I had an amp tech go through and replace all of the tone caps to match that of the fender super reverb specs. I will try one as soon as possible but i was just wondering if im heading in the right direction. It has eq settings for each channel, as well as a master volume. A tube preamp two 12ax7s and power amp one12ax7, one 12at7, six 6550s. Nov 16, 2010 i was recently given an early70s fender bassman 10 by a dear friend of mine who said he couldnt get it to overdrive. The silverface fender bassman amp from the 1970s has a great reputation as an affordable, vintage tube rig for guitarists, delivering plenty of volume, great tone, and an excellent chassis, offering easy preamp and tone stack modification. During the different eras the bassman amp came in many different shapes and. How the fender bassman set the standard for guitar. Think it also has a high end gain channel for some more marshall crunch type of stuff. Legendary fender bassman the tweed covered fender bassman is considered by many to be the epitome of tone, and every current tube amplifier myth revolves around this amplifier. However, the reality is that fender made many improvements to the blackface circuit, so there isnt really one single blackface circuit. Basically the amp sounds like it is shorting out and the volume is jumping updown rapidly, with some distortion, etc.
Recently serviced by the amazing todd sharp at nashville amplifier service. Fender offers many different solutions equipped with eminence neodymium speakers. Instead, he holds it like a man and shows us hows its done. Tube amps on the left hand tab of the bass control looking at it from the back is a 6. Hes looking for a really clean 50s rockabilly sound. It was introduced in 1951, primarily targeted for bass guitar players and promoted as a bass amp for the fender precision bass guitar, the first massproduced electric bass guitar ever. For the 5f6 bassman of 1957, fender scrapped the cathodyne a.
Fender bassman 59 reissue settings gretschtalk forum. In the 1950s, the bassman was perfect for amplifying that new. Designed for the ultimate bass playing experience, it offers two versatile channels, classic good looks, and ultra musical fender tube tonesall in a lightweight chassis only 17 lbs. Mod your bassman reissue for vintage tone to start i. The 1959 fender bassman is consider the hall of fame amplifier that became famous for guitar players. Ive left the normal channel mostly stock and really want more gain on the modded side. In 1991 fender saw fit to reissue the bassman as the fender vintage reissue 59 bassman ltd. Input channels are wired in phase so you can plug into both inputs at the same time for endless possibilities of clean, crunch, and high gain tones. View and download fender bassman 410 owners manual online.
Besides being a popular and important amplifier in its own right, the bassman also became the foundation on which. Up to the blonde bassman with blonde colored tolex circuit 6g6 they all had tube rectifier, but since then a diode rectifier was used. I prefer the tradition classic fender sound available in the vintage channel 1, but the overdrive channel packs lots of extra punch in channel 2. I played a fender tonemaster head i liked quite a bit. Thankfully, fender did not go this route, and today we can find examples to demonstrate how good a guitar amplifier the bassman is. The baffle board and back panel are made out of baltic birch ply. The bass channel works great, but the normal channel breaks up intermittently. At 50 watts, it competed easily with the common instrumentation of the day.
My other son plays a mexican fender telecaster through a fender bassman 59 reissue amp. Just had the mods on my 1978 fender bassman ten completed. I know i would miss the reverb, but i think id get something pedal, alesis, van amps reverb unit to fix that. Bassmans produced between late 1980 and 1983 have a black control panel and silver sparkle grille. The bassman has become so synonymous with the sixstring fraternity that when fender reissued the. Replace it with a 10kohm potentiometer, and thats it. A reproduction of the original fender blackface bassman style 2x12 extension cabinet. The bassman 10, made in the 1970s, is a 50watt tube combo amp with 4 10 speakers probably jensens or celestions in a sealed cabinet. That means if you think the tube rectifier is part of the super reverb mojo its just a matter of punching a hole in the chassis and adding the tube rectifier.
In early 1952, the fender bassman amplified a great new invention the fender precision bass guitar. Been checking out fender bassmans but someone told me that the fender supersonic sounds much like the old 66 bassman, but with extra components to model the 65 vibrolux. It seems to mainly do it at high volume, and after it heats up a little. Second search the amps forum for bassman 10 because thereve been quite a few threads over the years about these. Wiring harness with extra long thread jack included. While there are schematics for fender tweedera bassmans, bassman 10s, bassman 70s, bassman 100s, bassman 5s, 12watt bass amps, 200watt bass amps, and even fenders behemoth 300watt bass ampsa schematic specifically labeled bassman 50 is simply nowhere to be found.
This 1973 gibson les paul signature bass goldtop htt. View online or download fender bassman 60 operating instructions manual, service manual. Fender product overview the 50s fender bassman was the pro bassists answer to amplifying a great new invention. The fender bassman 100 bass guitar head is a tube based amplifier that has 100 watts of power. There are many versions of the blackface bassman out there. I did have luck at fairly low volumes with a blackstone overdrive it worked well with my bassman volume low around 2, and the level on the pedal up a little more. Original power and output transformers, choke coil replaced.
