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I know these are popular amps round here. I seem to be about to buy a mid 70s silverface. What do you guys think of them? I actually want a 50 but can't find one anywhere so I'm hoping I can get this modded so I can make it break up before my kidneys do.

I have a Bassman 50 and it's awesome and I love it. It suits me as it's stays lovely and clean at high volumes.

Don't know about a 100 though apart from it'll be much louder and heavier. Not sure about it being modded to break up at lower volumes though, I would suggest that if you wanted an amp that breaks up easily to look at something else, maybe a blackface Bassman if you like the Fender sounds.

I had one for many years and could only get it to break up with a high-output humbucker, a booster, AND the channels bridged. Even then, wasn't very dirty.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Blackfaces are pretty expensive aren't they? This one cost me 265 quid. There's someone selling kits on ebay though to convert a 50 or a 100 to blackface specs...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Blackface-mod ... 2295wt_761

Should be pretty simple to do with a soldering iron and a multimeter as long as I don't fry myself on a cap? Anyone done it?

If I can't get it to break up it's no big shame, I mostly use pedals, be nice to have valve distortion as an option though.

Found this on another site, might be of interest to people with this amp...

The Bassman 100 is a pretty straight forward amp. The normal channel is voiced just like guitar amps - and is better for bass than the bass channel.

4x 6L6's, but if you play bass... try some 7581's in it.

It will need minor surgery to fix the stupid bias balance control and make it a bias LEVEL control

I will no doubt need a recap, which you can do yourself for about $30 in parts if you know how to solder.

Its not "fine" soldering, but you'll need to get the caps in there and suck some old solder from the eyelets etc... not hard.

Bassman 100's are a GREAT head... and... wooohooo... dont want 100 watts? Pull two tubes, no rebias... 50watts!

Want less? Put in two 6V6EH's and rebias, and you got 25watts - rebias for about 25ma at idle.

If you want the tone, are willing to do a little work to overcome the ravages of time... they're solid dependable amps. Recap in 2009, next recap needed in 2034. Not bad really, considering all things.

And the tone is THERE too. These are 4 ohm heads, but can run into a 2 ohm cabinet (or set of 4 ohm cabinets) no issues. Running into an 8 ohm cabinet would be "ok" but dont run it into 16 ohms or you'll risk the output transformer.

Bassman 100's have a HUGE output tranny... and ROCK-SOLID low end.

Normal Fender breakup at about 6-1/2 on the dial applies..... damn loud with 4x 6L6s in there, so pulling two is a good option, using 6V6EH's an even better option for small venues (dont forget to rebias).

junkbox (who never posts here anymore) bought my 73 bassmann 100 head. i'd love to own one again, it was such a loud, clear as a bell monster.

If you are going to mod the amp only modify the bass channel, those are mostly rubbish anyways. A fun thing to do is to turn the Bass channel into a jtm 45 type amp and the normal channel a blonde or blackface or even og bassman-esque. Fun platforms, I enjoy mine as is. Its a '76 Bassman 50. Mine's not the best circuit of the lot, and honestly I'd prefer an AB165 even over the AA864 circuit. Theres loads of options for modding these but take a look at all there is out there to do. Also try and find clips of the amps that you like.

Attenuators FTW.

Some people may not want to run their vintage and likely unserviced valve amp that hot for long sessions, It can really take its toll.

Ben79 wrote:This one cost me 265 quid.

If I can't get it to break up it's no big shame, I mostly use pedals, be nice to have valve distortion as an option though.

That's a pretty good price. If you just want to use pedals it'll be great, mine takes pedals really well - I think it has the AB165 (or whatever the sought after circuit is). As it's vintage it may be an idea to get it serviced though.