THE BASSMEN - fender bassman players

[JiroJan]

ive got a killer 67 silverface ab165 circuit bassman that totally rips

used it on many recordings for bass and a few for guitar

you can find some spots of it on my bands page

www.myspace.com/sightofsound

all the bass is 100% bassman and some cleans and dubs of bassman as well

[skipstar59]

The latest clip of my '66 Allen/master Volume modded Bassman head. Here's the link. It's the 1st clip on the page.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=633883

[echodeluxe]

whats that cab its sitting on?

[bikehorn]

 

I've got all you clowns beat. I got my '66-67 AB165 Blackface free. Yeah. Not only that, I also got my '72 Traynor Guitar Mate Reverb that day. From my high school.

 

The story goes, It was 2000 and I was a 13 year old kid in a new town and it was probably the third day of ninth grade. We call it Grade 9 here, not ninth grade, but apparently elsewhere that's weird. Whatever. The school system here in Ontario says you must take an arts credit of some kind in grade 9. Three choices at my high school for a grade 9 art credit. Visual arts, vocal music or instrumental music. The choice was easy because I had to be pragmatic about my potential for a half decent mark. Drawing, sculpting, etc...seemed fun but I strongly sucked at it. No go. I'd rather have drawn than sung, so vocal music was definitely out. I thought maybe I could fake it on some instrument though. Like get lost in the mix or something and make it look like I'm playing when I'm actually just trying to look skilled. Anyway the third day of school came along and I hadn't picked an instrument. The class was really unbalanced. I want to say it was something like 6 alto saxes, 8 clarinets, 2 trombones, a bunch of flutes, and one lonely trumpet. I wanted to play drums but we had three drummers already. It was going to be trumpet or bass. I picked bass, because the teacher asked the whole class if anyone wanted it. I said sure, it looked like a guitar and maybe girls would find it made me more interesting than the solitary guy who picked flute. Well he was smart, his choice of instrument meant he sat in the middle of a bunch of girls, but in any case, wasn't a showcase for his virtuosity.

 

So, the first time I played bass in class, I learned "Gimme Some Lovin'" by the Spencer Davis Group, which we were playing in class. Easy and awesome. And, it was through this Bassman and some random 1x15" bass cabinet. I pointed at it and said to the teacher..."hey, that thing looks fairly beat up". He says...."Oh yeah, it's real old. Real good too. Fenders are famous." I had no idea what that meant. I did know that the members of Blink 182(a favourite at the time....hahaha) used some Fender gear, and to my 13 year old mind, that was close enough for rock and roll. So not knowing what to expect I plugged it in and got a lesson on 'power' and 'standby'. Then, we started playing the song, and DAMN. That was the coolest sound I'd ever heard. The school's MIA P-Bass sounded unreal through it and cut through the band like Edward Scissorhands. Later I played all kinds of basses and amps and got a better feel for what a good bass sound would be, to my ears. Still, the sound I'd get from this thing was its own amazing one and I couldn't find anything that did what it did. I would go so far as to say I had my first 'eargasm' almost as soon as I began on the instrument. The band suddenly sounded three times as full and I found myself playing things just to hear the sound of that bass through that amp. Unfortunately within a few months it started shocking people and had to be put away, and I never did play it again. I had to start using a beat up but basically indestructible Peavey TNT combo. It took years of the worst imaginable abuse by brainless high schoolers to finally sideline that thing and even so, a recone(a cello endpin was somehow put through the speaker) and some new wheels would have had it 100% operational again. Within not too much time I found out from my guitar teacher that the Bassman was really something and not just some random oddity. I decided I wanted one for myself someday but figured it would never happen till i was 38 or something.

 

I wonder if anyone's still reading. One fine day during the last exam week of my graduating year I'm at school having just written an exam. Some cool teachers asked my friends and I to help them move all kinds of things around, mostly taking things from one storage area to another. We thought whatever, they were great teachers and we're done, so why not. There wasn't that much anyway. We were moving a bunch of stuff from an abandoned darkroom now used by the music and drama departments to some other dingy room when...there it was, the Bassman sitting in a corner covered in dust, on top of the Traynor YGM-3 and some ancient Shure PA columns and surrounded by various props and backdrops from plays the school had put on over the years. It called my name out from under its dust blanket. I knew this amp had long been forgotten about. We had long since gotten a new music teacher who was a typical Classical Tightass, not the funky jazz cat our old music teacher was. He had a strong disdain for electric instruments and me being the only electric instrument in the class aside from the piano, I was his favourite punching bag. I was supposed to move the amps and speakers and parts of a prehistoric Strand stage lighting system to some other room somewhere, where they would definitely not emerge from again. I couldn't just let them suffer that fate. It was inhumane!

