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Thread: '59 Bassman Reissue vs. '59 Bassman LTD - Tone Difference?

  1. #1
    Forum Member BGReed2's Avatar
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    '59 Bassman Reissue vs. '59 Bassman LTD - Tone Difference?

    I once owned a 1958 Bassman for many years and have a pretty good idea of what they sound like. One of my brothers has a 90's release '59 Bassman and it sounds surprisingly close, bright and quite clean until you really push it. At about 6 (halfway) it comes to life and when cranked it is a monster and quite loud. My 2003 Bassman LTD is quite the opposite - very warm and 'gainy' quite quickly. After 6 or so it is pretty much compressed. A great rock or blues rock sound, but quite unlike the '58. All 3 amps are (were) stock and my '03 has been thoroughly gone over, re-tubed, voltages adjusted per spec, and biased correctly by a tech. I even have a 12AT7 (as recommended) in V3 and it did clean it up a little. A 12AY7 was also recommended in V1 but that made it worse.

    Has anyone else out there had a similar experience and noticed these differences between a '59 Bassman Reissue vs. '59 Bassman LTD?

  2. #2
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    Oct 2020
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    Re: '59 Bassman Reissue vs. '59 Bassman LTD - Tone Difference?

    I have the LTD, the biggest issues are the Italian "Jensen" P10R are very harsh, and there also there is way too much filtering in the preamp 44uf compared to 8 uf in the original '59 5F6A. I clipped out one of the 22uf, also the 450v plate voltage is also way higher than the vintage amp. I went with a 5U4GB rectifier tube instead of the GZ34 that knocked it down to 430V. I also have some Sylvania 6L6WGB which are very close to the spec of the late 50s Tung Sol 5881s, I also have a very strong Telefunken Long Plate ECC83 in the PI, and a late '50s GE 12AY7 in V1. And finally I recently installed some Weber 10A125s which are very good copies of the old Chicago Jensen P12Q. These mods make the amp sound a lot warmer as well as allowing it to break up at a lower volume.

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