Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Just as an aside, the bassman can do some rather Beatle-esque sounds as a guitar amp, as well--I use mine occaisonally with an Epi Casino and a Telecaster, it's not the most versatile sound, but it is very distintive. Probably not a great live guitar amp, but good for recording.

Ronn, Thanks much for the further explanation on the Roland. That picture is very cool, indeed. That set where the picture is taken... might that be the set of Austin City Limits? Art thou a celebrity bassman? I'll have to look more into the Roland. Thanks again.

Lawton, thanks as well for the info on the Vox. Where can one purchase AC-50 on the net? No dealer within 500 miles of me carries Vox AC-50s.. Bummer.

Thanks to the Cowboy, too!

I've seen one in person in my life, and it didn't sound very good. I see them on ebay more than anywhere else, so you may look there. In the US, they won't be found as much as they might in the UK.

One of these days I'll build one myself, but not everyone can do that, so hope you find one.

I believe an early '60's bassman is Mac's most recorded beatle amp, and then George took it and used it for guitar! His estate still has it.

Hey. George's bassman and Paul's bassman are not the same amp. George's is a '63 "Brownie," right? And it probably is the amp that's most consistently found across the span of the Beatles' recordings. Paul's is a later, silverface model (no presence knob, different circuit).

AC50s, btw, are rare and are becoming more valuable. The last AC50s were made in '67, right? Mine is a late '64 or an early '65. I looked for several years before finding one, and I ended up having to spend a few hundred $$$ to get it running after I got it. It's been worth it, no question.

Just skimming through "Recording The Beatles", Paul had a blonde Bassman head and cab, which George later snagged for guitar. I think it says it's the most recoded fab amp.
Mind you, I've been skimming to all the juicy parts (well, I jumped to the recording sessions).

Ah! There were two Bassmans then, both (originally, anyway) belonging to Paul. The blonde is the one supposedly used for Day Tripper (George -- playing the ES345), while the SF Bassman is the one that we've been discussing here that's a piece of the "late" Beatles McCartney bass (Rick 4001 & Hofner 500/1) tone.

A club owner I used to play for had a SF Bassman like Macca's that he used for his house set-up. I tried to talk him out of it several times to no avail. It was a nice amp, and he wasn't going to give it up.

Macca used several amps to play his 4001 through. As mentioned previously, he used the blonde Bassman, but he also used what is assumedly a Vox 430 (or 730). Those Voxes were the 30-watt versions of a VERY short-lived hybrid series that featured a solid-state front end and a tube power section. At 30 watts it would be fine for studio use; I've got a 730 and it does have a decent bass tone. After that series he had what is assumed to be either a Vox Dynamic or Foundation amp. This series was part of the British-made solid state series. The Dynamic was the bass counterpart to the 30-watt Conqueror, the Foundation correlated to the 60-watt Defiant. Either one might have been used but there are no photos to go on other than a few showing the top of the heads. And as mentioned in earlier posts, the last amp he likely used with the Ric (as a Beatle) was a silverface Bassman, the earliest series with the aluminum grille edges.