Fender Bassman TV fan mod.

[Tylenol Jones]

I've always found the fan to be mightily distracting. Though you don't hear the fan in most cases, through softer passages and/or during at-home practices, I'd hear it often.

After having had enough, I dug through the Internet looking for a replacement fan. Took a while, but I eventually found one ; Scythe SY124010L 40mm X 10mm.

All it took was opening up the Bassman TV, removing some screws to remove the fan, cutting the wires where they leave the fan so that you're left with the longest amount of wire possible from the old fan. Then, cut the plastic clip at the end of the wire of the new fan, strip the wires of the new fan and the remaining long wire from the old fan, and then twist the exposed wires appropriately (red to red, black to black), seal with tape, screw the fan so that air is blowing inside the amp.

The difference was night & day. Though the new fan is clearly less powerful than the stock one, I've played a number of hours since then with zero issues. Overheating doesn't appear to be a problem.

I highly recommend the mod for whomever wishes to keep their Bassman TV amps but wish to seriously alleviate the sound issues.

 

[Bugeyed Earl]

A similar modification is popular with Mesa Walkabout owners (I soldered a SilenX unit directly to the board on mine.) Fortunately, it's not difficult to find a quieter fan with similar airflow specs. As you say, it's not important once you start playing loud, but it's nice to have a quiet amp at home.

 

[BassmanPaul]

Did you ensure that the CFM rating was the same, or better, than the original fan? If you did not you can expect trouble down the road.