From: James Hanson Date: Sun, 18 Feb 1996 22:26:12 -0500 Subject: Re: 60's Bassman
It is my understanding that after 1960, Fender guitar amp designs were driven more by country music and less by blues and rock. For this reason, many of the larger Fender amps of the 60's were built to be loud and undistorted - not exactly what most blues harp players are seeking. The useful 60's vintage Fender amps are the smaller ones that can be driven to give distortion without generating too much feedback or more aural damage than necessary. (i.e. Champs and Princetons) I have heard that it is possible to reconfigure a 60's Bassman to have a very similar circuit to a 50's tweed without too much trouble (just as it is possible to turn a 60's Champ into a tweed Champ circuit by a simple modification). This may not actually be true: a good amp tech could give you both the answer and an estimate. If you could do a "tweed mod" then a Bassman head would be very useful as a harp amp, and we would all like to know about it! Good luck.
