Acoustic Control Corporation 320 Head

This one was made in the late 70's. I'm using this amp for rock. I play with my fingers and a pick and do not slap. See below for features...it has lots of them. The one thing you may miss is the ultra deep eq of some other amps, this one excels at tweaking the midrange. Oh and unlike 99% of big modern amps this has no master volume. It's old school in that respect like an old SVT...not the classic. Since it runs a 2 ohm load you can power a mountain of speakers with it.

I'm using this superbeast with a vintage Gibson Victory Standard and a Guild B302-A, both a awesome basses. This amp has a huge set of **** hanging off of it. If you turn it up past noon it's huge ***sack is going to start flapping on your grill and you are going to start breaking ****. I'm powering an SVT 810E with it and it is plenty loud. In fact it is scary loud. This is what you get with just a volume knob. It's like the power amp is on 10 all the time. The power boost switch is ridiculus and I run the eq all below half. By itself the amp has an extremely present, bright, midrange heavy tone. The mids are so much more pronounced than most amps. Right now I also have an Ashdown ABM900 EVOII which is a great amp. The Ashdown has tons of power and sub lows but when you stand back it doesn't PUSH the sound out into the room like the Acoustic. It cuts and you hear everything very well. It has a very fast character to it and if you hammer it Geddy or Entwistle style it is so punchy it will probably crack your teeth out of your mouth. I'm running through a Carl Martin 3 band parametric EQ and a EH Blackfinger tube compressor. This warms it up, boosts the subs and cuts a little of the honkyness out of the mids. It sounds so very good and has so much character. Before this I was using a very nice Hiwatt DR201 and it was very sweet but a little shy in the subs, the Ashdown is very big and buttery. Right now it sounds alot like my old 71 Ampeg V4, an excellent amp, but it is tighter in the low end and louder over all. Also, it is not a pristine sound like some amps SWR etc. it has some characteristic distortion in there if you crank it up but it just adds to the growly snarl. It barks it doesn't get muddy. Also it sounds great with pedals...overdrive, fuzz, delay.

When I got this it was damaged in shipping. The eq sliders were bent so I bent them back. I powered it up and they weren't sliding or functioning right. I opened the amp and saw the backs 3 of the sliders had popped part way out. Popped'm back and they work but there is a short on the bass 70hz slider. Sometimes it works. Open it again and find where on the board the short is coming from. Bad 70hz accumulator on the eq board. Reflowed the solder, contact cleaner on the jacks, pots, and sliders. Amp works like new. Oh and I have looked inside lots of amps, the only one that was nearly as impressive was the Hiwatt. This thing is built with such good quality materials and engineering. Someone put so much love into designing this thing. It has that great old giant blue can on the power amp. It is a shame that these things go for as cheap as they do because they literally blow other amps out of the water with their quality. New amps with their toroidal transformers and hybrid tube preamps are so gimmicky when you actually compare them side by side with the old Acoustics, Hiwatts, and Ampegs. I hope someone knows how to fix this if it ever has a real problem but until then it's going on 30yrs and still going strong.

Support? There are superfan clubs so maybe.

This is a very underrated amp. Advanced engineering for its day and true love and desire to make a lasting professional piece of equipment makes this thing a true classic. Look at Joni Mitchell's Shadows and Light and watch Jaco blow the doors down with this amp and his trusty 360 in the background. You can still buy these for a fraction of what an SVT or Hiwatt cost and you will be in the same league and never have to change your tubes.

