Jorma Kaukonen

Kaukonen mentions the use of Louis Electric amplifier on his website. He uses the Deltone Single 12 combo amplifier. The amp was also used on Hot Tuna's 2011 album "Steady as She Goes", according to 2012 Vintage Guitar interview.

I have a Gibson LP-295 I used on the electric stuff where I was fingerpicking, I used a Gibson Chet Atkins SST I’ve had a long time. I have a ’67 Fender Deluxe – which is not vintage to me, because I bought it new; it’s just old. I also used a Louis Electric 2×12, which is what I use onstage. On “Angel Of Darkness” I used a ’50s Bogan PA amp that’s been made into a guitar amp, and on “Children Of Zion” I used my SST through a ’30s Oahu steel-guitar amp.

The amp was used for Hot Tuna's Last Waltz tour in 2023, according to 2023 Guitar World interview.

For the Firebird, I’ve been using a Louis Electric custom amp. He’s a builder from Northern New Jersey. I love all this stuff.

"For my onstage monitoring, I use their small Loudbox amplifier. It's got a sound larger than it is, and I can still lift it without wincing." - Jorma Kaukonen

In his autobiography "Been So Long: My Life and Music" he states: "I had a 1937 Gibson L-5 and an early fifties Fender Princeton amp that I had bought from a fried a year or so before".

Since "early fifties" may be seen as the years 1950-1953, the Princeton amp Jorma is referring to as "early fifties Fender Princeton amp" is either TV Front Princeton (1948-1953) or Wide Panel Princeton (1953-1955) variation (both used the same circuit, the only difference was cosmetics). And since Wide Panel Princeton was just introduced in 1953, a TV Front Princeton is the most likely amp Jorma owned.

"I also bought a Standel Super Imperial because Zal [Yanovsky] was playing through one. It was a completely solid-state amp with two fifteen-inch speakers, and no guitarist would probably voluntarily choose one. That said, it's [along with the Guild T-Bird] the gear I used for the solos on "Somebody to Love" as well as "White Rabbit". It worked out OK for me. Years later at a gig in New Jersey at the Tabernacle I found myself sharing the stage with John Sebastian [a founder of the Lovin' Spoonful]. We got to talking and I told him how I got the Guild and the Standel because the Lovin' Spoonful guys had that gear. "We hated those amps," he told me. "We had to use them because we were endorsers." I couldn't stop laughing. Again, it worked out for me...Back then I knew nothing about the gear so when I heard him [Zal Yanovksy], I had to have what he was playing. As if the Super Imperial weren't brittle enough, I added an upholstered box from Kustom with two high-frequency horns. Around the time of Pillow I was transitioning from the Guild Thunderbird guitar and the Standel amp to the Gibson and two Fender Twin Reverbs, but I was still waffling between two setups. The solos on "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" were done with the Thunderbird and the Standel (minus the horns). Saturating the sound with spring reverb was the deal. The other tracks were done with the Twins and the ES-345 Stereo".

https://jormakaukonen.com/cracksinthefinish/?p=9114

"I bought my first Gibson ES-345 and two fender twin reverbs from Sherman & Clay in San Francisco. That was the first time I bought something on time and started to establish my credit, such as it was. Electric guitars took a back seat to pianos, brass, woodwinds and violins at Sherman and Clay".

In this picture above Jefferson Airplane perform on stage at the Webster Hall concert venue, New York on January 8th, 1967. One can see Jorma plays through two Fender Twin Reverbs (vibrato channels). It was barely noticable in the b&w image. Still, they are the Blackface era Twins, I colorized the picture, take a closer look.

In his autobiographical book he states: "Around the time of Pillow I was transitioning from the Guild Thunderbird guitar and the Standel amp to the Gibson and two Fender Twin Reverbs, but I was still waffling between two setups. The solos on "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" were done with the Thunderbird and the Standel (minus the horns [he had added an upholstered box from Kustom with two high-frequency horns]). Saturating the sound with spring reverb was the deal. The other tracks were done with the Twins and the ES-345 Stereo".

http:// https://books.google.by/books?id=TntJDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=ru#v=onepage&q&f=false

Kaukonen mentioned 1967 50W Marshall Plexi amplifier on his website, which is likely the JMP50. The amp was used for Hot Tuna's Last Waltz tour in 2023, according to 2023 Guitar World interview.

Jorma about the amp, (source:)

Moving right along. When it came to live with me it was covered in decaying white tolex and purported to be a metal face. It required some work by Dr. Amp up in Canton to make it functionk. He did the best he could do, but it was really boogered up. I was trying to make it reliable enough to use it full time on the stage with limited success. George Allessandro the high end amp builder in Philly came to see us play… he’s a buddy of Jacks. Anyway, he was appalled at the condition of the amp. Turns out he’s one of the leading classic Marshall amp guys in the world. He took it back to his shop and under all the junk found it to be a ’67 plexi. He replaced all the tubes, caps and pots with new/old original Marshal parts and recovered the the head with new/old original stuff. It now looks and plays like it did when it left the show room floor in 1967. I’ve got a lot tied up in this old beauty so it is not going gentle into that good night.

Kaukonen mentions the use of 1963 Fender Pro (1x15) on his website. Kaukonen uses it mainly for fingerpicking, and it was a gift from bandmate Jack Casady, according to 2023 Guitar World interview.

Used on Hot Tuna's 2011 album "Steady as She Goes", according to 2012 Vintage Guitar interview.

I have a Gibson LP-295 I used on the electric stuff where I was fingerpicking, I used a Gibson Chet Atkins SST I’ve had a long time.

Mentioned in the 2001 interview with Puremusic.

I go right into the PA, and I've also been using the Crate Acoustic Amp, the CA112, which I like a lot. G.E.Smith got me hooked on using a little Reverb.

On his website, Jorma Kaukonen confirms using the Fishman Loudbox Artist 100-Watt 1×8.