1960 Tweed Bassman - Someone Please Track This Guy Down and Profile His Amp

Sounds awesome, But Bassman does not have a reverb, so not sure where reverb is from

I have watched that clip a hundred times. That tone is fantastic.

I have yet to coax anything like it from my KPA. I believe the KPA can do it but I have not found a profile that's close.

it's obvously amp-in-the-room, and not close mic'ed so you'll need to run a Direct Amp profile into a guitar cab.
also, this recording is extremely compressed/limited by whatever method of recording it (smartphone?)
you can use the AMPLIFIER's Compressor parameter in an similarly extreme setting (way past 5...) if you like this.

I hear a very dense reverb at times. Chances that it's the room (unless it's large) are very low IMO.
he's using other fx, so (unless the whole thing has been post-processed) a reverb before amp would be my guess. And certainly not a spring reverb.

Quote from viabcroce

And certainly not a spring reverb.

what I hear could be a (good) spring reverb. An Accutronics reverb tank for example can sound pretty 'nice' and dense - not all spring reverbs are metallic, lofi 'sproinnng'-y messes, like so many simulations are

Wonder how much those plexiglas boards affect the overall tone. I strongly believe it does a lot in cutting the top end.

He says he's using a 'vintage Fender reverb unit'. If you look at Soundcheck #2 video and check the comments.

If you look at video #4 you can see another Fender amp in the video

A good part of the high end "snap" is captured from the actual guitar/strings/frets/fingers by the microphone.

Wonderful sound. Unfortunately, it seems to me that no modeler is yet able to capture this kinda spanky, swirly character. Similar yes, but no cigar yet I'm toying with "Clarity" on full in the amp section, which gives that clean spank come through, but the distortion doesn't quite get that swirly, sizzly (or whatever) character. I may be wrong, but I haven't got or heard it in a modeler yet.

Another thing in that clip is the spring reverb in front of the amp. Makes the reverb "duck" when the amp compress. I'm wishing for a spring reverb stomp in the Kemper!

I'm pretty sure the exaggerated compression going on there is an artifact of the camera - limiting the audio to avoid distortion, thus inducing pumping.

Quote from Jimmyno

Wonder how much those plexiglas boards affect the overall tone. I strongly believe it does a lot in cutting the top end.

I think so too, especially since it was moved around a bit in the different videos, and that was being adjusted a lot.

There is very general rule of thumb for materials or (mats sci) and energy transfer.

If a given material is a good conductor of heat or electricity, it will conduct sound energy better, especially if it has a higher density. sound travels faster in higher density mediums.

a general reverse is true for insulators, which plexi kind of is for all 3, but not the best, and being flat it causes reflections in certain ways. shape will affect things like wave cancellation.

the way those are placed could have this effect, hard to tell for sure,but angle of incidence= angle of reflection and this does roughly fit.

internal friction is also a very important thing for insulating sound.. pexi has some, things like rubber, dynamat etc have more.

air is the best insulator that we know of, when it is placed in tiny gaps--things like foam, fibre glass insulation etc.

the way that plexi is set up could also work with the amp to alter the reflections from the wall behind it.

0.00 in the vid shows no gap in the 2 plexi sheets, don't think there is a mic there either, but cant say for sure.

lightbox's idea of snap is direct string is a good hint at where the mic might be, but only saw the first vid, so not sure what kind it could be

depending how accurately that plexi baffle is cancelling sound it would be in front, center of the speaker, and would effect reverb, pretty much everything.

a smooth surface with a particular structure could also go a long way to cancel out certain higher frequencies... the darkest material created so far is done by laser etching a metal

surface with a kind of pattern that are essentially tiny pits that are angled to keep reflected light inside. almost no light is reflected this way. a similar thing could easily work here with

certain kinds of plastics and sound waves.

always hard to tell with youtube videos..

just watched the other 3 vids, got decent earphones, but this laptop is cheap, so i dont trust it that much.

the first one was definitely the best, and that chord an breakup around 1 01 was really nice, probably the most musical, warm balanced, articulate tones out of all 4 vids.

the second sounds brighter, but mebbe a bit harsh, third vid he mentions that there was an issue with wiring a preamp tube wrong, but what changed in the circuit?

he also mentions turning the treble up a lot, and some other gear changes, wonder if re-magnetizing the pickups changed how he feedback worked. amp seemed in a slightly different

place in vid 4 and it sounded like he was just moving the guitar to control the feedback, it got a bit unruly where he would move the guitar back to stop an restart, seemed like that

happened a couple of times there is a space of a few years, some pedal changes too.

