THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BASSMEN: Fender Bassman (and clones) Owners Thread

[OffYourFace]

This '67 AB165 Bassman was a basketcase for years and didn't have a proper headshell (still doesn't haha). It's been hacked up by other techs over the years and since buying it last year it's been used as my mod platform. But all the transformers are original and now it sounds great. I love this amp.

Mods:

-Output section rebuilt to AA864 specs
-Bass Ch. revoiced for guitar
-Norm Ch. disconnected
-Midrange Control Added (25k pot but might bump it up to 50k for a touch more gain)
-LarMar PPIV Master Vol added
** I'll switch the knobs to the Blonde-era cupcakes soon

[MrShake]

That is... pretty sexy.

Nice work!

[hulakatt]

I don't know why the drip edge with a bf face plate works so well but it does! I used to have a Bandmaster like that.

[BonnieJeanGuitars]

I had a Demeter TGA-3 and currently have a TGP-3 Preamp, both of which have a tweaked Bassman circuit at the clean channel. They use a 500K pot for gain instead of the 1M volume before V2, a 33K slope resistor rather than the 56K in the Bassman and the bass pot is a 500K rather than a 1M. Sounds great in either form factor. The Preamp has some minor issues but I plan to build a tweaked version of it to address some things that I don't get on with and add some conveniences.

3C30C03C-B87F-42A6-8D3A-BF8D46032223_1_105_c by Sean Chaney, on Flickr

[bulrich]

July 63 6G6-B
Bought from 2nd owner, completely stock. Replaced filter caps, 3 wire, etc. Still running the original Tung Sol 5881s. Paired with a 62 VI.

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Oh wow!
Congrats on that amp and VI!

What a lovely surfy combination!

July 63 6G6-B
Bought from 2nd owner, completely stock. Replaced filter caps, 3 wire, etc. Still running the original Tung Sol 5881s. Paired with a 62 VI.

[GreenKnee]

I'm sure this one is hidden in the thread somewhere as it used to belong to our friend JSett, but here it is again:



'67, modded with a master volume in place of the ground switch.

Sounds epic. Gigged with it a few times and it's liberating just playing with some delay and a boost rather than the big board you see in the photo above. At gig volume the amp just doesn't need OD and fuzz cause it sounds so glorious on its own.

[Veitchy]

3C30C03C-B87F-42A6-8D3A-BF8D46032223_1_105_c by Sean Chaney, on Flickr

This is seriously cool.

[MrShake]

This thread is luscious.