Bassman RI question

[cycler]

there seem to be a lot of fans of this amp...however, i also notice that most of them do some mod or two to get their tone...my question is this: what are the most common mods, after transformer swap and nos tubes, and how much will they add to the cost of a new Bassman RI? thanks, cycler

[burst_king]

You'll want to swap out the rectifier and install a tube rectifier. I'm going to get around to that one of these days...

[Black Bear]

I wouldn't even turn it on without swapping the rectifier to a tube. There's a bunch of mod plans by Gerald Weber that I've got copies of but never got around to.

I pretty much tinker with tube types for my mods. You'll want to ad a bias adjust pot which is real easy and I've got the schematics for it if you want.

They're great amps, and can be had reasonable if you buy used. That way you'll have the money for your mods and could probably get it completely finished for less than the cost of new.

[burst_king]

If you could send be the bias cap (what's it do?) schematic and other stuff, that'd be great! Thanks :)

[Tremo]

Tube rectifier and good tubes is the first thing.

I'd then start thinking about a set of Weber speakers. P10Qs.

Hoffman board?

Maybe a new OT.

[fishman]

I would recommend a Hoffman board kit, NOS preamp tubes, remove the metal tube holders on the preamps, I use KT66 power tubes and a Ruby 5U4GB...I have A/B 'd this with everything on the market and nothing touches it....victoria, bluespear, holland...beats em' all....only the original can top this in this configuration...

[Black Bear]

Originally posted by burst_king
If you could send be the bias cap (what's it do?) schematic and other stuff, that'd be great! Thanks :)

Let me dig around for it. I'll be in touch...

[cycler]

thanks for all the ideas, but, what really came through to me is, find a good or very good used, then do the modifications, or, if a used model cant be found, just spend the extra bucks and go for something from clark amplification...i'll be keeping my eyes on the wants ads for awhile...cycler

[Bob Craver]

Beyond a tube rectifier and new tubes when the old ones burn out I don't know how much modding you need. After playing through a bunch of what I 5hought were nice amps over the last 2o years I've taken to using an unmodded Bassman RI in the last few months (but w/ tube rectifier and eventually replaced tubes) and have gotten more favorable comments on my tone than I have in my entire life. As always, YMMV.