 

I went to the principal and asked if the school needed the Bassman and the Traynor. The principal was a drama major, not a music major, and didn't even know the school had them. I told her they were non-functional and that the school no longer even had a cabinet to use the Bassman with(this was all true). She asked what I'd want with "broken old junk like that". When I told her I wanted to fix them up, she gave me a sort of sure-thing-buddy laugh and said "go get 'em tiger". Before she changed her mind I bolted and ran for the storage room. The only problem was Mr. Tightass. He was there ordering people around, and I knew if he saw his favourite punching bag hauling any item out(even an item he knew nothing about) for my own purposes he'd give me 10 years of {censored} and potentially nix the whole deal. I couldn't have him catch me or it would compromise a deal that I could hardly believe was happening in the first place. I mean sure I was taking stuff from the school but the principal okayed it and they were going to rot in the depths of some {censored}ty storage room forever. {censored} that. I had no remorse about what I was about to do.

 

I decided I needed a distraction, because this teacher had a way of disapproving of anyone having 'fun'. I found the perfect one. As an end of the school year gag, a bunch of my friends were going to go streaking through the school. I had the option of joining them but I had more important things on my mind so I just asked them to run down the hallway I was in at some point. I mean, they were running anyway. So I called up my mom and told her I couldn't take the bus home that day because of "stuff I had in my locker that I needed to bring home" and that I needed her to pick me up. I waited till my friends ran by the darkroom, and sure enough Mr. Tightass' blood pressure jumps and he runs after them. I grab the Bassman and bolt for the nearest exit door. Success. Ran back for the Traynor, got that outside the door too. Once that was done, I carried the amps slowly over to the front of the school where my mom arrived after like 10-15 minutes. There were people everywhere and I was surprised nobody asked me what I was getting up to. I threw everything in the car and went home.

 

Today I use the Traynor as my main amp. It needs a recap but it turned out to have all Philips preamp tubes and a pair of Westinghouse EL84s. Wow. The sound is unreal even in its recap-needing state. I put a new Celestion Rocket 50 speaker in it and it perked up a whole bunch. Unfortunately the Bassman has sat unused since my rescue operation, oddly in a way suffering a fate somewhat resembling the one I was rescuing it from, but I at least cleaned it up. The problem is it's shocking people, blowing fuses and MUST need a recap. came with some DEAD Sovtek 6L6s too. I just haven't had the time/money/wherewithal/true need for such a devastating amp thus making the cost of taking it to a tech hard to justify. Soon though I'm going to AA864 it and make the feedback loop footswitchable(gain boost). Possibly activate the wasted gain stage too...not to mention a full recap. I've got a 1959 Jensen P12R needing a recone and the Traynor's old Marsland 12" speaker that'll go into some kind of empty 2x12 for the Bassman.

 

When that happens, I'm going to wet myself. I just know it.

 

Wow...sorry I wrote you guys such a book. But seriously folks, my memories of just learning bass and getting into music, and playing this exact amp are some of my favourite ever.

[echodeluxe]

yeah my first bassman ten was free from a middle school for helping them do the graduation sound.

 

it had the original rca blackplate 6l6's and they were good (i tested the transconductance on a tube tester) and its caps were fine. it was dusty and had some wear, but it just looked like it had been gigged a {censored}load.

 

i loved that amp. i traded it off for the 72 bassman ten.

 

i still got you beat, clown. sweet story though!

[skipstar59]

whats that cab its sitting on?

Hey echodeluxe, the cab my Bassman head is sitting on is a Mesa 1x12 Theile cab that was closed-back, but I converted it into an open-back so I good get more mids and highs out of it. Since it's alot deeper than most combo cabs it has a bit more punch.The reason the back looks the way it does is that I had a local guy who recones speakers rig it up that way for me.

[echodeluxe]

Hey echodeluxe, the cab my Bassman head is sitting on is a Mesa 1x12 Theile cab that was closed-back, but I converted it into an open-back so I good get more mids and highs out of it. Since it's alot deeper than most combo cabs it has a bit more punch.The reason the back looks the way it does is that I had a local guy who recones speakers rig it up that way for me.

sweet. i like it.

[ZCat]

I just ordered a Weber Michigan 12" 100 watt speaker to use with my '68 Bassman head, putting it in my 1X12 Lopoline cab. The Celestion Gold sounds killer but I'm kinda scared of blowing it. I had it on 10 a time or two and I heard some farting going on, nice farting, though, piping hot!