Quote from Gary_W

If you look at video #4 you can see another Fender amp in the video

Good call, I would have missed that, when did fullscreen could see it behind the plexi. it says reverb on it, so i am wondering if that is what he used in all 4 videos.

would explain why the first amp was in a slightly different spot. and I am guessing if that second amp was there it would have been moved, 0 00 in vid 1 also shows a lot of cables

on the ground in front of the first amp.

still think the tone in the first one was overall the best, like everything was balanced, in the right place, not to much or little of anything. resonant, 103 is something like a very well

made and well tuned piano, where nothing interfered with anything else.

in the other 3 vids i got this impression that it wasnt just gear changes, but possibly a speaker issue. things like a harsher sound in 2, and in another like it could not handle

the reverb, could have been placement in 4, but he says too much reverb also and it did sound like the speaker was not quite able to get that big sound. it was not as big in vid 1, but

fit much better. another reason i was wondering about the speakers was at some times the chords were not as articulate, he had presence way up, and treble, possibly to try and

compensate, but ended up with a bit of harshness.

first vid also had more of that woody sound in the beginning i think mebbe around 0 10

this and the chords could be from the speaker/cab resonance caused by luck, age, material changes, dry wood. it also seemed that there was a bit of distortion in the cone, age would

cause this until it broke. there is a partial truth to the concept of breaking in speakers, if they are paper they are inherently unstable, which is not a good way to design anything.

anyone else get that impression of a possible speaker issue after vid 1, and tweaking done to try and correct it ?

also trying to guessing if the back was off for vid 1, which could have made it easier on an old speaker, making it sound more natural.

still has a really nice sound tho

+1 for tracking him down and trying to get some profiles.. seems like he knows how to dial in and mic, so all that's needed is a kpa and mebbe a bribe of some sort...

Quote from DonPetersen

it's obvously amp-in-the-room, and not close mic'ed so you'll need to run a Direct Amp profile into a guitar cab.

I have a question about this. Speakers can be the most perishable part (tubes an caps , and other components can last much longer if low heat, and used gently).

I would be curious to know if that is the original speaker, reconed, or a modern reissue of some kind. Lot of ppl with old amps like this will use a new one, especially if the original

one is in good shape. I am also wondering what the best cab / speaker would be for a profile like this, a similar modern combo with a repro speaker, bypass the amp completely and

use a neutral amp to power it?

Quote from DonPetersen

I'm pretty sure the exaggerated compression going on there is an artifact of the camera - limiting the audio to avoid distortion, thus inducing pumping.

So, who will be the first pioneer of profiling thru the camera mic?

It's a wonderful tone with just that little bit of grit in the treble end of things, great transients that fender are known for. You can really hear the strings somehow, a very very dynamic sound.

I think to get close you're going to have to push the treble on the input using e.g. a green scream. Not sure what you can do for pushing those transients way up, there's no expander, but I guess you could use a compressor with a slow attack artfully, then you're going to want to compress the output too, although perhaps the amp block compression would help.

good luck, let us know if you manage to nail it. (And don't forget the role that the single coil pickups and guitar play in this).

Quote from Gandalf_The_Blond

I have a question about this. Speakers can be the most perishable part (tubes an caps , and other components can last much longer if low heat, and used gently).

I would be curious to know if that is the original speaker, reconed, or a modern reissue of some kind. Lot of ppl with old amps like this will use a new one, especially if the original

one is in good shape. I am also wondering what the best cab / speaker would be for a profile like this, a similar modern combo with a repro speaker, bypass the amp completely and

use a neutral amp to power it?

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The original speakers were four Jensen P10's. The reissue Jensen's are as close as your going to get when broke in, but boy do they take some breaking in! The original cabs were pine.

The Fender Bassman reissues don't quite cut it. Ply cabs and PCB's rather than point to point wiring, and more modern components make a big difference. Problem also comes from the fact that 50's components didn't have the same tolerance, manufacturing wasn't as precise and a 10% tolerance was often much worse. No two original amps ever sounded the same. There's a really good example here, not Bassmans, but it's older brothers the Tweed Deluxe's - listen to the differences in sound on this collection.