33 Years ago a friend gave me a broken '67 Fender amp!

Elf

Roadie
Messages
155
I was living in Latin America in the 90's when a friend gave this amp that somebody tried to fix but gave up, when I went to pick it up the guy wasn't there so his Mom gave it to me, the frame and cabinet where under a ledge outside and it was getting wet from the rain, just before I got into my car she came back and gave me another box with parts that she thought belonged to the amp.

It is been so long that I don't remember all the details but I was able to fix it, I mail ordered Aspen Pittman and Gerald Weber tube amp books. I knew how to read a schematic but had no experience with tubes. This has been my main amp since then it appears in some recordings and uncountable live performances.

I wanted to documented it for posterity and maybe some of the community would get some joy from it. It started its life as a '67 Fender Bassman-Amp AB165 and over the years I've changed so many parts that now it is a 5F6A-ish ever changing mutt :)

To me it sounds great but I'm hardly impartial, I listen to it with my ears, heart and memories of places and friends that are still with me and others that are gone.

I'm including some pictures and the LTspice schematic file, thanks to @James Freeman for posting some LTspice files that were of great help to make the schematic, I'm still learning the app so it might have some errors.

I'll try to record some samples, I'll keep updating this post.

LTSpice NC Bassman V1-2.zip


*Edit 1 - 01/03/2024

Recorded a quick test of the amp channel 1 and 2 cascading into each other, using a Suhr Reactive Load and Make Believe Studios SPRES IR Loader

 

Attachments

  • IMG_2057.jpg
    IMG_2057.jpg
    1.4 MB · Views: 72
  • schematic.png
    schematic.png
    854.6 KB · Views: 37
  • IMG_6856.jpg
    IMG_6856.jpg
    2.1 MB · Views: 36
  • IMG_6806.jpg
    IMG_6806.jpg
    1.6 MB · Views: 32
  • IMG_6804.jpg
    IMG_6804.jpg
    1.4 MB · Views: 31
  • IMG_6787.jpg
    IMG_6787.jpg
    1.6 MB · Views: 32
  • IMG_6786.jpg
    IMG_6786.jpg
    1.6 MB · Views: 31
  • IMG_6785.jpg
    IMG_6785.jpg
    1.3 MB · Views: 34
  • IMG_6778.jpg
    IMG_6778.jpg
    2.4 MB · Views: 29
  • IMG_6773.jpg
    IMG_6773.jpg
    2.7 MB · Views: 34
Last edited:
Hi, I uploaded a quick test of the amp. I don't know how to embed Sound Cloud on the post, can somebody teach me please?

Very nice! Sounds different to other amps (in a good way). The clean sounds almost like a clavinet. Wow.

Lotta mojo in there :love
 
  • Like
Reactions: Elf
Back
Top