Ampeg
I was interested in getting one or two larger amplifiers for my upcoming first solo performance in March of 1967. Arnold Fishkind, a great jazz bass player and a close friend of my father’s, knew Everett Hull. Hull was a bass player who founded the Ampeg company. In February, my father and I followed Arnie to the Ampeg factory in Linden, New Jersey, where I performed for Hull and a few associates. We were hoping to buy equipment at the artist discount Ampeg offered to professional musicians (such as Arnie). Instead, Everett Hull consigned to me the following equipment: a Gemini II amp (later exchanged for a B-18X), a B-12XT amp, an AEB-1 horizontal electric bass, and a Baby Bass. We drove home in shock.
In my visits to the factory I met several people including Walt Shaver and Warren Grady. Jess Oliver had already left the company but I visited him several times in the early 70s when he was living nearby in Westbury, New York. In 1973 I purchased his OP-2 Power Projector (which I still have).
Everett Hull was a remarkably generous man who encouraged me to pursue a career in music. He came to several of my performances and once (with his wife Gertrude) came to our home for dinner, where he and I played for our supper.
![February 1967 at the Ampeg factory - getting a private lesson on the Baby Bass from Everett Hull.](https://og25ae.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/1967_Everett_Hull_Don_Muro_Ampeg.jpg)
![April 1967 - admiring a B18-X with Everett Hull, Arnold Fishkind and his son Todd](https://og25ae.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/1967_Everett_Hull_Don_Muro_Ampeg_B-18X.jpg)
![The Ampeg AEB-1 bass](https://og25ae.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Ampeg_AEB-1_Don_Muro.jpg)
![May 1968 - jamming at home with Everett Hull.](https://og25ae.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/1968_Everett_Hull_Don_Muro-Ampeg.jpg)
Note: the Ampeg AEB-1 bass can be heard on recordings on this page.