'Golentone bass / guitar combo'

At right a pristine condition Goldentone bass / guitar combo from the golden era of Australian manufacturing. By the look of it - mid to late '60s. Using 2N3055 T03 transistor outputs in quasi-complimentary push-pull, and beautifully made. The inputs of 'BASS' 'RHYTHM' & 'LEAD' are very well set for tone. It has a warm funky sound but modest in power by today's standards - around 40 -50 watts by the feel of it. It sports 2 x 12" drivers, most likely Plessey - Rola if memory serves. The manufacturers based the build method on valve amps using tag boards and sturdy fibreglass PCB designs.

Amusingly, the power indicator is labelled 'INDICATOR' just to avoid any confusion as to it's function - and yes I replaced the old tired one with a newie!

This particular one belongs to Box Hill Institute, 'Performing Arts Dept', back then more sensibly named the 'Box Hill Music Department', and was the 1st ever instrument amplifier purchased by the college. As a foot note (Bb will do) I was relieved of my position as 'Performing Arts Technician' as the position has been made redundant. Aparrently we don't require useful people to keep things running any more. I had a great workshop there and used to fix a lot of the guitar amps in house. We live in interesting times ...

The really mind boggling thing is that pretty much every single component: i.e. the heat sink, the transformer, the nuts bolts, chassis & panels, potentiometers, the paper capacitors, resistors, transistors & electrolytic capacitors in this unit were made right here in Australia by our own electronics industries. It's a salient example of how the world has changed.

Seen at right with my '60s Maton bass model 'BS66' (some call it a 'BB66' which stood for 'Big Boy' 1966) .....  W H A T   A   S O U N D !

One of the rarest Maton instruments around, I have only seen one other one which had two PUs. It's made of solid Queensland Maple and has the most amazing deep rich woody sound. I bought it for $30 about 45 years ago and is one of my most treasured instruments. The original bridge was a modified door hinge flipped over with adjustable string supports. I have replaced that with a Schaller width adjustable one after a rather stupid guitar repairer talked me into fitting a Fender precision bridge which was too wide for the neck. The machine tuners are Ibanez ones.