What was your first amp

[TBurst Std]

As a sister thread. What was your 1st amp?

My first was an old Heathkit Pre and Post stereo rig into a 3 way stereo speaker. Had to use and adapter for 1/4 mono to RCA.

Once I saved some money (6 months and transitioning from 15-16 yo, I got a used 70s Peavey Classic 2x12. That served me for a couple years then got a JTM45 and 4x12 cab. Ended up augmenting that with a Mesa MKII.

 

[WarmothRules]

Squire 15 combo

 

[mayfly]

Mine was a Heathkit TA-16 that I put together myself. Had reverb and tremolo and sounded better than I gave it credit for. Gave it away, and still kinda miss it. It did, however, have the death cap and sometimes it gave you just a little shock through the microphone :0

It looked like this: I still have the reverb footswitch!!!

 

[JacobJames]

I wish I knew the model, but it was a fender 1x12" solid state. That thing had some brutal feedback, but it was probably the V guitar that had most issues. Ended up getting rid of them both and got a cheap Epiphone + Crate practice amp. Eventually, I got a Crate GT212. The one with red lights.

 

[Bruce Campbell]

Fender Roc Pro 700.

 

[u.9]

Technically, my first "amp" was one of those hokey Marshall 1W micro amps (complete with a belt clip on the back for untethered busking) from back when they were still a new thing:



It sounded every bit as good as you could imagine I gladly gave it back to my drummer though, when he took me to my first music store to help me haggle for my first real amp... a 48W Ross Mini Stack:



I still have that amp after 32 years. Not only did I gig briefly with it and record for years with it, but I also used it temporarily with a 12V inverter in my car for stereo amp/speakers (sounded great for Ratt, which looped endlessly that summer) For 48W it is plenty loud, as attested to by the police who made me vacate the city park on the edge of my hometown one glorious afternoon. I need to fix the spring reverb on it, which died after sitting in a storage unit for too long.

 

[Don O]

This Acoustic amp I bought used in 1977 when I bought a Takamine EF400 12 string (it has a pickup built in). Still have the amp and guitar.

 

[Hodgo]

This thing. Absolutely awful solid state crap. It got replaced within a year… with another solid state amp, the Line6 Spider II, which had like 12 amp models that were also all equally awful. My parents deserve a Nobel peace prize for having lived through me hacking away at Satriani and Vai tunes via that amps “metal” setting. “For the Love of God” is aptly named, because its what your parents shout at you the 80th time you botch the intro.

Two SS failures in, you would think I may have moved to a tube amp at this point, but no. Deeply in love with Rush and looking to own ANY gear that Lifeson used, I got a Gallien-Krueger 250ML. Honestly? That little toaster did the 80s solid state / chorus thing really well. I bet with it would still make a great head for a modeling pedalboard. Clean, flat, loud.

But eventually the novelty wore off and I committed to a Peavey ValveKing, and that has been the amp that has served me the bulk of my life. I’d like to claim it was the first, but really it’s just the first to actually stick.

 

[bagman67]

As discussed elsewhere, my first amp (purchased along with my first electric) was a Peavey Backstage Plus, which sounded more or less like cats f*cking.

I got a Gallien-Krueger 250ML. Honestly? That little toaster did the 80s solid state / chorus thing really well.

The day I bought my first guitar and amp, I actually demo'd the guitar through a GK 250ML, and nearly bought it - but it would have cleaned me out, and I needed to keep a few bucks back for other stuff. If I could land one today at a reasonable price, I would be sorely tempted. And I'd run it into a stereo 2x12 instead of those little car stereo speakers installed in the combo. Truly a cool little amp.

 

[Strat Avenger]

Yamaha G-100 212 mkIII.
'Had the worst overdrive distortion in the world (the Clean channel sounded good). I was 17 and it was all I could afford.

 

[Hodgo]

If I could land one today at a reasonable price, I would be sorely tempted.

I just checked Reverb, wow. Should’ve held onto mine, I paid a fraction of what they seem to be going for. The 250ML is in fact a beast, and my first post might indicate I preferred the ValveKing over the GK. That was certainly true when I made the trade, but I’d probably lean GK today. It had one chorus sound, but it was a really great stereo chorus.

 

[NedRyerson]

Technically, my first "amp" was one of those hokey Marshall 1W micro amps (complete with a belt clip on the back for untethered busking) from back when they were still a new thing:

View attachment 63246

I still have that little Marshall fart box! As long as I put it on the clean channel, I can feed my pedals into it and it's adequate as a little practice amp for jamming in the backyard while keeping an eye on the kids when they're playing. I still like my Blackstar FLY better, though. Same concept (run pedals, not the onboard effects), but the Blackstar has more beef in volume and overall tone.

A little more brutal on batteries, though.

My first actual amp was a little 15-watt Crate fart box. I think it was something like a 1x8, maybe 1x10 on the outside.

My second amp was a larger Crate 2x12. I forget the power draw on that one, but it at least had enough beef to get over a drummer in the 2-3 times I actually used it in a band scenario.

When I auditioned for a modern rock band for the bass position once, I didn't have a proper bass amp at the time, so I lugged that guitar amp to the audition. It was still just enough to be heard since it was a basement audition without blowing the speakers out from my bass. After going through their album tracks, we just started an impromptu blues jam. Since that went so well and it seemed like I was going to get the job, I went out and bought a 1x15 cab and 400-watt bass head.

Then I got the message from the singer/bandleader that their original bass player's medical conditions "suddenly" cleared up and he wanted to come back to the band. Yeah, he felt threatened that the band called his bluff and was going to move on without him with me in place instead. Both the singer and the guitarist said that I was the only one who showed up to the audition prepared and having learned their songs so they felt bad about breaking the news to me.

Could've also been part of the bluff, I don't know.

Sold that rig soon after since I knew that was going to be my last opportunity to be in a situation to play real gigs anyway.

Nowadays, it's either the Blackstar practice amps, a 40-watt Fender combo amp for my guitars, or a 1x12 bass combo amp. No need to kill the volume since it's just me playing in the house.

On a tangential note, I have an I-have-no-idea-how-many-channels rackmount Tapco EQ (the discount brand of Mackie). It was a factory second that they just tossed in their "please get rid of these, we don't care how" room, so my sister, who was working for Mackie at the time, grabbed it and sent it to me. All it needed was some replacement standoff screws to reattach the front face plate. And since that was the time period in IT that computer hardware was still a relevant skill, I had plenty of access to standoff screws. So now I have a nice I-have-no-idea-how-many-channels rackmount EQ.

 

[mrpinter]

My first amp, believe it or not, was a late 50s/early 60s tweed Fender Deluxe. I don't remember when or where I bought it, but I think I got it with my first electric guitar, which I bought on time from a music store in the early 70s (a Gretsch Chet Atkins Tennessean; my music teacher cosigned for me). I turned the volume way up once and it distorted a lot - like the speaker was blowing up. I thought I'd damaged it, and sold it soon after that. In retrospect I know it was just power tube overdrive, and I sure wish I'd kept it. It looked like this one: