[Harp-L] Re: Bassman RI

["Steve Power" <stevepower@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I half agree with your sentiments Rick.  I agree with your comments 
regarding personal taste and also that for $1100 it's possible to buy a used 
harp specific amp, which might be a better choice.  However, by the time you 
pay for shipping and a cover a new SJ Super Cruncher will run $1800 so 
you've bumped the budget by $700 not $500. You can add a couple hundred more 
if one was to go for the Avenger which is more comparable to the Bassman.

As far as needing to spend $500 to mod a Bassman, not sure how you arrive at 
that figure. Two new TAD 6l6s or Grove Tubes @ $50 the pair, 1 NOS RCA 12AT7 
@$10. There are currently a lot of 4 Weber 10A125s for $300 on Ebay or there 
are no end of Emminence speakers for around $40 a pop. That's under $200 for 
4 even with shipping.  Throw in $40 max for biasing and you've spent 
$300-$400 at most. Budget wise you also have the advantage of being able to 
stretch out the cost rather than plunk it all down at once. You should also 
take into account that you can sell off the reissue Jensens, which aren't 
the best but aren't all that bad either, IMHO, easily for $250-$300 making 
the speaker swap a near dead even trade off. So if you spent $400 and sold 
the Jensens for $250 the upgrades would cost all of $150 max.

But having said all that, if budget and patience allows I'd hold out for a 
used Sonny Jr, HarpGear or Meteor, preference to the SJ.  I bought my Super 
Cruncher new and within a couple of weeks both an Avenger and an SC became 
available for $1100 or thereabouts. Mind you Sonny's customer service is 
priceless. He will help out 2nd hand buyers but priority is given to direct 
customers of course. Some of the things he does for customers on the road 
are just extraordinary and to be honest, personal taste not withstanding, I 
can't imagine a better harp amp.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rick Webb" <dspackle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <stevepower@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 3:34 PM
Subject: Bassman RI


> If your willing to shovel out $1100.00 for a used Bassman RI [too high] go 
> with a Sonny Jr  might be 500 more but after you mod the Ri that's what 
> you spent, you got a Harp amp built by a harp player for harp players plus 
> customer support, myself I have a Meteor Mini great amp just a different 
> beast, then there is Harp Gear great amps also. There are a few other harp 
> amps out there but in my opinion these are the top three, but as always 
> said in the quest for tone it's in your ears, your own personal taste, but 
> like I said modding costs more and not always the end result is  mot 
> always what you had in mind.