Thinking about selling my Fender Bassman Ten

[Denis]

I received two offers for $300 but I think that's a tad low. One guy offered me $400 and I was to drop it off tonight but then he emailed back and told him his wife told him "no". Jeez.

It seems to me that the going price on nice ones is around $375-400. Doesn't mean I won't take a good offer, but starting off at $300 THEN negotiating seems unreasonable.

What do you guys think? Advice?

[jumbodbassman]

tell me about that amp please

[Denis]

I'll take pics of the data plate and post this evening when I get home. It says it's 200 watts and has an external jack with "8 ohms 50 Watts RMS" printed underneath it. I think it's early/mid '70s but am not at all sure about it.

All tube and I've never had to replace any of them. Never had the back off although I did use a little clear glue on a couple of weak spots on a speaker cone or two. It sounds great and has a nice warm tone, but I realized I just liked 12" and 15" speakers more.

I'll post more pics tonight.

[nofi]

keep it and learn some blues harp. it's a great amp for that sort of thing.

[Iome]

If i'm not mistaken theres two versions of that amp, the early ones where 50W and the later ones 75W. Great amp both for Bass and guitar IMHO.

[nofi]

when i saw willy dixon his bass player was playing a ric through a bassman 10. not the treble fest you might expect. the tone was very rich and warm.

[sniper]

the later version read bassman "70" on the faceplate. i have had two "tens". the speakers can be a bit of a problem sometimes, sometimes not. i never cared for them having blew a few on my first one. the sound was always good but i over drove the speakers trying to get too much volume out of the amp.

i now have a "ten" head in a Bandmster/Reverb head cab (that is in fact a bolt in operation) and am glad i have it. there is more room in the reverb cab, i don't whang my tubes when i toss in the cord and it runs a bit cooler with the extra room. it does well driving my blonde 2/12 cab with Marshall speakers. i don't try to get the volume out of it now like i did in '73 with my first one. for more volume i am working on building a tone ring 15" cab i will drive with what is going to amount to a 200S Sunn built in a AB165 head used in conjunction with the "ten", splitting the signal to both. any more volume needed past what my setup can deliver then it can be miked as far as i am concerned.

guitards like tens. they are basically a 2-6L6GC amp with Fenders version of a Bauxandall preamp and will RMS 50 watts and peak around 100. Fender used a pissy inline filter choke in the ten and i have always thought that a larger value "real" choke would do well but i have never researched making that change to a ten circuit. i use the bass channel almost always with no effects added.

400 is a fair price, if the speakers are originals in good shape i would ask 500. if it is minty then set your price high. it is always easier to lower your price than it is to raise it.

my head cab... i have 385$ in it as pictured.

[Denis]

Finally managed to take additional pics of the back of the head portion.

[Pilgrim]

I see that it's kitty-inspected and approved!

[Hornisse]

The speakers have been cat scanned!  Man Denis, if you were closer to me it would have been sold a while back.

[Denis]

And if you were closer I'd deliver it!

That's Magnolia, giving her seal of approval.   

[Hornisse]

When I started out back in 1977 the bass player that amazed me in a local band (Omega) played a Fender Precision through one of these.  He always got such a nice tone with that setup.

[Denis]

Great photo!

[jumbodbassman]

The speakers have been cat scanned!  Man Denis, if you were closer to me it would have been sold a while back.

+1

[Denis]

Are these REALLY 200 watts? Everyone always asks me if it's a 50 or 70 watter.
Since I took the pics and really paid attention to the back of it, I could plug a single 15" cab into this, couldn't I?