Amp Dilemma: not happy with 68 Bassman

[Jacked]

Amp dilemma: I have a 68 Fender bassman with matching 2*12 cab but I'm not completely happy with it. Icepick cleans, brittle sounding distortion with the Boss Mega Distortion pedal I use with it. I play rock/hard rock/blues.

 

Should I:

 

A.) go get a couple of new pedals (warmer more organic distortion pedal, reverb pedal) to improve the brittle sound of my 68 Bassman?

 

B.) run it through a better cab, e.g., a Marshall 1960? Will that warm it up?

 

C.) Pick up a Mesa Boogie Nomad 100 available here locally?

 

Which should I do and why?

 

Thanks,

Jacked

[blackba]

I justed played my bandmate's 1968 bassman at practice last week. It was any thing but icepicky.

 

I ran it through my '62 bandmaster 212 cab with 2 weber alinco 12A125's. My '68 Bandmaster reverb is getting a cap job, so I am using the bassman for now. I used a maxon OD-808 into the bassman and it worked great. It actually gave me alot of bassman GAS.

 

What tubes are you running? Do you have the amp biased properly?

 

As for pedals, I would check out some MI audio pedals, like the Tube zone, Blues boy Deluxe and crunch box.

 

Here is a picture of my bandmaster rig

 

[jamesclark]

I would try different speakers/cab to start. Your speakers might have seen their better days. As blackba said,check tubes and bias. Maybe the boss mega distortion just doesn't fit well with the amp. As for buying the nomad, only you will be able to answer that.

[jamesclark]

Nice amp blackba. I have a 68 non-reverb bandmaster with a 68 bassman 2x15 bottom.

[blueswhore]

Do you jump the channels?? Always helps with the tweaked out highs

[Jacked]

Yes, I do jump the channels.

I don't know what tubes its running. But, I recently had the head gone through by Dabeck amps here in Dallas, so I'm assuming they are biased correctly and still have good life left in them.

Thanks for the ideas.

[Dave Owens]

send the amp to james peters or DougR and tell them
what you want ..save you alot of time -

[Kelly]

Mt 68 Bassman is anything but ice-picky. It's like plugging your guitar into a stick of butter. I'd try a different cab out, and find out what tubes you're running. Sovtek LPS's and SED 6L6s work great in Fenders.

[cylon]

id have a kick ass tech look at it first

[JamesPeters]

send the amp to james peters or DougR and tell them what you want ..save you alot of time -

 

 

Maybe Doug can help. I don't generally do mods.

[Ampegocaster]

There's definitely good tones inside to be had. When I first got my bassman a few years ago it sounded flat and dull. After a bunch of mods it can now go from a nice snappy clean sound to a fuzzed out distortion sound. I'd say you find a tech who is familiar with bassman mods and get them to tweak it to your liking.

[Randy Van Sykes]

Maybe Doug can help. I don't generally do mods.

Maybe you should put that in your sig.

[the russ]

Amp dilemma: I have a 68 Fender bassman with matching 2*12 cab but I'm not completely happy with it. Icepick cleans, brittle sounding distortion with the Boss Mega Distortion pedal I use with it. I play rock/hard rock/blues. Should I: A.) go get a couple of new pedals (warmer more organic distortion pedal, reverb pedal) to improve the brittle sound of my 68 Bassman? B.) run it through a better cab, e.g., a Marshall 1960? Will that warm it up? C.) Pick up a Mesa Boogie Nomad 100 available here locally? Which should I do and why? Thanks, Jacked

 

 

found your problem. it's not the cab, it's the Boss Mega Distortion pedal. Bassman amps sound best when you dial them in with a nice warm clean that breaks up just a touch when you hit the guitar hard. then you drive them with some sort of boost that doesn't add much distortion on it's own, just boosts the signal by a chunk of dB's, sending your Bassman into its own lovely sounding overdrive.

 

start off with some Tubescreamer-type pedal. the Boss SD-1 is good for this and is cheap used, like $30. so spend that and spend some time dialing the amp in and you'll probably be happy.

[JamesPeters]

Maybe you should put that in your sig.

I might. It's been in my FAQ for quite a while...

[TomCTC]

First and foremost, ditch that Boss pedal and pick up something nicer. I'd suggest a Barber Direct Drive, I'm looking at picking up one of those as soon as I sell my Road King.

 

Secondly, I'd keep the Bassman over a Nomad, but you may want to take it to a music shop and audition a few other cabinets with it. The icepickyness could definitely be a speaker issue.

 

Good luck!

[NoirAbattoir]

Yes, the bassman sounds best through a Marshall 4x12, in my opinion. That's if you want the most from the gain. I would also spend some time adjusting the EQ a bit to work with whatever pickups you're using. Don't be afraid to dump the treble or bass if you need to. It doesn't matter where the knobs are so much as how it sounds. Also, crank the {censored}ing volume and use your guitar's volume to roll back for cleaner tones. I would suggest using an overdrive that doesn't color the tone too much. That distortion pedal is going to make any amp sound like {censored}. Get a Fulldrive II, if you want somedecent distortion tones from that amp. Or just get an EH LPB-1 to slam the {censored} out of the preamp without changing the character of the amp.