1962 Blonde Bassman...

Deal is that I've got a chance to bring home a 1962 Blonde Bassman for a few days to try out.

Question is, what should I be looking out for? I've played it at the shop and even though it looks like 40 miles of bad road, it sounds so, so sweet! Original speakers, retubed with (?) but sounds unbelivable! Input 1 of Bass channel with Treble on 7, Bass on 5 and Volume at 4-5 = great tube driven sound! Normal chanell with same dial in plus Presence on 7-8 = SWEET!!

I need an excuse NOT to buy it!!! Any help appreciated!!!

too loud?
just joke, Rock`n`Roll is never too loud.


if you have the chance and the money, do it.

Brett wrote:

too loud?
just joke, Rock`n`Roll is never too loud.


if you have the chance and the money, do it.

Hey Brett!!

Man, like any tube amp, it needs to work the tubes to get the real tone working. I'd rather play loud and grinning from the sound than playing quietly and wondring why it doesn't sound like it should!
Money may be a problem, although I'm gonna do the "broke muso" routine! AND ...my wife doesn't want me to sell my other Fender amp!!!

I can't win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pistol Pete wrote:

Brett wrote:

too loud?
just joke, Rock`n`Roll is never too loud.


if you have the chance and the money, do it.

Hey Brett!!

Man, like any tube amp, it needs to work the tubes to get the real tone working. I'd rather play loud and grinning from the sound than playing quietly and wondring why it doesn't sound like it should!
Money may be a problem, although I'm gonna do the "broke muso" routine! AND ...my wife doesn't want me to sell my other Fender amp!!!

I can't win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hm..difficult. The Bassman is really loud and sounded fantastic but if you play in a small club people become deaf like hell.
Your Blues deville is loud as well but better for little places. Do not sell.
How much do they want for this old bassman?

Brett wrote:

Pistol Pete wrote:

Brett wrote:

too loud?
just joke, Rock`n`Roll is never too loud.


if you have the chance and the money, do it.

Hey Brett!!

Man, like any tube amp, it needs to work the tubes to get the real tone working. I'd rather play loud and grinning from the sound than playing quietly and wondring why it doesn't sound like it should!
Money may be a problem, although I'm gonna do the "broke muso" routine! AND ...my wife doesn't want me to sell my other Fender amp!!!

I can't win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hm..difficult. The Bassman is really loud and sounded fantastic but if you play in a small club people become deaf like hell.
Your Blues deville is loud as well but better for little places. Do not sell.
How much do they want for this old bassman?

I am a bit in the same situation, although I want to go for the complete Marsh offer.
Anyway, my princeton is more than loud enough in the venues we play, but I really want to own a bassman.
First of all because it has been a dream for years, secondly, playing with a cab is something different than a combo. Can`t really describe what it is but the sound is so sweet. It isn`t all packed down in a little box but spread out in a big one In many cases it will be to loud for the small clubs we play, but I would like to invest in a attenuator, either a hotplate or a airbrake. I have been recomened a air brake. I even have a friend who uses the Dr Z brake Lite on his 50w amps and it works great.
My Princeton is for sale ;-)

Pistol Pete, go for the bassman if your stomach feeling says yes

Credit Card?

JC wrote:

Credit Card?

Wants $3900!!!! I'm offering $2500!! We can work on it!!

Webby!!!!!!!!!!!! How goes Man?!?!?! If I get it, you'll be using it when you do your Australian Tour!!

Pistol Pete wrote:

Deal is that I've got a chance to bring home a 1962 Blonde Bassman for a few days to try out.

Question is, what should I be looking out for? I've played it at the shop and even though it looks like 40 miles of bad road, it sounds so, so sweet! Original speakers, retubed with (?) but sounds unbelivable! Input 1 of Bass channel with Treble on 7, Bass on 5 and Volume at 4-5 = great tube driven sound! Normal chanell with same dial in plus Presence on 7-8 = SWEET!!

I need an excuse NOT to buy it!!! Any help appreciated!!!

(did you read the facebook post I sent ya mate?).. what are you looking for in
a bassman? Setzer? gotta have a late 62' model 6G6-b (solid state rectifier and 4ohm tranny) Pete Townsend? early model with tube rectifier (rough tolex oxlbood grill) and
really nice bass channel that rivals some marshall amps.. but again those amps dont do the setzer..

the cab.. if the speakers are stock jensens they are tasty but are not capable of handling what a bassman needs to express on its sonic capabilities. which is why setzer dumped all his stock speakers for Vintage 30s once Celestion came out with em (91?)
V30s are heavily doped and rated at 60watts even though they are based on the old
black back rola celestions (they use to advertise them as high output vox blues which is a lie)

regarding "loudness" or stage level viability.. a properly set up blonde with sensative speakers live V30s and using small bottle 6L6 tubes yields about 35watts of pwr and with its closed back cab is way more manageable than an open back combo.
I'd wager with anybody that I can use my blonde on the smallest stage in the most echo-ee bar room against a dude with an open back 1x123 combo and 9 outa 10 times the soundman goes after "mr combo" being TOO LOUD.

plus I dont need to convince you about the Nocturne since you own one BUT its designed to work with your bassman to get it sounding like its dimed when you only
have to have the volume on 3..this is small club level UBER tone.

get RID of that muffled guitar center Fender amp you have and get that ol' gem!!

ps. it costs about $50 to retolex an amphead.. it may look like it suffered smoke but in most cases it was damn hippies that sprayed black vinyl (car headliner dye) paint on it because it wasnt hip to own a blonde "surf" amp in 70s bands.. Black was desirable then, so most likely most of it was recently scrubbed off yielding a blonde that looks like it was in a fire. No way to get that crap outa the nooks of the tolex so retolexing is the best bet. If there is no "repaint damage" DONT retolex as it damages the value of the amp.

