Post by LVF on Jun 30, 2020 10:43:44 GMT -5
Posted this before I had an understanding of how to throw up a pic, sorry 
. Anyway....
While I was looking into a good tube set for my blues jr, I became curious about the other tube amps I have and in particular, this one. It was time to be come familiar with my Bassman once again. What about the tubes for this amp? How about some history on this particular amp and maybe some history in general?
I had a bit of an issue just dating this amp for one. I bought this used some years ago, but, I still can't remember just when. Anyway, looking up the 'build date' of this amp turned out to be a bit of a chore, as I said. You can't use the serial number prominently stamped under the fuse on the panel which I thought to be odd. Searching this out, I found several sites available for this kind of thing and discovered that the manufacture date info could be found on the 'electronic test quality assurance' label that depicts two letters. Not on this amp! The label can be seen in the pic located on the right wall, black and silver 'serial number' looking label. It doesn't contain these letters. Instead, it just has a large, stamped 'W', encompassing both lines of this label. So, I had to use other means in identifying the manufacture date or close to this date.
Fortunately, the site I used had 'tools' available to look up speaker and transformer dates to get at least, an idea the date of this amp. As it turns out, this amp was built in 2004 and is the first year run for this particular reissue of this amp. They don't call this amp an RI though. It's a LTD as the previous version, built between 1990 and 2003, was called the 59 Bassman RI. The LTD is said to be closer to the original, 1951 version, than its predecessor all though I'm not too clear as to what the differences are except the RI version has a 'ground switch' next to the fuse and something about where the rectifier stage was built. I'm under the impression that the RI version was a product of Mexico and the LTD was built in Corona which, is stamped on the plate on the back. However, even that is misleading as you can't say the LTD was 'made in the USA'. It was 'assembled in the USA' using global parts that isn't really defined that way. For instance, the Jensen P10R were 'made in Italy' but, I couldn't smell the garlic
but, Jensen was the speaker of choice on the original 51 and 59. Aslo, the RI version doesn't have a manual bias setting where as the LTD does in the 'V3' tube position. So, this covers a bit of the history. Chime in if you want to add more to the history part or correct any error(s) I may have made. 
OK, the tubes. You can see in the pic that the power tubes are of the 'Groove tube' variety as are the preamps of which you'll have to take my word for those. I also noticed that the rectifier tube was of a different make, Ruby. I'm thinking that the last owner of this amp must have changed this tube for whatever reason. If this is the case, what would that be? I can only think that since the rest of the tubes are Groove tubes, the original rectifier tube was also a Groove tube but, I don't know for sure. These tubes are what came with the amp and I don't have any reason to change them as they work very well and have no issues. It had been a while since I fired this amp up and it was a pleasant surprise to rediscover 'tube warmth goodness'. It is well defined.
. Anyway....While I was looking into a good tube set for my blues jr, I became curious about the other tube amps I have and in particular, this one. It was time to be come familiar with my Bassman once again. What about the tubes for this amp? How about some history on this particular amp and maybe some history in general?
I had a bit of an issue just dating this amp for one. I bought this used some years ago, but, I still can't remember just when. Anyway, looking up the 'build date' of this amp turned out to be a bit of a chore, as I said. You can't use the serial number prominently stamped under the fuse on the panel which I thought to be odd. Searching this out, I found several sites available for this kind of thing and discovered that the manufacture date info could be found on the 'electronic test quality assurance' label that depicts two letters. Not on this amp! The label can be seen in the pic located on the right wall, black and silver 'serial number' looking label. It doesn't contain these letters. Instead, it just has a large, stamped 'W', encompassing both lines of this label. So, I had to use other means in identifying the manufacture date or close to this date.
Fortunately, the site I used had 'tools' available to look up speaker and transformer dates to get at least, an idea the date of this amp. As it turns out, this amp was built in 2004 and is the first year run for this particular reissue of this amp. They don't call this amp an RI though. It's a LTD as the previous version, built between 1990 and 2003, was called the 59 Bassman RI. The LTD is said to be closer to the original, 1951 version, than its predecessor all though I'm not too clear as to what the differences are except the RI version has a 'ground switch' next to the fuse and something about where the rectifier stage was built. I'm under the impression that the RI version was a product of Mexico and the LTD was built in Corona which, is stamped on the plate on the back. However, even that is misleading as you can't say the LTD was 'made in the USA'. It was 'assembled in the USA' using global parts that isn't really defined that way. For instance, the Jensen P10R were 'made in Italy' but, I couldn't smell the garlic
but, Jensen was the speaker of choice on the original 51 and 59. Aslo, the RI version doesn't have a manual bias setting where as the LTD does in the 'V3' tube position. So, this covers a bit of the history. Chime in if you want to add more to the history part or correct any error(s) I may have made. 
OK, the tubes. You can see in the pic that the power tubes are of the 'Groove tube' variety as are the preamps of which you'll have to take my word for those. I also noticed that the rectifier tube was of a different make, Ruby. I'm thinking that the last owner of this amp must have changed this tube for whatever reason. If this is the case, what would that be? I can only think that since the rest of the tubes are Groove tubes, the original rectifier tube was also a Groove tube but, I don't know for sure. These tubes are what came with the amp and I don't have any reason to change them as they work very well and have no issues. It had been a while since I fired this amp up and it was a pleasant surprise to rediscover 'tube warmth goodness'. It is well defined.
