Are We There Yet? | ‘59 RI Bassman Pt 2
Вставка
- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- Major isssues sorted, now for the overlooked bits...
Part 1 here:
• Nasty | '59 Bassman Re...
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These are things I get asked about a lot :
Amp Tech Gear Used :
Hakko FX-951 soldering station
Weller SPG 80L soldering iron (chassis work)
Rigol DS1054Z digital oscilloscope
Thsinde 18B+ digital multimeters
Kester 60/40 solder
Techspray #4 No-Clean Desoldering Braid
Below are things that make this channel possible that people don’t usually think about. If any of these companies want to send me new and wonderful toys, I’m open to that. I can’t take free stuff when it comes to the amps I review, etc, but for the stuff below, bribe away!
Microphones/Audio Equipment :
Guitar Amps : Royer R-10 Hot Rod and/or Shure SM57 (noted in videos)
Voiceover Bench : sE Audio sE8 (small diaphragm condenser)
Voiceover Streaming : Shure SM57 with shockmount and windscreen
Voiceover Mic Arms : Elgato Wave Mic arms
Guitar Mic Stand : Gator Frameworks short weighted base stand with boom
Mic Cables and Guitar Cables : Mogami/Neutrik
Mic pre : MOTU M2
DAW : Logic Pro II on MacBook Pro 16 running Sonoma 14.5
Plugins : No effects other than level matching/normalization unless a recording
specifically has reverb etc added in post (rare, various Waves plugins)
Monitors : Yamaha HS7s
Monitor Stands : Gator Frameworks Desktop Clamp-On Stands
Monitor Isolation Mounts : IsoAcoustics Iso-Puck Minis
Headphones : Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (main)
Headphones : Sony MDR-7506 (alternate)
Video Equipment :
Camera : Sony ZVE-10 with SmallRig Cage (main)
Lens : Sigma f2.8 18-50mm (main)
Lens : Sony ZVE10 kit lens (rarely used)
B Camera : Apple iPhone 13 Pro (rarely used)
Tripod : SmallRig 71” with SmallRig Fluid Video Head
Streaming Mount : Elgato Master Mount S with SmallRig Ballhead
Bench Light : SmallRig RC 120D
Bench Light Diffusor : SmallRig Lantern Softbox
Bench C-Stands (light and overhead camera) : Neewer Pro SS Heavy Duty
Streaming Light : SmallRig RC 120B
Streaming Diffusor : SmallRig Parabolic Softbox
Streaming Light Mount : SmallRig 148CM Wall Mount Boom with Triangle Base
Various Other Lights : Neewer LED Panels with Neewer Softboxes
Video Software :
Davinci Resolve 19
Inkscape
GIMP
Because seriously, screw Adobe
Ecamm Live (streaming software)
I had a 59 Bassman reissue LTD. What a clunker
Fender used long jacks because…wait for it….it was cheaper.
Fender have always like cheap.
Hope he goes with the 5U4G…can’t wait for a comparison
I quite like the Bassman reissue. It's a really good amp with very minimal tweaks.
The high B+ and over filtering are easily remedied issues.
Great work as usual!
It is a good effort at bringing an old amp into the modern era. There are some Fender ri amps where Fender overlooked parts of the circuit as it was inconvenient.
???
Mr. Caldwell, here is a question I have rolled around in my head and have not found a concisely specific answer in your catalogue of videos:
If the reissue amplifiers from Fender, etc. are lacking in quality, reliability, and limited in ability to reproduce the sounds of the namesake amplifiers under which they are marketed, would we be better off just buying reproduction chassis, eyelet boards, transformers, etc. and having a competent amplifier technician build new original spec amplifiers (compensated for modern voltages) from the ground up?
Instead of paying the name brand price, would a ground up custom build - competently executed - at 150% (or wherever the price falls...just choosing a symbolic number) the cost of a reissue be the smarter option?
If the sound and reliability is more important than the company badging, when do you think the economics favor the custom build?
Whew...that was a long winded bag of gas, but I hope it made sense...
There are plenty of small boutique amp builders (Victoria Amps is one the more established ones) that sell very accurate clones of 1950's era tweed amplifiers. Although they are expensive, I would think this would be the most cost effective way to go, unless you are able to source all the parts and also posess the skills and tools to build it yourself.
Thank you for the insight. I'm too heavy handed for the finesse involved in the art of amplifiers.
I just wish manufacturers would take more pride in being the best at their own product. I think you said it well that they have forgotten how to be themselves.
And so the accountants have succeeded in sustaining the business through myth and legacy instead of actual value added practices.
Lyle hasn’t done major surgery on the amp yet. I don’t know the 59 Bassman amps are unreliable and of poor quality. What part of the amp did you think was of poor quality apart from the Illinois filter caps?
I should point out that the amp is built for a modern market, the higher voltages large will result in a brighter amp, using a 12AX7 instead of a 12AX7 means there will be more gain from the amp. The fuse in the heater circuit is a great idea, there are fuses on the secondary side of power transformer should the GZ-34 go bad. It has adjustable bias too which isn’t typical of some Fender amps and Mesa Boogie amps.
I think it has a lot of good features. It doesn’t have fibreboard like the originals which can become conductive.
If you don’t mind I would like to ask a few questions. I will edit to add questions as I go along.
1. Is disabling the heater fuse a good thing?
Surely it’s there so the 100 ohm resistors don’t blow in a fault situation. The board didn’t look like there was any heat damage on it and these amps came out in 2004. Maybe with the fuse heat damage isn’t likely?
were all here because we like amplifiers same as you.
