Duane Allman brown Super Amp?

[Wally]

I wish you luck with the search, but it is again imho a lost cause because there is now no cosmetic connection to aid in establishing any kind of provenance for this particular amp even if those close to the situations back then recalled Allman using a brown covered 2x10 Fender amp. Now, if there was a tech who had documented the amp by serial number and that tube chart, THEN you would have provenance. it is however an interesting story.

 

[Tele-writer]

Great suggestion! I'll contact him immediately. An old friend, Kirk West, was the Allmans road manager for many years, but was unable to shed any light on things.

I asked Dave, but it was before his time. He suggested AJ Lyndon as a contact for this.

 

[The Ballzz]

@dkening
I wish "I" was your son! Seriously though, given how long you've owned it, it's got way more of your DNA than Duane's (or whoever owned before you), so I say crank it loudly and proudly! Still would be nice/cool to know if the history is correct! A great amp is a great amp, no matter the provenance!
Enjoy Your Amp & Your Family!
Gene

 

[Viejo]

Kim Payne is still alive and on Facebook . You could ask him. https://www.facebook.com/kim.payne.338863

 

[lowatter]

Nice amp! What I found amusing is the knots in the pine shown on the bottom of the cabinet. I read all the time that the pine needs to be knot free when building a cabinet or it will effect the "tone" of the cabinet. This amp sounds incredible I bet. Cork-sniffery I tell you.
I'm planning to make (2) 12" pine cabinets upcoming soon I hope. The decades old pine I'm going to use has a few small tight knots that I'm not going to be concerned with.

 

[Wildeman]

You might check with David "Trash" Cole" to see if he has any knowledge about the Eat A Peach sessions and that amp's possible usage. Dave was a guitar tech/roadie for the ABB. He's on Facebook. If Red Dog was still with us, he'd have been the best to know.

Everybody that was there has CRS syndrome now.

 

[Wally]

Everybody that was there has CRS syndrome now.

This is not an accurate generalization as to the after effects of some certain lifestyle/s and more importantly is not humorous in any proper way, imho. There are people who suffer from this and have no link to having been ‘there’. (;^)

 

[MickM]

Sorry for sending duplicates. First time I've uploaded here.

Click EDIT near the bottom of that post and delete the extras. Cool amp!

 

[Tele-writer]

I wish you luck with the search, but it is again imho a lost cause because there is now no cosmetic connection to aid in establishing any kind of provenance for this particular amp even if those close to the situations back then recalled Allman using a brown covered 2x10 Fender amp. Now, if there was a tech who had documented the amp by serial number and that tube chart, THEN you would have provenance. it is however an interesting story.

Perhaps tax forms for depreciation of equipment might have supporting docs, i.e. copy of bill of sale, etc. Wonder if Galadriel has any of that? Even lists for insurance purposes could be helpful. I keep things such as that.

 

[39martind18]

What a nice "problem" to have!

 

[Wildeman]

This is not an accurate generalization as to the after effects of some certain lifestyle/s and more importantly is not humorous in any proper way, imho. There are people who suffer from this and have no link to having been ‘there’. (;^)

huh?

 

[Gevalt]

Oops, forgot to upload the tube chart pic. View attachment 817511

It's hard to find Duane Allman's handwriting for capital letters, as he mostly used cursive. I dug up two capital L's by Duane's hand, and both have a distinctive crook on the bottom of the L

I'm a believer. This doesn't prove it, IMHO, but I believe this was Duane Allman's amp.
An arched bottomed L is not typical(no pun intended). Even when Duane was emphasizing size on the ballpoint-penned "LOVE", it's similar in it's tale of muscle memory. The receipt has a "Lipham" that looks more like your amp's L, but written with either a fountain pen or felt tip, wider marking than the ball-point in that amp, which could explain the difference there. Duane's receipt is written with formal legibility intended, and your tube chart was marked by someone as a note to self, and with a sideways twist of the wrist, inside the cab, making it difficult to write as neatly as Duane's receipt.

 

[dkening]

A lot to process there. Not meant to be snarky, but are you a handwriting analyst?

