Another BF Bassman find, AA165

[ToneMerc]

Recently scored this fairly clean and very attractively priced BF Bassman. It's a 1965 AA165; all original 64' iron, original 64' Astron and Mallory lytics except for one 67' Mallory in the dog house and two 73' Sprague atoms on V3 cathodes. After a lytic recap and fresh glass, it will make a good mate to the 66' AB165.

TM

[Bob S]

Wow TM - nice & clean.
One of the neatest I've seen.
Score !

[ToneMerc]

Wow TM - nice & clean.
One of the neatest I've seen.
Score !

I took a chance the cleanliness might be due to the fact that it could be one of the nickel plated chassis amps, it is!


TM

[dcribbs1412]

Congrats TM
really nice score.

Darin

[NickC]

I've got a '66 Blackface with an AA165 sticker in it, but the circuit was actually an AB165. I modified it into a hybrid AB165 and AA864, ala' Andy Ruhl.

http://acruhl.freeshell.org/mga/main/AA ... AB165.html

Great amps, and yours is an excellent and clean specimen! Good score!

[Blackburn]

Great score, TM! Now if only I could find one nice and clean...

[ampmike]

Thats one very cool amp,I got to get a bassman one day.Back in 1980 the local music store always had a stack of bassmans running about 75-100 bucks each.Guys would put a master vol in them and have a nice little amp.Hah, the good old days,I miss them,Have fun with yours,Mikey

[Baddog01]

I've got a '66 Blackface with an AA165 sticker in it, but the circuit was actually an AB165. I modified it into a hybrid AB165 and AA864, ala' Andy Ruhl.

http://acruhl.freeshell.org/mga/main/AA ... AB165.html

Great amps, and yours is an excellent and clean specimen! Good score!

I did the same mods to my Silver Face Bassman 50 plus I Hot Rodded the bass channel and added the Dumble Deep mod switch. I had a chance to crank the Bass channel and man she has a smooth overdrive . Move over Marshall .

[Firestorm]

Awesome! Fender played with that circuit more than any other. You could have 5 "identical" 65 Bassman amps without any redundancy. Love it!

[Baddog01]

I think my head is a 72 so I wasn't to hesitant about modding it. I still have to add a bright switch to the bass channel . I'll probably mount it on tue back panel. Oh! I also installed a Soul Control on the back in the extra speaker jack. Not sure if like it though. Might try changing it to a resonance control and see how that sounds. I also removed the outlet on the back and instlled bias test ports.

I also have a 73 twin reverb sitting here just begging to be played.

[Milkmansound]

you can easily add a bright switch to the volume knob by getting a pull out knob that has a switch. No need to drill or add anything to the rear panel

http://www.mojotone.com/amp-parts/poten ... kevLBb0Bmg

[Firestorm]

The bass channel on these guys have that "deep" switch that kills half the bass when it's not engaged. Stupid circuit. Both channels are similar except for the treble cap (and the fake bass boost). Put the treble cap on a switch (250/500) and you'll have an amp! (Just take that bass boost thing right out).

[Baddog01]

The bass channel on mine had been totally gone over. Its now a nice rock'n guitar channel with the Dumble Deep switch added. The Deep Switch is a killer mod that I absolutely love. I want to add an on-off-on switch so I can have 100pf and 250pf cap setup for the bright switch . It's another thing I saw on the Dumble amp page that I thought was cool. I might think about just using a push pull pot though. Hmm
Right now it's like I have two different amp . The fender normal channel and the bass rock and roll channel and I can still jump them together on the front for added fun. Like I said this amp isn't going anywhere so I'm not worried about re sale value. This is my baby that I love and will never sell.

Keith:)


AES has those pots too


http://www.tubesandmore.com/products/R-VC1MA-PP

Here is what I did to mine except I didn't remove the 470k resistor from the 12ax7. I also left both of the plate resistors at 100k .
[IMG:700:605]http://i1051.photobucket.com/albums/s43 ... e76a52.jpg[/img]

[IMG:320:269]http://i1051.photobucket.com/albums/s43 ... 6dbd44.gif[/img]

Here is the bass channel mod

[IMG:764:1023]http://i1051.photobucket.com/albums/s43 ... 807b41.jpg[/img]

[IMG:764:1023]http://i1051.photobucket.com/albums/s43 ... 8ab092.jpg[/img]

[IMG764]http://i1051.photobucket.com/albums/s43 ... a3b7c8.jpg[/img]

[ToneMerc]

Awesome! Fender played with that circuit more than any other. You could have 5 "identical" 65 Bassman amps without any redundancy. Love it!

Yeah, I have that 63' blonde 6G6B clone with the modded bass chan, this 65 and the 66 AB165. I guess I'm going to have to find a 64 AA864 now.

TM

[TWANG]

good stuff
I have an ab165.. someone modded.
I rebuilt it to AA165 and will continue with mods from there.
sounds excellent already though.

I didn't have a 2.2uF cap so I used two 1uF.
would an electrolytic work there?
some things not right in pic. plus slop!. this is early in the work.

bakelite board. dumped almost all the parts. CC resistors fell in half.
amp when I got it hummed crackled and shook..

quiet as a mouse, now.
[IMG:4000:3000]http://i.imgur.com/1h4REIp.jpg[/img]