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Hey, Guys--

Back in the late 1960s I used a blackface Bassman head with a blonde Showman bottom (one 12" speaker as I recall) as a bass rig, and it sounded great but didn't have much volume. I think there were a couple of different wattage Bassman heads floating around in those days, and either I had one of those lower wattage ones or it had a problem.

I was always looking for a Showman head but could never find one.

Later, in the early 1970s, I got a silverface Fender Twin Reverb and shoehorned an Altec Lansing 15" bass speaker into it and that was a little more powerful and good enough for most of the places we played.

--Jim

Typical blackface Bassman amps all were around 50 watts of output power into a 4 ohm load. If you were using it into a single 12" Showman cabinet with what was probably an 8 ohm speaker, you would have lost 10 to 15 watts with the impedance mismatch. Same thing with the Twin, it was designed to run at 4 ohms.

Mr. Bill, I am absolutely convinced that you are correct. In those days, none of my friends and certainly not I understood any of that stuff. I still don't, but one of the guys from those days is still my best friend and he builds amps and stuff now, and he gets it. And now I play in a band with another amp builder who keeps me on the straight and narrow.

It's a miracle that none of us were electrocuted back then. I will say that we blew up a lot of equipment through our ignorance.

We were just emailing the other day about when another friend lent me his brand-new Marshall stack-- the first of those we'd ever seen in Naples, Florida-- and I blew the head within minutes when trying to set it up. How, I don't know, but it went poof and the magic smoke came out of it. The owner of that amp is still a pal and amazingly enough, forgives me for that insanity.

Oh, well. I should have known YOU GUYS back then, darn it!!!

--Jim

Well, I'm bummed! After hassling with the graphic company making the faceplates I still didn't get what I wanted. The little 3/8" color sample they showed me sure isn't the color of the finished product. The black and white example is simply a copy on paper that I had printed on Office Depot just to try for size and hole location on the chassis.

Danny, did you provide that vendor with a color sample to match? Obviously, they can't match a PMS color.

That being said, I think the result isn't bad looking, it just doesn't match what Fender produced. It should look good with the blonde Tolex and oxblood grill cloth. Not sure how it would look with the gold grill cloth.

The black-and-white would look more Fenderish, but the gold might look more elegant.

Sorry that you had such a terrible experience!

--Jim

JimPage wrote:Danny, did you provide that vendor with a color sample to match? Obviously, they can't match a PMS color.

Unfortunately, No! I just went by the color samples they had. Which were very few.

After drilling and a lot of Dremel tool grinding to make and adjust holes I finally got the faceplate on. I'm not happy with the color but I'm done with it for now. I've heard of black face, brown face and now we have gold face amps.

Hey, Danny--

I may be the only one who thinks this, but I think you've got a keeper there! The faceplace design is similar to a Fender but not slavishly exact, and the color is different but not off-putting. The controls are legible and there is the probability that the finished amp, as you describe it, will be very attractive.

I'd be proud to have an amp with that look, and it is one of a kind! It looks great with the ivory knobs and hardware on it.

--Jim

For some reason, that faceplate reminds me of the fawn colored Vox AC-30s.



I wonder if you could make the color more palatable if you cover the plate with tinted plexiglass, or even spray some tinted lacquer on it. Of course, the white part wouldn't be white anymore, but maybe "antiqued"?

I hope you can get it worked out - it's a fine piece of work that you should be able to be proud of.

JimPage wrote:Hey, Danny--

I may be the only one who thinks this, but I think you've got a keeper there! The faceplace design is similar to a Fender but not slavishly exact, and the color is different but not off-putting. The controls are legible and there is the probability that the finished amp, as you describe it, will be very attractive.

I'd be proud to have an amp with that look, and it is one of a kind! It looks great with the ivory knobs and hardware on it.

--Jim

Danny, I fully appreciate your disappointment but have to agree with what Jim says; he certainly isn't the only one. Even though unintended, your amp would look tré chic sporting the gold face, making it to be be a real snazzy GFE (Gold Face Ellison]. But be aware that you may very well be starting a new fashion trend if that big Musical Instruments Corporation from Scottsdale catches on!

[edit] tip: You could of course build another Bassman for the original color face plate

even if it is not what you want i think it is classy
with blond tolex and wheat grill cloth i will rid you of this amp