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  • #31
    Originally posted by Chuck H View Post
    Was anybody else surprised at how similar the HiWatt and the Bassman100 sounded? I absolutely never thought to pair either amp cranked with a strat, but I thought that was really working.

    EDIT: HEY! re: post #25 - What happened to the original video with the HiWatt, Orange, Fender and Marshall?
    Didn't Pete Townsend play a red one with Hiwatts" DR103's

    nosaj
    soldering stuff that's broken, breaking stuff that works, Yeah!

    Comment


    • #32
      Originally posted by nosaj View Post
      Didn't Pete Townsend play a red one with Hiwatts" DR103's

      nosaj
      Yes. But Pete's tone was awful. Only Pete could make buzzy and static-y sound good I don't have much experience with HiWatt's and Pete's tone always put me off exploring them. I wondered what the hype was about. I always liked Martin Barr's tone though and I think he used Hiwatt's much of the time. He always sounded more like a dirt box though. So I chalked it up to a Hiwatt being used as a clean re-amp device.

      I did play through a D-103 once, but I couldn't crank it up so it wasn't a fair audition. Hearing these clips with the strat gives me a much better perspective on why players like these amps. And hearing how similar they sound to the Bassman 100 (an amp I have the same level of experience with) gives me a better perspective on why Justin is such a champion for them

      The Bassman 100 in the video appeared to have it's channels jumpered. Unless I was seeing that wrong. They didn't say much about how each amp was set up in the video.

      I thought the Orange had a cool vibe with it's compression and saturation, but WAY too much LF going through the amp. Since the Bassman was jumpered I know they made some effort to get a tone tone from each amp for the comparison so I have to wonder why they ran the bass so high on the Orange.?.

      The Marshall was, well. a Marshall I could lose that Traynor in a flood and not cry about it I remember my Bassmaster sounding better than that by a stretch though so I'll chalk it up to that particular amp being so-so.
      "Take two placebos, works twice as well." Enzo

      "Now get off my lawn with your silicooties and boom-chucka speakers and computers masquerading as amplifiers" Justin Thomas

      "If you're not interested in opinions and the experience of others, why even start a thread?
      You can't just expect consent." Helmholtz

      Comment


      • #33
        Originally posted by Chuck H View Post
        The Bassman 100 in the video appeared to have it's channels jumpered. Unless I was seeing that wrong. They didn't say much about how each amp was set up in the video.
        .
        I thought the same thing but noticed on the Marshall head it looked like the guitar cable was coming in from over the top of the amp from behind, so it was hard to tell for sure. I recently got a project Bassman 100 that has been modified for much more distortion on the normal channel. Kind of sounds like the Orange amp in this video. Haven't decided if that is a good thing or not.

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        • #34
          Originally posted by glebert View Post
          I thought the same thing but noticed on the Marshall head it looked like the guitar cable was coming in from over the top of the amp from behind, so it was hard to tell for sure. I recently got a project Bassman 100 that has been modified for much more distortion on the normal channel. Kind of sounds like the Orange amp in this video. Haven't decided if that is a good thing or not.
          Not all Bassman 100 circuits are the same, not all sound that good.

          nosaj
          soldering stuff that's broken, breaking stuff that works, Yeah!

          Comment


          • #35
            Originally posted by nosaj View Post
            Not all Bassman 100 circuits are the same, not all sound that good.

            nosaj
            What difference? I haven't seen any variation for this model on the schematics other than a later solid state amp. But I don't have a lot of experience with these. Justin would probably know about any variations.
            "Take two placebos, works twice as well." Enzo

            "Now get off my lawn with your silicooties and boom-chucka speakers and computers masquerading as amplifiers" Justin Thomas

            "If you're not interested in opinions and the experience of others, why even start a thread?
            You can't just expect consent." Helmholtz

            Comment


            • #36
              I doubt there is a single amp that will satisfy your craving. Just be like the rest of us and turn your house into one big amp storage facility.
              Building a better world (one tube amp at a time)

              "I have never had to invoke a formula to fight oscillation in a guitar amp."- Enzo

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              • #37
                The Super Bassman, Bassman 100, & Bassman 135 are all essentially the same; any differences just follow the standard Twin/Showmans of the time. If you have specific differences you know of besides very small preamp tweaks & the standard power amp progressions from 85W to 100W to 135W, I'll listen. But there are only those three schematics.

                Most of them have indeed been hack-modded to to all sorts of very un-Fendery things; but as they are, Bassman 100s are just a Twin Reverb Normal Channel & a slightly "bass-voiced" Bass Instrument channel. I just don't subscribe to the whole "it's clean to 10" idea.

