reissue 59 bassman-any good?



Joe,
They don't sound like Bassmans, but they aren't bad
sounding amps. Replace the speakers, tubes,
transformers and Filter caps and you'll be mostly there.
While you're at it, a beautifully crafted fiber eylet board
from Clarkamplification is only $19.00 and the parts to
build the circuit only will cost another 20 - 25 bucks. A
friend of mone just bought a brand new one in the crate
for $600.00. Guess what I'll be doing sometime real
soon.


The Fender '59 reissue Bassman is a decent amp but is
NOT built to original specs. Below is a list of the
differences in the reissue and an original.

1) The reissue has a 220 mfd. cap on the cathodes of
the first preamp tube. An original would be 250mfd.
Not a big deal, but different.

2) The tone stack in the reissue is a .1 mfd. for bass, a
.022 mfd. for mids and a 250pf. for highs with a 100K
slope resistor. The original was as follows: a .022mfd.
for bass, a .022 mfd. for mids, a 250 pf. for highs and a
56K slope resistor. This is a big deal in regard to tone. I
would suggest that if you get one that you have the tone
stack modded to replicate the original. 

3) At the tail of the phase inverter in a reissue is a 6.8K
resistor. The original had a 10K in that position.

4) The reissue has a 4.7K resistor across the presence
pot which the original does not have.

5.) The power supply in a reissue uses 22 mfd. caps
where the original used 20 mfd. caps. There are other
differences in the power supply as well including the
use of more filter caps than the original.

6) At the output of the reissue after the .1 coupling caps
is a 47 ohm resistor. The original had no resistor in that
position.

Hope this helps you in your decision.

Respectfully Submitted,
Tim C.