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Fender Bassman 50 rebuild/restoration


ossyrocks
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On 17/11/2022 at 08:14, Alien said:

If it's not a daft question; if you don't like them, why did you buy the second one?  The first could be put down to bad luck, but the second seems to be the triumph of hope over experience!

 

A

I exchanged the amp I was using for the Bassman when I left the band. I figured the Bassman would have a higher value. Simple economics! :)

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  • 2 months later...

Brief update. Martin has been very busy with customer builds, but has managed to get some time with my amp this week.

The last time I saw it, he had gutted the entire board and was starting the rebuild from scratch. This week we discussed options. We've agreed that the Bass Channel will be rebuilt pretty much stock blackface. The Normal channel is where he's going to do things a little differently. He's going to make input 1 & 2 completely independent of each other, with this channel having more gain stages (more valves). Input 1 will have lower gain for active basses or for my pretty pokey Precision to run cleaner for a more jazz/clean blues vibe. Input 2 will be higher gain to get a more growly blues/rock tone. He's paying careful attention to voltages and filtering too, to get the most out of the amp for bass.

At the end of the day, this will be a very different amp than it was, with Martin rebuilding the entire circuit from the ground up utilising his ideas and component choice. I must say, I'm looking forward to getting it home.

 

Rob

Edited by ossyrocks
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  • 2 weeks later...

There was also a 64 Jazz refin for $1200 . And $1200 for the Bassman. I’m not into long scale Fenders (even vintage bargains) but somebody got one heck of a deal today. The Jazz was a stripped natural refin , and the decal was terrible. But I’m about 99% sure it was the real thing. The Bassman looked to be in nice shape.

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The guy that picked them up is an amp & guitar tech, and says they both need work. I was privately chatting on a Canadian forum. Seller said the amp worked last time he tried it , but it doesn’t now. The buyer is not too concerned , it’s stock. The bass is a 62 and will need a refin and major clean , neck , pickups , pickguard and pots are original. Major restoration , but it will be gorgeous when he’s done.

He got quite the deal. But a major overhaul is needed.

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I had several Bassmans , not great bass amps , but great guitar heads. Harp players love them. I think the seller is a pedal steel player.

Any old blackface Fender is going to need a trip to the spa , but once they’ve been rejuvenated they’re good for many years. There’s good reason so many guitar players love them.
We’ve got several really good tube techs in town, and I believe the buyer fixes them himself.

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  • 11 months later...

It's been a while.....

 

This project is up and running again after being put on the back burner for a while.

 

Martin and I have been through various ideas about how to re-work this amp, and we both settled eventually on build it again from scratch, only way to be sure, blast off and nuke it from space.

 

The circuit is Martin's take on various Fender circuits including the Tweed Bassman (don't get hot under the collar, it will stay clean). The mini switches have been reconfigured as mid-voicing presets in the absence of a mid pot on either channel. The output transformer is a high quality after-market Twin Reverb unit, big iron, so now running at 8 ohms to match my BF Super Compact.

 

It's not far from the finish line now I think, and I can't wait to get it back. Martin is also open to tweaking things further down the line as it gets used and any changes needed become apparent. 

 

Anyway, the money shot, compare with the internal shot from my first post.

 

Rob

 

RLd.thumb.jpg.ebc55ea95c57b4e674190984c91bdb11.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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