Fender Bassman10 Cosmetic restoration

Freddy-Bl00D

So this weekend I got my Fender Bassman10 from a fellow forum member and im loving it!!! Its 10years older than me, its big and it sounds brilliant but today my band members started bringing up alot of "what ifs" and I would like to get some forum member opinions..

1) cutting the head: its a 70watt 4x10 combo, its really uncormftable to carry around (im a tiny guy) and the amp will be traveling alot! So would splitting the head and cab be a good idea? How much would it be and would a average joe like me be able to do it?

2) adding handles on the side and wheels: Sounds basic enough.. The amp only has one handle on top, due to the height of the amp it would be much more convenient to have a handle on each side. Add wheels, also simpe little lockable swiveling trolley type wheels.

3) complete overhaul: this is far out and most 'classic' amp fans wont like the idea... Completely recover the amp in either a 'Fender Hot Rod Deluxe White Lighting' tolex type covering or with Tweed covering. Add a red or black grill cloth. Have a new control panel cut (we know a guy that can do it) and replace al the knobs etc. The amp will look gorgeous but it will look completely different.

4) complete restoration: Straight forward, replace the black Tolex covering, replace the grill cloth, replace the missing knobs with matching knobs etc. basicly make the amp look as new as possible but still as original as possible..

So all opinions/advice welcome.. I an having a amp tech check the guts of the amp out to make sure everything is 100%

singemonkey

A Bassman Ten is not a "classic" amp. I'm going to gut mine this year, with EZ's help, and put a '59 Bassman circuit in it. The Bassman Ten was designed for... wait for it... playing bass through. The speakers are thus also not ideally suited to guitar and tend to be a bit shrill - although the clean tone can be super-sweet.

So don't worry too much about what you do with it. It's a hand-wired tube amp which makes it nice and mod-able. But it's a far cry from a classic Fender Bassman circuit with a tube rectifier.

I want mine to ultimately sound like this:

=

Freddy-Bl00D

singemonkey wrote: A Bassman Ten is not a "classic" amp. I'm going to gut mine this year, with EZ's help, and put a '59 Bassman circuit in it. The Bassman Ten was designed for... wait for it... playing bass through. The speakers are thus also not ideally suited to guitar and tend to be a bit shrill - although the clean tone can be super-sweet.

So don't worry too much about what you do with it. It's a hand-wired tube amp which makes it nice and mod-able. But it's a far cry from a classic Fender Bassman circuit with a tube rectifier.

I want mine to ultimately sound like this:

=

Oh i forgot to mention that i am using the amp for bass.. When i say 'classic' i speak of the amps look.. Ill let my local amp tech check out and do all the techy stuff...

singemonkey

Freddy-Bl00D wrote: Oh i forgot to mention that i am using the amp for bass.. When i say 'classic' i speak of the amps look.. Ill let my local amp tech check out and do all the techy stuff...

Haha. Well, ignore my rant then. In that case, you probably need all the volume you can get out of a 70watt amp. I'd put some of those Marshall type handles in the sides and keep it a 4x10. With the handles on either side, it becomes very easy for two people to move about.