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Mike Black · From: New Mexico, USA

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J Fletcher · From: London,Ont,Canada

You could try posing your question at weber.vst. It's a good forum. They also sell kits to build your own, if you want to go that route....Jerry

David Nugent · From: Gum Spring, Va.

Mike...Victoria Amp Co. hand builds their version which is point to point wired and true to the original in most respects. Far superior IMO to the Fender Reissue.

Mike Black · From: New Mexico, USA

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Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

It's hard to beat those Victorias.

Brad

Jay Ganz · From: Out Behind The Barn

Mike,
I don't think the LTD versions are point to point like the tweed twin reissues. Here's what it says on their site:

The new ’59 Bassman LTD is enhanced with:
• Genuine lacquered Tweed covering.
• Finger-joined pine cabinet for woody, resonant tone.
• Original spec 5AR4 rectifier tube for natural compression when playing hard.
• Internal bias pot makes it easier to experiment with various output tubes.
• Two GT-6L6 Groove Tube™ output tubes.
• Three improved 12AX7 preamp tubes.
• Fitted cover.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

The LTD is a PCB amp. It has a solid-pine cab annd a few other enhancements; otherwise like the "reissue"
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional

Mike Vallandigham · From: Martinez, CA

I had a '59 LTD for a while, and while it was a beautiful amp, it did not cut it for playing steel, even at low volumes. It just had too much natural distortion. I sold it after a few months.

I even tried to supe it up, trying to get it cleaner. I swaped a solid state rectifier in place of the stock tube one (helped a bit) and went with some JJ 6L6s in the power slots. The nice thing is it has a bias pot that's easily accessible, but even biasing it thru the rage from hot to cold, it never cleaned up.

Sad

I loved looking at that thing, but the shound that came out was not a nice.

I'll stick with my Vibrosonic Reverb Smile

now that's an amp.

Mike Black · From: New Mexico, USA

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Jay Ganz · From: Out Behind The Barn

Mike,
Yeah, I got ahold of a 5F6-A about 10 years ago
before the price went through the roof. It's all
stock with the original Jensen P10R's. It sounds
great with just about anything. Nothing really comes
close to it if that's the tone you're really
looking for. It will overdrive though, if you push it too hard. The 12AY7 does help though.

Mike Black · From: New Mexico, USA

Jay, I gave Jack Wyse, a great old Western Swing singer/guitar player famous for bringing the killer steel player Lee Knight to Seattle, a grand for his "HC" model 10 years ago and I had to convince him it was worth that! Matter of fact it had 4 mics in the back, 2 were beat EV crystal jobs and 2 were nice Shure 55c's, I still got one of each, and he refused when I offed him an extra 200 for them! (Ahh, remember the day when finding and buying old gear was a fun and affordable hobby?) He hadn't used it in 15 years and I asked him not to even plug it in. It had sat in his Horse barn all that time! Some of the tweed had rotted off and he'd added a metal handle but it was really clean over all.
My tech brought it up on a Variac, FWIW I bought parts from him and built one using a coffee can as a case after seeing what it did. It's a great tool for guys that like to buy old tube amps hanging out in barns! He retubed it but I never had to do anything to it after that. Before selling it I could tell one of the P10R's needed reconing but it was still just as it was.
At the time it sold there wasn't really a choice of keeping it. If the "HK" Super I kept wasn't recovered I probably would have sold it and kept the B'man but I had to keep the best "Tone to Value", if you will, of 2 amps and 1 of them had to have a 15.
A luthier/player/pal of mine has 2 of them in various states of assembly and I've asked him if he wants to sell one. I don't care about cosmetics or reconed speaks as long as it's there sonically. I'll probably put 2 D-110F's in the bottom anyway. Actually I wouldn't mind having one that needed recovering. A white Tolex or Tooled leather Bassman would be hip. I always wanted to have an amp covered in Gator hide!
I know if I search and buy an original I won't regret it but I'm not sure I want to justify tying up that much in amp any more. I don't want to build one myself, I'm too lazy and usually drunk Laughing

so I'm shopping the clones. The most work I want to have to do is install the chassis and speakers in a cab maybe.
BTW I'm guessing, from what I've gatherd by checking out the backgrounds of pics you've posted, that you've got a BF Super Reverb also? How would you compare the 2?

Tim Whitlock · From: Colorado, USA

Mike - I'm curious as to what application you have in mind for your Bassman. Not many modern players would dream of using a low powered amp with limited headroom for pedal steel. Are you playing non-pedal steel or maybe six-string guitar?

Mike Black · From: New Mexico, USA

Tim, I'm playing non pedal, top 40 mostly, that is songs that were tops in the 40's. At this point I haven't needed much more than 40 watts. So far no one's complained I wasn't loud enough except the girl singer and we fired her!! Laughing

Just kidding. It's her band! Laughing

I noticed you're from Arvada, does the Pickin' Parlor got any good Dobros at the moment?

Jay Ganz · From: Out Behind The Barn

Mike,
The Super Reverb is an old '64. I got it for $650.
Original Jensen C10R's. Pretty much untouched innerds.
Totally different animal than the Bassman. The '59
has alnicos. Also the "floating" baffle board just sounds different than the secured (and thicker) one in the Super. The Bassman has the original Astron tone
capacitors that couple the audio throughout the amp.
The Super Reverb has the blue & white ones along with
Shumacher transformers. The '59 has the Triad transformers. Each amp has it's own bag of tricks.

