Classic Gear of the 50’s and 60’s

by Robin Bell


It wasn’t just the classic guitars of the 50’s and 60’s which helped to shape the sounds of rock’n’roll. While each guitar maker had their own strengths (and weaknesses) the overall sound was shaped also by the equipment used on stage and in the recording studios.

When you listen to those classic recordings from the late 50’s it is hard to remember the primitive, by today’s standards, equipment used. In America, Sam Phillips in his Sun Records studio used two Ampex 350 tape recorders (of which one was placed behind him and used mainly to produce the signature “slap-back” delay.

He mainly used the classic RCA 44-BX ribbon microphone, together with what is commonly known as the “Elvis mike” the Shure 55 model. Five microphones, placed around the studio were plugged into an RCA 76D mixer console and the single channel output was recorded on the Ampex tape recorder. The tape masters were then transferred to acetate masters on a primitive Presto 6N lathe. The final discs were pressed from these masters.

As well as producing some of the classic guitars of the fifties and sixties, both Fender and Gibson manufactured fine amplifiers to suit their range of guitars. The Fender range included the Twin, with an output of around twenty-five watts (1955 model) while Gibson produced the GA-40 Les Paul in the mid-fifties.

As guitarists (and audiences) demanded louder and louder music, the output of the amplifiers continued to rise accordingly so that by 1957 the Gibson GA-200 was rated at sixty watts and the Fender Twin of 1959 was rated somewhere between eighty and one hundred watts.

In Europe, an import ban on guitars and equipment from America lead to the rise of the European manufacturer. - the leading producer of microphones was the Neumann company in Germany; their U67 model is today recognized as one of the world’s best known studio microphones. In England, desperate to catch up with the American rock’n’roll explosion, companies such as Selmer began producing amplifiers for the ever more popular electrified guitar.

The Selmer “Stadium” model produced a massive fourteen watts output and featured three channels and tremolo as well. This amp was used extensively by both The Shadows and The Beatles early on in their respective careers. However, Selmer never really hit the big time and it was Vox who managed to capture the imagination by agreeing to supply the Beatles with their Vox AC-30 amplifiers.

With six inputs and an output of thirty watts, the Vox AC-30 was destined to become the classic guitar amplifier of the early sixties. Indeed, as early as 1959 The Shadows had switched to Vox AC-30’s and in 1960 hit the top of the British pop charts with their first single “Apache”. More and more British groups were persuaded to use the Vox equipment.

Also see: Classic Guitars of the 50's and 60's
 

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