 

[63 vibroverb]

I’ve always read that both Duane and Dickey tracked their solos thru the same brownface Super Amp for “Eat A Peach”. It certainly sounds like one, especially on “Blue Sky”. Didn’t think it sounded like a tweed Super, but then again I wasn’t there!

Regardless, that’s a very cool amp with or without the Duane connection! This topic reminds me of why I got my brown Vibroverb - the non-reverb channel sounds a lot like “Blue Sky” turned up loud and strings picked softly.

 

[Lynxtrap]

A lot to process there. Not meant to be snarky, but are you a handwriting analyst?

I would assume the L's were written at the factory. They probably had a surplus of old stickers for the 6V6 version, used them up and just wrote the L's by hand so that people would know what tubes to put in it.
Vintage Fender amps are notorious for coming with wrong tube charts.

 

[Wally]

I would assume the L's were written at the factory. They probably had a surplus of old stickers for the 6V6 version, used them up and just wrote the L's by hand so that people would know what tubes to put in it.
Vintage Fender amps are notorious for coming with wrong tube charts.

+1. The tube chart in this amp is the 5E4…the first version of the 6av6 Super. The 5E4-A was the second version of the 6V6 tweed Super. The 5F4 circuit was drawn in 1956, and this Super is tamped on the tube chart with a 1957 production date. That was an old chart found at the bottom of the bin and used. Hey! Maybe the 5F4 charts had not gotten in when the amp needed a chart??. I am not a handwriting expert, but imho there is not enough of a sample upon which to base some sort of conclusive proof or even a strong suspicion that the samples were written by the same hand. The Fender employees had to change tube charts to indicate tube types. There are a lot of amps out there with octal preamp tubes crossed out and Noval tube designations handwritten.
There are even odder substitution of tube charts. I had a mint 1957 5E3 with a 5F6A Bassman tube chart. I had a SF Dual Showman Reverb that had an AB165 Bassman chart….near mint amp.

 

[dkening]

The closest I've gotten to a first hand source is Dickey Betts. I described the amp and he said, “Well, it could have been one of Duane's. He had a lot of those old Fender tweed amps.” No mention of the Blue Skies sessions, though I wouldn’t have known to ask back then (mid 80s). Talked to a long time roadie, but he had joined up a little after Duane died and couldn't help. Anyone know who engineered the sessions?

 

[63 vibroverb]

The closest I've gotten to a first hand source is Dickey Betts. I described the amp and he said, “Well, it could have been one of Duane's. He had a lot of those old Fender tweed amps.” No mention of the Blue Skies sessions, though I wouldn’t have known to ask back then (mid 80s). Talked to a long time roadie, but he had joined up a little after Duane died and couldn't help. Anyone know who engineered the sessions?

Tom Dowd has since passed - he was a huge and prolific producer for a lot of the Southern artists. Don't quite know much of the other engineers involved, but may not hurt to do a little investigating.

The "Blue Sky" tone, and much of the studio tracks from Peach, sounds too clean to be a tweed Super to my ears. But I could be wrong of course. Either way, knowing Duane and Dickey were both gearheads, it's definitely possible your tweed Super was Duane's at some point. I've seen videos/photos of Duane playing a tweed Bassman live.

 

[dkening]

Might be the tubes, but this Super doesn’t begin to break up until until you dial it above 6, which is also very LOUD!

 

[Stedgett]

What an interesting read! I was also playing in Florida (a south Florida nobody with big dreams) during those years and can tell you first hand I remember some of the gear I had sometime but couldn't tell you when I got it, or where I got it and what the hell I ever did with it. Quit kicking myself long ago not realizing I could have dragged one of those teles behind the car, cased it and sold it as an authentic beat up relic today. I digress. It is certainly a cool amp and I agree with others, you might find someone who was there but odds are they will not remember, at least accurately. You are keeping it the family so while you cannot prove your story, no one can disprove it either. Say it with enough conviction and no one will challenge you, at least to your face. If you decide to sell it, then you can only say maybe. Still, it's one cool Fender amp! Who knows who played what before in some of that gear we've had and might still have. Enjoy it and think....could be! I know if I were in your shoes, every time I powered it up, I would be thinking Duane. Peace bro and have fun!!