                Full Disclosure: I added a 12AX7 to mine & made it an AB165 preamp. Which actually makes mine more closely related to the Earth Bass 1000 (I think) as far as the actual amp goes.

                Justin
                "Wow it's red! That doesn't look like the standard Marshall red. It's more like hooker lipstick/clown nose/poodle pecker red." - Chuck H. -
                "Of course that means playing **LOUD** , best but useless solution to modern sissy snowflake players." - J.M. Fahey -
                "All I ever managed to do with that amp was... kill small rodents within a 50 yard radius of my practice building." - Tone Meister -

                Comment


                • #38
                  Originally posted by tubeswell View Post
                  I doubt there is a single amp that will satisfy your craving. Just be like the rest of us and turn your house into one big amp storage facility.
                  ^^^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^^^ IS THE <BEST> SOLUTION!!!

                  Jusrin
                  "Wow it's red! That doesn't look like the standard Marshall red. It's more like hooker lipstick/clown nose/poodle pecker red." - Chuck H. -
                  "Of course that means playing **LOUD** , best but useless solution to modern sissy snowflake players." - J.M. Fahey -
                  "All I ever managed to do with that amp was... kill small rodents within a 50 yard radius of my practice building." - Tone Meister -

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    Or just get a Line 6
                    Experience is something you get, just after you really needed it.

                    Comment


                    • #40
                      SHOTS FIRED!

                      Justin
                      "Wow it's red! That doesn't look like the standard Marshall red. It's more like hooker lipstick/clown nose/poodle pecker red." - Chuck H. -
                      "Of course that means playing **LOUD** , best but useless solution to modern sissy snowflake players." - J.M. Fahey -
                      "All I ever managed to do with that amp was... kill small rodents within a 50 yard radius of my practice building." - Tone Meister -

                      Comment


                      • #41
                        Originally posted by nickb View Post
                        Or just get a Line 6
                        ...and use it to prop open the door so you you can carry your Bassman 100 in
                        "Take two placebos, works twice as well." Enzo

                        "Now get off my lawn with your silicooties and boom-chucka speakers and computers masquerading as amplifiers" Justin Thomas

                        "If you're not interested in opinions and the experience of others, why even start a thread?
                        You can't just expect consent." Helmholtz

                        Comment


                        • #42
                          1 Trillion thumbs up for that one, Chuck.
                          So, I know it was a while ago... My friend had a Flextone & a Variax. I had my Tele & Prosonic & a few funky-ass old pedals & was just getting into vintage amps. He had one good sound that could cut through a live band. If it was a punk band. Luckily that's mostly what we played. I could squash my way into anything. Eventually, we progressed to the point where all the solid-state amps (which were modelers or digital or otherwise not-nice-examples) ended up being brought out when a guest needed a music stand or wanted to put their feet up.

                          I get to hear Kempers every few weeks, in a live setting w. real drums. I'll just say both guotar players sounded a hell of a lot better when they played a Matchless & a Mesa.

                          Yeah, it's a fun recording tool. Yeah, it can make a passable impersonation of something else. Consistently can be bland. Yeah, it can make lots of funny noises. Digital noises.

                          Me? Ratty-ass tube amp forever. Nobody sounds like me, and I find the "limitations" to be more freeing. "Stop twiddling knobs & @$#%ing play!" Volume, Treble, Bass, done.

                          I don't know what ever happened to that Flextone. The Variax was gutted dor some parts & dunpstered, by me, on his orders.

                          Justin & Jusrin
                          "Wow it's red! That doesn't look like the standard Marshall red. It's more like hooker lipstick/clown nose/poodle pecker red." - Chuck H. -
                          "Of course that means playing **LOUD** , best but useless solution to modern sissy snowflake players." - J.M. Fahey -
                          "All I ever managed to do with that amp was... kill small rodents within a 50 yard radius of my practice building." - Tone Meister -

                          Comment


                          • #43
                            When the big floor mounted pedal units, with multiple digital effects, amp and speaker emulations, etc. first came out, I thought 'this is the answer to everything, I must go and buy one'.
                            In the guitar shop, I was playing through one and the shop guy was demonstrating all the various sounds. I was going 'Hmm', 'Well', 'Don't like that one', 'Maybe I can use that one', until the 15th or so sound came up and I said 'Ah that's what I'm looking for. What setting is that?' The shop guy says 'Oh, that's the bypass button, you're just going straight through to the amp'.
                            Last edited by Malcolm Irving; 03-17-2019, 10:35 AM.

