Thunderstar Bass Amp - any info on what I just bought?

I know next to nothing about Guild amps and they are not covered in the Bible.

I've been looking for a cheaper amp to leave behind at my rehearsal space, and two days ago, I was searching for Guitar Center's recent acquisistions and this one came up.

This is the one picture I had to go by, with the condition listed as "Great" - and the price seemed more than fair.

Other than that, I got nothin'. Any and all information that anyone has would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Kent

EDIT - Oh, yeah, the pic:

Well, I think this might be what I just bought (copy/paste from Blue Book site):

THUNDERSTAR BASS
- ~45W (23W per channel), 2-12 in. or 2-15 in. speakers, bass piggyback unit, four-tube chassis, preamp: 1 X 12AX7, 1 X 12DW7, power: 2 X 6L6GC, solid-state rectifier, single channel, front control panel, two inputs, three knobs (v, b, t), bass/bright switch, crossover, black covering, mfg. late 1970s.

It seems to me that cabinet would not be big enough for 2 15's, so I'm looking at a 2x12.

Another batch of info:

http://www.ggjaguar.com/tstar.htm

FACTOIDS & TRIVIA

The Thunderstar Bass was sibling to the Thunderbass amp. Essentially, the Thunderstar is one-half of the Thunderbass since it has one channel instead of two, although the circuits are slightly different. Like many of the 1960s bass amps that used 6L6GC power tubes, such as the Fender Bassman, this amp lacks sufficient headroom to yield clean tones at higher volumes. This is the primary reason why guitarists generally used these amps rather than bassists. The Thunderstar Bass amp makes a fine practice bass amp, but at performance volumes it’s better suited for guitar.

GUILD THUNDERSTAR BASS AMP (1969)

Power Amp: Tube; 2 x 6L6GC, 40 watts RMS @ 8 ohms
Preamp: Tube; 1 x 12AX7, 1 x 12DW7
Rectifier: Solid state
Speakers: none
Channels: 1; 2 inputs
Effects: None
Controls: Bass, treble, volume, bass/bright switch
Head Dimensions: n/a
Weight: n/a

The Thunderstar Bass amp is sometimes described as a single channel Bassman. It has a pair of 6L6 finals. I saw that amp listed at GC and considered purchasing it. Had I known the cab was 2-12 I sure would have given it more consideration. Finding a black tolex 2-12 cab is pretty rare. The Thunderstar bass amps include a preamp out/power amp in set of RCA connectors on the back. Very often they were never used so you have to remove the little plastic caps that are on them. I believe these amp heads, in addition to being paired up with a 1-15, 2-12 or 2-15 cab in a standard piggyback setup, were also envisioned by Guild to be used in a Slave configuration to power up additional cabinets.

M

Congrats ! 2x15's, 3 knobs = awesome.

Nice, you got a good price on that.

The cabinet is for a thunderbass however, and it may very well be 2x15.

a thunderstarbass cabinet had only 1x15, and they were stackable.

I would actually be happier with a 2x15 configuration, as I need a bass cab for my personal jam space. Which means, technically, that I'm splitting them up, using the head with my favorite 2x10 or 4x10 cabs and using the 2x15 for bass.

I am a 6L6 guy all the way, and I primarliy use amps as what they now call "pedal platforms." I like to get the power tubes to that sweet spot where they are just THINKING about breaking up. I guess you could describe my preferred setting as more of a light compression than a drive. My problem is that by the time I've gone through all my pedals, the signal is often way too hot for most preamps, resulting in a clipping of the signal that is not at all musical (to my ears).

It took me a while to find the right 6L6 based all tube amp that could handle my firehose-on-full signal, and that amp turned out to be Dr. Z's EZG-50. I'm still dialing it in, but WOW does it sound great to me.

Thing is, I'm getting sick of hauling it back and forth, so I want a backup. But dropping $2K on another EZG is not in the cards for me, so now I've been looking at bargain amps when I came across this one.

You know, WAY back in the day, I had a 70's Bassman 100 that I ended up loaning to a bass player friend of mine who ended up frying the crap out of it. Seriously, I think he literally lit it on fire. Sadly, they are notoriously unreliable. which is too bad because it was perfect for my playing.

Anyway, I digress. Let's see if this Thunderstar's preamp stage can handle getting slammed from my pedal chain without flipping out. If it does well, I'm going to be looking for more!

