Brian's Guitar Amp Settings

Does anyone know the settings on Brian's Fender Bassman amps? Thanks

johnpannella wrote:

Does anyone know the settings on Brian's Fender Bassman amps? Thanks

1963 Bassman - 50 watts
Settings
normal input
volume 4 (up to 5 for heavier overdrive)
treble 10
bass 4
presence 10

Long cable, Roland 301, speakers, right tubes...

Hi, on my bassman 6g6-b trebel at 10 makes lot of shhhhhhhhhhhhh ... Do you think i have a problem with it ?

coxico2001 wrote:

Hi, on my bassman 6g6-b trebel at 10 makes lot of shhhhhhhhhhhhh ... Do you think i have a problem with it ?

While these settings we've seen are setzer's Live amp settings... He is not plugging his guitar into
his bassman directly, nor is he using a standard guitar cable. There is a very warm n fat RE-301
space echo between that guitar and amp, big gain stage but many many yards of wiring and components
involved. Plus he uses 30-50ft guitar cables... If he didnt turn these all the way open he'd sound like
Blanket'billy man.

Yes turning the treble and presence wide open allows maximum gain from a bassman but that is
why you are gettings so much Hiss.. (this can also be directly related to unfiltered AC current. Most
all professional live and recording studio AC current is filtered. ( a furman PL-8 and ebtech hum eliminator
will get you there for about $300)

So.. real world AC current, real world guys playing a guitar with their bassman. Set your treble AT LEAST
up to 6 oclock as the treble pot on the blonde bassman is a 350K pot with 70K tap on it, gotta have that
thing opening up ALL the tone. Its also not good to turn the bass on a bassman's normal channel up past
3-4 max when using a gretsch as these passive tone controls compete with each other in the sonic spectrum. Keeping the Bass down by 3 MAX lets the Mids stay focused and present in the mix.

The volume level does have to be up around 3-4 in order for the powertubes to start opening up.. All this
Gets you a nice clean vintage bassman sound with a slight high mids breakup.. but you do need to employ
other means of preamp in order to get his actual sound (ala Dirty Boogie).

Thank you for these informations which will probably interest many people!
I was afraid to have trouble (again) with my bassman built by Marshamps ( "this man working like a pig!" that's what the repairers said when he saw the wiring)
Usually I play with the treble at 7, bass at 3 and the presence of 10 and it is not too much hiss, the sound spectrum is fairly well balanced.
(Sorry for my limited English, I'm French ...)

coxico2001 wrote:

Thank you for these informations which will probably interest many people!
I was afraid to have trouble (again) with my bassman built by Marshamps ( "this man working like a pig!" that's what the repairers said when he saw the wiring)
Usually I play with the treble at 7, bass at 3 and the presence of 10 and it is not too much hiss, the sound spectrum is fairly well balanced.
(Sorry for my limited English, I'm French ...)

hmmm... isnt it normal for french craftsmen to refer to americans as pigs For the record Fender did a pretty
sloppy job with their wiring.

so how old are your tubes? In a bassman that is properly biased, you should get a yr out of your powertubes
with heavy use, and 2 yrs out of the pre amp tubes.
Since you use mostly your normal channel and it only uses preamp tubes number 3 and 4, you can swap them
for preamp tubes 1 and 2 that dont get used much since they are for the bass channel. Voila mon frere! Les Amp
es nouveau!

Hi, oh yeah fender did a fantastic job with his wiring on this amp, but MR Marsh did not ...
The wiring of ground was catastrophic, as capacitors were calibrated under operating voltage ... Some links capacitors had leaks. For a new product that I waited 9 weeks and i paid 1200 $ ....
This is not the work of a professional but an amateur ... Be careful if you want to order from him ...
Americans do not work like pigs, I regularly order products manufactured in the USA, but here it is clear that Mr Marsh whether American or not, works like a big pig ...

coxico2001 wrote:

Hi, oh yeah fender did a fantastic job with his wiring on this amp, but MR Marsh did not ...
The wiring of ground was catastrophic, as capacitors were calibrated under operating voltage ... Some links capacitors had leaks. For a new product that I waited 9 weeks and i paid 1200 $ ....
This is not the work of a professional but an amateur ... Be careful if you want to order from him ...
Americans do not work like pigs, I regularly order products manufactured in the USA, but here it is clear that Mr Marsh whether American or not, works like a big pig ...

so you are saying that he did not properly ramp up the voltage in forming the
caps dielectric. Like they were soldered in and the amp turned on?

Hi,
When I turned on the amp it was a great hum ... I checked the voltage negative bias and the value was -57V, the capacitor was calibrated to 25μF 50VDC ... By heating it produces a big noisy hum. So I brought the amp to a professional who told me:
"you did it yourself or you bought it from a pro? Because the ground is not so correct as fender did it and it was leaks of coupling capacitors on the channel bass, your bias is set too cold also. for me it's not a professional, just an amateur who has mounted this amp "
That"s why i said : be careful with this Mike Marsh ....

coxico2001 wrote:

Hi,
When I turned on the amp it was a great hum ... I checked the voltage negative bias and the value was -57V, the capacitor was calibrated to 25μF 50VDC ... By heating it produces a big noisy hum. So I brought the amp to a professional who told me:
"you did it yourself or you bought it from a pro? Because the ground is not so correct as fender did it and it was leaks of coupling capacitors on the channel bass, your bias is set too cold also. for me it's not a professional, just an amateur who has mounted this amp "
That"s why i said : be careful with this Mike Marsh ....

Well this is an unfortunate situation but I must ask, have you contacted Marsh about
the situation. I would feel terrible if somebody's nocturne pedal was not functioning
properly and then there were postings that it was done poorly BUT they hadnt contacted me first to make it right for them. Thats a fair thing to do.

having said that, Marsh amps are employed by many regularly gigging pros, and
last night a Marsh Bassman was onstage in Nashville being used by Darryl Higham of
Imelda May, as well as our own Walt from Psychodevilles and the infamous Ronnie
Crutcher of Hillbilly Casino and Setzer's Nashvillians.
I turned Ronnie onto this amp as a replacement for his blonde bassman and he's been giggin all over it with as well as recording.

I dont share any of this with you in a negative way,
I just want you to know that Marsh has many rockabillies diggin his amp and He is a serious builder, not an amateur. I on the other hand am not a big time amp guy, barely a tech but I am
building a blonde amp that would make any old military tank builder jealous.
I'm pretty sure Marsh feels the same about his builds.

Maybe for the pros they apply more than for me, I do not know, but anyway I have $ 278 to repair a new product and it makes me beside myself. I do not want him back in his hands to keep him still killing me the amp ...

coxico2001 wrote:

Maybe for the pros they apply more than for me, I do not know, but anyway I have $ 278 to repair a new product and it makes me beside myself. I do not want him back in his hands to keep him still killing me the amp ...

that is totally understandable. Its probably that much just to ship it there and back
for repairs?