Fender Bassman Head: What years are good?

[lollygagger8]

I have a Silverface (AB165) and can be had for cheap. I had my tech blackface the the normal channel, and plexi'd the bass channel to a (AA864) <- the one you want. I had the bright switch turned into a "mid boost"

Sounds amazing recorded.

Not near as clean as my bandmasters, but I didn't want it clean.

[danohss]

Not sure where you live but I have a 72 Bassman (head and cabinet) that has an AB165 (1965) circuit in it. All new tubes, new filter caps, new choke, all resistors checked and any out of spec have been replaced. I also installed a mod to allow true bias adjust, these bassmans had a hum balance pot but not a true bias - it does now. Original Tolex and Grille cloth - it's in decednt shape for a 72. Plays well, they're a little heavy to ship though. I'd be happy with $900 for it (plus shipping if you're too far away to pick up or have me deliver). Let me know if you're interested. Itravel around the Northeast quite a bit for work and could possible deliver depending where you are.

[drinkercope]

Hi everyone!

I saw an ad online for a 1967 Blackface Bassman with mods for a decent price that I was pretty interested in. However, not being an expert I decided to do some research and the info and photos the guy gives don't seem to jive up exactly to what I'm learning. He says it's a 50w with the AB165 circuit, but that it has a 100w output transformer from a twin reverb. It also has a master volume mod with the knob placed directly over the B and A in Bassman (ugh).

Now I started to get a little leary of the whole thing when I realized that in his pic of the back of the amp, there are pretty obviously 4 6l6 power tubes in there. All pics I saw of blackface bassman amps have only 2. As far as I could find, there were no Bassman 100's, which is what that looks like to me, in existence in 1967. He listed all the mods he knew of on the amp, but it seems to me that if he had added 2 power tubes to the turret board, he would've mentioned it.

The other suspicious thing from the pics was the placement of the master volume mod knob. He mentioned that it was an unfortunate placement for the knob, but when I looked at pictures from the internet of later silverface Bassman 100's, the master volume knobs appear to be IN THE EXACT SAME SPOT.

Again, I'm new to all this, but from what I've learned with minor research, it seems as though this might actually be a later silverface Bassman 100 made to look like a blackface 67. I'm waiting on the guy to email me back a serial number so I can look into it a little more.

Am I being paranoid?

I'd appreciate the thoughts of anyone who might know more about these amps than me.

Thanks!

[drbob1]

Of course you're not being paranoid. The only way to be sure is to take the chassis out of the box and start looking at what's been done. If the chassis was punched for 4 6L6s to start with then obviously it isn't a BF Bassman modded (and I find it hard to imagine that they'd find a way to get 4 6L6s into a regular bassman head, maybe staggering the sockets). They will have had to cut a bigger hole for the power transformer and probably the OT as well.

[Ron Vogel]

Originally Posted by Jack_Of_Spades13

Hey, I'm new here. This is my first post. I love this forum and I had a question regarding this post. I bought a 69 Fender Bassman head and it had been modded but I don't know what kind of mod. All I can tell is that the modded channel is louder and has a "fuller" sound. Is there any way I can find out what kind of mod it was? Are there a lot of different ways a Fender Bassman can be modded or can it be narrowed down. Sorry, I'm such a rookie to this stuff. I love the way it sounds and I'm really curious to get more knowledge about how tube amps like this work. Any information you can give me regarding this matter would help me out a lot. Thanks

Typically the mods to fender amps involve eliminating the NFB (neg feedback loop). Totally reversable...the "tweed mod" refers to bypassing the tone stack for more gain.

The circuits on these amps are pretty simple...most of the "magic" from the amps come from the player and the "iron" (transformers IMHO).

I'm not saying that swapping tubes or speakers isn't going to change it either...but that's the minutia us tone freaks argue about on internet forums...lol

[Jack_Of_Spades13]

Originally Posted by Ron Vogel

Typically the mods to fender amps involve eliminating the NFB (neg feedback loop). Totally reversable...the "tweed mod" refers to bypassing the tone stack for more gain.

The circuits on these amps are pretty simple...most of the "magic" from the amps come from the player and the "iron" (transformers IMHO).

I'm not saying that swapping tubes or speakers isn't going to change it either...but that's the minutia us tone freaks argue about on internet forums...lol

haha ok. Thanks so much for the information. That really helps me out. I've been searching about the circuits and have seen things about how to eliminate negative feedback loop. The "tweed mod" you mentioned may have been done on mine also. Your post definitely helps narrow it down.

[scrondle]

I just picked up an October of 64 Bassman. It sounds amazing. It's verified to have the AA864. The tone knobs only really sound good in one spot and I need to use an attenuator to be able to rehearse at a volume that the other band members won't complain about but it has the sound I've been looking for. I paid $600 for the head and $300 for a matching 212 cab with non original speakers. I recorded some demos for a friends band and I didn't end up doing anything to the guitar tracks besides a small amount of reverb.

When I picked it up it had some problems. I had Ron Veil go through it and he put it back to original spec in about an hour. It's really a peach.

[nedorama]

Congrats on your 64 Bassman!

For the cabinet, you may want to try Warehouse Speakers G12C; I put a pair in a Bandmaster cabinet to use with my Showman and they sound amazing. will be selling my Weber California 12's in my Bandmaster combo to replace with these.

[scrondle]

Thanks for the tip! It's got an eminence alnico and the wrong jensen in it now. It does sound pretty good that way. I've been thinking about getting a 210 cab to try out.

[evangelista]

Originally Posted by tigeba

I think the biggest problem using the Bassman for bass guitar is the open backed speaker cabinet. I think it would be interesting to try it out with the right bass cab.

My Bassman 10 has 4 ten inch speakers in a closed-back cabinet. Sounds phenomenal with my Pbass.

[Pags]

Originally Posted by pootkao

I've played through a couple Silver-faces and really dug 'em. Icepick is a good word for it.

Does anyone actually use Bassman amps for BASS though?

I play through a couple serious bass rigs when I'm gigging and borrowed my guitar players bassman 10 for an audition I didn't want to drag flight cases to. I fell in love. He has a 50w and it was more amp than you could ever need in a rehearsal studio. My only complaint would be that I'd have to use a DI in line, I could mic it I guess.

[nedorama]

What's wrong with using a DI inline? Given the dodgy DI's built into some of today's bass amps below a certain price, I'd almost rather use a good external DI.

[lollygagger8]

Originally Posted by scrondle

I just picked up an October of 64 Bassman. It sounds amazing. It's verified to have the AA864. The tone knobs only really sound good in one spot and I need to use an attenuator to be able to rehearse at a volume that the other band members won't complain about but it has the sound I've been looking for. I paid $600 for the head and $300 for a matching 212 cab with non original speakers. I recorded some demos for a friends band and I didn't end up doing anything to the guitar tracks besides a small amount of reverb.

When I picked it up it had some problems. I had Ron Veil go through it and he put it back to original spec in about an hour. It's really a peach.

Greenbacks.......they will set you free

Or try one V30 and one Greenback. My buddy has a Music Man cab with that combo and it sounds killer

[muziekschuur]

Fender bassman 300 from 2012 is really nice.... a 100 watt version is there too.

It has automatic bias and guard system for tubes.... Like that idea.
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