The Who’s PA: 1967–1968

The advent of better microphones, including Beyer and Shure, the WEM (Watkins Electric Music) Audiomaster five-channel mixer and multiple WEM 100-watt transistor PA amplifiers chained together changed rock PA. The Who, along with the Pink Floyd, Cream, the Move, etc., were early adopters.

In 1967, the PA employed the Marshall model 1966 Major P.A. 200-watt PA heads and 1976 PA Column, 4×12″ 100-watt PA cabinets, and eventually the larger slanted cabinet model 1990 8×10″ PA cabinets.

In 1968, the PA system was built around a Swedish-made Ackuset mixing board, one of the first mixers to incorporate both volume faders and echo on each channel.

For the 1967 U.S. tours, however, it was customary to use the usually inadequate house PA. Established venues like the Fillmore East, though, had Altec horn-loaded PA systems.

Sunn Coliseum PA

At the beginning of the first U.S. tour, the Who made use of the Blues Magoos purchase of a Sunn Coliseum PA on 14 July 1967.

Mark “Hoss” Amans, roadie for the Blues Magoos, has written that he purchased Sunn amplifiers and Coliseum PA in Tualatin, Oregon, on 14 July 1967, as the tour stopped in Portland. Because the Herman’s Hermits were sponsored by Fender and had matching amps, and the Who were sponsored by Vox and had matching Super Beatles, he thought it appropriate that the Blues Magoos also have a matching backline. So as the tour rolled on, the Who and Hermits used the Sunn Coliseum PA for the tour.

Selected quotes

All quotes and references are copyright their original owners and are included for reference only.

Excerpted from Mark “Hoss” Amans book, Where The Action Was:

When we were in Calgary, the Blues Magoos didn’t have matching equipment on stage. Hermans Hermits were sponsored by Fender, and they had all large Fender-dual showman amplifiers. The Who were sponsored by Vox, and had six Super Beatle Vox amplifiers. This was an amplifier I was well familiar with, because when I was with the Raiders, we were sponsored by Vox, as well. I knew Con and Norm Sundholm, because Norm used to play bass with the Kingsmen, and his brother Con started an amplifier company called Sunn, out of Tualatin, OR, just south of Portland.

So when we got to Portland, OR, to play the second gig of the tour, I called up Norm at the plant and told him my situation with the Blues Magoos. Here we were in the beginning of our tour, and I needed amplifiers and PA, bad. The Who, and The Herman Hermits didn’t even carry a PA with them, and in those days, we always carried our own equipment. We very rarely relied on the house to supply amps or PA systems. Keep in mind that this was long before the huge rental systems came into play.

So I took Mike Esposito with me and went to the Sunn factory. We went inside and told them exactly what we needed, and the guys really came through for us and sponsored The Blues Magoos with all Sunn equipment. We had all of the amplifiers for all of the instruments that we needed, and I told them that I wanted a Sunn Coliseum PA system which was customized with two horns on top of each speaker cabinet and two bottoms to a side. So that’s four horns to a side, and two bottoms to a side. And to this day, I still love that system.

I got back to The Coliseum with all of the gear in plenty of time to start the show. Even though though The Blues Magoos were better known at the time than The Who, the guys volunteered to open the show, and they let The Who play second, and The Hermits headlined. So I set up all of the Sunn amplifiers and PA, brand new, right out of the cardboard box. Looked very impressive.

The tour manager, Ed McAdams, used to handle a lot of the Dick Clark tours, and he knew me well. He put me in charge of all three of the road crews, because of my past experience. So unloading the truck, we had all of the Super Beatle amps, all of the Fenders, and all of the new Sunn gear from Portland. Also, all three groups used the Sunn Coliseum PA system, and they all liked it a lot. So I had to teach other roadies and cross-train them on all of the gear on stage. I was also in charge of the stage set up, all of the lighting, the sounds, and backstage security.

In August 1967, the Who purchased their own Sunn equipment, though it is unknown whether they purchased any PA equipment or reverted to using house PA.

