There's no way in hell I'm gonna remember all the amps I've owned in the last 20+ years of making musicThis thread makes me realise I've actually owned very few amps or instruments in thirty years of playing, compared to most people. Two basses. Two electric guitars. Two guitar amps (currently none). The aforementioned bass rigs. Just about the only time I've replaced anything was when the old one was stolen, broken or destroyed. I'm pretty happy to just have one thing that works. Tone is all in the hands, yeah?Well, sort of. Both of the guitar amps were shit.

There's no way in hell I'm gonna remember all the amps I've owned in the last 20+ years of making music (hell, I doubt I could name all the ones in the house/garage/attic currently!). I can, however, trace what ones I've had as my 'main' gigging ones and home practice:Guitar (gigs):Peavey Bandit1975/76 Fender Twin Reverb (with beloved JBLs)1975 Orange OR120TS50-B (briefly, then back to the OR120)Sovtek MIG50 (briefly, then back to the OR120)Guitar (home):Marshall 15w SS combo thing from a pawn shopFender Princeton Reverb (unknown year) Teisco combo (1960s class-A, approx 5w thing) TS-25Ampeg GVT5 comboBass:1970s 'Circle Sounds' SS thing (can't remember much about it) Ampeg SVTPeavey Bass 400Peavey Mace headPeavey Century 200 Bass Mk 1(weirdly I never used my TS-50B for Bass outside of home)

I wish I spent half the time I did looking at used gear and the resultant total-time acquiring/selling it and instead learned more songs / improved playing. But I've loved getting to know the subtleties of each amp, and It's nice feeling comfortable with a surprise setup, different EQ topologies etc. You also get to end up with a collection of tubes you just don't want to throw out because even if they're 'bad', they still light up and you love them.

I think it's a progression that goes hand in hand. The longer you play, the closer you get to your niche and refine your playing. That unique style, those quirks, those idiosyncracies ultimately have an ideal tonal path that allow your particular thing to be fully expressed. It goes back and forth forever, but at some point it SHOULD slow down, if not almost stop completely. If it doesn't, maybe you're more of a tone lawyer than you wanna admit. Although I don't think there's really anything wrong with that(unless you can't pay your real bills), especially if you're accumulating a wide variety of tones for recording. 1968 SF Fender Champ (still have)Laney Head and 4x12 cab. No idea what model Mesa Dual Rec (fuck off) Orange 4x12 cabOrange AD120 or 140? ( i think) Verellen Loucks Music Man HD 65 (still have)2 TL806 cabs, with different speakers(not sure what),made by FM Milford. My main cabs. Don't see a need to ever use anything else live. 2 Randall Switchmasters (still have). My main amp. My favorite of all of them and $125 for both!!

HadSome freebie practice ampLaney LC15 - I remember this sounding great, but it was incredibly unreliableEpiphone Electar 30 - have never seen one sinceTraynor Mark III - loved it but only turned up past 2 about a dozen timesBlackstar HT1Have No amp - I moved country, sold all my gear, and now practice through a boxidizer into a blubox IR cab sim into headphones. Basically, I got gradually louder and then gradually quieter and now make no sound at all.

Some solid state Fender combo that wasn't great and went crazy loud anywhere past 1 on the volumeTraynor YBA1Traynor TS-60bTraynor TS-15Traynor TS-50Traynor TS-100Traynor YGL3Marshall Lead 12Quilter Tone Block 200Only have the YBA1, Lead 12 and Tone Block now, and love them all. YBA1 is my main amp, although I wish it was a wee bit louder. Sold all the TS amps after I got a rusty box and boxidizer, kinda wish I'd maybe kept the TS-50. YGL3 was the heaviest amp known to man. Our practice room is up several flights of stairs and I quickly realised this was a problem. Great amp but I prefer not being a cripple.

1987: Onyx 3.5w practice amp with 5" speaker (slashed with a knife for breakup - I read about Link Wray around that time in a book called Heavy Metal Thunder). Given to friend.1991: Jade "Entertainer" 120w solid state head into 4 x 12. Sold to friend. 1993: Blackface Fender Super Twin, aka "The Widowmaker". Sold to stranger.1994: Tweed Bassman RI (1990 model with blue Eminence speakers). Still own. 2014: Pignose 7100 RI. Still own.2015: Vintage 47 Ric Style Supreme. 12-15w all octal valve with 12" Weber. Still own.I have the V47 tone module that clips on to the speaker wires and allows one to run a cable from the speaker wires into the input of a second slave amp. I have been meaning to run it into the bassman but live in an apartment where firing that up would be funny, but I do like my neighbours. I regret selling the supertwin, but I sold it when I was moving mainly to ensure that I did not have to lift it ever again, and as funny as it would be to use it now and then, not having to move it anywhere is very nice also. For those if you who don't know, the ST is is a 180w all valve combo with speaker magnets the size of encyclopaedias. A friend had one and after a gig the end of the power cable got stuck in a cab door. The cab drove off down the road dragging the ST along with it. The amp was fine, but it did dig a piece of asphalt out of the road itself. I shit you not.

What was up with Fender's 100lb combo amps in the 70s? Not just the Super Twin, but the Super Six and Quadreverb, too. I guess their customer base had a high proportion of bar venues that had to provide a backline to touring country bands, and never had to move these behemoths off the stage?

Larry Cragg likes to put those Super Twins in their own head cabinet and use them as bass amps. I believe Billy Talbot used them a lot. I had a Fender Concert Bass from the same era that was pretty cool - closed back 1x15 combo with an EV speaker. The sound suffered a little since the dimensions weren t quite right, but if that thing would have been built to TL606 dimensions it would have been unmanageable.

I'll probably forget a few, but yeah.solid state Crate with two 8 speakers. Peavey Delta Blues180 watt Electric power unit66' Vibrolux ReverbMagic Vibro Prince x 2Retro King 18-watt Marshall thingPeavey VTM-120Ampeg V-4Vintage Sound Super Reverb copyDr. Z Carmen Ghiastill have the Electric head (rules), the Super Reverb, and the Dr. Z, although that one is going soon.gonna pick up something else soon as well - I think it's about Hiwatt time.