Your Favorite Bassman Amp Head

[plexi50]

Which Bassman head do you like the best. The reason i ask is i have a 1966 AB165 and it sounds like crap. Breaks up too soon. Little headroom. I know why because the PI is totally different than the AA versions
I prefer the AA864 or AA165. I really like the AA165

[Katie 77]

Which Bassman head do you like the best. The reason i ask is i have a 1966 AB165 and it sounds like crap. Breaks up too soon. Little headroom. I know why because the PI is totally different than the AA versions
I prefer the AA864 or AA165. I really like the AA165

+1....AA165 is a great circuit...doesn't even need any mods and sounds killer. good do-all amp.

[phsyconoodler]

I like the AA864 best,next to the Blonde bassman 6G6A and B circuits.
 I did work on a few AA165's that sounded great too.Don't like the AB165 much.

[plexi50]

Yes i forgot about the 6G6A. Shame on me. That is one fine sounding brown face amp too

[gldtp99]

I vote for the AA864 circuit------clean and beautiful until cranked way up--- then breaks up nicely.
This is just considering BF Fender Bassman amps--- the earlier Brownface 6G6 series amps are great in their own right but are a different animal----- i like them all......................gldtp99

[DummyLoad]

6G6A

which channel; bass or normal? bass channel seems to have a lot of gain. both tone ckts are intriguing.

have heard a AA165 & liked it. did a breadboard build of a 5F6A - it was OK. bassman 100 - not at all. no opinion on the rest... 

--DL

[spacelabstudio]

6G6A

which channel; bass or normal? bass channel seems to have a lot of gain. both tone ckts are intriguing.

have heard a AA165 & liked it. did a breadboard build of a 5F6A - it was OK. bassman 100 - not at all. no opinion on the rest... 

--DL

Bassman 10 and 100 are different beasts entirely.  The actually sound for bass!  I have a Bassman 10 converted to a head that gets a lot of use in my studio as a recording amp.  For bass.  One of these older amps for guitar has been on my to build list for a while.  An old practice space I used had a blonde 6G6 (can't remember if A or B) that I loved for guitar. 

Chris

[carausius]

6G6A

which channel; bass or normal? bass channel seems to have a lot of gain. both tone ckts are intriguing.


--DL

The Vibroverb 6G16 Normal (not "Bright" c/w Reverb) Channel is very similar to the Brown Bassman 6G6 A/B Normal channel.

Really like this tonestack, very usable. Is the Bass channel on the Brown / Blackface Bassmans popular with guitar players? I know Pete Townshend used Brownface / Blonde Bassmans, Pros & Tremolux amps in the early Who & many Beatles mid period recordings used Brown / Blonde Bassmans.

[jcm-jmp]

I have tweaked, mod and whatever you want to call it to ab's, aa's and the 6g's. The brown face are sweet, but 1 trick ponies as well as the rest are 1 trick ponies in their own rights.

I prefer the silverface bassman 100.

It has the most versitile stock config. So its no a 1 trick pony.
It has a platform that can be modifide extreemly easy.
The transformers allow for alot tube variations and you can even add a couple preamp tubes if you want.
The OT will work well with el's, 6l6's, kt 88, ect.. just know and understand speaker loading and OT pr:sec ratio's.
It is IMHO the best and most versitile bassman ever built.

BUT the pro reverb is still my #1 for that classic fender tone. 

[Ed_Chambley]

AB864 is my favorite, but I just got a 6g6a yesterday with matching 2 12 cab.  I have to say I like it better, but the honeymoon is not over.  These are for playing.  My favorite is the side mounted first JTM-45 cause it looks so cool.

I don't know what is meant by them being a one trick pony.

[jcm-jmp]

1 trick pony means they do 1 thing very well

but

lack at most other things.

such as the jcm 800, bogner ubershall, vox ac30 ect.... these are all amps that do 1 sound realy well,
but lack the ability to cross over into other tones and genre's without sacraficing some tone or performance.

[drgonzonm]

I'm doing my best to reproduce from pics, the schematics and layout for the 5D6. 

Found the pics on guitar forum, Alledgedly, this is suppose to be better sounding than the 5F6a

  Do we have a Fender convert?  with a handle like Plexi, I thought you would be a Marshall person.   

[plexi50]

I'm doing my best to reproduce from pics, the schematics and layout for the 5D6.  

Found the pics on guitar forum, Alledgedly, this is suppose to be better sounding than the 5F6a

  Do we have a Fender convert?  with a handle like Plexi, I thought you would be a Marshall person.  

In the begining i was all marshall this and marshall that. Eventually i got burned out after several years and started to discover there was another world of different sounding amps. Seems like it took forever.