Sometime around the the 25 Nov., 1967, Village Theatre dates in New York, they would purchase a Sunn PA from Manny’s in New York. Bob Pridden had indicated that it was bought a couple days prior to the 29 Nov., 1967, date in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, though footage from the 25 Nov., 1967, Village Theatre, gig shows Sunn PA in use.

As recalled by Dave Goessling, the PA at the Union Catholic High School Gymnasium gig was a Sunn Coliseum Sound System, comprising two sets of Sunn Coliseum speaker cabinets topped topped by one Coliseum Golden Sound Lens on each side of the stage.

Dave Goessling:

At Union Catholic High School in New Jersey, we were all at that show and helped road manager Bob Pridden load the groups’ gear into their bus after the show. We were all very interested in the gear, having a band ourselves. He told us that the band had bought all new gear at Manny’s in NYC just a couple days before, and that Pete had bought a number of those Coral Hornets all at the same time. He said they were fairly inexpensive, and sounded pretty good, and they expected them to last a while and be easy to piece together after smashups.

At the same time they bought the new, huge-for-the-time Sunn PA and Sunn amps. Those amps and PA made a big impression on us (see our fanciful drawings of our band’s dream gear, inspired by that show...). They were huge compared to anything we had seen anyone use up to that time.

The Sunn PA was likely used in the U.S. and Canada until July 1968, when they abandoned their gear at Canadian customs in Toronto after Pete and Roger had their passports stolen and were unable (or unwilling) to satisfy a $20,000 customs bond.

For the January 1968 Australia tour, Roger:

We couldn’t afford to take our own equipment so we had to hire what was there. We used these systems from, like, World War II. It was the PA. It was unbelievable.

For the 22 Feb., 1968, show at Bill Graham’s Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, The Who used the brand-new $35,000 house PA.

Ackuset

In late July or early August 1968, after abandoning the Sunn gear in Toronto, they began using a PA system built around a Swedish-made Ackuset mixing board, one of the first mixers to incorporate both volume faders and echo on each channel. This drove four Marshall 8×10 PA cabinets.

Rick Giles:

I first saw the Who on Aug. 10, 1968, at a small venue in St. Charles, Ill., which was a converted roller rink. Sat on the floor with about 300 other people. Very up close and personal so to speak and VERY, VERY, LOUD. But it was a life-changing experience. Keith’s drums were unmiked except for a vocal mike. You could hear Keith perfectly over John’s two Sunn 200s bass amps with four speaker cabinets and Pete’s two Sound City stacks. They used a Swedish PA system called Ackuset for power and four Marshall 8×10 speaker cabinets for speakers. The cabinets were set up like a “T” — that is, one cabinet was set upright with the other on top horizontally. No throwbacks or monitors and you could hear the vocals perfectly like you always could with the Who. They always had the best PA equipment every time I saw them.

From 2015 Sound on Sound interview with Bob Pridden:

“Equipment was very archaic in those days so we used to change things around a lot,” explains Pridden. “We used to use four Marshall 8x10s. The two outside ones had the vocals and the two inside ones had just the drums, because the band were so loud that you didn’t need a PA for the bass and guitar. They were only playing 1000-seater halls and you could hear the guitar and bass without a PA. Then things evolved from there, obviously. When we were in Scandinavia [mid-1968], we found a PA called an Ackuset, which we started using with the Marshall system. The Hollies used to have one too and we thought if they were using it, it must be good, so we got one and that had an echo built in. That’s when all that started, and that echo unit was a great little unit, actually. After that, I started to get into [Watkins and Maestro] Copicats and Echoplexes, and Binsons. There were all kinds of echo units that I used to use on Pete’s guitars and on vocals.”

Additional info on Ackuset:

• Fuzz.se (translated)

Notable events

1967:

• Crown introduces the DC-300 150 watts/channel stereo solid-state amplifier.
• WEM supplies the UK’s first 1,000-watt PA for the 1967 National Jazz and Blues Festival, Windsor, the festival sound was reportedly less than stellar.
• McCune Sound Services of San Francisco supplies the Altec PA (with A7 Voice of the Theater speakers and Altec 80w rack mount mono amps) for the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967. See panorama photo of the stage (archived) and ProSound discussion thread on Monterey Pop PA.