts I was playing a Fender Jazzmaster thru a Watkins Copycat.
I then got a job (1963) in a band playing 3 / 4 plus nights a week on my doorstep they more or less insisted I get a Vox I also bought a baby Binson.

I could not make that amp sing for me the way the Watkins did.

I saw one for sale a few months back on Ampaholics but when I e-mailed the guy about it some one had just bought it.
I wonder what it would sound like now?

WattyBluesman.

[Mikey]

The Grampian Vibromajor I had which I mentioned in an earlier post looked just like this. Pics are taken from the excellent vintage Hofner site:

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For all I know it might even be the one As has been mentioned before, these oldies often had more than one input and this one was no exception with three. Note the then fashionable two tone colour sheme similar to the Watkins range. It was a great amp and loud as hell.
Happy days