From: Alan Adamson <71042.32~ompuserve.com> Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 21:31:12 -0400 Subject: Rod's Bassman Modification
Paul van Alphen asked about the Rod Piaza's Bassman Modification and I think I can help with some info on this subject.
>Did you have your '59 reissue "Rod Modded" already?, I'm very interested! >Do you know if the tech can be reached by e-mail?
FYI
For Paul and anyone interested, the name of the person doing the amp mod's is John Kendrick (I'm pretty sure that's his last name). The phone number is 909-242-5923 and this I'm sure about because I just happened to call up there before I read this post.
John lives in Riverside and works out of his house. There are amp's everywhere! I've never seen so many old amps in one place. I mean the halls and walls and all rooms are full of amps and he has some pretty cool ones too. His wife screens his calls and you must be persistant if you want to talk to John. Can't really blame them though as musicians like to BS about everything under the sun and walking into that hall of amps does put you in that mood.
John is a real nice guy and I guess he's quite well known to guitar and harp players in the LA area (there was another harp player when I was there and I got to play through his 59 original bassman and compare it to my reissue and talk harp for awhile).
I asked John about the mods and basically he said that he's known Rod for a long time (Rod also lives in Riverside), and Rod would go out on the road and bring back amps he found along the way. Then John and Rod would sit down and pick out the best ones and John would characterize the amps electrically to determine why they were good or not good for harp. After doing this for a long time he got pretty good at doing harp mods and he works on all of Rod's amp's now. I didn't get bogged down in the exact details of the mod because I assume he knows what he's doing. Other than the internal work he's doing the rectifier tube will be changed to lower the wattage a bit.
He has two mods for the Bassman's both cost $180.00. One is intended for louder playing and does not sound as good unless you really crank the volume (this is what he told me and said it really rips). I just said "do the Rod Mod and make mine sound warm and sweet. I never really liked the way my bassman ressiue sounded... too harsh and bright.... But when I bought it I just thought it was the amp to get because at that time all I ever heard was 59 bassman, 59 bassman and I could not afford or find an original. I was about to sell it when I read about this guy doing Rod Mod's on harp-l a few months ago.
John is so busy that it takes about 4-weeks to get your amp back. He can do a rush job for something like $25.00 more. His bench fee is $50.00/hr as he works on any amp you can name. He also does this same type of mod for old Fender Concerts, another great harp amp if you get a good one. I hope to pick up the amp this week-end and if I like it I'll take up my 60's "brownie" Concert for modification (my concert does not happen to be one of the better ones but they are getting harder to find so I think I'll keep it and try to get it sounding better. It has brown capped speakers which say Fender. I heard these were Oxford's but I'm not sure about this fact).
My opinion on amp mod's is...if you are getting your amp modified for harp get it done from someone who works on other harp players amps. I've taken my gear to qualified amp tech's and they just don't get it when it comes to harp. According to John, after the amp is modified it won't be near as good for guitar (meaning a guitar player won't like it much). For me this is not a problem but something to consider if you use one amp for both harp and guitar.