Tim Whitlock · From: Colorado, USA

Pickin' Parlor is just a few blocks from me. I get my strings and picks from them, but sad to say I can't afford to buy my instruments at mom and pop prices Embarassed

. I did get my Fender Vol/Tone pedal from Kit. Can't help you on the Dobros cause I don't play but they have plenty of nice archtops and Martins and they still have the lap steels on the wall. Jimmy Roy from Big Sandy plays steel through a reissue Bassman and sounds just dandy. If I were still playing just straight steel a Tweed Bassman or maybe a Tweed Twin would be my first choice.

Hiro Keitora · From: New York, New York

All the lead guitar guys are for '59 Bassman, but I myself am sold to '55 bassman with a little less gain with x2 rectifiers. I maybe misunderstanding but Tom Brummley's Bassman was with X2 rectifiers.

Anyway, there is a way to "tweak/mod" super reverb to make it sound pretty close to Bassman. I too have '66 Super reverb, and I set it up in the such way, Bright channel is stock BF Super Reverb, but the normal channel is Modded '55 Bassman and it worked very well.

Jensen P10R of course is the first thing to check out, but from my personal experience, if you reduce the "filter caps', to say 16 mfd, they really "losen up" the sound the way I like it.

Stock Super to me was a bit over "filtered', and which was great for efficient quiet sound, but I must say less filtering gives you that "tweedy" lose sound.

Just my 2 cents from fellow Bassman lover...

<H>

Mike Black · From: New Mexico, USA

I've been talking with Mark Moser. He told me he'd sell me a 5F6-A chassis. If I don't like it I can send it back for a refund less shipping. I'm gonna try it. I got a pal that's got a 54 5D6, same layout as the 5E6, so I should be able to a/b the 2 and get an idea.
I figure it'll be worth trying for the cost of shipping. I'll report on how it works out. At the price he's giving me I can still buy a real one if I find one I can afford! Hi Scott Cool

!
Actually it's not so much being able to afford to buy them it's being able to afford to KEEP them!

Hey Jay, in the years I've been seeing your posts I've simply concluded you got 1 of anything that sounds good and 2 of what ever sounds great! Some time you gotta shoot me a jpeg or 2 of your amps!
I had a Sept 63 SR with C10Q's, man what an amp. I got it in a Suburban load of gear that included a Bigbsy steel and sold it to to recoup some cost.

Tim, when I mentioned I had a pal that had both the 59 RI and a real one, Jimmy was the guy. He beats the crap out of his RI and says it sounds fine. Last Sept I was in Denver and went by Gravity and the PP. Gravity was empty. The PP was full! They had a really nice 30's Dobro SqN with spruce top. Nice guys, they let me sit and play all morning I think I played "I thought about you" on 8 different resos!

Keith Cordell · From: San Diego

Personally I have never understood the negativity about the RI. It is a decent sounding workhorse amp and I know at least 5 people touring with one; they work well even if they aren't the same as the old holy grail.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Eric Jaeger · From: Oakland, California, USA

Lynn Oliver · From: Redmond, Washington USA * R.I.P.

Max W. Thompson · From: Texas, USA

Question:
Since all you Bassman experts are talking here, I have one stupid question: Were any of the Fender Bassman amps considered "guitar" amps? Someone told me there was a difference in a Bassman "bass amp" and a Bassman "guitar amp".

Extended rambling:
In the early 1970s, I bought a p-bass and an old blond Fender Bassman head with separate cabinet, which is what I always thought a Bassman was for years, until they came out with some small combos they called Bassman this and Bassman that. I should say formerly blond, because someone had spraypainted it black, badly, and I had to clean a bunch of the paint off it with gasoline. Someone had stuck a couple of electrovoice wolverine speakers in it, and I blew them that summer and decided that I didn't want to play bass. I sold the p-bass for enough to pay off the whold rig and had $35.00 left over, which I used on a mandolin. I still play the mandolin, but I wish I'd kept the Bassman.

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

I played steel through a Fender bass amp for years. I coupled it with a separate Fender spring reverb unit and it sounded great. I believe it was black tolex and the bass head was separate from the speaker(s).
I wanted to cut down on the number of pieces so traded it and the reverb in on an early silver face Fender Twin Reverb with JBL speakers. Which I still have, by the way.

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

In my opinion, the major differences between a fender reissue amp with a pcb and a vintage one using point to point wiring isn't necessarily the wiring or pcb at all. Instead it's the component quality. I've been inside a newer Fender and it seems that they use all these cheesy blue (probably Xicon) metal film resistors which are notorious for sounding crisp and zingy, not warm. The old amps used carbon comp resistors. Some boutique builders today use a mix of carbon and good quality metal film resistors. Also the newer amp use ultra cheap mylar capacitors, not the good old film and foil types as found in a vintage Fender. I've personally re-capped and re-resistored a Fender Blues Junior, and it was dramatic. It sounded like a vintage fender or boutique amp compared to stock. Also the modern Fender transformers may not sound like the originals, but I bet the main culprit is the cheesy resistors and caps. It's the nature of corporate manufacturing. They'll choose the half cent resistor over the 10 cent resistor every time. The use of a PCB, if it's a good one with thick traces and good copper, is just fine with me. There are actually some benefits to pc-boards. Better ground planes, lower inductances, and other noise and RF issues can be had by using PCB's. But there's still nothing quite like a good ol' point to point hard wired circuit.

Brad

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