Biasing: How hard could it be?

[Charlie Bernstein]

Hm.

[mark norwine]

ampcamp, anyone?

[Charlie Bernstein]

Teleman55 -

Pulling a tube and getting Yellow Jackets both sound like great ideas. Does it matter which I pull? Will it need biasing if I pull one? My impression about Yellow Jackets is that they also smooth out the tone. True? That would be a big help for my purposes for this amp.

I think I already mentioned it, but I have plenty of amps already. The Bassman is the loudest. That's why it's the one I want to power down and roll up.

My perkiest amp is a tweed Pro Junior. My sweetest is a '62 Ampeg M-15 - possibly the heaviest 20-watt amp ever devised! The saddest is a reissued Vibroverb 210. Sounds just great until you roll it up to 4. It's for sale, if you're looking for a sound about as exciting as the morning farm report.

What I don't have is an amp that really, really sings the blues. Maybe someday it'll be the Bassman.

GUITARmole -

I sit corrected. There are no IRREVERSIBLE mods. It has lots of sweet reversible mods already - including a mids knob in back and a mod even I can do (and did): a six-inch pedal cable connecting the two channels.

As for a new amp - seems like I buy and sell 'em all the time, though most of the ones I have now I'll probably keep for a while.

I don't know whose posts you've been reading, but they've been a LOT of help to me!

Chet -

Yeah - Freight and E-Man had my attention right out of the starting gate. That's why I haven't run out and bought a BiasRite and a multimeter.

As for my guitar volume knobs: sorry - they're all Crazy Glued at 10!

The solutions I've narrowed all this down to are:

- Talk to a tech.
- Pull a tube.
- Get a pair of Yellow Jackets.
- Get a 110 cab.

Thanks to everyone who explained the tube switch problem - glad I asked!

[Charlie Bernstein]

Mr. Norwine -

I was wondering where you were! Yes. Amp camp fer sher. This time, I organize it early. As soon as you know your travel plans, let me know!

You'll be glad to know that the work Steve did on the Bassman paid off hugely. I've actually been able to gig it a little. But as you see, I never get to really open it up. Seven would be heaven.

We'll talk!

[Tim Armstrong]

Hey, I want to go to amp camp too!!!

Charlie, I'm glad my speaker idea made sense to you! I've heard good things about the Yellowjackets, too. You want two of them, and you use them, loaded with EL84s, in place of the 6L6 power tubes. I've had several friends who've had good results, great tone and significantly lower power.

Cheers, Tim

[Charlie Bernstein]

Tim -

Yeah, Mark puts on a great show. I think I even learned a few things. Like don't bite the caps. And it put me in touch with local mad scientist Steve Stratton, who's done some great things to my equipment - especially the Bassman.

It's been a couple of years, but I think this summer is going to be clearer. Maine's a great place to visit (even though no one lives here) - so stay tuned!

[mark norwine]

Mid August......pick a day.

re: biasing, I'm a firm believer that the notion of "turn this little knob right there" is a bad way to teach / learn. Once you see the 30,000 foot view, and you gather the base concept of what you're trying to accomplish, biasing.....any method of biasing....is very simple.

You asked "Biasing: how hard can it be?", to which I say [and I'm not trying to be a smartass]: "Appendectomy" how hard can it be?"

The answer to both questions is: To someone with proper training, it's a walk in the park. Happily, the training required to do biasing [and more importantly...to UNDERSTAND the concept of biasing] is all very easy indeed.

This time, however......after "class" is over, we go race go-karts in Manchester.

[chet]

"As for my guitar volume knobs: sorry - they're all Crazy Glued at 10!"


I hear ya. Mine might as well be but I like the sound of my 1965 Super Reverb and Tweed Twin RI at lower volumes with the guitar at "10" anyway.

[winny pooh]

Originally Posted by teleman55

Get a BiasRite. They're easy and great. If you want to power down your Bassman either pull one power tube or get yellowjackets (or the groovetube version, which don't have a groundwire to deal with). .

I would never pull one tube in a 2 tube amp like a bsasman, push pull remember?

[Charlie Bernstein]

Mark -

Yeah, I know. Anything's hard if you don't know what you're doing, and I don't (as several folks above have helpfully pointed out). The thread title is a friendly nod to Kinky Friedman and his gubernatorial campaign slogan.

Kinky for President!

[jumpnblues]

Charlie,

My 2 cents worth is...I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss attenuators (not that you are). I use two 50 watt Weber MASSes at home for practicing and for low volume gigs when you want to maintain as much of your tone as possible. Yes, when you turn the MASS volume as low as maybe 4 (the speaker volume on the MASS) or less, it starts to mess with your tone...usually the top end. But at volumes about 6 or higher on the attenuator they sound pretty darn good. And your volume is attenuated very noticeably at that level. I have a guitar (Epiphone '56 Les Paul Goldtop with Lollar p-90s) that actually sounds better when playing it through my 40 watt Allen Encore with 4x10s with the MASS. It sounds so good through the MASS I don't play the guitar without it. It just does something really sweet to the top end. It sounds very smooth. And it (the MASS) never sounds bad with any of my amps. I would estimate it is about 85%-90% transparent, which isn't bad. Is it perfect? No. But I've found it to be a very useful tool when you need to preserve your tone at lower volumes. It works better than pedals for that purpose, for me.

Tom

[teleamp]

Originally Posted by JohnnyCrash

Keep the Bassman as it is and get something smaller for home :)

A tweed Deluxe clone can crunch pretty good at lower volumes (warning, it is still loud)... cathode biased pair of 6V6s with a gnarly tweed preamp...

Or, if you really need low volume crunch, buy a Master Volume amp - OR, a low wat amp.

+1

MikeY