Iirc, the 135 had something called an " inverted transformer", or something like that, which gave it a cleaner sound and headroom.
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Opportunity for a Bassman 135
- Thread starter Gravedigger Dav
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Iirc, the 135 had something called an " inverted transformer", or something like that, which gave it a cleaner sound and headroom.
If it has new caps and new tubes, the head probably has more head room than the cabinet. You'll fart the speakers before getting to distortion. But I gig a 135 head regularly and have even played an outdoor no PA show and it did great.
The 135 has the Ultralinear transformer that helps give it the extra 35w of power and maybe a slight more headroom than the 100. I like the 135 cause it has two channels, and when you jump them you get a fatter sound, also they have a 3 band Fender Tone stack, where most of the 50's and 100's had two bands.
He also said in his ad the speakers have been reconed. I've never played a 135, but I did gig for a while with a Super Bassman. The cab had the aluminum mounts that the speakers attached to. The mounts were about 3" (IRRC) deep and conical. It was supposed to improve the speaker projection, but I don't know if that was true or not.
I played a Bassman back when it was pretty much what got played most places. Great tone. Plug a Fender bass into one of them and you hear exactly what Leo had in mind. It's an absolutely classic sound.
$800 seems fair if it's in good condition. "Tube is tube" in my book. Anything under a grand can be a good deal if it's been well maintained and treated with a smidgen of respect.
One real plus of those old amps is the turret board construction. Most amp techs consider them easier to work on. Which is why so many of them are still cranking it out several owners and 50 (or more) years after they first rolled out the factory doors.
Hook that head up to an open-back cab with a pair of 10s or 12s, and put something like a Fulltone Plimsoul or Way Huge Saucy Box between it and a Strat and you have a sweet guitar rig as well.
I'd definitely check it out if I were shopping for amps.
$800 seems fair if it's in good condition. "Tube is tube" in my book. Anything under a grand can be a good deal if it's been well maintained and treated with a smidgen of respect.
One real plus of those old amps is the turret board construction. Most amp techs consider them easier to work on. Which is why so many of them are still cranking it out several owners and 50 (or more) years after they first rolled out the factory doors.
Hook that head up to an open-back cab with a pair of 10s or 12s, and put something like a Fulltone Plimsoul or Way Huge Saucy Box between it and a Strat and you have a sweet guitar rig as well.
I'd definitely check it out if I were shopping for amps.
Here are a couple of pics:
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The other pics show it clean all the way around.
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The other pics show it clean all the way around.
I'm hoping so. I'm going to look at it tomorrow after work. Couldn't do it sooner because of schedule conflicts.
I'm a huge bassman fan but I don't like the silver faces as much as the earlier ones. To me the earlier ones sound just a little warmer. My main amp right now is a 50 watt blackface clone through a modern cab. You really can't beat it
Looks good.
If it has JBLs, you can see the aluminum dust caps through the grill cloth.
In that condition, at that price, I wouldn't turn it down if it doesn't have JBLs.
They can be found, for that extra punch and clarity they are famous for,
if that is what you want to do.
If it has JBLs, you can see the aluminum dust caps through the grill cloth.
In that condition, at that price, I wouldn't turn it down if it doesn't have JBLs.
They can be found, for that extra punch and clarity they are famous for,
if that is what you want to do.
A reconed JBL should but might not have the aluminum dust caps. You'll never know till the cab is inspected.
That's fair. Heads are usually around the 500 mark, and 300 for the cab is fair. Not asking too much, not asking too little, pretty much right on. I would still try to negotiate down some, maybe see if you can get it for 700 or 750 if they really need the money. But I always try and get money off.
I love those amps and cabs, big bassman tone fan.
I also would recommend making an offer. If you can get fifty bucks off, that buys a lot of beer and smokes, even where I live. If you don't drink or smoke, that also buys iced tea and pizza.
I plan to negotiate. Don't smoke and don't care for beer, but it will buy a nice bottle of single malt scotch.
