The Fender Bassman100 'silverface' 1973
Here is my Fender Bassman100 'silverface' 1973. I
bought it when I new absolutely nothing about amps. The Hughes and
Kettner I used was not good enough so I wanted another one. On the
harp-l list I read something about a Bassman. When I saw the ad of the
Bassman100 top I thought: this is it. By now I know that a 1959 Bassman
was the ideal amp in the eyes of many harpplayers and not the one I
have. The former owner of the Bassman top gave me three old 10 inch
speakers and a PA-tweeter which I used to built a speakerbox. The sound
of the box is good. When I plug in a guitar and screw up the volume
knob, the whole building I live in is trembling. Alas: not so while
playing harp. The wellknown feedback devil doesn't permit me to do so.
I like the sound of the bassman. Plugged in at the left base channel ,
with 'bass' on 10 'treble' on 2 and 'volume' on (about) 4, the sound of
the Bassman/CAD
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mic combination is a bit trumpetlike while playing at high volume.
Playing not too loud the sound is not fat but a it is a nice warm
sound. With the harmonica honker much more distortion is possible. Set
to 'full honk' this combination gives a full sound, different from the
Koch, but nice. The sound is best when the honker is plugged in the
'normal' input, not in the 'base'. I haven't swapped tubes in the
Bassman100 yet. The reason? People knowing much more about swapping
tubes than I do told me that this simple trick will not work on this
amp. To create the Bassman1959 sound (which most people like) there is
much more to do with the Bassman100 than just swapping tubes. But I
like the sound as it is so I won't do the changes. The amp has three
pre-amp tubes: a 12AT7 and two 7025's, which are in fact the same as
12AX7 tubes. Swapping some of these, or me be all three for lower gain
tubes will give me more control over the type of sound this amp
produces.
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