Fender Bassman 135 or not?

[sleevey]

A few years back on a whim I bought a 73 Bassman 50, had a local tube amp guru went through it and overhaul/updated the tubes/diodes/ resistors ect and it woke it up and I absolutely love the tone it produces, its warm and thick, and when you play with the tone controls it can get down right aggressive and growly.........but the volume level leaves something to be desired, it breaks up too early for me. (this amp is paired with the original 2x15 cab with the JBL's in it. My question is this: is the Bassman 135 the same amp, with more output? Can I get the same tone, or is this amp totally different? Any suggestions or info??

[4Mal]

fairly close. Kissing cousins at least. I think the 50 has a bit sweeter breakup but ... I've never actually heard a '73. Most of them I've owned or played through were late 60's ... so a bit of a guess there. In general the 100/135 feels a little stiffer headroom wise. Not a bad thing considering how limited the 50 watter is ...

IMO - there isn't enough oomph in the 100 or the 135 for me as a gigging amp in a rock setting. You might consider a good speaker level DI and using that to feed a louder monitor setup and also provide a line to the house. I'd be ditching the 2x15 just for the size of it to help with the extra gear carry ... Not a real practical gigging setup but the possibilities tonally could be sweet!

I've played around a bit using my Fender Princeton Reverb driving an Avalon U5 speaker in, then taking the through to the effects return of a GK MB2-500 into a fEarful. it was astounding - and also more crap to carry that I would normally sign up for ...

I love little tube amps... in the studio and for practice.

[will33]

I loved the sounds I got from my 135 but if you're looking for the "warm/tubey but still relatively clean" sound, it's still limited in the volume department unless you have a whole lot of speakers hooked up to it. I pulled a pair of power tubes out of mine and had it re-biased to tame it down for guitar use. At 60-65 watts it'll still peel paint with a guitar if you want it to and I still plug a bass in it now and then to get sweet tone at lowish volumes. ie: sane rehearsal or recording stuff. Sounds incredible with a Pbass.

[toobalicious]

personally, i like the 100 a lot better than the 135... it is just a matter of personal preference, i guess... if you have fairly efficient speakers and dont mind some compression and growl, a 100 is plenty enough amp for even loud-ish gigs, particularly if you arent trying to carry the room.
i assume that "bright, clean, and modern" arent adjectives youd use to describe your ideal tone, but if that were the case, you would be facing almost 180 degrees in the wrong direction....

[sleevey]

Thanks guys!!!!!! I appreciate your info very much. I guess I will try one out and see what happens!!