Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

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Timvox1
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Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by Timvox1 »

Is this doable?
Anyone out there that's done this mod? - late 60s Bassman to mid 60's Bassman Head.
Is there a kit available?
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M Fowler
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by M Fowler »

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BTF
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by BTF »

I know I'm going to cause cringes, but I converted my AA864 Bassman to Blonde several years ago. I played it that way until I converted it back when I sold it. I know Blackfaces are supposed to be great, but I loved the Blonde so much more. It did everything the Black did, but did it better. I didn't use the bass channel, so I converted it to a parallel guitar channel and bridged them via the unused "Deep" switch. Glorious.
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NickC
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by NickC »

I did the Andy Ruhl hybrid AA864 & AB165 mods to my 1966 Blackface, and am very pleased with it.


http://acruhl.freeshell.org/mga/main/AA ... AB165.html
Timvox1
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by Timvox1 »

Any more suggestions on this topic would be greatly appreciated.
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BTF
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by BTF »

Have you the actual SF Bassman? Modding them is pie as they are laid out clearly and have no extras like reverb and tremolo.

I modded the power amp of my 864 to 6G6 specs. I then used the bright switch as a presence for both channels (moving the switch to "On" switched in a .1UF cap with a 4.7K resistor in series connected to ground- the switch connected this preselected pseudo pot/cap combo to the top of the PI offset resistor). The presence switch worked MUCH better than the original bright switch. Since the Bass channel on all the Bassman amps is pretty much for old-time Southern Gospel tone (heavy bass, no treble), I wired mine as a parallel first gain stage feeding a Ken Fischer tone stack into a standard Fender 2nd stage. The crunch was fantastic, but the amp would blow your brains out at 5!

Sorry to blather.
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Structo
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by Structo »

This belongs in the Fender forum
Tom

Don't let that smoke out!
Timvox1
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by Timvox1 »

BTF wrote:Have you the actual SF Bassman? Modding them is pie as they are laid out clearly and have no extras like reverb and tremolo.

I modded the power amp of my 864 to 6G6 specs. I then used the bright switch as a presence for both channels (moving the switch to "On" switched in a .1UF cap with a 4.7K resistor in series connected to ground- the switch connected this preselected pseudo pot/cap combo to the top of the PI offset resistor). The presence switch worked MUCH better than the original bright switch. Since the Bass channel on all the Bassman amps is pretty much for old-time Southern Gospel tone (heavy bass, no treble), I wired mine as a parallel first gain stage feeding a Ken Fischer tone stack into a standard Fender 2nd stage. The crunch was fantastic, but the amp would blow your brains out at 5!

Sorry to blather.
Hi,
Yes I have a 1967 AB 165 Silver Face Bassman.
Any info on modding would be appreciated greatly.
A few months ago I added an EF 86 channel to my 1998 Korg Era AC 15 and I am super happy with it.
All that's left to do now is mod this Silver Face Bassman to a 1963 Blonde and I'll be in heaven.
Timvox1
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by Timvox1 »

Structo wrote:This belongs in the Fender forum
Wow - I thought you meant the forum over at Fender.com.
I didn't realize there was one right here.
Maybe now someone will see this and help me out.
Thanks.
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tribi9
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by tribi9 »

Take a look at both layouts and schematics and mod away. :D
Timvox1
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by Timvox1 »

tribi9 wrote:Take a look at both layouts and schematics and mod away. :D
My problem is that I have seen 6 or more 6G6 schematics and don't know which one is the best to use.
I owned a blonde Tremolux with 6l6s in it and the presence control and I loved the way it sounded (until the output transformer blew).
I was hoping to get close to that and/or the 1963 bassman sound.
If you could pass on the right schematic that would be great.
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ToneMerc
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by ToneMerc »

Timvox1 wrote:
tribi9 wrote:Take a look at both layouts and schematics and mod away. :D
My problem is that I have seen 6 or more 6G6 schematics and don't know which one is the best to use.

I was hoping to get close to that and/or the 1963 bassman sound.
If you could pass on the right schematic that would be great.
Best is subjective, but you have already answered yourself in the original post, 6G6B.

TM
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crbowman
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by crbowman »

Not that hard.
The tapped 250K treble pot might be a little tricky to come by, but I've seen em around.
Here's the schem and layout.

http://www.webphix.com/schematic%20heav ... _schem.pdf

FWIW, it's a great sounding amp.
<i> "I've suffered for my music. Now it's your turn."</i>
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martin manning
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by martin manning »

I believe it's a 350k tapped pot. You can replicate it's function with a 500k pot like so: https://tubeamparchive.com/viewtopic.ph ... 334#193334
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Blackburn
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Re: Silver face Bassman to 6G6-B Bassman

Post by Blackburn »

WeberVST sells them pretty cheap. I haven't used mine yet, so I can't comment on quality, but I'm sure they're solid. I just used their 3MRA pot of the same make and it's great.

David
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