[skipstar59]

I just ordered a Weber Michigan 12" 100 watt speaker to use with my '68 Bassman head, putting it in my 1X12 Lopoline cab. The Celestion Gold sounds killer but I'm kinda scared of blowing it. I had it on 10 a time or two and I heard some farting going on, nice farting, though, piping hot!

I'd like to hear a clip of that set up if you can make one. Sounds like it be a good combo.

[Tone Eee]

GREAT to see I'm not the only fool loving my Bassman Ten. Anyone want to tll me favorite guitar/effects chains you use? I like the SG cranked and dry, but my hollow Oscar Schmidt (GFS Dream 180s) loves the Big Muff and some delay.
Still can't figure out what to pair up with the G&L Skyhawk, but I'm not a strat man.
I play a Peavey T-20 bass through the lead channel and it distorts even with the gain at 1. Pure blues or punk Raunch!

[echodeluxe]

GREAT to see I'm not the only fool loving my Bassman Ten. Anyone want to tll me favorite guitar/effects chains you use? I like the SG cranked and dry, but my hollow Oscar Schmidt (GFS Dream 180s) loves the Big Muff and some delay. Still can't figure out what to pair up with the G&L Skyhawk, but I'm not a strat man. I play a Peavey T-20 bass through the lead channel and it distorts even with the gain at 1. Pure blues or punk Raunch!

 

 

please post pics!!!

[echodeluxe]

MOAR BASSMANZ

[echodeluxe]

MOAR

[bikehorn]

Any love for Bassman 100s and 135s? Always wanted one for bass.

 

[z1o]

a little bump for the Bassman!
got it last week and it's the perfect amp for me..i love it..
how can i use the serial# to figure out which year it's from?

[Michael McGlenn]

Any love for Bassman 100s and 135s? Always wanted one for bass.

+1

Amp in the upper right hand corner is my old Bassman 100 that I modified with a Torres Dual Stage Master Volume kit and rewired for EL34's.
Loud as Hell Plexi meets Twin sound!
Photo is circa 1995. And yes, that is a hardwood Mark III, stripe unknown...sorry

[ravelm3nt]

This thread is giving me so much GAS:love:

When looking for a bassman head, what are the truly sought after features? AB165 circuit, pre-CBS, etc...I need to know before I start bidding. There are so many good prices on ebay.

[echodeluxe]

im gonna bump this thread for good and for awesome!

[Blackwater]

Joined the club last week.....such a beauty! 1969.

 

[worldoftone]

I'll bite.

'58, '59, 62, 64, '81 135, '95 '59 RI

The Bassman 135 gets used 2-3 night a week. For bass.

- WOT

[blackba1]

I'll bite. '58, '59, 62, 64, '81 135, '95 '59 RI The Bassman 135 gets used 2-3 night a week. For bass. - WOT

But silverface bassmans are supposed to suck for bass For some reason that seems to be the general impression people have, but I disagree.

I think my '67 Bassman sounds pretty good with my fender Jazz bass, its my backup Bass amp.

[echodeluxe]

Joined the club last week.....such a beauty! 1969.

a-mazing. so cool.

[Kerouac]

I have a '68 Silverface that has original Blackface guts, plus the matching 2x15 cabinet. I posted in the modeler thread, that it sounds fantastic but I rarely play it these days... waaaay too heavy for a gig and too loud for most recording I do, but sometimes I fire it up and play it for a bit. Overall it's in amazing condition, but some of the tolex is starting to peel on the top part and there is a small tear and some fading colour change in the grill. The only two mods done is that it has a 3 prong power cord for no shocky-shocky, and a purple jewel instead of red. It even has the screws to keep the head mounted onto the cab and the original tags plus the red jewel in a bass case.

Someday I need to take some pictures of stuff or figure out how the feck to get pictures off of my camera phone without the USB cable that costs $30 bucks!

[bikehorn]

+1 Amp in the upper right hand corner is my old Bassman 100 that I modified with a Torres Dual Stage Master Volume kit and rewired for EL34's. Loud as Hell Plexi meets Twin sound! Photo is circa 1995. And yes, that is a hardwood Mark III, stripe unknown...sorry

 

That's a beautiful picture. Did you rock all that stuff onstage at once? That would have been badass.

 

Nice red JCM 900 half stack!

[Electric Catfish]

a little bump for the Bassman! got it last week and it's the perfect amp for me..i love it.. how can i use the serial# to figure out which year it's from?

I can date it as closely as I have dated mine, just from your picture. It's either a '71 or a '72, I'm pretty sure. They started calling them a "Bassman 50" in 1971, and they added a master volume in 1973. Mine is the same way (non-master "Bassman 50").

Someone correct me, if I'm wrong...