All that being said though, the fender bassman heads are pretty close to my favorite amps ever. Every serious guitarist should have some sort of 50s bassman in their arsenal. Most of the bassman tens ive cracked open use the same pt as bandmaster reverb and super reverb from the same era. The fender bassman emerged from the factory to give voice to the bass. The next example will demonstrate this quite nicely. I recently bought a fender bassman compact from an ad in my local paper but other than that i cant find any info on it at all. Jul 08, 2016 marc does not drop the bass in this demo. Fender switched back to the blackface era cosmetics some time in 1980. Would the 59 bassman ltd do it for me based on my needs. The fender bassman is a great amp, even by todays standards. My 67 blackface ran into a pair of 15 inch speakers in a cab was just barely adaquate for a 1970 kids rockband. The 50s fender bassman was the pro bassists answer to amplifying a great new invention.
Adding a midrange control to fender amps that have no midrange control. The fender bassman is a bass amplifier introduced by fender during 1952. Keep in mind throughout this lesson that fender is in business to make money, and the bottom line is a. Fender bassman ten 50watt 4x10 vintage silverface guitar. History of the fender bassman vintage guitar magazine. A simple circuit, but supposedly a fantastic sounding one if you can open it up. I ran the thing on 6 the whole time which was just before distortion. It is a 100 watt amp, and you would think it would simply be a larger version of the 50 watt bassman tops of the 60s and 70s. I know some of you would like to hear a full stack, but the supplier only had the 6 x. Fender vintage reissue 59 bassman ltd 4x10 guitar combo. The history of the fender bassman amplifier fender. Even guitar players in the 1960s were using the blonde bassmans. The cab was cracked open on one end and i took it to my friend danny for repair.
I was recently given an early70s fender bassman 10 by a dear friend of mine who said he couldnt get it to overdrive. The shell is made out of solid pine with hand made 14 finger joints. However, what people dont know is that the bassman, though they are well known. It has two 14 inch inputs for each channel and has two channels in total one for normal and one for bass instrument. This powerful 50watt rig could easily compete with the common instrumentation of the day.
Four ten inch speakers in a sealed cabinet with ports in the baffle. Leo fender and his staff were building a new tvfront 1. Aug 30, 2007 the silverface fender bassman amp from the 1970s has a great reputation as an affordable, vintage tube rig for guitarists, delivering plenty of volume, great tone, and an excellent chassis, offering easy preamp and tone stack modification. Fender 59 bassman ltd reissue guitar combo amplifier lacquered tweed. Admittedly, they sound great for guitar, but lets back up a little and see as fender makes a bass amplifier. Reverb for fender bassman amp i own a wonderful 64 blackface bassman, which perfectly suits my need for the fender clean guitar sound, except for one thing, obviously. Weve yet to use the amp at a gig, but hes worried about breakup at higher volumes. There are a plethora of bassman heads out there, and just as many circuit variations. This 50 watt reissue features a lacquered tweed covered, fingerjointed pine cabinet, 4 jensen special design speakers, and internal bias pot to adjust bias on the two 6l6gc power tubes. I told him it was never designed to overdriveit was built to stay clean. Fender literally wrote the book on electric basses, laying the foundation for musical innovation and evolution.
I have the fender bassman tv ten and it is a great amp, comparable in tone to the ampeg b100r. The fender super bassman is a quality amplifier with loads of power and a full range of sounds. Does anyone use the fender bassman for bass anymore. Dear amp man, i am unable to find anything on cascading the halfunused tube in an aa371 bassman. The bassman 10 is a dual 6l6 amp combo amp fender made from about 1972 until the mid 80s. This leads to some poor soul complaining that his bassman doesnt sound like the one used by his favorite guitar player. Add to this the fact that the first marshall amplifiers were largely leveraged from the bassmans circuit design which in turn spawned a countless array of further clones as time passed, and its easy to understand why the fender bassman was the. At the time the bassman was designed there wasnt much difference between a guitar and bass amp. View online or download fender bassman 59 operating instructions manual, service manual, service diagram. Unfollow fender bassman to stop getting updates on your ebay feed. Ben so far i do not regret my choice, its only less than two months, but compared to other amps i find great power and hand. It started rated at 50 wrms and was eventually advertized at 70 wrms. But it went on to become a classic for guitarists as well, spawning.
The foundation of the bassman 800s tone is the twochannel tube preamp. Unfollow fender bassman amp to stop getting updates on your ebay feed. Looking to get a fender head for an avatar 2x12 with a vintage 30 and greenback. Input channels are wired in phase so you can plug into both inputs at the same time for. Even though its called a bassman its really just like another guitar amp circuit. Mods for fender blonde, blackface, and silverface bassman heads. I have converted the amp to a marshall tone stack and other suggestions youve made very successfully, but found nothing on tapping into the unused gain stage for the bass side. Find great deals on ebay for fender tv bassman and fender bassman tv fifteen.
The fender bassman is a legendary guitar amp known to both guitar and bass players. If they could have just one amplifier, many guitarists from barroom grinders to arena megastars would choose a fender bassman. Now i wonder if there is a hardware reverb pedal, rack or whatever which might be slightly comparable to the ones of fender twin family. From the blonde era fender made the bassman as a amp head and 2. Well, by following this guide, you can decide which bassman head is best suited to you. It sounds fantastic, and takes pedals incredibly well. The straightforward fender 59 bassman outperforms most of the fancy amps on the market today. How to fix repair fender twin reverb tube guitar amp bias issue hot topic duration. He said hed lose money trying to sell it and hed rather give it to someone who would use it. Behringer bx1200, ashdown mag c115300, hartke kickback 15, fender rumble 100, fender bassman series 100 new one.
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