So when you say change the pre tube to make idle hotter are you trying to make it break up faster or the opy?
I don’t think he mentioned making a preamp valve run hotter. Lyle was trying to get the output stage to run hotter at a lower voltage.
The original first preamp valve was a 12AY7, but to get more gain people used a 12AX7. Lyle does mention the filtering in the preamp where he removes a 22uF filter cap. The original amp had 8uF, one would think by that stage there had been a lot of filtering done to the DC voltage so filtering wouldn’t be such a big deal of course I could be wrong.
Can't wait for the comparison! Lovely!
Sounds great and looks fine.
The amp does too.
Are these amps hand wired? I know it has a circuit board but didn't know if it was hand wired to the board.
Technically, yes, the wires were hand soldered. Just not by good hands.
They’re like a trad board, with discrete components, instead of surface mounted stuff and wave soldered.
@@PsionicAudio Thank you sir
Nice! I vote for a 5U4 rectifier. 450v b+ is a bit much. Thanks as always…
@@johnraham1312 there are plenty of amps that use two 6L6’s that have a rail voltage of 460VDC. It’s not that uncommon.
In the case of the Bassman it originally used 5881 valves which have a maximum voltage of 400V, and the plate dissipation is 23W. Fender were running these valves beyond their specs. By comparison a 6L6GC has a maximum voltage of 500V and a plate dissipation of 30W. 460V isn’t a problem for it.
Mahalo Lyle
The owner was very fortunate to have you working on his amp. You've improved it so much and gotten rid of the nasty factory junk. Well done mate!
I don’t think all of it was nasty. Lyle is losing the fuse in the heaters. So instead of the fuse blowing when an output valve gets a short between pins 2 and 3 in the output valve socket, one of the 100 ohm resistors goes up instead. I think I would prefer to blow a fuse. The 470 ohm resistors on the board didn’t seem to be that big a deal. Lyle removed the resistors and there were no burn marks that I could see, given this amp is twenty years old you would assume it would have burn marks on the board by now. In the event the 470 ohm resistors go high they will be easily replaced on the socket, though they are metal oxide and they will take a beating.
Putting the 1.5K resistors on the tube sockets is a good idea though.
Lyle isn’t a fan of metal oxide resistors, which I don’t understand why. EEPower has this to say about metal oxide resistors.
“Metal oxide film resistors exceed the performance of metal film and carbon film resistors for the following properties: power rating, voltage rating, overload capabilities, surge capacity, and high temperature operation. Designers often choose the metal oxide film resistor for high endurance applications. Stability properties are inferior to metal film resistors. The metal oxide film resistors have poor properties for low values and tolerance. “
“Metal oxide resistors can withstand higher temperatures than carbon or metal film resistors. The noise properties are similar to carbon resistors.”
“Compared to carbon film, the prices are just as low. For applications where the power dissipation requirements are above 1 W and reasonable stability is required, carbon film resistors are more cost efficient than metal oxide film resistors.”
I have asked Lyle why he doesn’t like metal oxide resistors, but I don’t think he has seen my question.
I should end with a disclaimer, Lyle is a very good tech, though like all techs he has his personal preferences which is fine.
i like how the knobs line up with the traces.
I think the best decision is to make this wonderful amp as great sounding as possible. Now is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
If only the owner would let you do your thing on this one😉👍
I know I would with mine.😁👍👍
use a brown box to lower the voltage.
Wrong tool for the job.
@@PsionicAudio please elaborate :-)
This is a modern amp designed for 120V mains use. The heaters are happy with 120V. Just need to bring down the B+ as they set that too high. 5U4GB does that with no big expense and it requires no modding.
well i"m no expert however, if you have 126 volts coming out of the wall and you knock it down to 117 then set the bias, i"d think that would be beneficial.
What do you do when you do gigs?
Will you take a variac with you?
Best to measure the bias over the typical voltages the mains varies and make sure the amp can safely operate.
@@Mark70609 the brown box , you set it to bypass, it will then read the voltage coming from the wall, then you can reduce the voltage to different percentages. very cool device. having said that i just sold mine yesterday as i no longer have my vintage tweed bassman.
So bud, if you are doing to do a "Pt 2" - maybe put the Pt 1" in the comments... Love your show!
It’s in the list of videos and in the playlist.
Another interesting video, I'm sure you are making this amp as long time reliable as it can be.
@@PsionicAudio As you make more and more videos, after 1 year it will get shuffled totally out of order and no one will ever be able to find it. Maybe do put links in the comments and or the description. I never did find any part 2 from some grease monkey's channel on fixing my truck. I saw some nightmare hacks chopping pieces of the frame and suspension out of an S10 4x4. I ain't doin that! NO!
Link is in the description now.
@@PsionicAudio - Are you taking on any new clients?
Whenever I only have long bushings jacks, I use a second ⅜" nut to adjust the length of the thread.
I feel for Lyle....his restraint and patience is epic.
I work on a steel mill where if a bolt is too long or a frame member is in our way....good ole' cutting torch, porta band saw, or grinder....voila! Perfect fit.
Took off too much metal or need reinforcement? Weld some more on....
Regardless, you back off and say to yourself,:"I fixed the hell out of that! It'll be fine forever now...."
God laughs and whispers in your ear: "Hold my beer..."
Although Lyle's work is nowhere near the same scale as mine, I admire his ability to widen his gaze and understand how the "physical" realities (physics/gravity) of the world affect the "electronic" in both space and time.
*applause*