|
|
Joined:
December 2009
Posts: 686
Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | I recently finished building a MojoTone Tweed Bassman kit (5F6-A) and I thought I'd pass on some first impressions. The kit arrived in less than a week and was well packaged. The kit components are of excellent quality and the cabinet is beautifully built and covered. The kit includes a schematic and wire layout, but no directions so you need to be able to read a schematic to build this kit. My kit was short a couple of pieces of hardware and I had one bad pot, but MojoTone got me the replacements right away. Now for the important part...it sounds awesome. I haven't had a chance to set it side by side with an original '59, but I think it will hold it's own. It's not a cheap kit, coming in at a bit less than a Fender RI, but this has PTP wiring and is as authentic as possible/practical, i.e. no selenium rectifier.
 (MojoTone(3).JPG)
 (MojoTone(4).JPG)
Attachments
----------------
 MojoTone(3).JPG (77KB - 0 downloads)
MojoTone(4).JPG (50KB - 0 downloads)
|
|
| |
|
Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | WOW!
That look great. Terrific job.
I would love to hear sound clips comparing it to your '59.
|
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2009
Posts: 686
Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | stephent28 - 2013-02-20 10:26 PM WOW! That look great. Terrific job. I would love to hear sound clips comparing it to your '59. Thanks. I don't own an original '59, but there's a vintage guitar shop here in town that probably does. I'm anxious to hear the differences. I said in the original post that the kit does not include any directions. Actually, it does include an instruction manual, but it is very high level. It's nothing like the component by component instructions you would expect to see on a Heathkit from yesteryear. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | I own several 59's and a 54 and 57
there is nothing like it . I am sure your amp is great. not sure of the components but if you upgraded to mercury transformers and higher quality caps it probably would have been a good investment. well maybe just buy a chassis and start from there.
btw don't play that bss through there with an open back you could blow all those speakers |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2009
Posts: 686
Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | "...if you upgraded to mercury transformers and higher quality caps it probably would have been a good investment. well maybe just buy a chassis and start from there."
If I ever build another amp, that's probably what I'll do.
"btw don't play that bss through there with an open back you could blow all those speakers"
Thanks for the heads up, because I had no idea. Are you talking about enclosing the area between the two removable panels?
|
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | One of the rarely discussed facts about the original Fender amps, like the '59 Bassman, is that Leo included a "plus or minus 25%" variable factor within the established specs. This meant that there could be a variance of up to 50% between different models of the same amps. So, while some of the older amps sound terrific, some could have been dogs. I have a 65' Bandmaster stack that is exactly on spec (the amp tech demonstrated this to me when I had a repair done a few years ago). So I guess mine was about average. The newer reissues are much more consistent, which may be why they probably won't ever come close to sounding like an original that may actually be 25% overspec. I admire members who can build amps like this. I have a Bassman reissue that I use with a matching tweed '63 Reverb Unit. Its a great pair. Congrats on the build, Nick! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2009
Posts: 686
Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | Thanks Professor. You bring up a good point. The '59s I've seen had 10% composition resistors and the specs on the Fender schematic show voltage tolerances of +/- 20%. Not to mention the fact that household current is higher today and more consistent than it was in the late 50s and early 60s. The law of averages says most of them will sound fine, some will sound great, and some will be dogs (unless of course Clapton, Di Meola, or any number of guitar greats are playing though it, then they all sound pretty darn good). |
|
| |
|
Joined:
October 2012
Posts: 349
Location: Denver, CO | Did you install the flux capacitor with the bio-waste processor? Plutonium could be scarce to come by in the future, where we're going. |
|
| |
OT - MojoTone Tweed Bassman amp kit
