FENDER BASSMAN TEN!!!

shadow1 · 2009-10-19T22:05:20+00:00

OKay so i might have found a little old man that owns this amp ? What is it like? I have been looking for a bassman since i heard a guy use a 4x10 re-issue that sounded so damn nice (and im a SRV TONE kinda guy) Anyone know what this amp will be like for strat/blues? or is not going to do the magic like the silver/black face models? Im hoping someone knows? possible to mod it? like add some vERb or sumin? please amp fundi's let me know if i found GOLD or fake GOLD ?

aja

shadow1 wrote :'( not yet, the dude is not wanting to let it go ...YET ? i will get it from him someway hopefully

erm, hopefully in a LEGAL way!

Matt-White

Man, that thing looks sick!

My take on it is:
1. Always be careful not to buy an amp that is too loud ... it ends up standing in the living room more than it gets played (like my 65 Blackface Bassman Head. I bought it for blues gigs, but these days we use it as a bass amp as it is just too loud at the other end of a Strat: To get it to really sing, you need to crank it up...).
2. You have to test all vintage amps - and its not just for the wiring, hardware and electronics (eg. the transformer), but also to check the speakers... They tend to take a lot of abuse over the years and we tend to forget about them. I've come across many a Fender vintage amp with shot speakers, which is not easy to sort out in SA. You might have to budget for that/renegotiate.
3. As with guitars, we tend to follow what the experts/websites/books say. Sure, the Blackfaces are better/more legendary (and the original tweed models are better than BFaces etc etc), but a good condition Silverface will never disappoint. It is still a hot, great sounding amp, even if it wasn't manufactured during Fender's most glorious period. My mate has a SF Twin Reverb, and it rocks! Dan Patlansky started out with a SF Bassman head and he loved it...

singemonkey

I own one.

It's a super sweet sounding amp - but it's not SRV. This amp was designed to have as much clean headroom as possible. The upshot of this is that it'll only start to overdrive a little when it's cranked up full (and then you're going to blast your audience clean out the doors). With a tubescreamer it sounds fantastic. Clean, it sounds fantastic - sweet, musical.

I've got a flickr contact who is a guitar repair guy working with Dan Erlewine (who wrote the popular book on the subject). He has three of these, and in response to my question, said that they were one of the last great Fenders (I don't know if his were black-faced or not).

One day I'll have mine fixed up and black-faced, but it's been a wonderful amp to me already, with even non-guitarists commenting on my tone at gigs.

But because they're silverfaces, be careful what you pay. This amp is not a "collectors" item in the true sense. They go for quite little in the states compared to the tweed bassmans and blackface bassmans. If the money's right, go for it.

MIKA-the-better-one

Mercury music edenvale just got a fender bassman ten in today, they mentioned they would do it for about R8000, its late 70s from the serial number but sounded great and pretty clean externally. hmmmmmmm, I want it now, despite my new old 72 twin

singemonkey

That guitar tech I mentioned said decided in response to my questions to get all four (!) of his Bassman 10s blackfaced. He said that it would be easy because they're handwired. He went on to say that his amp tech had agreed to do it for $90 each. Just interesting.

It's obviously a cheap way of getting a good bassman. Buy a bassman 10 - get it blackfaced. Way cheaper than a blackface amp kit or a Fender reissue. I don't have money to prioritise it at the moment, but I'll also probably end up asking Matta to do mine.

MIKA-the-better-one

R90!!!!!! thats really good. IT really sounded good this amp, It just had that very nice fender clean sound.

matta

MIKA the better one wrote R90!!!!!! thats really good. IT really sounded good this amp, It just had that very nice fender clean sound.

MIKA, RE-READ the post, $90, presumably USD, @ +- R8,00 to the USD = R720, which equates to what I would roughly charge for 2 1/2 hours of labour, about the time needed to do the mod, if there were no other problems/repairs needed to be done, so it averages out. Any tech willing to do it for R90 is prob still living with this folks, has no debt/bills and is living off 2 minute noodles ?

Cheers

Matt

singemonkey

matta wrote Any tech willing to do it for R90 is prob still living with this folks, has no debt/bills and is living off 2 minute noodles ?
Matt

Living on the street eating rats, more likely ?

Heath

I know alot of people specially in my industrie that sell themselves short who are brilliant at what they do , but have no business or who understand there worth . I charge by the client corporates get charged a hell of a lot more then a small one man show but get the same level of support . So dont always judge by price imo they may be excellent but dont understand what they can actually charge .

singemonkey

Tailon. wrote I know alot of people specially in my industrie that sell themselves short who are brilliant at what they do , but have no business or who understand there worth . I charge by the client corporates get charged a hell of a lot more then a small one man show but get the same level of support . So dont always judge by price imo they may be excellent but dont understand what they can actually charge .

True, but in this case Mika just didn't notice that it was dollars not rands.

MIKA-the-better-one

yeh sorry I missed the whole dollar rand thing, I am american so that happens alot.

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