Bill Wyman

Bill used them for years starting in 1969 when the whole band used the first 5 made, he used them at least throughout the 70's with The Rolling Stones. I'm surprised no one here has put this in yet as he is much more well known for SVTs than anything else. I have posted a picture from their 1969 U.S. tour where they all used them, Bill is on the other side of the stage but they all used them throughout this whole tour. They used them on Their Get Yer Ya Ya's out Madison Square Garden live album from 1969 and also they used them at Altamont in 1969. If you have the Get Yer Ya Ya's album look on the back, it says amplification by Ampeg and you are listening to all SVTs, including the guitars. The Voodoo Guitar site I got the picture from has several stage shots with them using Ampeg SVTs. The whole story of the Stones and their SVTs is at this link:

http://www.voodooguitar.net/2016/09/american-muscle-ampeg-svt.html

In this photo from 1964 we can see Bill playing his bass guitar into a Vox AC-100.

In this live performance in late 1964, Bill is seen playing into a Vox Foundation Bass Speaker Cabinet.

Used on "Brown Sugar", as stated by mix engineer Jimmy Johnson in this September 21, 2018 ProSoundWeb interview.

And guess what we came up with for Bill Wyman? Do you remember those Plexiglas body basses that were around then?

I checked with David Hood later and he says it was a Dan Armstrong. So to the best of our recollection, that’s what it was. He played through David’s Fender Bassman setup, the tube head and separate box.

(...) Did you have a mic on the bass amp?

Yes, the bass guitar mic was an RCA 44. We didn’t have direct back in those days.

An image of Hood's Bassman rig, taken from this March 1, 2019 al.com interview, reveals that it was an AB165.

That said, the bass amplifier rig Hood used for his classic Muscle Shoals Sound Studios work is a Fender Bassman amp head and blonde Fender speaker cabinet.

In 2016, Muscle Shoals Sound reopened at original Sheffield location 3614 Jackson Hwy. and restored to retro ’60s/'70s prime. Hood’s rig was returned to the same spot it was during many vintage sessions. Against the studio wall, just left of the drum booth.

Hood thinks he acquired the Fender head and cabinet in the mid to late '60s.

"My father was in the tire business and got hooked up with a purchasing-agent-type place who would connect you with people to buy things wholesale," Hood says. "They hooked us up with Manny's Music in New York, on 48th Street. It's no longer there, but it was a famous music store. I would call and order things from them. I could hardly talk to them because they spoke so fast, but I started buying amps and would sell them to somebody and buy another one, things like that."

(...) From Manny’s, Hood purchased the blonde cab, containing two 12-inch speakers, originally to use as an extension cabinet with the bass amp he was using. He ended up selling that amp. Now he had an extra cabinet. He then purchased a black Tolex-covered Bassman piggyback amp. “And I can’t remember why I did it, but I brought the blonde cabinet to 3614 (Jackson Hwy.) and we started recording that and using the black Bassman head with it, to monitor myself. Sometimes they’d mic it and sometimes we’d go direct. But I used it always as a monitor. In a studio full of loud guitars and keyboards and everything, you just can’t hear the bass well, even with the headphones. It’s getting where nowadays they have so many channels on the recording stuff they can use several channels for a bass. A long time ago you were lucky if you’d get one channel.”

A 6G6 cabinet was used on "Brown Sugar", as stated by mix engineer Jimmy Johnson in this September 21, 2018 ProSoundWeb interview.

And guess what we came up with for Bill Wyman? Do you remember those Plexiglas body basses that were around then?

I checked with David Hood later and he says it was a Dan Armstrong. So to the best of our recollection, that’s what it was. He played through David’s Fender Bassman setup, the tube head and separate box.

(...) Did you have a mic on the bass amp?

Yes, the bass guitar mic was an RCA 44. We didn’t have direct back in those days.

An image of Hood's Bassman rig, taken from this March 1, 2019 al.com interview, reveals a blonde 6G6 cabinet as part of the stack.

That said, the bass amplifier rig Hood used for his classic Muscle Shoals Sound Studios work is a Fender Bassman amp head and blonde Fender speaker cabinet.

In 2016, Muscle Shoals Sound reopened at original Sheffield location 3614 Jackson Hwy. and restored to retro ’60s/'70s prime. Hood’s rig was returned to the same spot it was during many vintage sessions. Against the studio wall, just left of the drum booth.

Hood thinks he acquired the Fender head and cabinet in the mid to late '60s.

"My father was in the tire business and got hooked up with a purchasing-agent-type place who would connect you with people to buy things wholesale," Hood says. "They hooked us up with Manny's Music in New York, on 48th Street. It's no longer there, but it was a famous music store. I would call and order things from them. I could hardly talk to them because they spoke so fast, but I started buying amps and would sell them to somebody and buy another one, things like that."

(...) From Manny’s, Hood purchased the blonde cab, containing two 12-inch speakers, originally to use as an extension cabinet with the bass amp he was using. He ended up selling that amp. Now he had an extra cabinet. He then purchased a black Tolex-covered Bassman piggyback amp. “And I can’t remember why I did it, but I brought the blonde cabinet to 3614 (Jackson Hwy.) and we started recording that and using the black Bassman head with it, to monitor myself. Sometimes they’d mic it and sometimes we’d go direct. But I used it always as a monitor. In a studio full of loud guitars and keyboards and everything, you just can’t hear the bass well, even with the headphones. It’s getting where nowadays they have so many channels on the recording stuff they can use several channels for a bass. A long time ago you were lucky if you’d get one channel.”

A small box head is visible in this May 17, 1964 photo, as documented by this page from a website dedicated to the Vox AC-50.

Above, a detail from a picture of the Stones on stage, Folkestone, 17th May, 1964. Bill Wyman has a new thick-edged small-box AC50, perhaps consigned to him by JMI earlier in the month, or perhaps even in April '64.