Ampeg

There was a speaker cabinet on here.

It was an Ampeg.

I think it was like an 8x10 speaker cabinet.

It only had two speakers in it.

Uh, but it said, he said that they were most excited to record with Hank's new kit, which was a, uh, seventies Ludwig, uh, Vista light set and Bo had a Kramer 450B aluminum neck bass.

He also picked up an 80s Ampeg Blackline SVT.

I was also able to use some unique pedals and cabs that Andy had at the studio.

The Ampeg SVT stuff is like Very common at that point, especially, but using a bass with an aluminum neck is way ahead of the curve.

Oh, yeah, dude.

It's like everybody now.

Some people prefer a redder instrument, some people prefer it to look orange or even gold when they get a lot of sunlight.

Now, the amp you have here is an Ampeg B18N Portaflex.

It was made in New Jersey in 1966.

All-tube, 18-inch speaker, and a very cool flip top where the amp lives inside the cabinet for storage until you're ready to play.

But I will say, with that being said, we actually had this conversation in our last tracking session of, for this album, we don't want it to be, we're going to use this drum kit for this song, and we're going to use this drum kit for this song, and this guitar setup for this song, and another for another.

we do want to establish some consistency that you would expect from an album, which is, hey, all right, if we decide we're going to do PV 5150 type sound with an Ampeg type of bass sound, and we're going to try to work within certain parameters to not have it just be a complete open, you know, open book.

Um,

yeah.

This modern distribution model is reminiscent of nineteen nineties punk labels, but with an added layer of anonymity and accessibility.

Across Zimbabwe, bands like The Rudimentals in Harare face hyperinflation and governmental censorship, yet they keep producing raw punk albums using a salvaged Ampeg amplifier stolen from a neighboring shop.

They record on old reel-to-reel tapes at makeshift home studios because the country's sound studio infrastructure has decayed under years of neglect.

The result is a lo-fi aesthetic that feels intentional, mirroring the socioeconomic conditions of their everyday reality.

It's, you know, it's further away from the bridge.

You could do, say, an Ampeg SVT with that, and then the bridge, quote-unquote, which is in the middle pretty much, you could send that to a Gallon Cougar 800 or whatever.

Or a Marshall.

Chris Squire helped them develop that.

You're going to hear the best tone from him.

I fuck with my tone and all of that.

Inge just does that bass straight through like an Ampeg, and it sounds incredible because he has great

tone.

And so it seems like a lot of folks who were trying to fill space were actually seeking that clarity.

And nowadays, you know, With neodymium magnets, you know, you can just pick up a nice PA speaker and it sounds clear and loud and punchy and gives you the same kind of impact from the stage that you would normally get from, you know, Ampeg SVT kind of thing.

Gets you...

Almost there.

He was just super nice.

It was like when I called the guy that invented the Ampeg flip top.

Yeah.

Amp, that guy.