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                            • #44
                              I fight modelers, simulators and pedalboards every week.

                              In my view,"speakers donīt know or care who/how created the waveform thatīs hitting them" so in principle exact same waveform through a certain speaker will sound exact same, no matter whether it was created by overdriven tubes, a bunch of clever Op Amps and diodes, Fets or DSPs.

                              The key point being "exact same waveform"

                              Now thatīs easy on a *recording* environment, where all signals are virtual, and reasonably easy at a bedroom level, where a 100W amplifier is used at less than 1W average (hint: HUGE headroom) BUT as soon as you play by a Drummer (the Mother of all noise ) then all chips are down.

                              I am quite certain that SS fakers of any kind are very good live ... if you have a 300 to 1000 W RMS power amp AND feed that to real *guitar* speakers (hint: the 97 to 103dB/W kind) so the funky "tube" waveforms fit *inside* the envelope, which is the rail to rail voltage.

                              As soon as the SS power amp clips, even if on narrow peaks, you are back to square one, flat top boring SS clipping.

                              While any tube amp, even if "15W RMS" can deliver its own funky waveform any day of the week, 24/7/365 ... it canīt do otherwise !!!!

                              My every week fight is having Guitar Players bring huge pedlboards or compact Simulators, and typically plugging that in the effects loop return of a Peavey Bandit/Valvestate 80 or similar combo , turning it up to live drummer level ... and turn it into a ball of horrible white noise, fuzzy buzzy mush.

                              Problem being that if, say, you activate the preset called "Metallica at Castle Covington Masters of Rock" (which sounds killer recorded or at the bedroom) where they used 8 Marshall heads, full blast, driving 16 4x12" cabinets loaded with Vintage 30, you-will-not-get-that-sound with puny SS 80W , a single 12" speaker, mounted in a luggage size box, and to boot open nback ... no-fucking-way.

                              While if they had plugged the guitar straight into said Bandit or Valvestate the sound would have been at least decent, because Designer certainly equalized and matched it to the speaker and cabinet he had available.

                              [Rant mode OFF]
                              Juan Manuel Fahey

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                              • #45
                                Originally posted by J M Fahey View Post
                                I fight modelers, simulators and pedalboards every week.

                                In my view,"speakers donīt know or care who/how created the waveform thatīs hitting them" so in principle exact same waveform through a certain speaker will sound exact same, no matter whether it was created by overdriven tubes, a bunch of clever Op Amps and diodes, Fets or DSPs.

                                The key point being "exact same waveform"

                                Now thatīs easy on a *recording* environment, where all signals are virtual, and reasonably easy at a bedroom level, where a 100W amplifier is used at less than 1W average (hint: HUGE headroom) BUT as soon as you play by a Drummer (the Mother of all noise ) then all chips are down.

                                I am quite certain that SS fakers of any kind are very good live ... if you have a 300 to 1000 W RMS power amp AND feed that to real *guitar* speakers (hint: the 97 to 103dB/W kind) so the funky "tube" waveforms fit *inside* the envelope, which is the rail to rail voltage.

                                As soon as the SS power amp clips, even if on narrow peaks, you are back to square one, flat top boring SS clipping.

                                While any tube amp, even if "15W RMS" can deliver its own funky waveform any day of the week, 24/7/365 ... it canīt do otherwise !!!!

                                My every week fight is having Guitar Players bring huge pedlboards or compact Simulators, and typically plugging that in the effects loop return of a Peavey Bandit/Valvestate 80 or similar combo , turning it up to live drummer level ... and turn it into a ball of horrible white noise, fuzzy buzzy mush.

                                Problem being that if, say, you activate the preset called "Metallica at Castle Covington Masters of Rock" (which sounds killer recorded or at the bedroom) where they used 8 Marshall heads, full blast, driving 16 4x12" cabinets loaded with Vintage 30, you-will-not-get-that-sound with puny SS 80W , a single 12" speaker, mounted in a luggage size box, and to boot open nback ... no-fucking-way.

                                While if they had plugged the guitar straight into said Bandit or Valvestate the sound would have been at least decent, because Designer certainly equalized and matched it to the speaker and cabinet he had available.

                                [Rant mode OFF]
                                Reading Juan's post I get this imagery in my head of a charging amp and him with red cape and going in for the kill with a Gibson V right through the speaker.
                                nosaj
                                soldering stuff that's broken, breaking stuff that works, Yeah!

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