The handle on top not only isn't original, but if I'm not wrong, it's the handle from a reissue Bassman.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Apr 01, 2013 5:08 PM
There used to be a guy in Colorado who was buying up all of the Bassmans, refurbing them and selling them to Rock Stars. I can't remember why, but we corresponded for a while. At that time he had 9 or 10 and all were spoken for. That year the Stones were playing the halftime show at the Suerbowl, he was preparing 3 for that show. I'm a little shocked at the prices these are bringing now. I checked out a pretty nice one at our local GC 3 years ago and contemplated spending 3,000 for it. Declined, thought it might be over-priced. Just checking the sold listings on ebay I only found one vintage tweed combo that sold, for 3900.00, and it looked pretty nice.
Last Edited by rbeetsme on Apr 01, 2013 5:31 PM
It's real-speakers w/bell covers on bottom speakers date to 43 week of 1960. All transformers and choke are correct and look original to the amp. All tubes are correct and appear to be original to the amp,as the Astron caps are as well. The date code on the tube chart states Nov 1960 manufacture date. The only non-orignal item I see is the dogbone handle-given the weight of this amp,and that the original was made of leather,I would consider it a safety upgrade.
Last Edited by tmf714 on Apr 01, 2013 5:30 PM
A museum piece or a player? It seems too valuable to drag to gigs. I love amps, but I'm not so sure about an amp like this that is so impractical. Is it just for bragging rights? I don't get that.
Adam got a smokin' deal on his '55 and sent it to Kendrick for upgrades. That I can understand.
Rick, a small but important correction: I purchased my '55 Bassman in the early 1990s from Trip Henderson for $1500, and it had already been refurbished by Gerald Weber at that point. It has original transformers; three original speakers; one Kendrick speaker. I don't know what else has been swapped in or out, but I hope we can stipulate that GW would have done a pretty good job.
Huh, maybe that Holland for $1700 is a good deal....
I had a '59 Bassman, all original except the tweed. That had been removed and recovered with faux tweed contact paper. Pretty gross , but the amp played great. Then, after a while I had it re-tweeded by Larry Rogers. Within time, I was sick of hauling this huge, very valuable amp around and exposing it to damage, either in transit to gigs or at the gigs themselves. So I sold it for a lot, it was back in 1993.
I have never regretted the decision. I hated the idea that this amp was going to sit around my house, not being played and becoming a side table for a lamp. I wonder why someone (like Adam) would hold onto something like this, even if they don't use it (is it true an amp should be turned on and warmed up every month?) For a period of time, I thought this is something I could pass on to my kids, but frankly, they would probably sell it for a better side table.
PS, for those keeping "score" I bought the amp for $700 in 1988 and sold it for $3500 in 1994. The retweed was probably $300 or 400, I can't remember. With the proceeds I bought a Sonny Jr 1 for $1100 and a 1958 Fender Tweed Deluxe for $650.
Last Edited by 6SN7 on Apr 02, 2013 6:53 AM
Adam, absolutely. Gerald Weber is a master who is devoted to working players' amps. I'm certain he did a thorough job, including filter caps and tone caps. Had I owned your amp I would have sent it to him, too. Sorry for the error. My memory from your "I Love This Bassman" video (which was hilarious) was that you had sent the amp to Weber in Floooogerville TX.
That's a nice video. Very cool you still use it, as you have stated that you prefer the smaller amps. I just hate the idea of amps collect dust at home, but hey, thats me. Glad to see you took that dog out for a walk!
My Bassman was a remarkable harp amp, until I had it given the once over. The tech person was very reliable and had an excellent resume and reputation-among guitar players. So when I got the amp back, it was a fantastic guitar amp but it had lost whatever "mojo" I had with it. Maybe the caps were leaky enough to make the harp sound good, LOL! I had the same thing happen years later with a Tweed Vibrolux with anothe well known tech. A few years back, Skip Simmons told me many techs, even the best, remove way too much stuff when working on amps. Thats why I sent my Tweed Deluxe to him.
Last Edited by 6SN7 on Apr 02, 2013 7:40 AM
With my real '59 Bassman that I've owned since 1983, I'm extremely picky about who I let do ANY work on it and if the amp tech doesn't regularly work with vintage amps, there is no way in hell I'm gonna let him even breathe on it, let alone work on it.
Back in the late 80's, the guitar player in my band also owned his own musical instrument shop that also did repairs and many of the amps he sold were all vintage amps and he knw his s**t about them and so when I had it serviced to replace worn filter caps, he used NOS Astrons and they still work to this day. When the original P10R Jensens died in the amp, at that time, the Fender RI speakers weren't available (the Eminence Legend 102), and the closest thing to it was a now long discontinued 25 watt Celestions that are still in the amp to this day.
The main difference between a '59 and a '60 Bassman is that some of the '60's came with P10Q's as original equipment rather than P10R's.
Just because a tech has a great resume with guitar players, the first question to ask is that is it with vintage gear and if you allow a vintage amp to be worked on by someone who doesn't, beware of unwanted substitutions and/or modifications that can drastically alter the amp. Hell, in order to bet my Bassman, I sold a guitar player I used to gig with a real '65 Super Reverb in 1983 that the guitar player was drooling over, but he went to an amp tech that didn't really know a damned thing about vintage amps and the guy totally ruined it and he had to find a different tech to get it back to where it was.
Ig the amp listed on Ebay had a Mullard 5AR4/GZ34 rectifier tube (which is THE gold standard of rectifier tubes of that number), and the 12AX7 tubes were late 50's or early 60's GE made in the USA, if I had $15K to spend, it would be definitely worth it the money, but definitely NOT with a Telefunken rectifier tube or the 6L6 power tubes (6L6's of the day are more trebly and real 5881's has more middle, as does the difference between a REAL 12AX7 vs. a 12AX7A). IMO. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by barbequebob on Apr 02, 2013 9:59 AM
Well, I've owned a lot of vintage amps, including some doozie tweeds. The aforementioned tech would never touch an amp of mine, as I simply disagree with replacing every cap that is 'out of spec'. In my humble opinion, a big part of the magic in vintage amps IS some of the drifted values in certain resistors and caps etc.
