“Second song in, the amps blew up. You can hear Jagger apologizing to the crowd, ‘We’re trying to get it together up here. Maybe we’ll do a couple of acoustic ones’”: How a revolutionary amp nearly derailed the Rolling Stones’ 1969 US tour
The Rolling Stones didn’t just tour America in 1969 – they rewrote the rules for stadium rock, playing to unprecedented crowds with towering PA systems, a purpose-built stage production and a volume level that pushed contemporary equipment to its limits.
At the same time, their search for a stage-worthy guitar and bass rig had become a logistical headache. The British amps they’d relied on at home weren’t always practical overseas, and the band’s ever-growing live setup demanded more power than most manufacturers could comfortably supply.
Andy Babiuk, who published Rolling Stones Gear: All the Stones’ Instruments From Stage to Studio, explained in the May 2014 issue of Bass Player: “When the Stones came to the States, they got some Fender amps, but Bill Wyman stuck with his Vox. He said he really liked the tone, and he didn’t want to change it.
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“Brian Jones and Keith Richards both got a pair of Sheldon amps, so they were using those. At that point, Vox also started making other things that they kept on giving them – the 760 cabinets, the heads, and the Supremes. But for their 1969 Hyde Park performance in London, they each had stacks of Hiwatts.
“The intent was to bring those to the United States for the ’69 tour. The problem was, they weren’t set up for the right voltage.
“When they got over to rehearse, at Stephen Stills’ place, Stills had a bunch of small Ampegcombo amps, and they liked them. So Stephen was instructed to ask, ‘Hey, you got any bigger amps? We’re going to be doing a tour.’”
The events that followed would see the Stones abandon their original plans, and unwittingly help launch one of the most legendary amp lines in rock history.
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“Rich Mandella, who was with Ampeg at the time, said, ‘We’d designed the SVT, but we’d only built a handful of them.’ So they never really tested them out – 300-watt heads with two cabinets per head.
“But they put them on a truck that belonged to the Stones and hoped for the best. The Stones were the guinea pigs for those amps.”
The gamble transformed the Stones’ live sound, helping lay the foundations for the modern high-powered bass rig. But revolutionary gear has a habit of revealing its limits in spectacular fashion.
“I talked to some of the guys from Ampeg that went on that tour. Every night they were terrified. They didn’t know if the stuff was going to work. They were working on them at night after each show, and trying to fix it to make it better.
The Rolling Stones – Honky Tonk Women – New York MSG 1969 – improved stereo mix – YouTube
“I think the show was Oakland. Second song in, the amps blew up. You can hear Jagger apologizing to the crowd: ‘We’re trying to get it together up here. Maybe we’ll do a couple acoustic ones.’
“By the time they did Madison Square Garden, they had so many amps because they just wanted to have backups. There were 17 SVTs onstage. That’s far out to me – who in their right mind would have the balls to use the Stones as guinea pigs for beta testing SVTs? But it sounded great.”
With Keith Richards plugging his guitar into a 300-watt bass amp and refusing to ease off the volume knob, the band’s stage levels became the stuff of legend.
“Here was Keith Richards playing guitar through an SVT – and Keith’s not one to turn down. Bill told me that when you see videos of Mick running across the stage and sprinting when he’s near Keith, he’s not running because he wants calisthenics. He’s doing it because he’s trying to get away from the volume!
“Bill told me he didn’t really want to play loud, but had to just to compete. He said one night when he was standing in front of Keith’s amp, ‘I looked down and my trousers were moving!’”
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