Clean tone on Bassman 59.

[coalesced]

Good day folks, was wondering if anyone could help me out with my amp issues. im pretty much a newbie when it comes to these stuff

I'm using Fender Bassman 59 Ltd. i'm looking for a clean tone thats similar to that of a Deville, Bassman breaks up too easily i think. I've asked for opinions and some have suggested changing the tubes, using different pick ups, etc. some also say its the characteristic of the tweed series. i also realised that lowering the volume knob on the guitar helps, but only to a certain extent.

i understand that it being run on tubes, a certain amount of break up is expected, but it is almost to impossible to get a really clean tone on this amp when i turn it up to 5 / 6. im open to suggestions. the guitars ive tried through this amp are fender teles and a gibson les paul.

hope to hear from you folks soon

 

[Dav_C]

Bm59

BM59 is really a nice amp, good choice man. Fender is really good when you pick the right one

Tweed series and the black face series are supposed to sound different.

Swee Lee has both BM59 and Blues Deville 410 in the Bras Basah show room. Why not you go there and try out?

 

[glblues]

you're never going to get a pristinely clean tone out of the 59 bassman. it will always have a bit of hair on it. well, you can get a clean clean tone but it will be at low low volumes. ha.
people use them for that bit of har on it and low to mid overdrives and it sounds great for that. but it is at high volume levels that can really only be appreciated on open stage areas (talking in a context of a band. you can always drive it up and piss off your hdb neighbours) bassmans are LOUD and most indoor clubs will tell you to turn it down such that the tone will be wimpy at volumes 2 or so. it needs to be driven louder for the tone to be full (even for slight hair and low to mid gain)

thats why fender came out with the blackface series that handles clean volumes at higher headrooms.
later on with the hot rod series, they combined the tweed sound with cleaner headrooms and you can get clean warm, full sounds out of it. it is tweedish but it isnt the same as the old-style 50 tweed sounds.
if you're looking to run pedalboards thru fender style amps at reasonable gigging volumes, blackface or the hot rod series are your best bet.

IMHO, of course

 

[Dav_C]

Just got this book about 60 years of Fender Amps. Quite detailed about the Fender amps from old to new. Also included CD with sample tracks.

Things like tube, arguments of printed circuit VS hand wired, transistor, black face, silver face, tweed etc etc.

Some interesting info like actually Fender wanted to do Twin Amp 54' to celebrate the 50 years together with guitar. But the collector friend brought in an original 57 and he heard it. Then they forget about 54'. He thought 57' twin amp is just a 2 x 12" Bassman. But......it was a different animal.

The book is a must have, you anyone is going to invest in expensive Fender Amps.

 

[jony]

Where are you playing a Bassman that you are finding its lack of clean headroom an issue?

 

[Dongara]

You could try changing over the 12AT7 in the driver stage of the amp (the last small tube in the preamp section before the two large power tubes) to a 12AX7. This will give you more clean volume (approx 30% more) and was actually what Marshall did when they copied the bassman in the first place.

Also change over the power tubes to 5881's from the 6L6's that may be in there. These have a harder/stronger tone. Brands like JJ's tend to break up later as well, compared with other brands. Running the amp higher and the volume on the guitar lower will also give a different /cleaner sound to running the volume on the guitar high and the amp low.

Try these measures and see how it goes. At least they are relatively cheap compared with changing the speakers for more efficient/harder sounding ones.

cheers,

Mark.

 

[coalesced]

thanks

thanks for the tips guys!