Hello everyone,
I am a newbie here. I have a 72 Fender Bassman 100 silverface with master volume. I have been told this is a good candidate for modding.
It already has a mercury magnetics OT and orange drop caps throughout. Could one of you genius's direct me to some good schematics for upgrading this amp? I want to get more gain but not over the top. Looking for that Joe Bonamassa, Carlos Santana sound. I play LP studio with burst bucker HB's and have an early SG also. The speaker cabinet I have is a Marshall 1960A 4x12. At this time, I have been running the cab in stereo with the bassman through one set of 2x12's and a Mesa Dual rectifier through the other. A-B switching the heads.
Thanks for your time and patience.
Kirk
72 Bassman 100 master volume
Moderators: pompeiisneaks, Colossal
Re: 72 Bassman 100 master volume
Kirk welcome to TAG,
Both of those players use multi-amp set-ups.
I vote that you keep the Fender 100 the way it is and run a bunch of pedals to get the tones you want.
Mark
Both of those players use multi-amp set-ups.
I vote that you keep the Fender 100 the way it is and run a bunch of pedals to get the tones you want.
Mark
Re: 72 Bassman 100 master volume
You could start by Black facing the Phase invertor and Power tube circuit. Then increase the 820 feedback resistor to 1.5K or even higher. You could replace the middle pot on the normal channel to 25K. After that you would be getting pretty involved. like cascading channels. As is, it is a pretty decent bass amp. 
Re: 72 Bassman 100 master volume
Bass amps make very good pedal board amps nice clean signal processors!
Mark
Mark
Re: 72 Bassman 100 master volume
By who you described as your desired tone. Mark's right one amp isn't going to get you to where you want to be.
You might get closer if you turned up your preamp and backed down your master.. then bring it up to where the guitar sings.
Carlos made his tone on a Mesa boogie MK series (heavily modified) Fender princeton amp. As well as a 50ft instrument cable, for impedance, and now a custom PRS ('86 handwound pickups) with a Dumble (and dumble clone)/ Mesa boogie multi amp set up.
The closest you will get with your current rig is to fiddle with the tone controls and turn the volume up enough that the guitar interacts with the amp making more touch sensitive.
The Blackface mod is a great idea.
Tube sellection will play a big roll in the voice of the amp.
As will speakers, room, volume, speaker and instument cable impedance. Strings (how dead they are), tuning.. And probably the most important of all of these..
The players ability, technique and finess
You might get closer if you turned up your preamp and backed down your master.. then bring it up to where the guitar sings.
Carlos made his tone on a Mesa boogie MK series (heavily modified) Fender princeton amp. As well as a 50ft instrument cable, for impedance, and now a custom PRS ('86 handwound pickups) with a Dumble (and dumble clone)/ Mesa boogie multi amp set up.
The closest you will get with your current rig is to fiddle with the tone controls and turn the volume up enough that the guitar interacts with the amp making more touch sensitive.
The Blackface mod is a great idea.
Tube sellection will play a big roll in the voice of the amp.
As will speakers, room, volume, speaker and instument cable impedance. Strings (how dead they are), tuning.. And probably the most important of all of these..
The players ability, technique and finess
My Daughter Build Stone Henge
Re: 72 Bassman 100 master volume
Thanks guys I appreciate the quick tips. I will try some of these ideas and let you know how it works out.