Members Tomm Williams Posted February 9, 2016 Members Share Posted February 9, 2016 I have a bandmate who converted his Super Reverb to a head-only unit as he was tired of lugging the whole combo around. As he is primarily a bass player, he's mentioned selling or trading it off for a bass head more to his liking. This is a blackface unit that I'm fairly certain is from around 66-67, what would be a fair price to ask for it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted February 9, 2016 Members Share Posted February 9, 2016 Are you getting the entire combo,, the head only, or the head in some homemade box? If its the head only, no box, I'd think $300~500 is a fair price.You can buy Black faced Bassman heads with their box for around $500 (with its cab) if shop hard. The circuits are very similar except the Super has reverb and tremolo. With the entire combo cab and speakers, $1200 is about right depending on the type of speakers it has. They can sell up to $2200 in mint condition. You do have to realize the cost of the vintage amps are continually going up. I paid $50 for my Blackfaced Bassman back in 1968 from a kid who owned it for 6 months. Up till 1980's you'd be lucky to get $100 for them.15 years ago they sold for $350 all day long. Today you see them selling for as much as $800. I figure by the time I retire I may be able to get $1200 for the head. I'll likely pass it on to my son, and many his son some day. By then it may be up in the $6K range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tomm Williams Posted February 9, 2016 Author Members Share Posted February 9, 2016 He has the entire cabinet and speakers, etc...... but I wasn't really interested in lugging one of them around either so the head seemed appealing. I already have a 67 blackface bassman so apparently I wouldn't be getting anything significantly different ? This is the head in a homemade (well done) box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted February 10, 2016 Members Share Posted February 10, 2016 There are a couple of significant difference. The main channel does have a midrange control. Allot of people mod their Bassman's to get that. The Bassman has a Solid State rectifier so its output is very tight. The Super should have a Rectifier tube which gives you a little tube sag and compression. (Fender did allot of variations do you have to check) And the amp has vibrato and reverb. Vibrato may not be used much but not having reverb is something I always missed with my Bassman. Over all, the Super should make for a better guitar amp. Run side by side with the Bassman, the Bassman will be louder, cleaner and have better highs and lows. The Super will give you those mid tones you cant get from the Bassman plus you'll get some breakup at lower volumes. Modded the amp can scream tone many people would only wish they had. I can say I do like the way my Bassman sounds with a 4X10 cab using Jensen Alnico 25w speakers. The exception was the original cab loaded with two Altecs, but that cab was really big for 2X12's. The head does better on a 2X15 cab for bass. Speaker choice is paramount for getting the best from either. With stock Fender speakers you loose a good 20~25% of the heads tone and power capabilities. The super cab loaded with some good 10's makes for a killer medium club stage amp. The open back is great fro drummers because you don't need to mic the amp for him to hear it, and when the drummer hears the amp the band is tighter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted February 11, 2016 Members Share Posted February 11, 2016 One thing to mention. The super uses 2 ohm transformer for driving 4X10" speakers. Do not try and use that head with more then a 4 ohm load (8 or 16) or you will blow the power tubes, screen resistors, and possibly the transformer itself. The Super wires four 8 ohm speakers in parallel for two ohms. If you run it as a head only you wont have many speaker options besides a pair of 4 ohm speakers in parallel to get two ohms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tomm Williams Posted February 11, 2016 Author Members Share Posted February 11, 2016 One thing to mention. The super uses 2 ohm transformer for driving 4X10" speakers. Do not try and use that head with more then a 4 ohm load (8 or 16) or you will blow the power tubes, screen resistors, and possibly the transformer itself. The Super wires four 8 ohm speakers in parallel for two ohms. If you run it as a head only you wont have many speaker options besides a pair of 4 ohm speakers in parallel to get two ohms. That was timely advice as I was wondering just that scenario. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted February 12, 2016 Members Share Posted February 12, 2016 Yea I didn't think of it right away. I had a Silverfaced Super back in the 80's. It sounded great when I first got it and the sound quality slowly went to crap. I later found some jackass had wired it up for 8 ohms. The power and tone just faded away till it began to sound like a crappy 5 Watt amp. Luckily I found the problem and put new tubes in it before it blew out on me. They are spunky little amps, but I don't understand why someone would pull the head. They are not that heavy, especially if you put some wheels on it. The amps are favored by harp players. I played in a blues band and had a harp player who used one. I picked up mine about a year later and when we played together we'd knock them out with our matching tones. A Super and a Tube screamer is heaven to most guitarists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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