Guitar Gear Forum

I ran mine just past the edge of breakup and then hit it with a Klon set as a clean boost. It was some serious shit.

Also...... Rangemaster.

Tortuga wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2024 6:16 am Will NEVER believe my luck in scoring a very clean, almost completely unmolested 1966 blackface Bassman for $700 back in 2020. Love that thing. It loves my greenback cab.

Got to get that thing back on the bench and finish up the mods I was doing on the bass channel (normal channel is pure Bassman, bass channel is being rewired into a Marshall-type cathode follower tone stack with a switchable extra gain stage, using the extra unused triode on one of the preamp tubes).

That amp will never leave me.

I thought of you when I made this decision and your Bassman. I was sure you had one. Late 60s would be perfect (drip edge ) for me but even AA270 circuit wouldn’t be bad. I love the look of SF Fenders. They were always so cool to me. Jury is out on whether or not I’d mod the bass channel if it’s stock still. I’d want to hear the blend first. But my goal would be pedal tones and then Mike Ness style punk rock tones. Hard to beat either, I think. And it’s really all just for my own personal enjoyment. Not sure if/when I’ll be playing out again but hey it’s fun to get cool gear and amps.

turbopablo wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2024 4:03 pm I ran mine just past the edge of breakup and then hit it with a Klon set as a clean boost. It was some serious shit.

Also...... Rangemaster.

Welp, I’ve got a Klone and a Bion so I should be in business there.

Do itt

Bassmans rule. Do it.

Another affordable amp that does the Bassman thing quite well is the EHX Mig50. A bit of a cross between a Bassman and a 1987X.

I had looked into the EHX a bit. Also did some research on old Traynor’s too as they’re not too hard to get in MI. I also saw a few Sunn Senturas up for not too much but I think I’m getting ahead of what I really want. They were semi local too but I think I’d rather have the Fender than the Sunn.

I've got a Blackface Bassman. AB165 that has been modded with the AA864 bias control. It came with a big 2X12 bandmaster cab. I still love it. My parents bought it at a yard sale with a lotus bass guitar for $50 bucks, in 1984. I have also had a few silverface ones and sold them. I really like the silverface amps but I needed a Marshall. So they left. They are LOUD. Clean power is great to have. It's getting hard to find ones that haven't been messed with.

If I can find one relatively clean that’s already got a 3 prong cable I think I’ll be happy enough. Even if I do the Bassman 50 with the master volume, I’ll probably just have the master volume bypassed or just run it maxed. Bias circuit would definitely be a required mod but not much else I think.

All these 60s/70s versions can be modded relatively easy so it's not really a big deal what version you end up getting, unless you're looking for a collector's piece. But as rock n roll workhorses they will all do it with minimal mods.