FURTHER SIGHTINGS

BEE GEES

Above, a promotional shot taken in Knightsbridge in 1967 to record the band’s signing with Robert Stigwood. On the far left on the stage floor, what looks like a Marshall head. Behind the band, either a 7120 or 760 on a trolley – the end handle on the amp is just visible.

THE TROGGS

Orchid Ballroom, Purley – seen by Carl Nielsen, who worked at the time for Triumph Electronics just along the road. The band had 7120s on top of stacked cabs – much as Pink Floyd and others at the Rome Festival in 1968, on which see this entry (with further links on that page). Carl was later involved in the plan to build 7200s or 7240s (ie. 200 or 240watt monsters) for the Beatles, a process that never came to completion.

Presumably the amps used by The Troggs were provided for the occasion – 3rd August – by Vox/Triumph. No pictures have so far surfaced of the band using 7 series amps elsewhere.

Interesting to note that The Troggs were managed by Larry Page, who was also closely associated with another band that used 7120s – Los Brincos (as producer in 1968). For more – see this blog post.

Royal Variety Performance, late 1966, introduced by David Frost

Four 7120 cabs on stage

(more…)

Nice pics of Hendrix, with what looks to be a 4120 in the background on top of two 460 cabs.  He’s plugged into something else when the pics here were taken;  maybe Hendrix,  who  was always curious about new gear,  tried out the 4120 that night too.  (Perhaps even the one pictured HERE).

Jimmy Page was looking around in the 80s/90s for a style of vox amp he’d used before, with switches on the front, and big kt88 valves…

Carl Nielsen supplied him with at least one, a ul-7120; two of them can be seen here in the video.   One that Carl supplied seems to have had the voltage selector area blocked off;  this sometimes happened on some of the Scandinavian supplied Vox amps, so possibly it was originally sold there, or it was just modified later.

Great taster of the programme, some out-takes on youtube –

Dave Roffey  gives us a picture of the kind of research, experimentation and cross-fertilisation that was going on.  This wasn’t just with other designers and  companies, but with the actual manufacturers and designers of components like the transfomers;

“..Technically, for those times, the design of the valve phase-shift tremolo was an innovation. If that had been worked on, ‘phasing’ would have been around years before it actually appeared. I remember  (in the haze of it all) doing a three pot twin t(ee) filter in a foot pedal, which was the closest thing in those days.

Mullard, Brimar and the Williamson KT88 (400W) all contributed to the advances in those days, (more…)

Some good info on song/background  – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Said_She_Said

This alternate take (‘Take 3’) of the Paperback writer shoot on youtube shows the proto amps a bit more clearly.  You can just see that the amp Lennon is miming by is actually the 7120 Bass.  One of the most memorable guitar riffs recorded, this was probably Paul using the new 7120 with a Rush Pep box.

This vid has the guitar track isolated –

David Cole would test the amps, along with the other amps & equipment made by Triumph.  He remembers a final-assembly on Fridays, when “…it all came together,  panels chassis and boxes, to get them out by the door to be shipped off.  I remember some panels being fitted towards the end ( to avoid damage during production ), so the control switches/inputs/lights had to be taken off and then laboriously re-attached.   We also made wha-wha pedals, they came from somewhere else and were badly made – they were dumped at Triumph for Rosetti.   Capacitors would fall off at the touch..we went through them fixing them up, they were in plain boxes with no paint.”

After arriving at Vox, they were given a final test.  Small stamps can sometimes be seen on the chassis; these could be from JMI, or maybe even earlier, from the original chassis plinth production.

round mark where chassis has been stamped, either during production or inspection

A small inspection tag would finally be added certifying it had been signed off.  One of these can be seen on the Beatles 730 in Abbey Road, attached to the back of the amp.

inspection tag on back of a ul-460

inspection tags on Beatles 730 amp

Close-up of Beatles 730 tag

similar tags from a Defiant

Ron Babbage started at Triumph in the wiring shop, but moved on to helping manage various projects.   He recalls that Triumph had the two buildings, either side of a music shop. “The metal fabrication part was on the medical side (to the left of the central shop). The Wiring Shop was under the building on the right. Walking around the back of the shop, there was a little garden area..metal stairs led to an alley, with a ramp up to the back of the Orchid, and a car parking area.

My first day was spent scraping and cleaning capacitors..with cuts and blisters on my fingers I thought ‘I’m never going back there again’, but persevered. I remember Dave Roffey, I think he might have been developing a reverb pedal/box. Bands would sometimes ask to test out equipment, usually at the weekends; you’d ask Geoff for permission and overtime and he’d say yes, go on, but I don’t remember getting paid in the end. I did get some extra work drilling holes for circuit boards..Rooke (Brooklands) heard, and asked if I could do the same for him. I managed in the end to save enough to buy a Morris Minor. One day Andy Fairweather-Low wanted to test out some amps at the Orchid, so 3 of us set it up and listened to him. He’d parked his Jensen Interceptor in my space though, and when I automatically reversed out as usual I hit an r.s.j. that was supporting a canopy, which fell and dented my car…! Geoff would give bands equipment,and then when the bands broke up he’d offer them a job – I seem to remember a couple of guys from Geno Washington’s band joined us, Alan Griffin was the guitarist and there was the drummer too.”

Andy Fairweather-Low was recalled by Dave Roffey too; “.. I remember going to see Andy Fairweather-Low when the band were staying in Zsa Zsa Gabor’s flash log cabin on an exclusive London ‘estate’, before a tour. Bit of promo for Triumph gear. He had a pretty rare original Dobro slide guitar that I remember being impressed by”.