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Finished...Tweed Bassman Build!

Gold Tone

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Apr 2, 2002
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After many months (many, many months) of searching for as many NOS parts as possible, finding the absolute BEST repro part if NOS was impossible to find, and many hours of work...my '58/'59 Tweed Bassman is finally done!!

Cabinet is extremely accurate repro by Gregg Hopkins, MM iron, vintage: tubes, speakers, caps, resistors, tube sockets and shields, knobs, speaker jacks, light, fuse holder, etc, etc...

Gregg Hopkins also suppled the vintage correct "Victoria Luggage Co." amp cover made with NOS roll of tan material as used in the original covers.

Even folowed the lead dress/layout as closely as possible by comparing many photos.

Found the right shade green paint that was used as "lock tight" for the speaker jacks nuts.

This is about as close to a real vintage Tweed Bassman as can be built today.

I spent A LOT of time making sure each and every solder joint is sound and perfect.

The end result is an amp that is dead quiet (no hum, crackle, pops...nothing!) and sounds better than any of my other amps (around 18 vintage amps by Marshall, Fender, Supro, etc, etc).

I couldn't be happier with the result!! WELL worth the time and effort...I highly recommend this project to all tone lovers.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,

GT

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J.D.

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May 24, 2006
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Great looking results, looks like a really fun project! :jim
 

bluesforstevie

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Jun 20, 2002
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KICK ASS!!!! We need some samples!! I love the look of the old caps etc. So, did you have to put the old paper filter caps on a variac or?
 

Gold Tone

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The filter caps were a cheat :wah ...nice repro's by Donovan at Luxe caps.

I'm sure if I found those old filter caps they'd be dried up crusty useless things decades ago. I think those would be about the only vintage part that would just not be possible to use today.
 

bluesforstevie

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Jun 20, 2002
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The filter caps were a cheat :wah ...nice repro's by Donovan at Luxe caps.

I'm sure if I found those old filter caps they'd be dried up crusty useless things decades ago. I think those would be about the only vintage part that would just not be possible to use today.

I see..that makes sense. Killer amp matey!!!
 

MikeSlub

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Jul 15, 2001
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Looks awesome, and I am sure it sounds great! A real labor of love! Congratulations on a job well done! :dude:
 

Mars Hall

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Nov 26, 2008
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The filter caps were a cheat :wah ...nice repro's by Donovan at Luxe caps.

I'm sure if I found those old filter caps they'd be dried up crusty useless things decades ago. I think those would be about the only vintage part that would just not be possible to use today.

Just curious, how are the filter caps wired? Were you able to find a suitable voltage for the caps to keep them in parallel or did you go with the BF treatment and put the first 2, for power, in series?

Just recently went through a similar build. I'm very happy with how mine turned out as well. I didn't pay as close attention to detail as you did with those vintage parts and repros. I'm sure yours sounds as good as it looks!
 

joemags54

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May 17, 2011
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Nice work. What talent.:salude Great looks....... (I struggle to change an outlet).
 

Gold Tone

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Thanks for the kudos gents! It was a real time consuming project (due mostly to the attention to detail, measuring all resistor and cap values to make sure they were on spec, and trying to keep each and every connection as clean and sound as possible). I hoped that, when done...after so many hours, that it wouldn't sound horrible. I was taken back...and still am, at how nice it sounds. rich deep tone that is so pleasing to the ear...I guess, really, it was fool-proof following that classic circuit it could only sound great.


That looks wonderful. About what would it cost in parts to build a top shelf Bassman like that?

I didn't keep as close count as I should have...It was somewhere around $1800 or so in parts...maybe a bit more.



Very cool! Where did ya get the tube chart?

I can't remember where that came from...probably someone on e-bay as was mentioned...it's a VERY nice tube chart...my handwriting sucks so I'm having my wife fill it in.


Just curious, how are the filter caps wired? Were you able to find a suitable voltage for the caps to keep them in parallel or did you go with the BF treatment and put the first 2, for power, in series?

Followed the old circuit exactly. The filter caps were the old values and were wired as the Tweed called for.
 
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Mars Hall

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Nov 26, 2008
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I originally started off my adventure by obtaining a reissue LTD to mod, when I found a guy on ebay (sgdaddy69) with a chassis clone. It was priced to good to pass up. I would have spent just a little more on the parts, than this one already built! To add to the purchase it has an old school Schumacher OT dated 1960 and NOS tubes.

Sold the LTD, bought a Mojo cab and installed some alnico Emmies I already had laying around. The amp is slowly moving the others out of the way as my main player. Great sound especially when I plug my Echoplex 2 in with my R7.:salude

One of the neat features the guy added was using the defunct polarity switch in the bias circuit. He added bias probe sockets and wired the switch so that flipped to one side you're mearuring V4 the other way you're measuring V5. Not exactly "vintage" but sure is handy.
 

Gold Tone

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Where did you get the chassis?

I wasted some money there but that's okay. I bought the Mojo but found the writing was wrong, the chassis didn't have the brass grounding plate like original, and mostly they don't print directly on the chassis face but have "second layer" of chromed metal sheet on the chassis face that was also not at all vintage correct. It's probably just easier and cheaper to silk screen the writing on a flat surface and then add that to the chassis rather than the original way of printing directly on an already formed chassis.

I don't remember where the next one came from but it wasn't much better.

In the end Weber had the absolute best and almost perfectly vintage chassis. Correct lettering, no "false" plate of sheet metal on the face with the numbers and lettering, and included the brass grounding plate internally.

Weber, as far as I have found in too extensive of a search, had the best vintage correct chassis.
 
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Mars Hall

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Nov 26, 2008
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I wasted some money there but that's okay. I bought the Mojo but found the writing was wrong, the chassis didn't have the brass grounding plate like original, and mostly they don't print directly on the chassis face but have "second layer" of chromed metal sheet on the chassis face that was also not at all vintage correct. It's probably just easier and cheaper to silk screen the writing on a flat surface and then add that to the chassis rather than the original way of printing directly on an already formed chassis.

I don't remember where the next one came from but it wasn't much better.

In the end Weber had the absolute best and almost perfectly vintage chassis. Correct lettering, no "false" plate of sheet metal on the face with the numbers and lettering, and included the brass grounding plate internally.

Weber, as far as I have found in too extensive of a search, had the best vintage correct chassis.

That is good to know, did not realize those were manufactured any different. You really done your homework.:salude
 

reswot

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Jan 22, 2004
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3,295
I wasted some money there but that's okay. I bought the Mojo but found the writing was wrong, the chassis didn't have the brass grounding plate like original, and mostly they don't print directly on the chassis face but have "second layer" of chromed metal sheet on the chassis face that was also not at all vintage correct. It's probably just easier and cheaper to silk screen the writing on a flat surface and then add that to the chassis rather than the original way of printing directly on an already formed chassis.

I don't remember where the next one came from but it wasn't much better.

In the end Weber had the absolute best and almost perfectly vintage chassis. Correct lettering, no "false" plate of sheet metal on the face with the numbers and lettering, and included the brass grounding plate internally.

Weber, as far as I have found in too extensive of a search, had the best vintage correct chassis.

I asked because I was under the impression that Weber is using polished stainless steel, now, rather than chrome-plated steel. Have they gone back to chroming?
 

Gold Tone

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Apr 2, 2002
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Not sure...I bought the chassis a few years ago...they may have changed them now. If they haven't changed anything else it's still the closest to original 50's.
 
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