- Feb 16, 2008
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- John K Custom Basses
IMO the bassman 100 is a better sounding amp than the 135. IME, the 135 is more brittle and harsh sounding than the 100.
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Fender Bassman...The Quest Begins
- Thread starter selfblessed
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MO the bassman 100 is a better sounding amp than the 135. IME, the 135 is more brittle and harsh sounding than the 100.
they can be yeah, brittle and too stiff to my ears. but a friend has a fully restored 135 that really sounds tremendous. he said his guy made some tiny changes here and there but i don't know quite what exactly. a stock 135 has some power when set up correctly, i'll give it that. i like 135's a lot, wish i had one as a backup. bassman 100's are not for me at all, to me they sound like a limp bf dual showman. in fact i traded my 100 straight up for my 50watt. both were bone stock and the 50 utterly smoked the 100 afa tone goes, no contest. and the 100 was'nt all That much louder either. then we got to work to make the 50 gig-worthy in the volume department. i did'nt really have to, but i wanted to and i'm sure glad i did.
Can't say I've ever heard a bass player say that about the same setup.
here here. don't know about a bf bassman/2-12, but i can tell you that a blonde bassman/2-12 is one killer rock setup, esp with better speakers. greg lake used one live when he was in ELP (and it was his Only onstage amp, mic'd of course) and it is the inspiration for what we did to my bf 50 watt's Bass channel, which is a cascode pre. any time any of you are in bawlmer you're welcome to take a test run thru my modded bf/bag end S15L-D. that little rig of doom has totally knocked the socks off of every bass player that has played thru it. preamps are stock fender issue, stock preamp coupling cap values, stock power supply cap values, upgraded iron, 6550's. one scary amp, with a loud clean tone to die for and that great "follow the bouncing ball" touch sensitivity. killer classic bf tone thru a kustom 2-15 D140 cab, but i much prefer the single baggie.
they can be yeah, brittle and too stiff to my ears. but a friend has a fully restored 135 that really sounds tremendous. he said his guy made some tiny changes here and there but i don't know quite what exactly. a stock 135 has some power when set up correctly, i'll give it that. i like 135's a lot, wish i had one as a backup. bassman 100's are not for me at all, to me they sound like a limp bf dual showman. in fact i traded my 100 straight up for my 50watt. both were bone stock and the 50 utterly smoked the 100 afa tone goes, no contest. and the 100 was'nt all That much louder either. then we got to work to make the 50 gig-worthy in the volume department. i did'nt really have to, but i wanted to and i'm sure glad i did.
Can't say I've ever heard a bass player say that about the same setup.
here here. don't know about a bf bassman/2-12, but i can tell you that a blonde bassman/2-12 is one killer rock setup, esp with better speakers. greg lake used one live when he was in ELP (and it was his Only onstage amp, mic'd of course) and it is the inspiration for what we did to my bf 50 watt's Bass channel, which is a cascode pre. any time any of you are in bawlmer you're welcome to take a test run thru my modded bf/bag end S15L-D. that little rig of doom has totally knocked the socks off of every bass player that has played thru it. preamps are stock fender issue, stock preamp coupling cap values, stock power supply cap values, upgraded iron, 6550's. one scary amp, with a loud clean tone to die for and that great "follow the bouncing ball" touch sensitivity. killer classic bf tone thru a kustom 2-15 D140 cab, but i much prefer the single baggie.
yeah, my Sunn center ported 2x15 JBL K140 cab (pictured on the left) is a little better (i.e louder) sounding cab than the Fender (also 2x15 K140's), but the sealed Fender is no slouch. i've played thru an Orange single 1x15, but in IMO the SUNN 2x15 JBL cab smokes it.
Of course the Sunn smokes it.
I meant the Orange will smoke the Fender. 
But hey this is all my Fender is faster than your Ford talk. 
I moved on a long time ago and find that many newer things are doing what that stuff can't do. I gig with guitarists using 15 watt Fuchs and Brunos and Hayseeds that outperform the Fender guitar amps of yesteryear. i like real big clear bass sound at any volume. Of course let me say I will play through a B-15 in a second in a controlled environment just like I'd drive your '64 GTO if you lend it to me. But disc brakes etc. have made these thing Sunday drivers. Congrats on having such cherry vintage gear.
P.S. How did you get that 3D photo of old Sunn amps on the wall like that?
At about the same time, I owned a genuine 1965 Blackface (50W, at the most) amp with the small 2x12" enclosure. It was dreadful, no headroom whatsoever and woefully underpowered.
Later, I bought a Silverface Bassman 70 head, primarily for use with guitar. It wasn't much better ...
with respect right back paul, so what? in it's stock form it is no slouch either. For Me, and With A Proper Cab or Two. i ran it stock for a few years, then switched to el34's, which stayed in there for 18 years. back then it served double duty as a both a bass and guitar amp and it was scary good for either. was still Bone stock and yes with the original power tranny. then i said screw it, i'm getting the most i can out of this thing for bass use only. but don't think i don't remember what the amp was like stock, i Was very happy with it, bottom line. i still maintain that with a couple of bone cheap mods totalling maybe $20 tops, (actually one little 75 cent mod will get you far) and some Proper cabs they can be even better for bass. with one or better yet 2 effiecient cabs they can really surprise. it makes me wonder if you've actually ever tried it. one does'nt have to go as far as i did of course, but what's wrong with trying to optimize something you love for your own use? they got a bad rap because of the cabs bassmen came with: inefficient cabs/guitar speaker designs and small power don't get you very far at all. i report my positive experiences with them, which i know fly in the face of conventional "wisdom" around here, and nothing more. and i will continue to champion them, because they're sleeper amps deserving of more recognition, imo.
