I Am The Bassman Part 1.

I acquired a Bassman 50 in a trade a while ago that just has never seemed to have the muscle it should have. It is down on power and something needed to be done about it, if only because I acquired another Bassman 50 and the newest one has power to spare.

But that's for resale when I get around to it.

What to do?

Why, build another one, of course. With a few improvements like tube rectification and a presence control. The Bassman 50 is pretty much the same thing as an AC568 Bassman, which is the same thing more or less as the AB165 Bassman, which I've always liked.

I've been squirreling away parts for this project and the sticking point has always been acquiring a chassis. Apparently people do not build these amps as projects much, but I found a guy in Arkansas selling on fleabay who makes what turned out to be a very well made steel chassis for under sixty dollars shipped.

Who could refuse such a deal?

So when it arrived this week I mounted some nice Omron tube sockets, a Pacific Transformer TF20 Super Reverb power transformer, a Mojotone choke, and a Marvel Electric Bassman output transformer, all of which I'd been saving.

All of this will go into a J.D. Newell custom combo cabinet with a 12 inch Weber Silver Bell speaker that the current weak sister resides in.

If this project works out well enough I'm likely to sell off the existing Bassman 50 for parts or cannibalize it and piece it out. The iron can go on the shelf for repair stock, and the chassis can go on fleabay.

If I get a spare hour tomorrow I'm likely to cook up a set of boards and start stuffing them to advance the project.