12 String Amp Questions - Fender '59 Bassman vs Vox AC30

[akpasta]

Hi All,

I play a Rickenbacker 12 string through a janglebox nano. I usually have the pickups set to the middle position with the blend knob a bit toward the neck pickup. Typically I use a Vox AC30 with alnico blue speakers just through the normal channel. I find the tone cut option is pretty crucial, and I often have it turned up pretty high to tame the high end on my Rick (often as high as 1-3 o'clock, almost all the way).

I'm doing an overseas tour and the booking company doesn't have any Vox amps to offer for backline. They have a Fender '59 Bassman Reissue 4x10. Assuming it's this one- https://www.fender.com/en-US/guitar-amp ... 00010.html

I'm hoping to be able to find one locally that I can try out just to see how this will work. But was curious if anyone had any thoughts off the bat, just because it's fun to share.

Thanks!

[doctorwho]

Looking at the control set-up (shown in the online manual), it has the typical Fender bass-middle-treble controls, which for my vintage Silverface Fenders are straightforward, each one attenuates its own range and they do not have a synergistic effect on each other. So I would think that it would be relatively easy for you to dial in your sound with that amp.

[jps]

If that 7ender Bassman RI amp sounds anything like the vintage 1962 Concert Amp I had about 10 years ago you should be good to go. The concert was a later version, more-or-less of the vintage Bassman amp, but with two channels and their awesome sounding "harmonic" vibrato on the second channel.

1962 Fender Concert Amp

[Blomp]

My initial concern reading the thread title was, "you might have a hard time getting the desired amount of top end chime/jangle out of the bassman". Then I read the actual post and realised I had wrongly assumed that you were using the top boost channel on the AC30!

If you're using the normal channel and making use of the tone cut to tame the top end from there, then I think you're gonna have no problem getting a tweed bassman type circuit to give you an 'equivalent' sound, because it's a bit deeper/darker than the AC30 sound as a general rule. you might need to adjust the janglebox slightly to work with the different response of the amp, too. I find a bassman to generally have a slightly more open, less compressed dynamic range, and a bit of a tighter, faster response overall.