Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I know Lennon and Harrison both used AC-30's, but i have seen photos of them with a pre-amp maybe a Ac-100 when they were in the studio or in concert.
if you look at the pictures from when they played D.C. you can clearly see them sitting under the AC-30's. This could really change the way you sound when you play. which may help some of the beatle tribute bands out
clay

Correction. AC-50 small box head wich sat on the top or the bottom of a AC-50. and i believe the beatles picked up the AC-50's with the cabs in 1964 around the D.C. gig and continued to use the heads which could play and importnant role in their recording. thanks
clay

any comments>?

I guess by the time of 'Revolver' it didn't matter much to them what they used in the studio at least, for there are pictures of them in Abbey Road using Fender amps during those sessions (along with some Vox equipment). Did their Vox endorsement end in 1966?

i'm pretty sure it did. they used them in 67 a little bit. they bought some in 66 for their tour in Europe but they only used them at that time. as for the studio im not sure. You can see those same amps again in 67 in the Hello Goodbye video.And from then on out im pretty sure they only used the fender 65 reverb. i heard there was a 65 Bassman around somewhere. but even in late 64 and in 65 lennon used a fender amp along with his Super Beatle. hope that helps all you beatle sound perfection guys like me. ive fooled around with all of these amps and ive gotten and recorded some tracks that are close to identical to the beatle sound. thanks

Suffice it to say that John played his 1958 325 mostly thru the AC-15 and AC-30, with an AC-50 used in DC 1964 and Ed Sullivan. His 1964 325 was probably mainly played thru AC-50s from Feb-64 to mid-1964 and AC-100s later in 1964, 1965, and part of 1966.

The 12 string Ricky was played thru an AC-50 and an AC-100.

Of course my answer is very simplistic, but if you match up the Time Line of amp usage with Time Line of guitar usage, the about is pretty much what you get as related to Ricky guitars and Vox amps.

Yes that is very true.What i would like to know is what they did with the 62 ac30's. the tan ones. those had such a great sound. it almost sounded like and acoustic guitar amplified. i love those sounds. and the ones on the song "Cry for a Shaddow" but Greg, do you think the Ac-50 head really made a diference in the sound? i know you have to have flatwounds on the guitars and that makes a big difference but did thoses heads really make a difference? thanks clay

I too would like to know what happened to those tan (actually called fawn) AC30's. I am really interested because I have a '62 fawn AC30 Treble model that was retrofitted at the factory with one of the original rear mounted Top Boost units. Victor, at Plexi Palace, had told me that he had heard that the Beatles were known to have used fawn Treble Model AC30's that had the Top Boost factory add-on, which was very rare. There are a couple of views in the Beatles Anthology Book, pages 72 and 75. Page 72 clearly shows the added Top Boost in the fawn AC30. How in the world can amps used by the Beatles during the early years even be traced? Maybe I can invite George over to my place to check my amp out! Oh well, at least as Clay mentioned, the amp sounds great and I am really happy with it regardless of whether it had been used by a Beatle or not.

That is wonderful. i went to the guitar center in Los Angeles and they had a 62 fawned and i plugged a 325 in and started playing " Please Please Me"
and "twist and shout" another guy plugged a gretsch into a 64 AC-30 and we played Twist and shout all the way through and the amps were truely beyond amazing. Some one needs to get vox to make them like they used to. it would really hit and run.

Here is a thread regarding the fawn amps, over on Vox Talks that will interest you guys:

http://www.voxtalks.com/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=VT3&Post=853

thanks alot. i posted a message up there at the end.

Lennon played his 1958 325 mostly through his late '50's Fender Deluxe amp. October of '60 until late '62.

Actually, Lennon got his Vox AC15 twin in July of '62. But, I guess if you count the house amps that they used in Germany at the end of '62, you could say he used a Fender that late in the year.

John Lennon was still performing with has late '50's Tweed Deluxe in July of '62. If you're basing your theory on his VOX amp being an AC-15 because of the cabinet dimensions that's not the way to go. These amps were all 'one of a kind' and were not made on an assembly line. One AC-30's dimensions were not exactly the same as next.

Are you sure about that Larry?

There is the AC15-AC30 photographic comparison that you can find here, which proves it without a doubt:

http://www.voxtalks.com/ac15p~1.jpg

But for the skeptics like Larry, I'm also basing this on the fact that Lennon bought his AC15 twin in July '62, according to the H/P paperwork that I have a obtained a copy of, of course you will find a copy of it in the Beatles Gear site that is going up in the next few months. It matches the other H/P docs that Andy has published in the book exactly, same paperwork and hand writing. Ask him, he's your pal right? I sent him a copy of it a few months ago after his book was already on the presses, just a hair too late to make the book, a shame for sure.

Hope this helps clear things up.