Jets bass amp

[Jay Bass]

Just been reading Chas Hodges book And found the article refering to Jets bass amp.
it may have been mentioned on here somewhere before ,but intersting anyway
regards
Jay

Chas Hodges book Chas and Dave All About Us
2008

Billy Kuy told me that the bass player with Dave Sampson And the Hunters
Johnny Rogers,had a bass amp for sale.
He’d bought it from Jet Harris The Shadows bass player.
Id seen cliff and the shadows when jet was using the amp
I thought it was fantastic. Johnny Rogers wanted £20 for the lot.
I was round there like a shot and got it.
Now this bass amp was built like a little house and was about as heavy as one
It was about four feet high,three foot wide and three feet deep.
A solid wooden box(Two inch thick wood) within in a box and the cavity was filled with sand.you can imagine the weight.It was made by Wallace in Soho street.
I think it was the first british bass amp ever made. Bobby Neate who had promised to lug it about, looked a bit dismayed when he found out what he’d agreed to.
But he didn’t back out and it came with us on the road.
It had a sound and a half ! Some years later I gave that cabinet to some geezer I’d just met named Dave Peacock.
He sawed a Fu--ing great hole in it,all the sand fell out and it ended up in his back garden
It’s probably still there now!

[Iain Purdon]

What he doesn't mention is that the hole was to enable its use as a rabbit hutch

[Didier]

A solid wooden box(Two inch thick wood) within in a box and the cavity was filled with sand.you can imagine the weight.

Double panels filled with sand for acoustic enclosures were pioneered by G.A. Briggs (Wharfefale) to reduce unwanted panel vibrations.
It's still being used by DIY acoustic enclosure builders.

At Abbey Road, Jet used a huge speaker cabinet (behind his legs, most probably using a 15" Tannoy speaker) power by Hi-Fi Leak preamp and amp (bottom left) :



Didier

[geoff1711]

By the mid sixties I was playing a Hofner (McCartney) violin bass and large cabs were the order of the day, I built mine out of 1" blockboard and covered it with teak grain Formica, and measured 3ft high by around 2ft wide and about 18 inches deep and a few house bricks anchored in the bottom.

It had two fane12" speakers and was powered with an all valve Elpico(?) amp around 30 watts I suppose.

Whilst it wasn't that loud, the neighbours next door and next door but one were OK with it, but the house at the opposite end of our row of 4 used to complain it set his china rattling!

The bass era didn't last long but it then saw magnificent useage coupled to a Dansette record player for a year or more being hauled round numerous all night / all weekend house parties in Chelsea, Earls Court and Putney - swinging 60's and all that.

By todays standard 30 watts isn't much, but back then it was thunderous, it clearly matched the Dansette ceramic cartridge better than the Hofner bass pickups, I can remember sitting in the middle of some gardens, lots of those large west London properties used to all back on to a large communal private gardens - as in the film Noting Hill, as I was saying at around 4 in the morning hearing Paint It Black thumping out, the odd thing was we never got any complaints from any body.

Happy days!!!

Geoff

[Paul Childs]

Jet's AC30 was only for stage use or just for show onstage then?

[Didier]

Jet's AC30 was only for stage use or just for show onstage then?

When I saw the Shadows at the Paris Olympia in 1961, Jet was using an AC30, just like Hank and Bruce. The amps were not miked, and it was enough to fill the 2,000 seats venue, but overall loudness wasn't as high as it's often used now.
And girls were nor screaming !

Jet's amp on the above pic was part of Abbey Road gear and used there only. The large acoustic enclosure was certainly purpose built.

Didier