64 Blackface Bassman (now with pics)

James · Post by **James** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:27 pm

nah. no shops in town sell amp jewels though. I'll have to pick one up sometime. Purple is definitely the way to go on that.

celestion wrote: BREAKING IN YOUR SPEAKER

Brand new speakers usually require a â€œbreaking in periodâ€�. Start with a few minutes with low-level playing or background hum. Then, turn up the power amp volume to full, and control the level with the preamp gain and play with a fat, clean tone.

Have the bass and mid up full, and the treble at least half. On your guitar, use the middle pickup position (if your guitar has more than one pickup) and play for 10-15 minutes using lots of open chords, and chunky percussive playing. This will get the cone moving, and should excite all the cone modes and get everything to settle in nicely.

I need to do me some of this. The vintage 30 has a few hours use (apparently, never sure how much to believe those claims) but the greenback is new. It's currently all set up in the living room and I plan on using the "but mum! I'm breaking them in!!" excuse to chug the death metal riffs all over Deal or No Deal.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:41 pm

James wrote:After half an hour of playing around with pedals I have come t the following conclusions:

- I need more dirt pedals
- I need to form a doom-metal band

This thing has some serious bass.

Also, my cab sounds fucking lovely.

How was the booster? I've been so excited about you using it with that amp.

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:56 pm

Such a nice amp! Would love to try it!

James · Post by **James** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:14 pm

Mike wrote:
James wrote:After half an hour of playing around with pedals I have come t the following conclusions:

- I need more dirt pedals
- I need to form a doom-metal band

This thing has some serious bass.

Also, my cab sounds fucking lovely.
How was the booster? I've been so excited about you using it with that amp.

I'm using my jazz box with the neck pickup and the output isn't very high. Getting the amp to break up is surpsingly difficult. I was hearing a lot about the BF Bassmans being easy to push into crunch mode once past 7 or so. I've been playing it quite loud and the salt boost on it's on just gives a louder clean tone. With the Mudhoney it can do some lovely dirt stuff that i'm sure you'd love.

I had to move the booster to the start of my chain for it to sound good, but I'm liking it where it is now. At first I had a few noisey clicks when turning it on, but that doesn't seem to be happenig so much now. Using the booster with just a clean tone in and a clean tone out gives a nice effect. There's a lot of low end in the bassman, and the booster has a little bi of low end just above that which sort of rounds it out nicely. I like the fender sound with the booster off, but when you play with it on for a while then turn it off, you pretty much just turn it back on.

About bringing it to doogs. I'm really tempted, and spoke to doog last night about removing the tubes and that (my first tube amp) and it all seems doable. I'll give it a trial run just walking with it to the bottom of the garden or something. See how heavy it feels when carrying it around. The output impedance is 4ohms though, will there be any 4 ohm cabs at doogfest?

Post by **Mike** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:18 pm

It's 4 ohm minimum, meaning that you can plug into mine or Doog's 8 ohm 2x12" 1936 cabinets fine.

I had a feeling it might not break up, maybe with jumping? Glad you're liking the sound of it either way anyway, those pops are strange, I built in pop protection (1M resistor to ground on input) but maybe I need to add another 1M to ground on the output (or I'm sure you're proficient enough to do it also)?

James · Post by **James** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:21 pm

The pop wasn't too bad and i think it might have only happened with a fair bit of gain elsewhere in the chain. If i notice it again I'll ask you about where to stick the other resistor (and once my futurelec order gets through so I actually have the resistor).

Post by **Mike** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:32 pm

Cool. Some pedal makers tell you do just do about 4 static clearing stomps when you power up a pedal for the first time. It might have been that or that I need an output 1M pulldown. My 6100 does it on the way back from Lead to Clean channel but it doesn't really bother me luckily.

James · Post by **James** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:06 pm

So I've been playing with it for the last couple of hours and I'd have to say it's the best amp I've ever played. I haven't really played that many tube amps however, and I haven't even put a slid body electric through it yet but I can't see it getting much better sounding than that.

I messed up the standby switch thing at first. One switch is just labelled 'On' with that written at the top, and the other 'Standby', also at the top. I started with the standby switch up at first and then when I turned it on and there was no sound, i realised I had had it on the whole time. I guess it isn't too bad doing that once or twice.

Just to be absolutely clear here,

standby switch on, then normal power switch on, leave for at least 20-30 seconds
turn the standby off
rock out
turn standby back on
turn off (with no need to wait more than second a two?)

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:25 pm

James wrote:standby switch on, then normal power switch on, leave for at least 20-30 seconds
turn the standby off
rock out
turn standby back on
turn off (with no need to wait more than second a two?)

People debate how long you should let it warm up, but yeah, that's what I do.

Post by **Doog** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:36 pm

I generally leave it a good few minutes, just so the toobs are cookin'.

euan · Post by **euan** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:42 pm

power up -> make tea -> play guitar -> drink tea

Post by **Mike** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 3:07 pm

I always do a hard switch off (i.e. don't go through Standby first). That dumps most of the Filter cap charge as you go.

Always turn the power on with the amp in standby. I only ever leave it around 30 seconds before I rock.

James · Post by **James** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 3:12 pm

RE: jumping

If you have the channels at the same volume it does go fairly out of phase but only in the low end. The high mids and highs stay fairly similar but the low pretty much drops out. That doesnt seem to matter so much with both channels on 10, but at say 3 or 5 its very noticeable. The bass channel has a lot of low end, so you get a very deep sound with both running together but my jazz box still doesnt push it to crunch. The guy who had it before me played a tele through it while I was at his house and it crunched nicely when on 10 using the 'normal' channel so I know it's there with some hotter pickups. The jumping might add a bit more but I can't really tell at the moment. If I bring it to doogfest I'll bring an extra patch cable to do it with.

So far, everything just sounds awesome.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 3:17 pm

Make a patch cable that flips the phase (i.e. flip the wires in one jack).

James · Post by **James** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 6:30 pm

I only have George L cables so I'll have to check the broken cable box to see if I have a couple of screw to open jack plugs and a bit of cable to make it with. Definitely work? or just worth a go.

euan · Post by **euan** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 6:52 pm

If you want James I can get you a reverse phase angled jack patch cable. By that I mean grab some jacks and cable and solder it together.

James · Post by **James** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 7:04 pm

If you have them hanging about doing nothing and can do that pre-doogfest that would be awesome. If the jacks are hanging around playig cards or something, leave them to it or at least let them finish their game first.

euan · Post by **euan** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 7:08 pm

How long do you want the cable to be?

James · Post by **James** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 7:26 pm

The George L I was using is about 20cm. Just had a measure and 18cm is the shortest that would do it comfortably.

Post by **dots** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:15 pm

my god that's a beautiful amp.