'59 Bassman for Bass?

[kbakerde]

I have no experience with this particular amp or cabinet. But I concur that the head is probably good sounding just low power. For the same price, you could buy the new Bassman 100T head which is the modern version of the Bassman.

Or for much less money, you can look for a silverface Bassman 100 or 135 from the 70's.

 

[Korladis]

Would you care to explain why being an open backed cab is bad for bass? I'm curious honestly.

JohnK can explain it better, but the short version is that it's a great way to wreck speakers, as I recall.

 

[chadds]

Guitar cones are designed for guitar signal vibration. Bass cones have a flexible surround that allows extreme movement that moves air.
Open backs allow the front and back waves to merge causing cancellations. For good giggable tone this has to be prevented.

 

[walterw]

supposedly if you play an old P-bass with flats into a 4x10 bassman at acoustic jazz band volume and pluck just the right way you can get a reasonable upright tone, which is all fender was going for at that point.

otherwise yeah, there's a reason you don't see nostalgia for vintage '50s bass amps, they mostly sucked.

 

[someparts]

I use one for practice sometimes. Setup in a corner it sounds great to me - but it's not loud and doesn't like to be pushed like a B-15. I would record with it but not play with a drummer.

 

[Bill Hughes]

The 59 Bassman re-issue is a quite faithful reproduction of the past, save for the PCB construction.

The silicon rectifier is socketed, and a tube rectifier can be installed if desired.

The blue alnico drivers were made for us by Eminance, using tooling that was aquired from Jensen.

Not much of a bass amp by todays standards.

Bill