Today i played thru a '59 Bassman RI for the first time. i played a epiphone Jack Casady and a Fender Precision. i had a great old school thumping tone. loved the whole thing. am i the only to like this amp? let me know!
With its open back cabinet design and guitar oriented 10s it's not going to enjoy broad appeal among bassists. If the model in my Behringer Vamp2 is accurate, it's a pretty nasal sounding amp anyway...which might work for some but certainly not many. Keep in mind that Fender quickly moved to sealed and ported speaker cabinets in later Bassman amps.
It's not really the same thing...but along the same lines....I had a Bassman 10 (50W tube, 4x10..70s ish). I loved it. It had this big dull thud....really reminded me of alot of 60s/70s bass tone. It made my Conklin sound like a jazz......
The Bassman 10 had a ported speaker cabinet...not open back like the original 410 bassman. And a more bass oriented circuit design (on the bass channel).
We recently sold an all original '58 Bassman at work. I actually did prefer it MUCH more for guitar than bass. If I had that kinda $$$ to drop on a guitar amp, that would be one SWEET investment!