Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi, just curious if anyone here has used HH amps with there Ricks and how you liked/disliked them.
Bidding on a VS 100watter head and matching 2x15 cab on Evilbay.
Ok, thanks,
Monty

Welcome Steve!

Is HH still around? The only musician I ever saw live using an HH amp was Steve Hackett in the early '70s with Genesis a few times.

I used to have a '74 HH combo which died whenenever it heated up.

The music department at my school had a combo that blew up when I played my bass through it.

Rock and roll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I used an HH VS head from late '79 through to '83. The HH had a very clear SS sound that verged on overly bright according to the guitarists I worked with. I really liked it. The "valve sound " however was awful - with it on it sounded more like a very nasty fuzzbox than a valve amp. It was relatively underpowered but it was cheap and I found it to be reliable.

I had an H/H VS bass combo - basically the VS head built into a bulky 1x15 cab. It was my first "proper" amp (about 1982, iirc) and impressed the hell out of me at the time! It seemed plenty loud enough to cope with playing in a band context, and the massive ported cab kicked out decent bottom end. Or so my ravaged memory tells me! Possibly the best thing about it was the fact that the front panel lit up green in the dark.

It developed problems with the VS module (which, as Antipodean has noted, was bloody awful!) which meant it had a constant clipping/crackling sound when playing. Seems this was a common fault, and I found a fix in International Musician & Recording World magazine (older UK members might just remember this! ) which involved removing the module from the PCB & soldering a wire across a couple of terminals to bypass it. It was no loss!

I eventually PXed mine for a Session 4x10 bass combo (the Poor man's Trace Elliot) which I still have - although it doesn't get used that much any more.

Jon.

In 1989 i owned a HH 100 watt Valve Sound head & matching 2x15 cab.My friend had an early 70's 4001 & a '89 4003/8 string bass and he got some great sounds out of that bass amp.The amp was well made and if i remember correctly the cab had good speakers,the HH was my first big bass amp i have seen some HH bass heads at guitar shows here in the UK for less than a £100.

The HH amp was my main gigging amp for a few years until i bought a Peavey TNT 160 combo because it had 60 more watts & i thought it was lighter than the 2x15 cab how little i knew.In all i liked the HH VS bass amp they where a good amp and had a nice sound. On the Yesyears dvd there is a clip of Jon playing a Ric guitar and in the background is a HH amp.

Hi Steve,
When my daughter took up playing bass a few years back I bought her a 1979 HHVS 100W bass combo.I got it from our singer who picked it up at a jumble sale and it was gathering dust in his garage.I paid £85 for it.
As pointed out by others the "valve sound" is awful. For a cheap beginners amp its ok but apart from being loud its pretty unsophisticated and hasnt got much going for it eq wise against todays budget bass combos.I sold ours recently for £125 which for its excellent condition and as a retro curiosity was a fair price I think.(The green glow of the front panel was quite good too).If you push the volume the speaker cant handle the bottom end on the combo and the cabinet resonates around A which is a nuisance.
Personally I would steer clear.
The HH guitar heads were quite popular in the 70s and Marc Bolan used them in TRex but the bass amps never seriously competed with Peavey Fender and Ampeg etc.

By a strange twist of fate I ended up using the 1x15 combo at rehearsal last night. I can't say I thought much of it; it was either woolly or nasty and had a spectacularly undefined bottom (oo-er missus!). The valve sound was horrible. Ironic that when I first started in 1980 it was what I aspired to!

I played a head and cabinet a while back while I visited my friend in Devon UK - who owns one. I was not impressed by the sound. No definition and very wooly sounding. Since the late 80's I used Trace Elliot gear and nowadays an Eden WT300 with a Mesa Powerhouse 2 x 10" so yes I'm spoiled - but if I was you - I would not buy it for it's sound, if you can get it very cheap you can buy it just for the fun.....

If you can get it at a good price go for it,now you can get small FX boxes like the Zoom units which would improve the sound.I had forgotten about the green background light on the front panel,a poor man's Trace Elliott.