I've thought that with a stand alone reverb in front, those amps sound pretty decent for surf or rockabilly.

The 59 Bassman LTDs are definitely a bit nicer than the straight 59 Bassman RI, but the stock RI Italian Jensens have a harsh mid-range bark from the kapton coils. You could try some 30W Weber 10" vintage series alnicos in there. Also a better output transformer works wonders for those amps. In addition, the presence control can benefit from a 100pF bypass cap in parallel with the NFB resistor to remove some of the 'ice-pickiness' when the stock presence pot is anything above "1" - a relatively minor tweak which can lift the game quite considerably.

Otherwise keep it for blues and get a blonde 'piggyback' bassman and a stand alone reverb, or a BF reverb amp in the 40-80W range.

He who dies with the most tubes... wins

Surf Daddies

Last edited: Apr 26, 2012 08:23:26

I use a RI bassman (tweed) for blues but might not be suitable for surf. My first RI bassman was bought in 1990/1991 when they first came out and had the blue frame emmenince speakers; I used it with a '64 fender reverb unit for 20 years. Eventually I sold both. I recently bought another mid-90's reissue bassman this one with the jensen reissue P10R speakers which were broken in for about 20 years prior to me owning it. I thought broken in the reissue jensens sounded pretty good though a bit farty on the bass (but so are the original and that's part of the charm). I've since found some 90's blue frame speakers and replaced the jensens, BUT while it's warmer there is some character missing. I'm going to mix 2 of the reissue jensen P10R and 2 of the blue frame speakers. I also use a reissue fender reverb unit with it. My second bassman just sounds better to me than my first one (less stiff, more open/organic and musical). Seems a brownface/blackface/silverface styled Fender with reverb tank may be more suiting for surf. Tweed styled amps tend to be looser sounding where as brownface/blackface/silverface (e.g. bassman) are a bit tighter.

The ltd model has a tube rectifier instead of the solid state one in the non ltd model..more sag..good for blues but less clean headroom.
Still one of the best reissues Fender has done (the first brown Vibroverb was the best ino) put a tank in front of it and rock..

www.northofmalibu.com

killbabykill34 wrote:

tubeswell wrote:

In addition, the presence control can benefit from a 100pF bypass cap in parallel with the NFB resistor to remove some of the 'ice-pickiness' when the stock presence pot is anything above "1" - a relatively minor tweak which can lift the game quite considerably.

I wonder if that bypass cap mod would do the same trick on my Peavey Blues Classic. The presence control is VERY icepicky.

Yeah it will, but you need to experiment with the value of the cap, because the HF spike (caused by the falling open-loop HF gain and phase shift of the NFB signal - compared to the original signal) is different in every amp. A rough and ready initial calculation for the useful (pF) value of this bypass cap is:

pF = 2000 x (1/Rf)

(where 'Rf' is the value of the feedback resistor in kOhms)

Also some PV amps have tone shaping caps in the NFB loop already. I tried a quick google of the Blues classic to see if I could find a schematic on-line, but no luck. If you can find a link for me, I'll tell you what I think about which cap value to try.

He who dies with the most tubes... wins

Surf Daddies

Last edited: Apr 26, 2012 14:48:55

On the classic 50 schematic, the resistor in question (R64) already has a ~5nF cap in parallel. If this is the same on the Blues Classic, then another thing you could try to stabilise the NFB is adding a 220pF cap from the signal grid to the cathode of each output tube.

He who dies with the most tubes... wins

Surf Daddies

Hmmm, lemme see... wife, couch, you, amp, yes I understand your limitations.

If you want to keep your bassman and build a stand alone unit that does both reverb and trem, Weber does couple of stand alone kit options (one does reverb and trem , the other does reverb and brown 'vibrato')

https://taweber.powweb.com/store/kits_weber.htm#5H15
https://taweber.powweb.com/store/kits_weber.htm#5H15T

He who dies with the most tubes... wins

Surf Daddies

A reverb pedal is no substitute for a stand alone reverb when it comes to surf music.

I have a variety of tubes amps all of which are scratch-built of my own design or clones of other amps that I have built. I never buy amps that other people make anymore (because I'm a DIY junkie). At the moment I've got a BFPR (and a 1/12 extn cabinet) which is awesome for small gigs and jams and studio recording, and for more serious gigs - a 40W BF style amp with 6L6s, BF reverb and bias-vary trem (based on the Brown Vibroverb), as well as a 20W Brown Deluxe clone (with another 1/12 extn cab). I also have a stand alone reverb clone, and a stand alone pitch-shifting vibrato unit.

In the last half a dozen years I've also built and owned a variety of single-ended designs as well as several tweed clones; including tweed bassman (5F6A), tweed deluxe (5E3), tweed princeton (5F2A), and tweed tremolux (5G9). The tweed bassman and tweed tremolux both sound great with stand alone reverb. I've also had an Old Flame clone, and a JTM45 clone. I'd keep all my amps if my wife would let me occupy the whole house with amps dammit.

For surf music I have just 2 geetars; a Strat and a Jazzie, both made in the USA. I have a number of other geetars for blues and rock, but that's not relevant here.

He who dies with the most tubes... wins

Surf Daddies

Last edited: Apr 30, 2012 01:02:59