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1959 Bassman

IvanMike

IvanMike

TTRPG enthusiast, Happy, Joyous, & Free.
Supporting Member
Nov 10, 2002
7,150
2,292
58
Middletown CT, USA
#1
yup, it's a not a great amp for bass. (maybe at low volumes, but i didn't try it for fear of killing the older than me cones)

but jeez!

yeah, this is a BASS forum, but indulge me. :p

My GP is an amp freak and in addition to other amps of various types, modern and vintage, he has quite a collection of vintage fender blackface amps - (which sound head and shoulders much better than re-issues). However, he recently scored a vintage '59 tweed bassman and all i can say is WOW! What a freakin' tone monster of a guitar amp. Light as a feather too. It easily replaced his 100 watt marshall head and 4x12 cab and is sooooooo mush easier to transport. Even the blackface super, vibroverb, deluxe, pro, twin, and vibroluxe sound pale in comparison.

I think i'm in love. :D
 
#5
It's the holy Grail for guitar players too, even more so than plexi Marshalls (which are partialy based on the tweed Bassmans). It's most popular with blues players (like Budy Guy and John Lee Hooker and about 90% of the other blues players out there).

I've been pondeing one (the reissue) for my bass, I want a distort Dusty Hill kind of sound (Dusty uses guitar amps rather than bass amps).

~Paul :-)
 
#6
paul n said:
It's the holy Grail for guitar players too, even more so than plexi Marshalls (which are partialy based on the tweed Bassmans). It's most popular with blues players (like Budy Guy and John Lee Hooker and about 90% of the other blues players out there).

I've been pondeing one (the reissue) for my bass, I want a distort Dusty Hill kind of sound (Dusty uses guitar amps rather than bass amps).

~Paul :-)
Click to expand...

Speaking of ZZ Top.. I heard Tube Steak Boogie on the radio twice yesterday..is that bass sound through the Fender? It sounds real good..
 
#7
..is that bass sound through the Fender? It sounds real good..
Click to expand...
The likelyhood of hearing a mic'ed cab only on any recording made in the last 20 years is very slim, even with live cuts there's almost always going to be at best a blend of mic and DI, and in the studio pure DI is the rule, not the exception.
 
#8
for higher end professional studio's, will they use the DI out of the bass amp/head that the player usually uses/likes, or wil lthey use a separate DI box of some sort of super duper low noise studio quality?

I wonder what the chances are that i am hearing a bass played through something i would be familiar with... an eden bass amp DI out? sansamp DI into the board? Presonus? Or is there a whole other rhelm of non consumer gear i havnt heard about ? probably the latter.
 
#9
in the studio, (on pro-level recordings at least) the chances are that the bass is run thru the equipment the studio has and the engineers and producers are the most familiar and comfortable with. Not that the DI outs of todays amps are bad, but the chances are that the bass makes its way to tape through a high quaility mic pre and tube compressor.
 
#11
billfitzmaurice said:
The likelyhood of hearing a mic'ed cab only on any recording made in the last 20 years is very slim, even with live cuts there's almost always going to be at best a blend of mic and DI, and in the studio pure DI is the rule, not the exception.
Click to expand...


What if you are trying to get a vintage sound for your band? A good recent example I can think of is the Arcade Fire's album Funeral. That recording sounds like the speakers were mic'd and fed through a tape machine. Kind of reminds me of Velvet Underground's Loaded... I mean, I have to admit, if I was going to make a rock and roll record I'd want it to sound like that.

This reminds me.. just for the record if any of your cats want to make an investment, the craiglist philly section has the tape machine for sale that countless bands have used for that gritty lo-fi sound.
 
#12
billfitzmaurice said:
That sucker is worth a fortune it it's even close to original. Do whatever you can to have him will it to you.
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:D

love to. we'll see.

i''m holding out for that and the entire collection of blackface amps. Of course, he's the kind of guy who will buy 1 or 2 more just to have backups.
 
#13
mksolid said:
What if you are trying to get a vintage sound for your band?
Click to expand...
A good engineer can deliver any sound you want when he mixes. The idea in the studio is to get a pristine clean signal, you can always make a clean tone dirtier but you can never clean up a dirty tone. You don't get a pristine clean signal via an amp and mic, or the internal DI from an amp or even an external DI. You plug the bass direct into a channel of your $100,000+ board. Often a producer will have a mic'ed track available, especially to keep the artist happy, but unless your last name is McCartney chances are you'll have little to say about what the final mix sounds like.
 
#15
BassManolukas said:
I'm missing something -

This is a Bassman amp, eh?

Why is it for guitar? :eyebrow:
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Because it sounds brutal with a bass...

My buddy just bought a Bassman clone from the Victoria amp company. We A/B'd the victoria with his mint cond. '59 and the victoria destroyed it. The '59 sounded amazing though.
 
#17
Being the evil guitar player that he is, my father has acquired quite a few amps through the years. Although it is a Bassman, it really does sound incredible with a guitar.

Since this thread is about the '59 Bassman, I thought I'd share this with everyone: two all original '59 Bassman amps. One's in much better shape than the other. (sorry about the quality, edited for size)


bassman3.gif



But, I agree with quallabone; the Victoria kills.


:bassist: :bassist: :bassist:
 
#18
paul n said:
It's the holy Grail for guitar players too, even more so than plexi Marshalls (which are partialy based on the tweed Bassmans). It's most popular with blues players (like Budy Guy and John Lee Hooker and about 90% of the other blues players out there).
~Paul :-)
Click to expand...

Yep, SRV played through a Fender Bassman (as well as Marshall's and Dumbles).
 
#19
They sound very good with bass, just not very loud. They sound great with guitar, quite loud too.

When the Bassman came out it was pretty much the only thing of its kind - portable and loud for the time. They were made for the new electric basses that Fender pioneered, but guitar players found they sounded great for guitar. Leo Fender ran the company at that time.

Here's a site with a bit of history: Link Removed


BassManolukas said:
brutally....bad?

why would fender make a bass amp that sounds bad with bass and good with guitar?

oh, wait. I forgot - Fender is run by mindless androids....


:p
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