Post by jhPost by Derek TearnePost by jhIf you could get a Vintage Bassman 100 for 399 $ sure, then it'
would be a no brainer. Over here they go easily for 800-900
Euros....
But i bet this wasn't eve the initial question.
"Should I get a vintage bassman 100 or a discontinued Hughes and
Kettner bluesmaster and one of those lovely jensen 12" speakers for
my 14 year old son to replace his started pack combo?".
Hmmm. I think we can be safe in the assumption that it wasn't.
Pity though, that would have been a much more interesting question.
--- Derek
Hi Derek,
if you're really interested in this discussion, then it would be
really nice, if you ommited those colourful words like "whimpy",
"lovely" etc. BTW the bassman is also discontinued IIRC.
The jensen - BTW it's simply an italian "Reissue" Alnico P12R was
just there. I don't consider it "lovely". To be honest, it was the
OEM speaker of my Victoria 5E3 and i replaced it immediately with a
Celestion. I simply hated this speaker.... The cab is a line6 return,
that I got for 0,00 EUR because it's got a crack at one edge. The
bluesmaster or crunch master was just here too, i got it years ago,
someone really wanted to sell it to me for then 50 deutschmarks,
propably about 25 US$. So the experiment was just reycling existing
parts. You might call it a collection of junk box items.
In my very honest, but humble opinion, i'm almost sure this setup
might be a real improvement to a crappy 15W starter box sand amp.
But to be honest again, the only one who can judge it, is the boy
who is expected to dump his "starter".
Remember the "student line" of Fender? Princetons, Deluxes e.a.. In
the old days everyone thought he'd "improve" to a much more
expensive Twin Reverb, today the student amps fetch even more money
on ebay as the old "professional" amps.
Get back to the H&K vs Bassman discussion. IMHO the bassman is still
a great amp. If you run it at home, at low volume it's also great.
The only thing you might take into consideration is the wear of four
6L6s, the possible use as a space heater and the added power
consumption. Aside that, it takes up a little bit more space than
the H&K
For the parents there is the danger, that the youngster plays too
loud, when not under "observation".
Of course you might take the Bassman and a cab to a gig and the H&K
is not capable of pushing enough air. Especially with the
bluesmaster/crunchmaster, you could easily hook it up to a big SS
power amp and have the same sound as you have at home (if you like
it) just louder... or you could inject it to a console.
Just one last "marketing" for the little H&K. I'm sure youve heard
about the old 400PS Fenders. The concept is very comparable. You
have the old channel scheme of a SF Fender, feeding a low power
power stage (6L6 in triode mode) and the you let some big 6550A - a
Sextett if all the available clean 435W RMS have to mobilized - push
the volume.
I don't know whether i would throw 200-300$ over the table to get a
H&K today, if i could have the Bassman for almost the same price. On
the other hand the additional options of the little guy - handy
package, di, preamp, power amp, speaker simulation have served me
well over the last few years.
Thus i have to express my opinion - this little unit is far away from
being a toy. I'm also lucky, that I don't have to decide for myself,
i have them both ;-)
Fascinating. Simply fascinating. Can't get enough of this real-world