So, borrowed/purchasing a silverface bassman 100. Many and most say not enough to gig with, which is my confusion. I play with a loud guitar player, I'm not getting buried and was asked to turn down last gig... Bassman regular channel, bright switch up, master dimed, channel volume at 3, treble and mid at 5-6, bass just under 3, through a svt-410he. It is unreal tone and volume, backed by about everyone hearing it. A few bass players were asking how I got the volume out of it. The bass channel wasn't quite enough but that regular channel bright switch brings this thing to life if you keep the bass dialled back, otherwise it's all mud. Is it possible many of these other amps not being loud enough were needing some TLC? Maybe I found a winning combination, it has more perceived volume than my 500 watt solid state head anyways. Not after a big debate, just some insight to why my first hand use and experience is contradicting most everyone else's opinions haha. Any ideas?
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70's bassman 100
- Thread starter phunkysteve
- Start date
- Jun 25, 2007
- 4,531
- 135
- 63
- Disclosures
- Artist:TC Electronic RH450 bass system (original test-pilot)
100 watts into the right speakers with the right eq can work very well. Don't expect much in the way of clean past 5 at the most, its all overdrive from there. I gigged a 100 watt (V4-B) into a 215 for a long time.
people place too much emphasis on amplifier watts and too little emphasis on acoustic watts. it's the result of marketing brainwash.
the weak link in your signal chain is always the speaker. even the biggest stack only has a few % efficiency when it comes to converting electrical watts into acoustic watts. some people like to approach the efficiency problem by driving the hell out of a little speaker with a huge number of electrical watts. as you've figured out, a large radiating surface area helps to work the numbers in your favor, making excessive electrical watts unnecessary.
the weak link in your signal chain is always the speaker. even the biggest stack only has a few % efficiency when it comes to converting electrical watts into acoustic watts. some people like to approach the efficiency problem by driving the hell out of a little speaker with a huge number of electrical watts. as you've figured out, a large radiating surface area helps to work the numbers in your favor, making excessive electrical watts unnecessary.
Yeah I've found the eq can vastly effect the perceived volume. I like mids and on most amps will cut the bass as it just eats everything else up. I think the cab pairing is probably more than half of it (with eqing). If ever pushed to 5 on this thing I would be out of a job and probably kicked from the venue, hahahah. Thanks for the input!
"...it has more perceived volume than my 500 watt solid state head anyways..."
that was my experience too - I had ( still have actually) an Eden wt 800 and I'd run one side(400 watts) into a 4 ohm Eden D410XLT4.The 100 watt fender head into the same box always sounded louder
cheers
Stew
that was my experience too - I had ( still have actually) an Eden wt 800 and I'd run one side(400 watts) into a 4 ohm Eden D410XLT4.The 100 watt fender head into the same box always sounded louder
cheers
Stew
Hi,
On occasion I will gig with my '75 Fender Bassman 100 head. It used to be my only amp. It's in semi-retirement for the last 20 years now that I have a Randall RB2000 and GK 800RB. I do not play metal at ear-bleeding levels but I've never had a problem being heard with it. If you keep the old Bassman tuned up it sounds great with a couple of 15" speakers at 4 ohms (total).
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
On occasion I will gig with my '75 Fender Bassman 100 head. It used to be my only amp. It's in semi-retirement for the last 20 years now that I have a Randall RB2000 and GK 800RB. I do not play metal at ear-bleeding levels but I've never had a problem being heard with it. If you keep the old Bassman tuned up it sounds great with a couple of 15" speakers at 4 ohms (total).
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
I have a '72 Bassman 100 and I'd use it more if it didn't weigh in at 65 lbs ... I played a gig with it while my GK 1001 RB II was in the shop getting cleaned and I was surprised by the volume it was putting out through my 2 GK Neo 1X15s. I, too, got the "could you turn it down ?" request.
