What the hell did Ness do to his Bassman?

[BFfenderplayer]

I have tried and tried to find out what Mike did to his fender bassman and i cant figure it out. I have a 65 Black Face Fender Bassman running through a Marshall 4x12 cab with the celestion greenbacks and SD-1 overdrive pedal. I recently got my bassman retubed and bias. I have a 76 Gibson les paul Deluxe with seymour duncan hot P-90 pickups in it Pretty much the same as mike's 75 Goldtop deluxe. the same sett up as Mike Ness and still have not gotten the same sound. I mean i know that he had his fender modded by billy zoom but what did he do? put in bigger better capacitor's did he change out the circuit board or what? can somebody please help me out. I mean my sound is close but mikes sound so much better

[mawpizzle]

I think it's something with the preamp circuit. But you have to remember that no two amps, guitars, pedals, or guitarists will sound exactly the same. Besides, you should find your own tone instead of trying to mimic someone else's because it just becomes a never ending quest...a never ending quest to be like someone else.

Sounds like you have a nice rig, good luck.

[BFfenderplayer]

yeah u have a great point, i write my own music and my own words and that i mean im not in a cover band it just i love his sound i cant get over it and i just want something very similar

[Rudeboy88]

Tone stack mod.

EDIT: Here's a link, http://www.tone-lizard.com/Bassman_Modifications.htm

<font color="#FFFF00" size="1">[ October 23, 2007 08:52 PM: Message edited by: Rudeboy88 ]</font>

[Rudeboy88]

Oh yeh, you know his work was done by Billy Zoom. I don't know if he's doing any amp work at this time, but ya could always email him and ask.


Link
http://www.billyzoom.com

One more thing, Mike uses Marshall 4x10 cabs (Model 1965A) not a 4x12...does make a difference.

<font color="#FFFF00" size="1">[ October 23, 2007 09:15 PM: Message edited by: Rudeboy88 ]</font>

[Rudeboy88]

OK, so I'm a gear head...here's a good pic of Mike's #2 amp set next to J2B's (amp #1 is on the other side of the drum kit). You can see the difference in the cabs (J2B uses 4x12's).

http://www.musicpix.net/gallery/Soci...tion/sociald97

[BFfenderplayer]

thanks alot man for you time ill look into that mod that you were telling me about do you know of any other ones?

[Rudeboy88]

There are lot's of things you can do to a Bassman. Most folks mod the "bass" channel as the "normal" channel usually is pretty sweet as is. Another thing easy to do is "jump" the two channels with a short patch cord.

Guitar input into Normal 1, Normal 2 out to Bass 1. Will give you a more overdriven tone.

[1/2stepDown]

Mike runs Celestion G12H30 speakers as opposed to greenbacks.When his Bassman is cranked, These speakers give a tighter, more focused tone than greenbacks, which break up a lot earlier volumewise. BZ installs Sovtek power/preamp tubes in Mikes amps also....tubes make a huge difference in tone.
I also have a Gibson LP DeLuxe/p90s into a '66 Bassman into a 4x12 Marshall cab/greenbacks.
They are a nice setup.
Try a THD 4ohm hotplate, it lets you "get on" the power tubes at a lower volume level.

My LP;


My Bassman;

[1/2stepDown]

Originally posted by Rudeboy88:


One more thing, Mike uses Marshall 4x10 cabs (Model 1965A) not a 4x12...does make a difference.

<font color="#FFFF00"><font size="1">[ October 23, 2007 09:15 PM: Message edited by: Rudeboy88 ]</font></font>

<font size="2" face="verdana, arial">Holy shit Rudeboy88, I really thought he used 1982 cabs, not the 1965A model. My bad.