off craigslist, here.

$400

that damned fly wrote:off craigslist, here.

$400

It's silverface

I'd like to offer a thug-hug to anybody who actually knows the difference between the silverface and blackface circuits for the bassman. I know there are at least a couple-few folks here who could answer that one.

I'm also guessing that outside this tech room, it's less than one percent of the number of people who will insist that the blackface is definitively "better". The evil push-pull pot fiasco and stuff, right. Now tweed on the other hand...

I have a '66 bassman, all mint and purely blackface and stuff, that I got in a trade. I find its sound pretty unexciting, but I think it's worth keeping around for recording, if that's the sound somebody wants really, really badly.

I guess the average eBay blackface bassman is about half the price of a 70's Marshall, maybe a third... the price difference is not entirely due to the absence/presence of a Marshall logo, to my ears.

Oh, and I saw a TS25 on ebay yesterday with an upgraded speaker, with a Buy It Now of $100. That's maybe not so on-topic, but it would leave you $300 to play with, so...

I'm not one of the people who know the difference between silverface and blackface. I know that lots of people say things like "yeah, but it's black face, it's way better than the silver face" or "well, you know, it's a silver face, it's not getting anywhere close to the black face".

If Im not wrong, steve uses one in his setup. Im pretty much sure that he knows what's the difference between the two and he surely listened to both before he decided that blackface is his way to go.

Isn't it true that an early silverface and a blackface are just one simple mod away from eachother? Like snipping a wire simple?

-A

There are three (documented) circuits for blackface Bassman heads: AA864, AA165, and AB165. These designations can be found on the tube chart inside the head cabinet, and (roughly) indicate the month and year of the design, eg: August '64, Janauary '65. To make things more confusing, the tube chart doesn't always accurately identify what's inside--for example, I have an AA864-marked amp with a stock AB165 circuit, which isn't much of a surprise since it's dated (by ink stamp on the same tube chart; "OB") Feburary of '65, shortly after the change.

The earliest silverface Bassman heads used the same circuit as the last of the blackfaces: AB165. This (craigslist) silverface might be one of those; the silverface amps with the band of aluminum trim around the grill cloth (which this one has) are the earlier ones. Then there are the different later silverface circuit variations...

In the amp-snob world, the AA864 seems to be the preferred design. They are different--try 'em and be your own judge.

thug hug here?

-Tom