I used to have a much-maligned 1970's silverface, master volume Bassman Ten...it was a combo with 4x10 closed-back speaker cab.

Now, I know what you're saying, "That was from possibly the worst era of Fender tube amplifiers ever...", and that might possibly be true, but I loved that amp...it sounded great for guitar and harmonica, it did pretty well for a make-do PA system, and it was as durable as hardened steel...ironically, it wasn't a great bass amp, but it wasn't bad, either.

Many a gear snob was surprised by how good the amp sounded, especially after I had it re-tubed & re-capped. Conventional wisdom says "silverface + master volume=crud"...conventional wisdom is often wrong, and it was in this case as well.

Rich, thick tones that weren't woofy or muddy, spectacular top end, great headroom (if you dimed out the Master Volume) and killer overdriven tones (if you dimed out the slave volume and tweaked the Master to about two or three). Plus, I could out-LOUD anybody I needed to...LOL.

It was lost in the Great Guitar & Amp Collection Mortgage-Payment Massacre of '99; the only thing I don't miss about it was how much it weighed. Other than that, it was dang near perfect!

I agree about how great the old piggy-back blackface Bassman amps were, and I like the old tweed ones (reissues weren't bad, either), but this amp was a great "sleeper" that nobody seems to know about or care about...

What amp(s) have a bad reputation but you love and got great sound out of?

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

I recently sold it to fund a Super-Sonic but I loved my DeVille 410 I had for years. It never failed on me and I was so used to it I believed it was a part of my sound especially my work with my last band. JJ 6L6's and a mix of Mesa and EH 12AX7's and biased to 82mv. I loved it but as people know this series isn't that reliable.

Years of gigging and rehearsal use and I never had a problem.

Time goes on though and I'm seeking something not just different but lighter!!

Cheers,

CC

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Fender Stratocaster (parts build)
Fender Telecaster 72 Custom RI
Fender Telecoustic Deluxe
Gretsch Electromatic Pro-Jet
Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus
Gibson ES-135
Zenith Type-17
Marshall 70's JMP Superbass 100w
Blackstar HT-5

Back in about 1985. I had a Peavy Artist 240 100 watt tube combo amp I got for $75. The spring reverb was great and it had a 12'' Black widow speaker, and great clean tone. I got rid of it because I was into big distortion. I wish I still had that amp. Would have sounded great with a Tele plugged into it.

I have 2 small amps that have gotten very little recognition,one is a 5 W Paul amp built in 1967 by Pine Eletronics in Montreal it has a single 8" speaker but I've adapted it so I can run it through my 4-12 Marshall or Leslie and then the little devil gets real raunchy.The other amp is an 82 Traynor 15W solid state amp that sounds convincingly like a tube amp-apparently Pete Traynor spent 6 yrs. designing these amps to emulate tube amps-he suceeded.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

First amplifier I ever got was a Squier Champ 15 GR. Solid state. Not sure what year, but probably mid-90s. (It COULD be older, I just don't really know.)

I still own it. I'm really not into solid state amps anymore, but I still find useful tones out of it time-to-time.

Was always very user friendly too. I don't think they have any real value at all, at least that I'm aware of.

Good amp.

not really sure if is maligned but definitely a lesser known amp company and amp, but my Pignose G40V is am amazing 30w tube amp.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

My one-owner '78 ultra-linear Twin Reverb has a lot of miles on it.

Most folks despise these boat-anchors.



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Peavey amps were hot items back in the early 80's,I had a little Peavey of some sort and it sounded huge.
Seemed like all the country players around Nashvegas were using them back then.

I used a Fender Bandmaster for several years.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Oh, man...

...from '69 to about '90, a Gibson GSS-100. Head, 2-2x10 cabs, 2 more same cabs powered with in-cab amps, called "Plus 50s".

The transistors got older and older and it sounded like a popcorn machine, it had so much internal noise, and became a money pit.

Guitar channel, bass cahannel, reverb, tremolo, vibrato.

'Loved that frigging amp. Sold it for what was paid for it to a metalhead who could care less about a little bit of inside noise.

Peak with the head and slave cabs cranked was a then insane near 360 watts.

I had a 1960's (possibly early 70's) Kay 5w tube amp. White with a golden handle I think. It had some of the greatest tone that I've ever heard. Unfortunately, I sucked at guitar at the time and the only way I knew how good the tone was, was because my uncle loved it and he had been playing for 30 years. Anyways, my first x-wife, thinking that I didn't really need it, sold it while I was out of town for $15 along with my Japanese made 80's Squier Strat for $50.

Man, I miss that amp and guitar.........glad that wife is gone.

Back in the eighties I had a Peavey Triumph, great little amp, around 30 watts I think.

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I have 2, a 1985 Peavey bandit 65 SS amp. I gigged that thing all over the east coast when my band opened for Honeymoon Suite back in 1985-1986 and a 1992 Fender M80 bass amp combo(15") speaker. Those two are still rock solid and filled with tone.
ABS

I would say, as a brand, Peavey gets slammed the most it would seem. I had a Delta Blues 210 I bought new, great little amp. A friend who was a gigging player needed a new amp, so I sold it to him so I could get a Classic 50 212.

He still has it, and I still have the Classic 50, it sits atop my Fender Bassmen 212.
I also have a Ultra combo 212 60 watt. I got it on a close out sale brand new for 699.00, and yes it is still with me, it sits atop my Peavey Triple XXX 212 cab, the two together sound very rich.

I should point out that I have retubed all my amps with JJ tubes, and that had something to do with why they sound so good.

My new in house practice amp is a Fender champion 600, now I know so do not care for these little wonders, some because there made is China, so for the lake of controls the limited volume, but really for playing at home they are just flat cool, not loud enough to piss the neighbors off, but loud enough to send it into overdrive.

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Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

back in the 60's i had a baldwin 2x12 amp with supersound. it was my first solid state amp, and had a great little sound. got a lot of weird looks from my friends with their kustoms, sunns, and especially fender amps.

never got that acoustic control amp like robby krieger used. now i'm kinda glad