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Pete and Stacks



Gary M. Gillman" <garyg@inforamp.net> wrote:

>>PT, in the 1980 interview Joe recently added to his Who
>>website (thanks Joe), said that the lower cabinet of his
>>Hiwatt ampifier stack was a "dummy", but that he wouldn't
>>feel "right" if it wasn't there. A lister recently
>>indicated as well that this was the standard stage set-up.
>>But wait a sec. How could this be? PT is credited with
>>developing the "stack", which has been much copied by many
>>other acts. Surely this must have meant that two working
>>amps were used, or four as he often had two stacks behind
>>him, as did JAE.

I am currently on the road and don't have access to my books on this subject,
but as I recall from THE HISTORY OF MARSHALL (which, as we know, was Pete's
amp before HiWatt)-
Jim Marshall's first amp was a 45 watt Fender Bassman clone.  Pete asked for
more power.  Marshall came up with a 100 watt head, and at the time a 4-12
cabinet was the biggest you could get.  Pete wanted more still!  Mr. Marshall
then designed an 8-10 or 8-12 cabinet, which while very loud, was also too
heavy to be transported by humans.  Pete asked Jim Marshall to split the
cabinet into two halves-and thus the stack was born.  

As to why the bottom cabs later became dummies, I would have to speculate.
 If you've ever played in front of a 4-12 cabinet, you may have noticed that
most of the sound is directed at your legs.  I imagine if you were playing
with someone like John and Keith, you might still have a hard time hearing
yourself.  If you've got another cab stacked on top, then you've got 4-12
inchers pointed at your head, and you're definitely gonna hear that.  That's
why, IMHO, the top cab stayed on top, even after the bottom one became empty.

Scott