I've banged on for years about how I love my Bassman Ten combo. Cleaner and more headroom than the typical Bassman head. Exactly what I like in an amp, a pedal platform with bold, blunt cleans and high headroom, but a little of that tube warmth without breakup or any serious compression.
At our past few shows, my wife/drummer has pointed out I could use more headroom out of the B10, compared to some of the solid-state options I'll also pile up behind me.
"Ask and you shall receive, my dear."
Like I've always said, I love those Bassman Ten sounds, so I just wanted that but with more headroom. A SF Twin would be an obvious choice, but another heavy combo isn't what I wanted, and if I'm not going to use the reverb and tremolo, why get something that has more potential points of failure? No, simplicity and ease-of-repairability were my prime needs, other than 100W of clean Fender headroom.
On paper, the slightly-less-sought Bassman 135 would have been a "perfect" choice as well, but I've heard the UL transformer setup can be a little harder on tubes. I don't know whether that's true or not, but erring on the side of caution seemed smart, and I already like my pre-UL Bassman Ten, so the 100 seemed like the way to go.
I spotted one on Reverb for a very good deal against market price. I messaged some basic questions (record of alleged recent service, was it rebiased after tube swap), and the seller seemed to get spooked and delisted it immediately. Oh well.
I see another one, even cheaper, on GC. Not a lot of pics, but a good $200 below the going rate, and I live down the street from GC in case of potential problems.
(And, yes, I've also factored a couple hundred dollars for potential servicing in the near future. But if the caps appear to have been changed and the tubes sound good, that trip to the shop might get postponed just a bit.)
So I bite on it Monday, and it arrived last night. After reading a recent horror story about someone whose new/used Mesa was totally destroyed in GC shipping, I was nervous. It was barely adequately packed, but it was enough, no dented corners on the box or problems with the amp. Wish they'd have pulled the tubes, though.
Sounds great so far. Exactly like I expected. And clearly super-loud, though I can't really give it a proper test-drive in my apartment.
The listing said it was "recently serviced", and I have no idea how true that would be, but the tubes are a set of Ruby 6L6GCMSTRs, so it's not all-original, which is a good thing in my book.
All the tubes glow at basically the same intensity, nothing looks out of whack on the face of things.
Low-volume tests in cranking the channel volumes and controlling with the master seems to indicate that both sides stay clean, so it doesn't seem as though anything's been modded for more crunch, which is good. If I want that, *I* can decide to have it done. I'll hopefully be able to determine more once I pull and eyeball the chassis to see if it's been recapped, etc.
Based on the two transformer codes I could spot without pulling the chassis, it's likely a mid-to-late 1974 (no tail!), which I was kinda hoping to find, to partner with a matching Bassman Ten. Wouldn't have been a buying decision, but a nice little bit of serendipity.
So, I'm delighted, it's likely the most powerful amp I'll ever buy, and what I'm expecting to be my final dip into vintage tube amps - I've got the Bassman Ten, this, and an old Sano combo, along with my other SS/hybrid stuff.
Relatively speaking, super-affordable for an all-tube, (buzz word incoming) handwired, 100W clean machine.
(Oh, and the cab was a gift from a buddy who I've always really admired, used to be his live cab. The V30 in there now can't handle any amp I own, so there's a Texas Heat coming for installation this weekend, just so I have a rock-solid cab for this and my one other 4ohm amp, until I can load up a Woodson 2x12 cab I love with some appropriate speakers.)
Thank you for reading. I'm pretty stoked. Love to hear about your Clean Bassman experiences as well.
Real gut shots imminent, once I have a chance this weekend.
