Guitar Spotting

[stephen]

It could well be a cream Tolex/maroon grille Bassman from the 1961-1964 era. Providing it was a 'matched' piggy-back unit, despite the cabinet size it would have been fitted with a pair of 12" speakers, probably Jensen. However, in the early sixties, Leo sometimes swapped & changed between Jensen, Oxford and JBL drivers for a variety of reasons, prior to returning to Jensen (and JBL) once they agreed to build speakers to Leo's specs.
In typical Leo-think, one size of piggy-back speaker cab was able to accommodate various configurations of speakers for the Bassman, Bandmaster (Tremolux?) and Showman models. Only the special order Dual Showman that was available 1961-'62 had 2 15" JBL's. That one must have weighed a bit!
Stephen.

[Billyboygretsch]

Thanks Stephen that is a very understandable reasoning. A friend of mine had a t60 (12"&15")Vox cabinet around 1964 and managed to get hold of a Vox 2x15 cabinet. Was this a standard cabinet as I can't find a reference to it. I had a 4x10 Bassman many years back nice solid sound and great for guitar as well.

[Billyboygretsch]

Found it. It was the T100 cabinet. Had a great sound

[stephen]

Bill,I nearly got away with making a T60 cab in woodwork classes back around '64/'65, until our (conveniently) distracted woodwork master finally cottoned on to the fact that it wasn't the tall chest-of-drawers that I'd got permission to construct in the first place!
Stephen.

[JimN]

Regarding the Big Three album pic, guitar and bass are standing in front of the other's amp. Was that just for the pic or was that normal? They wouldn't have heard much of what they were playing with the amps that way round.

What makes you say that they're in front of each other's amplifier?

Vox AC30 bass model and Fender Tremolux (or even, as suggested, a Showman)?

They might even have been provided by Decca for the session.

[stephen]

Jim, why Ray wonders why they were standing in front of each others amps., was that if you look at the photo., the paler lead from Brian Griffiths' guitar is going into the Vox behind Johnny, whilst the darker lead from Johnny's Precision is connecting to the piggy-back Fender behind Brian. Hence Ray's query.
Stephen.

[chas]

Just to put in my tuppence worth, if you follow the leads in the Big Three photo, the guitar is going into the Vox, and the bass into the Fender amp. The guitar lead looks like it's been coiled up so isn't hanging 'straight', and then on it's way from the floor to the amp looks the same.

[JimN]

There's just one other thing...

Although it was not made public until decades later, the photo on the front of the "Big Three At The Cavern" EP was posed AFTER the session had been recorded.

There are several very similar out-take shots of the group in slightly variant poses, after they had got back into their dripping wet shirts and suits. There is therefore every possibility that they just picked up any old lead for the sake of the picture and that the amps aren't even switched on. It's certainly had to think of any good reason for the amps to be positioned in the "wrong" places on the stage - and if Griff was playing on that AC30, it must have been one of the first TB models - his guitar is as twangy and raucous as they come: easy to achieve on a Fender amp, not too easy on the single-tone-control AC30 of the day.

No audience was harmed during the taking of those shots.

[stephen]

Well, that theory about MAYBE they just picked up any old takes some beating................!! Must store that one away for possible future use! Who knows, might even have been a studio mock-up of The Cavern? Possibilities pursuing this train of dispute are endless.........if you could be bothered that is.
Stephen

[David Martin]

I think I had A Hofner Colorado at one time. It certainly looked like the ones shown but it was covered in a red leatherette type of material. Would that have been a Colorado

I had one too... Definitely a Colorama... (About £32 I think...) always disappointed me...