Re: [Harp-L] 59 Bassman

["Bob Maglinte" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gordon Graham" <ggraham@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Gordon Graham" <ggraham@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Bob Maglinte" 
<bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>; "Michael Fugazzi" <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>; 
<harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2005 9:28 AM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] 59 Bassman


> Mike,
>
> I want to clarify my remarks below..My amp sounds great for the $500 I had
> to pay for it. If you can come up with the $ you should buy Sonny's 
> amp...I
> played it at Harmonica Masterclass in Chicago and it is still the best 
> that
> I have played on...1)You could really crank it with no feedback! 2)It has
> beautiful tone 3)Fender seems to care very little about harmonica 
> community
> and we need to support people like Sonny who do!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Gordon

Hi,
One thing you have to remember is that when the 4-10 Bassman was originally 
designed in 1955, it was specifically for bass and no amp at the time could 
clearly reproduce the bottom E string on it, and the final evolution of it, 
the 5F6A, the classic '59 Bassman, wound up being much more popular for 
guitar and harmonica. It's only been in the last 8-10 years that there were 
any rigs SPECIFICALLY designed for harmonica use ONLY as most amps harp 
players had been using were really designed for use as either guitar, bass, 
or accordion amplifiers.

BTW, To get closer to the real '59 Bassman sound, the one mod you can do by 
yourself with NO problem is to change the first preamp tube (the one where 
the input jacks are) from a 12AX7 to a 12AY7/6072, which is what was in a 
real '59 Bassman, and the 12AX7 works better in this circuit for a guitar, 
upping the treble big time, wheras the 12AY7 is lower in gain, but in terms 
of frequency response, is much more balanced.

Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
MP3's: http://music.mp3lizard.com/barbequebob/