I owned a 320, purchased new in 1977. It is a BASS head, and indeed was intended to replace the older 360.
The 360 was legendary, but had a fundamental design problem, primarily with the speaker cabinet design It used a huge, rear loaded Electrovoice 18" speaker, and the sound came out of the cabinet through ports. At volume, it would literally blow most of the bass sound right past the dance floor (if a club was so equipped), past the people up close, and to the back wall.
The 320 was designed to overcome this. Someone in the comments noted the 300 watts, which is true. The reason it is so loud is that the 2 in the 320 is for a 2 ohm speaker load. The cabinet that came with my 320 had 4 - 15" speakers inside. The two that were top and bottom of the cabinet were front loaded (faced outward like most speakers). There was a center chamber about a foot tall, and the other two 15" speakers were horizontally mounted in there facing each other. They fired simultaneously, squeezing a huge volume of air between them, like squeezing a grape, and pushed the sound to the back wall, like the old 360 did. So you had the best of both worlds, the front loaded speakers for close up and the center for the back of the room. Now for the 2 ohm load part. The 4 speakers were wired in SERIES, not parallel, producing the load that the 320 head was designed to take. This is the equivelent of 600 watts into a 4 or 8 ohm load, which most speaker cabinets are. THAT is why it is so loud, it can take one hell of a speaker load by design. I am sure any owners have noted how heavy the thing is, it has a massive power transformer to handle the loads it was designed to produce.
And yet, it was whisper quiet when turned on and not being played, not rattle or hum, due to huge filter cans on the power supply.
My fellow mucisians, I have owned many bass amps over the 40 + years I have been playing, and I can truthfully say I have repeatedly kicked my own butt for letting this one get away from me, (started
playing smaller places, it was just too big for them). Would
eally like to find another complete rig (head and cabinet, which by the way, I believe was a 402 cabinet, (4 speakers, 2 ohm load, I could be wrong about this number). $159.oo for a working head? What a steal!!!! Just hope you have the speakers to handle it!!!!

Never had to use it, but it came with a warranty and service card for your wallet, 800 number.

Channel switching (unusable due to lack of odd 80 dollar on ebay footswitch), both parametric and switchable graphic EQ, and a power boost that is now relabeled the "Oh God!" switch. I just got this amplifier to replace an SWR that was stolen, I was going to buy a Fender Bassman 300 Pro (a fine amplifier) but when a friend showed up with this I couldn't turn it down. You can get several really great sounds out of this amp, and it is loud enough for any venue, too loud for some really. My downstairs neighbor has reached an all new level of dislike for moving in downstairs from two musicians who also wear cowboy boots.

I'm using this amp with a Fender P-Bass from the late 60's to early 70's (can't get a better date from the serial) tuned either CGDA or DGDA depending on the song, through an EH Black Finger compressor used as a compressor and an overdrive, into an Ampeg 410, and occasionally a Big Muff or a Dano delay. This is the best bass sound I have ever achieved. Just using the graphic eq, the tone knob on my bass, and the Black Finger I can go from psychedelic fuzzed out tones to big clean round country sounds. And the quality of all the tones I has been as close as I've ever found to perfect. The amp is noisy (partially due to needing to be serviced and partially due to the Black Finger) will update when I get some bucks to get it a good working over by a tech.

Haven't used it enough to tell, but it is at least 30 years old, I think it'll take a pretty good beating.

Does not exist

I've been playing for about fifteen years and this is one of the best finds I've come across in years. I'm just getting back into playing bass, I've been playing guitar and mandolin in a country band for the last five years and this has gotten me really excited about playing bass again. I have never sounded so good tone wise, now I just need to get my chops back up again on the bass and I'll be as happy as a pig in congress.

The features on this amp for its time are quite impressive. I have a buddy who bought a Marshall JCM 2000 Dsl 100 with LESS features than this bass amp. It is a 2 channel amp (both channels the same) each channel having its own effects loop, EQ, bright switch, and 10 db cut. it also has a 5 band EQ which is controlled by a switch to select from channel a or b. it has a switched input jack which works with the footswitch. the coolest thig is that when on the switched input you can turn up both a snd b channels for super loud sound. on top of all that it has a power boost.

This is a very clean amp capable of high volume distortion.

My amp was built in '81 and was used in disney for who knows what. it has spray paint on it rust and a few dings. but i use it on a gig with no back-up.

warranty what warranty. Company is no longer

plain and simple, this amp is beefy. thundering low, and ear splitting high. on top of this model 320 i own a 134(guitar 135 watt 4-10 combo) a 150 (guitar 135 watt head) and two 803s( 2-12 2-tweet cabs). if it was stolen i would by another (if you can find one).
i have taken this amp to a buddys who had a new hartke 350 watt head hooked up to his cab and blew him out of the water.

