Fender Bassman 10

[Kenny Lind]

A mid 70's Bassman 10 in excellent condition just went up for sale locally for $600. I'm a big Bassman fan. I have a '62 head that I've used exclusively for guitar thru an Ampeg V4 cab and also a '59 LTD reissue which I'm not too crazy about.
Was wondering what the consensus is on the Bassman 10. Good for bass and guitar? Was thinking about replacing the the'59 reissue with the 10.

 

[Michedelic]

A mid 70's Bassman 10 in excellent condition just went up for sale locally for $600. I'm a big Bassman fan. I have a '62 head that I've used exclusively for guitar thru an Ampeg V4 cab and also a '59 LTD reissue which I'm not too crazy about.
Was wondering what the consensus is on the Bassman 10. Good for bass and guitar? Was thinking about replacing the the'59 reissue with the 10.

Back in the day it was a usable but not that highly regarded amp. Like the Ampeg B-15 it better served recording and low volume gigs, and then even though it was 4x10, it was a combo whose cab(even though sealed)just wasn’t deep enough. I don’t know if CBS Fender was attempting a then-modern take on the tweed Bassman, but it came out before the ongoing current 4x10 cab concept took hold. Yeah, just like the tweed it lent itself to guitar use, but after two different versions it wasn’t that big of a hit in either camp, and faded away.
However, not too long ago, if you would
go to 22:30…

 

[Redbrangus]

I agree with @Michedelic that it was a usable amp for the era, but only marginally so. Likewise, saying it was 'not highly regarded' is also probably a wee bit of understatement. I bought one new in '73, and I still have it, but it's really not much of an amp. When I bought it, I needed something smaller than my Bassman & 215 cab for jazz and pit band gigs and it sort of passed for small back in those days. (I really wanted a B-15, but they were pretty scarce and pricey in that era.) As mentioned, it was serviceable, but I never cared for it. I considered selling it a few years ago, but the resale value wasn't much then -- one in rough shape languished on Craigslist locally for months at $250. I've also considered hacking into it and replacing the baffle board to use a single 15" driver -- the cab is almost big enough for that. Something else I've considered is turning it into a 210 cab by using better drivers and either putting ducted ports in the empty holes, or just blocking them. Obviously, this would be to address the problem of the cab being much too small for four 10s.

For the OP, I'd say that a Bassman Ten probably wouldn't serve the function of a bass amp combo much, if any, better than the open-backed Tweed reissue you already have. And it likely wouldn't be any better as a guitar amp either, but that's a matter of taste. It IS a good old Bassman amplifier, albeit a Silverfaced one, and it does have a TMB tone circuit, if that's desirable for you. If you're an experimenter/builder with a taste for Fenders, it's a great chassis for modifications; there's a ton of room in it -- enough to add additional tubes, even.

We shouldn't be discussing dollar amounts with a non-Supporting Member, but I will offer that IMHO that's too many frogskins for that amp unless you love it for gee-tar. It's a fairly miserable bass amp.

 

[Kenny Lind]

It just came to my attention that what I assumed was a '59 LTD re-issue might not be. The sticker inside indicates it's a 5F6-A narrow panel. Could someone please give me a little guidance regarding exactly what I've got.

 

[abarson]

There's a Fender Bassman Wiki, can't say how accurate it is.

Fender Bassman - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In short, AR4 rectifier tube and four Jensen P10R reissue alnico speakers = LTD.
Note how Fender relaunched it as a guitar amp, not for bass.