One trick I use is to show the money. I will take out 7 $100 bills, fan them out in front of him and say, "I can go 700, but that's about it." If he hesitates at all, I put the money back in my pocket. You'd be surprised how well that works. There is a psychological thing about seeing money.
I bought a 1980 Bassman 135 earlier this year and I absolutely love the sound.
I haven't used it live yet because of some minor issues, (I have been getting some constant 60hz hum I initially thought would be solved by a re-tube, but since I replaced the tubes it hasn't gone away so I'm thinking it's in need of a re-cap or some other servicing,) but I have used it many times for rehearsals with a hard rock band consisting of a loud guitar player and an even louder drummer.
I used it with a crappy 212 guitar cab and it kept up very well (although the amp was completely pinned and the speakers were on the verge of death in that configuration) and it produced a really great overdriven sound. When I replaced the speakers in the 212 cab with higher wattage speakers with more bass response I saw even better results: tighter bass, and more clean headroom because of the higher wattage speakers. When I used a 410 Fender Super Bassman cab it pushed more than enough air to get by with the bigger cabinet, so the volume control was dialed back significantly more resulting in a cleaner sound. When pushed, the overdrive sound is phenomenal, really smooth, not farty at all, and it cleans up for a nice and fat sound with volume and tone controls dialed back as all good tube amps do. The clean sounds are of course great as well: fat and tubby and warm, just like a bassman should sound. What's great about these amps is that they stay really clean until you get the master up to like 8-9 and only then do you get a bit of power tube distortion. This is a big reason why they're not very popular with guitar players, you need to have them cranked to get that sweet sweet drive. With bass (in general) this is less of an issue and you need to push it more anyway to the right kind of bass push.
Although I have a Fender Super Bassman rig as my main rig (which I love,) I would easily be able to get by with the 135 as my #1 amp. The only thing keeping me from that is the maintenance that needs to be done on it which I currently don't have the spare funds to service. Once that happens, the 135 will likely be my new #1!
I haven't used it live yet because of some minor issues, (I have been getting some constant 60hz hum I initially thought would be solved by a re-tube, but since I replaced the tubes it hasn't gone away so I'm thinking it's in need of a re-cap or some other servicing,) but I have used it many times for rehearsals with a hard rock band consisting of a loud guitar player and an even louder drummer.
I used it with a crappy 212 guitar cab and it kept up very well (although the amp was completely pinned and the speakers were on the verge of death in that configuration) and it produced a really great overdriven sound. When I replaced the speakers in the 212 cab with higher wattage speakers with more bass response I saw even better results: tighter bass, and more clean headroom because of the higher wattage speakers. When I used a 410 Fender Super Bassman cab it pushed more than enough air to get by with the bigger cabinet, so the volume control was dialed back significantly more resulting in a cleaner sound. When pushed, the overdrive sound is phenomenal, really smooth, not farty at all, and it cleans up for a nice and fat sound with volume and tone controls dialed back as all good tube amps do. The clean sounds are of course great as well: fat and tubby and warm, just like a bassman should sound. What's great about these amps is that they stay really clean until you get the master up to like 8-9 and only then do you get a bit of power tube distortion. This is a big reason why they're not very popular with guitar players, you need to have them cranked to get that sweet sweet drive. With bass (in general) this is less of an issue and you need to push it more anyway to the right kind of bass push.
Although I have a Fender Super Bassman rig as my main rig (which I love,) I would easily be able to get by with the 135 as my #1 amp. The only thing keeping me from that is the maintenance that needs to be done on it which I currently don't have the spare funds to service. Once that happens, the 135 will likely be my new #1!
Thanks. The only reservation I have, if it turns out to be as nice as advertised, is the size and weight. I'll bet the cab alone is about 100 lbs.
True enough, and the head 50 or 60. It's something to keep at home as a jam amp and collectable.
Or the same EV's as the Studio Bass amp. Which would actually be better!
When I had the 215 cabinet mine had EV's and they were nice.