-insane bassman

Tolex isnt repainted, def cig and heat damage as it is a brownish mark/ So what numbers/things do I look for? I'm bringing her home on Monday, as I'll be working the next 3 days and then off to a beach hose Sat and Sun. Cant wait to get it here and hook the Nocturne up!

Pistol Pete wrote:

Tolex isnt repainted, def cig and heat damage as it is a brownish mark/ So what numbers/things do I look for? I'm bringing her home on Monday, as I'll be working the next 3 days and then off to a beach hose Sat and Sun. Cant wait to get it here and hook the Nocturne up!

late 62' to early 64' is the Blonde 6G6-B amp (ala setzer)
smooth blonde tolex, gold grill up to late 63' which got gold sparkle
wheat grill and early 64' had black tolex.. (late 64' became AA864 blackface)

Leave it on then.. a toothe brush with a mix of 80% water to ajax
will do the best cleanup. keep it away from the faceplate

regarding year/build on the back of the chassis you will find the faceplate(backplate) to the left on on the right just raw chassis and in that
will be a stamp code usually starting with "BP"

this is a standard reference and more reliable that the paper tubechart affixed
inside the headcab (often counterfeit )

Bassman 6G6, 6G6-A, 6G6-B (blonde)
BP00100 to BP01100 - 1961
BP01100 to BP05000 - 1962
BP05000 to BP08400 - 1963
BP08400 to BP12000 - 1964

like I said earlier the quickest way to find out if you have the "Setzer" era blonde is to look at the tube compliment (not the paper chart) and see if you have
4 preamp tubes (usually inside a metal tube holder) and 2 power tubes.. if there
is another powertube-ish looking tube on the far left side (facing back of amphead) then that is an earlier 6G6 tube rectified model..

(No worries though if it is, it can be rebiased using a solid state rectifier plug.
this is only desirable for using a hollowbody.. a tube rectified amp feels
awesome with a strat or tele..)

So if I understand correctly, I can swap out the tube rectifier for a solid state and VOULA...instant Setzer with the Nocturne?

Pistol Pete wrote:

So if I understand correctly, I can swap out the tube rectifier for a solid state and VOULA...instant Setzer with the Nocturne?

no not at all.. the whole amp is different but not far from one another in laymans terms meaning it can be changed by a technician indeed.

using the SS rectifier inplace of the tube rectifier will let your gretsch respond in a favorable dynamic response..but it has to be rebiased by a tech or you might mess
up the Output transformer and that would just suck because the vintage IRON
is sooo integral to its vibe

Just bought this 62..... Yeow! This thing is LOUD and has serious tone!

Looks like there's rough white tolex on the cab's back cover but smooth elsewhere. Hmmm... The roll n tuck comes off this weekend so we'll see what remains underneath. Original Oxfords intact but both in need of reconing. Speakers appear to be mid 62, which would put this amp at late 62 production? Thoughts?

Thanks everyone! Oh yeah, first post! :D

Best,
Darren

[img]http://hdmuse.com/Bassman21.jpg[/img]

Hi ya,
That cab is as funky as this:


It'll be great when you get all the groovy vinyl off and pull all that tone robbing
fiberglass out of the back. Be sure to keep that batting along with the original
speakers in a box somewhere. not worth reconing those speakers since they sort of lost any value when the cones/drivers died. You will want to replace those straight out since they never sounded too great with say celestion vintage 30s if you want that modernish Setzer response although
there are plenty of others to choose from.
The Jensen Electric Jets are affordable and decent, some guys even like the snarky
C12n.

You'll also need to take a look inside the amp head, see if the caps have been replaced within the last 15 yrs and if the Output transformer has been replaced.
If you can get some good picks inside and out I can help.

If you paid less than $1250 for that whole plate of goodies thats not a bad thing.

I do have a pair of 16 ohm 25w Celestions out of a 68 Marshall cab. How do you think those would sound?
Would they hold up to this extremely strong Bassman's output?

Do I need to worry about the 8 ohm cab load vs. the original being 4 ohms total?

Also wondering what power tubes to try for best tone.

shrigg wrote:

I do have a pair of 16 ohm 25w Celestions out of a 68 Marshall cab. How do you think those would sound?
Would they hold up to this extremely strong Bassman's output?

Do I need to worry about the 8 ohm cab load vs. the original being 4 ohms total?

Also wondering what power tubes to try for best tone.

I think you might be jumping the gun just now as most all bassmans
I have bought and rebuilt either have an aftermarket output transformer
or they were hacked inside and the filter section was turned into a blackface
scenario.
Hopefully its only the outside thats been messed with but most bassman
amps are not that loud at the point of full tone.
If the transformer (OT) is stock its 4ohm and you cant really use those 16ohms
speakers. The amp will be working double time and wont have much headroom,
not to mention mushy bottom.

Interesting to note that most output sections have been monkeyed with. This amp was just serviced and had one filter cap replaced with a 500V sprague. The amp tech said it has 550V while warming up and settles to around 500V while running so he thought the 500V would be adequate. He also said they supposedly underrate them by 10% which would accomodate 550V

Guess all will be clearer once I get it apart and post some better pics. In any case, I played it through an 8 ohm 4x10 bass cabinet today it was and it was a friggin TERROR!

im gonna open myself up for some abuse here, but he is right about the 10% tolerance to a certain degree, but i also goes the other way!!! so it could be that the caps can only take 450v!!! instead of 500v or even 550v.
From me and my dad building my 1st tubes amps when i didnt have a job to buy the nice ones, we always went way above for those caps as to prevent some serious melting and malfunction.
when you start them up there is a massive voltage spike and you really need to feel safe in the knowledge that the components inside the amp can take that spike.
Personally i would swap them out for 600v caps just to be safe