Is this a good deal - Amp Thread

[fishbiscuit]

Since a lot of good deals pop up on the forums and Craig I want to get a trusted vote on some prices.

The one that I've seen is a 1972 Fender Bassman for 650.00 USD, seems a little high but I've heard good things.

Post what you find, if you pass someone else might want it.

[Buffered]

Since a lot of good deals pop up on the forums and Craig I want to get a trusted vote on some prices.

The one that I've seen is a 1972 Fender Bassman for 650.00 USD, seems a little high but I've heard good things.

Post what you find, if you pass someone else might want it.

Depends on the condition, whether it's a 50 or 100, all-original. etc. You'll have to factor in a potential recap of that amp/checkup which could be another $150 or so. I've seen them go from $300 to $650, but it would have to be a closet queen for that type of cash. Heady had a bassman, he'd probably be able to give more pointers/advice but from playing one they were the Marshallier of the Fenders of the day IIRC. Nice amps though.

[Heady Jam Fan]

Since a lot of good deals pop up on the forums and Craig I want to get a trusted vote on some prices.

The one that I've seen is a 1972 Fender Bassman for 650.00 USD, seems a little high but I've heard good things.

Post what you find, if you pass someone else might want it.

Depends on the condition, whether it's a 50 or 100, all-original. etc. You'll have to factor in a potential recap of that amp/checkup which could be another $150 or so. I've seen them go from $300 to $650, but it would have to be a closet queen for that type of cash. Heady had a bassman, he'd probably be able to give more pointers/advice but from playing one they were the Marshallier of the Fenders of the day IIRC. Nice amps though.

I had a BF Bassman head and I don't know much about the other variations, so take whatever I write with a grain of salt.

As Buffered said, they are more Marshall-like. I can't remember if the Marshall JTM-45 was a clone of the Bassman, or if the Bassman was Fenders reaction to Marshall (I thought it was the former, but read the latter recently in a different forum). Anyway, it does have more of that low-mid growl and less headroom that Fenders with comparable wattage and transformer size. So don't expect a 'big-clean pedal platform' like other 40-135w Fenders, mine was overdriven by about 3 on the dial. But it really captures that classic rock overdrive at a moderate volume if you can find a place to crank it - on that note, that is the only Fender circuit that reacts ok to various types of master volume controls. The amp is great for big, thick tube overdrive.

Mine was the personal amp of a tech who was trained in part by the infamous BC. This tech had eliminated the first (Bass) channel and used the preamp tube as an additional gain stage on the second (normal) channel. Along with other mods, my Bassman was part-way to a Dumble circuit. It sounded great, but I decided to work with a local tech and reverse some of those mods and try to go for one cleaner channel and one overdriven channel - it probably wasn't worth the effort of this process, but I had a huge pedalboard at the time that covered Gilmour, Trey, Hendrix, etc and it let me get rid of 'transparent, amp-like' overdrive pedals. Additionally, the amp had a PPIMV when I got it, a post-power-section line out which I used for a w/d/w rig, I don't think it had an effect loop though and I don't like delay or reverb into a dirty amp, so I would have ran all my wet effects after the line out.

I also put mine in a 112 Newell cab with an Eminence Red Fang. And it came with some ANOS tubes.

I'm not sure how quickly Fender changed the Bassman circuit. If your circuit is still Blackface, then its also probably low-headroom and maybe more desirable. Fender changed the circuit pretty early on with higher wattage amps in ways that often increased headroom along with other effects to the sound. If so, the 72 your looking at might have more headroom. Just depends what your looking for.

Yours is in the higher price range. I can't remember what I paid, but I paid a decent bit too since mine was Blackface and coming directly from the personal stash of an excellent tech. For the price your paying, it should have been checked by a tech very recently, in very nice condition and not stuffed with barely-alive tubes.

If you want a Fender head with more headroom, check out the Bandmaster and Showman as well. Not to mention, Fender PA 100's sell pretty cheap and can be modified to Showman/Twin specs. I'm gonna try a Badcat Unleash with my DR to get the extra headroom, since I run out of headroom with my current band (I end up cranking the amp to 10, just using my volume knob and not my pedalboard). I personally find the bass on most 6L6 Fender's (Twin and Bassman) to be a bit overwhelming for me. I haven't tried a 6L6 Fender with a smaller transformer in a while, maybe that would tighten up the lows... But thats just me, a lot of people love them.