I think the Thunderbass and Thunderstar Bass amps would be perfect for use with psdal boards. The Thunderstar Bass will break up a little sooner than a Thunderbass but not much by modern standards. If you find it to be a problem switch your jack from input 1 to input 2 to lower the input signal.

I think you are going to be very happy with it. Also if you ever come across a Maverick 2x10 they are superb pedal platforms (with the reverb off)- it uses 7591s, and the Thunderbass 1 which uses 8417s. Both are similar to 6L6s. You will be very pleased with the Thunderstarbass however. Also there is a chance your cab is 12s, but it could be 15s. The original Oxford 12s that came in my thunderbass 1 cabinet did not sound very good- both before and after I blew one of them. The pair of Celestion BL-12 200X I replaced them with are a tremendous upgrade- and that was among the least expensive options. It sounds good for bass now, and holy grail for guitar (with no pedals, just crazy cleans)

On top of a nice, modern 1x12 bass cab, this is my favorite sounding bass amp of all time.
Some day I'd love to have a clone of it built that has a parametric mid and runs six 6L6's though; 45watts wasn't really enough for playing with a drummer

mellowgerman said:

45watts wasn't really enough for playing with a drummer

Click to expand...

There is another solution to that problem besides a bigger amp....

fronobulax said:

There is another solution to that problem besides a bigger amp....

Click to expand...

very true. part of the problem though might also be that i like to be able to levitate myself and others without encountering breakup of my clean signal. my Acoustic B800h and Aguilar 1x12 are capable of this with the option of superb clean tone, but when playing alone at home, there's something that the thunderstar had, that's missing with just about every other amp... a certain je ne sais quoi

You know, I just read this whole thread again and I have to admit that I'm getting confused. I can't really tell if some of the comments are for bass or guitar. And I can tell that I wasn't really clear about that in my own posts.

To clarify my own posts: I plan on playing electric guitar through the amp and use my favorite 2x10 and 4x10 guitar cabinets with it.

So if the incoming cab is 2x12, I'll try it with guitar, but might sell it. If the cab is 2x15, I'll definitely keep it but I'll probably use it for bass exclusively (or acoustic, keys, etc depending on need).

Regardless, I appreciate all of the comments and suggestions. I like simple amps and complex pedal chains. It's just how I do it.

I had it shipped to my local guitar center, but still no word from them and no tracking number or anything. I'm going to have to call them later today to see what's what.

Got a call from Vermont today - said that they are going to ship the amp "freight" and it will go out on Monday. In other words - I bought this on the 16th and it will not ship until the 25th. And then he said that because it's going out "freight", it might "take a while longer than normal to get there."

He said that if it doesn't show up in a "couple of weeks," I should call back.

This is a big pile of horse apples, if you ask me.

Los Angeles said:

You know, I just read this whole thread again and I have to admit that I'm getting confused. I can't really tell if some of the comments are for bass or guitar. And I can tell that I wasn't really clear about that in my own posts

Click to expand...

We were veering. But I think I am the only bass only contributor...

I've managed to acquire 4 Thunderstar Bass heads, and one ThunderBass head. I don't collect amps, so much as I rescue them. Mostly, non-working. Or, in need of some attention. The last Thunderstar Bass shouldn't need any attention, as I picked it up from a member here. That is the only one that I haven't powered up or tested. He stated that it was in working condition.

My other 4 heads have a Bias Level mod that I installed, so that I can dial in the correct Bias on the power tubes, and balance with the onboard pots. This mod works very well, and is simple. Someday, I'll mod the remaining one, just for the ease it provides in getting the Bias in a good working range. No matched tubes necessary, though I still try to match them.

Of each of them, I really like the ThunderBass for a guitar amp. The brighter channel is excellent for this. The Bass side is a good guitar amp, as well. I believe that you will like your acquisition.

Jack

I always wanted to modify a Thunderbass amp to allow feeding one channel into the other to have control over additional gain and saturation.

Still no sign of the amp and neither guitar center location knows how to track it. (cue horn "whah whah" sound).

Los Angeles said:

Still no sign of the amp and neither guitar center location knows how to track it.

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At least they are honest. And considering it takes them 25 minutes of entering info into a computer to sell you a pack of strings for 5 dollars cash, I'm not surprised.

it will get there. That was a good buy.

Info about that amp here:
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?147070-Reference-Post-Guild-Amplifiers

Some more links: http://www.vintageguitarandbass.com/adDetails/167

There are a couple more threads in the amp section.
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?179643-Thunderstar-Bass-Heads

Ralf