So upon some investigation I think I have made up my mind what model I am going to look for. I am pretty sure that a Bassman 100 should do me pretty well. So...
I don't understand all the fuss about bassman's. I had the 135 and the bass was almost non-existence even coming out of a 15. But to each his own. yes go with the bassman 100, I've heard it with guitar and the amp kills it. As for bass never heard it. The Ampeg Jupiter B-22-X is the only other low powered tube amp I've tried and at fifty watts it puts out more bass then the 135. Ampeg is the leader in vintage tube amps for bass IMO. At 50 watts try to find a B-22-X or B-25B or for 100 watts the V4B will work.
Mine's not a 'Bassman' head, but it definitely has the 'Fender' tone. Its a 'super twin' that i converted into a head (i made a new 'head box' for it). The cab is the diagonal Fender Bassman 50 (or 75) cab, loaded with two JBL K140's. Yes, the cab is pretty small for 2x15's, but with the 180 watt head and the JBL's efficiency, i would describe it as loud as 2/3rd's of my SVT/810, which is easily enough for most large club gigs and has plenty of low end as well.
here's a pic of it:
My friend just got one of these 2x15 cabs w/ a bassman 50 head & it's loud as ****. I see no probs gigging w/ it. Now, the taller 70's fender 2x15 cabs were junk, imho...
Just to throw it back the other way, I'll say the 135 would be your better bet. I have one, love it but just find it a little shy for gigging unless you're doing a blues or country thing in a small bar. Any more power = better for bass. I'm coming at this from the angle of "warm but relatively clean tube sound", not grit. If you like the way it sounds gritty then by all means, crank it, I just don't.
Thus I have relagated it to guitar/lap steel duty and really like it there, I don't find it harsh or lacking tone or anything. I'm playing it through a pair of emi legend 10" speakers which leads me to my next point.
Using proper cabs to like it for bass. This thing has not a lot of power and a small transformer which are both not a plus for bass. To qualify, I'm not an amp tech. It sounds good up to a point. To make anything other than light gig volumes, you're talking about moving a 215, 412, or 610, quite a bit of gear to drag around for 100something watts.
So anyway, use it to record, rehearse, practice and play it on small gigs. Hell, get a cheap guitar cab off craigslist and plug a guitar into it, it won't kill you. Knowing a little about the other instruments makes you a better musician. They really respond well to pedals. They are dry so you might want a reverb unit/pedal.
Thus I have relagated it to guitar/lap steel duty and really like it there, I don't find it harsh or lacking tone or anything. I'm playing it through a pair of emi legend 10" speakers which leads me to my next point.
Using proper cabs to like it for bass. This thing has not a lot of power and a small transformer which are both not a plus for bass. To qualify, I'm not an amp tech. It sounds good up to a point. To make anything other than light gig volumes, you're talking about moving a 215, 412, or 610, quite a bit of gear to drag around for 100something watts.
So anyway, use it to record, rehearse, practice and play it on small gigs. Hell, get a cheap guitar cab off craigslist and plug a guitar into it, it won't kill you. Knowing a little about the other instruments makes you a better musician. They really respond well to pedals. They are dry so you might want a reverb unit/pedal.
yeah, my Sunn center ported 2x15 JBL K140 cab (pictured on the left) is a little better (i.e louder) sounding cab than the Fender (also 2x15 K140's), but the sealed Fender is no slouch. i've played thru an Orange single 1x15, but in IMO the SUNN 2x15 JBL cab smokes it.
These are great cabs as well...
True about the only 1-15 thats why I added the 210 and it still lacked in the bass department and yes the kick slayed the amp.
Thats because the bass that it puts out is weak sauce. There is not going to be much difference in the 100 and 135 because because there is only 4 6L6's in both amps. The 135 should give you more headroom but mine didn't. In All fairness though after I gave up on it I popped the hood and found two resistors jumpered in the pre-amp circuit. But I just noticed that the channel volume knob didn't kick in until about 3 and the head probably distorted just a hair quicker. Caps weren't involved so the bass frequencies shouldn't have been affected.
The Super Twin is better than both for bass but it doesn't say "Bassman" on the nameplate... gasp! And I agree with JohnK as I too have gigged it outdoors and in medium venues with PA support and the bass sounded amazing. A local producer recorded one of our shows with two condenser mics and my bass was over powering in the recording due to the bad PA mix until it was corrected halfway through the recording. We also were fortunate to have another earlier show recorded while I used my 135 and the bass lacked as I am trying to make a case for. We got to mix the songs down ourself and I had to crank the bass EQ's in order for it to sound more full and bass like.
