Educate me on Bassman heads

cheezemaster

cheezemaster

New member
I recently did some recording and my amp was acting funny (probably needs new caps or tubes). Because of this, I used an old blackface Fender Bassman head that the studio owns. We ran it through my Marshall cabinet plugged in my P90 loaded Les Paul and wow! Rocknroll embodied!! Unfortunately the engineer didn't really know much about the amp .

I'm now convinced I absolutely need one of these things :banana:

What should I look for - any years that are better? What's the difference between the 60s blackface and the 70's silverface ones? Is it really worth paying extra for the blackface? Are there any re-issues. Also what is the impedance (is it ok to be running into a 16ohm Marshall cab?) The speaker output on the amp i used was not clearly marked.

Also, the engineer did a thing where he ran a cable from the first channel into the second channel on the front of the amp (to get more overdrive). Is this standard practice/safe?

Sorry if these are stupid questions - this is just my first experience playing with one of these amps (or any really old amp for that matter).
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

blackface amps 64-67 are gonna be a little more expensive and probably sound better but with work a silverface can sound as good or at least almost as good.

jumping the channels works as long as the two channels are in phase, on reverb amps it doesnt work since the two channels are out of phase on most non reverb fender amps it will work and isnt a problem.

as far as the impedance i think that the "normal" cab that was used with the bassman was 4 ohms but i could be wrong.

the aa864 has a bias pot which is cool, the ab165 has a balance pot which is kinda useless if you buy matched tubes and doesnt let you adjust the bias to get the best tone. this can be changed with a little work.

from 68-71 or so the bassman was still an ab165 circut so very similar to a blackface amp. after that the amps changed and honestly i dont know much about em except that they were 50w till the mid 70's and then 70w. they also made bassman 100's and bassman 135's
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

did the amp OD a lot, or just a little?

if it was a lot, it was an ab165

if it was light crunch, it was an aa864

ab165's are gonna be cheaper

and yeah they all run at 4 ohms
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

You caould also try some other similar wattage models from the same era. Bandmasters, Supers etc. Bassman that's really the bespoke one is the 50's tweed, with the 3x10inch combo amp. That's the famous one. I have a Showman, which is a twin in a head form. It is clean and killer. You could also try a little 22 watt deluxe etc.

Bassman's are expensive.
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

Great guitar amps when modded. Good guitar amps unmodded. The Bassman has more power and a bigger output transformer that's as big as a Super Reverb OT, and an extra preamp tube compared to a Bandmaster. If you wanted to have the silverface Bassman rebuilt and modded, you can make the preamp in one channel very much like a Plexi Marshall or JTM 45 or 59 tweed Bassman complete with cathode follower preamp because of the extra 12ax7 available with the Bassman circuit. Or you can use that extra preamp tube for more overdrive. The point is, the silverface Bassman head is a terrific head for doing mods to...there's some outrageously good sounding modded Bassman heads out there. Lew
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

I was in my local GC the other day - they had a PILE of SF Bassman heads, all around $500. Once a long time ago, I tried out my bass player's '68 Bassman head for guitar. It sounded great. I've heard other blackface or early silverface Bassman heads that sound fantastic through a Marshall cab.
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

The next logical (dumb?) question - if a Bassman runs at 4 ohms and my Marshall cab is 16ohms would I hurt the amp if I used this cab? (I always forget how it works with resistance).
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

cheezemaster said:
The next logical (dumb?) question - if a Bassman runs at 4 ohms and my Marshall cab is 16ohms would I hurt the amp if I used this cab? (I always forget how it works with resistance).
Click to expand...

You can rewire your cab so that all four 16 ohm speakers are in parallel instead of the series/parallel wiring that Marshall uses and four 16 ohm speakers in parallel will give you a 4 ohm load. Just do that if you get a Bassman head. Lew
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

I had a SF bassman head back in the 90's, that I picked up in a pawn shop for $99. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a ton from it, just poking around and trying different mods. I tried modding for different tubes, including EL34's at one point, and eventually I just put it to correct BF specs and with 7581's.

These are great amps and what I ofton reccomend to other players to look out for, when they are getting into tube amps.
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

i like blackface cause the circuitry allows the tubes to get that awesome pushed sound. but it aint worth it cause reliability on a 40yr old amp isnt trustworthy
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

I just got a 68, drip edge, the chassis is stamped 1967. I am in love with this amp, the bass channel is fat, lush and has a ton of beautiful grind. Simply stunned by how good this head sounds. Fat with great clarity. I have a Garnet head that sounds quite similiar as well. I wired my cab with a DPDT switch, so I can switch between 4 and 16 ohms for my various amps. Having a few cabs, I tried the amp at 4,8 and 16 ohm, for my tastes, the 4 ohm match really sits perfectly with the amp. I know some folks run them into 16 ohm, but the advice I was given was to not have that much of an ohm mismatch, with an amp built for 4 ohms. 8 ohm should not be an issue. Still an absurd bargain IMO. Hand wired amps with major mojo for 400.00 or so, the early Silver Face amps will likely be fetching a lot more in the coming years.
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

Those SF amps will outlast you and me...with some simple maintenance, they are very dependable.
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

ES350 said:
Those SF amps will outlast you and me...with some simple maintenance, they are very dependable.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. All that ever wears out in my old amps is the tubes...

Lew
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

I need a Bassman. My buddy used to have one and it was seriously the best amp I've ever heard. It was like I was channeling a Diety with a boost in front of it. (I've got a Mesa now, great amp but that Bassman was something else. And loud as sin too)
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

My Fender Bassman is all the amp I'll ever need. However...

Lewguitar said:
Great guitar amps when modded. Good guitar amps unmodded. The Bassman has more power and a bigger output transformer that's as big as a Super Reverb OT, and an extra preamp tube compared to a Bandmaster. If you wanted to have the silverface Bassman rebuilt and modded, you can make the preamp in one channel very much like a Plexi Marshall or JTM 45 or 59 tweed Bassman complete with cathode follower preamp because of the extra 12ax7 available with the Bassman circuit. Or you can use that extra preamp tube for more overdrive. The point is, the silverface Bassman head is a terrific head for doing mods to...there's some outrageously good sounding modded Bassman heads out there. Lew
Click to expand...

How would one go about making a Bassman sound more like a JTM 45? Would it be costly? I love the tone of my 68 silverface but i could always use a little more crunch.

-X
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

kevlar3000 said:
...I wired my cab with a DPDT switch, so I can switch between 4 and 16 ohms for my various amps...
Click to expand...

and how do you do THIS mod? I don't mean to hijack the thread but that's something I've been thinking about doing but didn't think was scientifically possible. What do you do?

-X
 
Re: Educate me on Bassman heads

I've got a blackfaced '68 I run with 6V6s and a '67 with 6L6s,
just to spread the tone spectrum a bit. I jump the channels
sometimes, sometimes not. My '67 is jumped in this pic. You can really get great, CHEAP tones
with these heads. Just don't tell anyone 'cause prices on these will go up.

Plug into a 4x12(wired 4 ohms of course) and you get a great clean to
an awesome grind at a level that won't bleed your ears in a moderate
sized room.
These heads love p90 pickups.
If you shop around, for well under a grand you'll be stylin' uptown.

bassmantopost.jpg
 
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