Bass Amp History

[Ken Smith]

In my buying and selling phase in NY, I picked up a Kay with an old Ampeg bass amp c.1948 or so. Made by the Ampeg Bass Amp Co, NY, NY. !

It had white pant mixed with sawdust (so it seemed) as the color. One 15" speaker and maybe about 10 watts. I used it in my NYC Apt. for lessons and it had that old Juke box sound. Deep and smooth tone and enough volume for anything I would do there. A student of mine flipped over it and I sold it to him.

In and around 1968, I had ordered the new Ampeg B25 from the catalog at Manny's in NY. It never came in and maybe never made it into production. They had in stock, the Last B18 portaflex bass amp left, 18" Goodman? speaker. So, I bought that instead. Either before or after, can't recall, I bought a B12 amp as well. I played B15s all over NYC in studios and Shows but never owned one of my own.