The Acoustic Head was made sometime in the 70's. The amp gets that real low thump most modern bass amps are lacking. It has 2 speaker outs, a 5 band EQ, -10db cut button, a bright switch which I've never really used, 2 channels or both channels combined, an F/X loop. Very modern features for it's time.

I'm playing this with my '85 MIJ P-bass, Essex Jazz copy, Custom made Baritone Guitar and looking to buy a Gibson Ripper. My cab is either an Ampeg 1x15 or a mid 70's Sunn Cab. It suits me because I can crank it to shake the 3 story building my band practices at and still have headroom for a nice clean.

It does get some funky noises when I turn it off and turn it on, but it may just be environment of flourescent lights or that the band practices in the basement of a radio station.

Due to the fact that it is built like a tank, I think it could get hit by a truck and still work. I am not sold that it would make it on a world tour because of its age and I bought it in rather used condition.

I bought it used so the warranty would be void and the fact the company is long out of business.

I think for $159, I made a steal. One great, loud, yet toneful amp. If it were stolen I'd just look for the guy with crooked arms, because with the handy side handle, you weight shifts downward quite dramatically. I'd buy another one because it sure kills other amps I tried out.

This early 1970's amp. is the "guitar"-equivilent of the 360 bass head. It has 3 channel inputs: A, B, & a "switched" A/B input that combines both channels in one input so every control on both channels can be utilized without the use of a Y-cord. Power Boost/Normal switch; Standard 5 band EQ w/"On/Off" EQ switch, so one can use just the rotary tone controls (Treble, Midrange, Bass) without EQ, if desired. Also has "Brite" & !0db switches for both hannels. Back of amp. has 2 spkr. outputs & 6 (count 'em...6) preamp jacks !! 2 are "combined" A/B In & Out jacks & the other 4 are In & Out jacks for each separate channel. "Dumb" feature: The rubber feet are on the SIDE of the head, making it Extremely easy to knock over when resting or storing the head off of the spkr. cabinet. This amp. would warrent a "9" rating if it had reverb, which it doesn't.

God has contacted me 7 times to tell me to turn this amp. down !! LOUD ?? I gots yer Loud right hear (pun intended). Speaker outs on back are labeled 300 watts RMS...I think they left off a "0". I run it through a Sunn cabinet w/6 - 12" spkrs. & play a Sears (9-layer plywood) Flying V (which is a copy of a Korean copy of a Japanese copy of a India copy of a Republic of China copy of a...aw, hell..why go on). Sound is clean as a virgin..crystal clear throughout most of the volume range...very little distortion, which is expected from a transistor ("solid state" for you nerds out there) amp. No hum, squeaks, or mystery noises, unless one uses the appropriate stomp box (Ok..Ok.."effects pedal"). Rating refers to "cleanliness" and "virginity" of sound quality.

Even after being hit with lightning bolts from God, this amp. holds up nicely. Even though the Acoustic company has gone the way of the dinosaur & Pauly Shore movies, there are many repair shops (at least in my neck of the woods) that aren't afraid to work on amps. that have no schematic readily available. If a backup amp. is needed, I can rely on my trusty Sears amp. (which is a copy of a Earth, which is a copy of a Plush, which is a copy of a Kustom, which is a...GAWD, not again !!)

Please see "Reliability" comments above. Rating based on Acoustic Co. biting the dust and Pauly Shore movies.

The name of my band is "TDL", which stands for Too Damn Loud, so this amp. fits my needs Perfectly. The crystal clear tones are perfect for slide gitbox on Capt. Beefheat tunes & the 6 fuzz box/distortion pedals I use all at once render some tasty noises. All in all, if I can't afford a Marshall, Fender, Peavey, Mesa Boogie, Ampeg, Crate, Huges & Kettner, Line 6, Rogue, Dumble, Kustom, Roland, Hiwatt, Music Man, Solodano, Gellen-Krueger, Sound City, Lab, or Orange amp., I'll settle for the next best thing...the Acoustic 320.