RE : '59 Fender Bassman & RI - Why?

["Robert Koch" <rok68@xxxxxx>]

   I have a feeling this is going to be interesting (and controversial)
   S.

- -----Message d'origine-----
De : owner-harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx] De la part
de Ray Beltran
Envoyé : Dienstag, 08. Juni 2004 02:55
À : harp-l-digest
Objet : '59 Fender Bassman & RI - Why?



So here's what I want to know...
Why is the '59 Fender Bassman and it's reissue considered by many to be
the "holy grail" for amplified harmonica? I know what guitarists think
of the amp. But why harp? What is the earliest known use of this amp,
does anyone know? And how did it all snowball to make this amp de
riguer?

(Don't get me wrong...I've heard many a player get some fine tunes out
of a Bassman. I've actually owned two Bassman RI's, the latest with a
Hoffman (actually an Ultratone) point-to-point board installed by Ron
Holmes. (Yes, I know it was not an ORIGINAL Bassman, but my question is
still relevant.) Pretty good sound, I must agree. I played it set up as
in original configuration, that is, a 12AY7 in the first preamp socket.
The rest was stock, including Tung-Sol 5881's).

The reason I ask?

Cuz it don't make sense.

For amplified harp, anyway.

My former guitarist, who has a pretty good knowledge of amps, and I were
discussing this topic a few days ago. This is what we determined:

The Bassman was designed as, you guessed it, a bass amp. And as such,
Fender tried to get it as CLEAN a sound as possible for obvious reasons,
and as it was designed around their bass instruments. Fender amps have
hotter inputs than, say, Gibson amps. The reason for this is that Fender
pickups at the time were fairly weak...except for their bass guitars,
which put out more signal than same-era guitars. So Fender built their
Bassman to be their cleanest responding amp to accommodate the heavy
input of an electric bass. As a result, when compared to other tweed
amps of the same era (except maybe a Super), the Bassman is really the
cleanest sounding of them all.

So why in the world would you want to use it for harp?

Let's discuss...

Sincerely,
Ray Beltran
www.resgraphics.com/Music.html




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