It is currently Mon Mar 16, 2020 10:35 pm

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 29 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2
Go to page Previous  1, 2
Author Message
Post subject:
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 4:03 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:17 pm
Posts: 1986
rjake wrote:
I respect your opinion Johnny1823, but when you run your signal thru an op amp, it gets sterile. Kinda defeats the purpose of having tubes in your amp. I owned and modded lots of different amps, and there is nothing that sounds like a pure tube signal path. The added maintenance of having to replace tubes all the time is worth it. But for me, the moment you put an op amp in the signal path, the signal turns sterile. It doesn't matter how many tubes are after that op amp, you are still going to be amplifying a solid state signal. Granted, the signal may be warmed up a bit after going thru the tubes, but still, it's like putting a pedal in front of your amp. I'd like to make the pedal decision myself. Which is why I'm going to look for something else. Super-Sonic anybody?
Any of the Vintage Reissues are good.I have a 59 Bassman reissue and it has killer tone.Only drawback is no reverb,but it does have 4-10s. :D


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject:
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 4:10 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 3:07 pm
Posts: 28
The Super would have been my first choice had money been a little freer. I NEED a BAILOUT!!!!! LOL!
I too respect your opinion and maybe Fender should market the amp as a hybrid. I knew that there had to be somekind of SS skullduggary when I counted the preamp tubes but in lieu of some modeling piece of crap, I think that this will do me ok. The VM is an ok amp for someone like me that moves around alot and is light and is decent sounding at least to my ear. I play with a gent that is all Line 6'ed up and I knew that that was not for me. He is a really good player that is shackled by his amp. It is 200 watts and just doesen't seem to cut in the mix. The VM is A LOT better for what we are doing. That Supersonic is a tone beast of an amp! I guess I'll just wait for my BAILOUT CHECK, ( hint, hint, Obama!)!!!!!!!!!
God Bless!


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 4:13 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:46 pm
Posts: 575
Location: Indy
Hey budglo, I'm thinking about building one of those. Gonna be point to point, like the old ones. I can get a complete kit for a grand with good components, 410 cab and everything. Of course it's the 5F6A circuit, but I can tweek it if I want.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 5:40 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:17 pm
Posts: 1986
rjake wrote:
Hey budglo, I'm thinking about building one of those. Gonna be point to point, like the old ones. I can get a complete kit for a grand with good components, 410 cab and everything. Of course it's the 5F6A circuit, but I can tweek it if I want.
Thats awesome! I think the 59 Bassman is one of the best amps ever made.The reissue is one of the better ones too.I actually fell on this one by accident .At the GC they had this one listedas a Relic amp,but i noticed there was no lacquered tweed.They were asking 649 for it.After some research, i found out it was actually a heavily gigged amp from 1996 and talked them down to 350!Took it home and realized it had Phillips 6l6wgb tubes which are some of the best available.I ended up lacquering it and i gotta tell you the 59 Bassman is one awesome amp.Good luck with yours,you will really love it.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 6:18 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:46 pm
Posts: 575
Location: Indy
What a deal! Today's reissues are going for $1600. It's not even point to point. All pc board.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 7:38 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:17 pm
Posts: 1986
rjake wrote:
What a deal! Today's reissues are going for $1600. It's not even point to point. All pc board.
They were less expensive in the 90s and as far as i can tell the only real differences were bias pots ,jensens were used instead of eminence ,lacquered tweed and better tubes.But most people change the tubes anyway.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:50 am
Offline
Fender Staff
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:59 am
Posts: 89
<<it's like putting a pedal in front of your amp.>>

Which every pro musician I have ever seen (except Jim Campilongo) does.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 2:16 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:46 pm
Posts: 575
Location: Indy
Yes, I understand that Shane. But if I don't like the pedal, I can remove it. Tough to do with the BM VM.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:04 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:19 pm
Posts: 8827
Why does everything Fender makes come with Groove Tubes anyway. I would gladly and do pay for better sounding tubes. Seems a waste. I buy a HRDlx, and have to swap out power and preamp tubes just to tame it a bit. The original tubes had no charecter at all and sounded harsh. I didn't have to do that in 1964 with my Vibrolux Reverb, in 74 with my Bandmaster or my Champ and in 76 with my Twin. I was happy with the amps right out of the box.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 6:57 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:17 pm
Posts: 1986
63supro wrote:
Why does everything Fender makes come with Groove Tubes anyway. I would gladly and do pay for better sounding tubes. Seems a waste. I buy a HRDlx, and have to swap out power and preamp tubes just to tame it a bit. The original tubes had no charecter at all and sounded harsh. I didn't have to do that in 1964 with my Vibrolux Reverb, in 74 with my Bandmaster or my Champ and in 76 with my Twin. I was happy with the amps right out of the box.
I am sure it has to do with cost.I would be willing to bet that Fender signed a contract with Groove Tubes for a given period of time and it was the lowest or near the lowest bid.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 1:18 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:19 pm
Posts: 8827
It all boils down to that. The lowest bidder regardless of quality wins.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 1:47 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:34 pm
Posts: 78
I had a Deluxe VM for a few days last week. I was very excited about it, because I absolutely love my SCXD and wanted to have a more powerful version of it.

After 3 days of extensive listening, my conclusions:
>excellent clean channel. A bit dry sounding, but very Blackface in character. Not nearly as much flabbly bass as a HRDX, but plenty enough for me. Volume and tone controls are great.
>I couldn't bond with the gain channel. I looked at the schematic and saw that the 12ax7 is in the circuit, but to me it was very bright and fizzy sounding. I heard it and the Bandmaster VM at the NAAM show, and that was my impression, but you can't really audition anything well at the show. If they had just used Chan 2 Voice 8 from the SCXD, I'd be in heaven.
>very usable and tweakable effects. The delay and reverb sound good to me, the reverb more like a plate than a spring, but it still sounds good. The chorus/vibratone is a bit harder to dial in, but the vibratone is excellent. The chorus wasn't as good, but I don't use it a lot anyway.
>build quality- very decent for the money. Obviously circuit board construction, but clean and solid. The back panels on the amp are very thin for an amp this size, though. Beware!- the speaker magnet is very close to the tubes and transformer so many speakers with a large magnet structure won't fit in this amp.

So, I returned the Deluxe VM, got a 12" cab from Newell for my SCXD, and I've got a small gig worthy amp.

I think if you like the gain channel, this is an excellent amp, much better than the HRDx I used to have. My $.02


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 2:35 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 3:07 pm
Posts: 28
That's exactly what I thought about the od chanel. The JJ 12ax7's really helped. Overall the amp is very bright and this will really fiz out the od ch. Ithought the stock spkr. was ok but I had a em. lil texas that actually fit with room to spare and saved a little weight; it too helped the brightness out some. I am going to make a 1-12 cabi. closed back and that should also provide some bottom end. I knew going in that there would be compromising but with the usefulness of the effects and the good clean chanel, I only use a maxon 808 and that's my complete old man's setup! LOL!!


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 2:39 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:46 pm
Posts: 575
Location: Indy
Looking at the schematic of the Bandmaster VM. It looks like the clean channel is pure solid state. Shane, care to comment?


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 29 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2
Go to page Previous  1, 2

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: