Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Today was my out-n-about day (needed a short sleeve white shirt for a outside wedding tomorrow - long story) so I stopped at the nearby music emporium and then one of our pawn shops - my first time in one, and I'm 54.

I found two pieces of gear I am interested in but want input. The first was in the basement of the music shop and are analog bass pedals - SLM Pedal Bass is the name but I guess Jen of Italy also made them. How good are they and is it worth it? Then want $150 but a pedal switch is stuck, the cover is all beat, and the power supply needs remounting. I plan to offer less, if they are worth considering. Like this one:

http://www.retrosound.de/jenpedalbass.htm

At the pawn shop (jeez do they have JUNK in there) I found an old Fender Bassman 15 cab. It is pretty rough but it has the origional speakers and they measure ok with an ohmmeter. Didn't get to plug it in. The grill cloth is pretty gross - either it was painted black and now really faded or it is filthy. They want $175 but I wouldn't go over $125 for the shape it is in. Is the Bassman 15 a good sounding cab? Oh, and did it have any stuffing/fiberglass inside? This one doesn't. The speakers had no name on them but they have a large square magnet and keeper plate on them.

Anyone have input on these "finds"? All input welcome.

I've never heard of it, what color is the tolex? What size speakers? Is this the size of the old Bassmans? What color was the grille cloth originally? Is it an old Bassman cab? If so they were just called Bassmans. I can't find any mention of this cab with Google. Any Fender cab if it is old (70's or older)and functional is worth at least 175 bucks IMHO.

The Fender Amp Field Guide (http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/) lists a Bassman 10 and a Bassman 20, so I'm guessing that the 15 is in the same series.

The Bassman 20 and 10 are from different eras and are not at all related. My Fender Amps book is still packed away so I can't give you the skinny on the 15 but I think it is an '80s era amp.

The BM 10 is basically a combo Bassman. It has 4-10 speakers in a sealed back cabinet and hails from the late '60s. The BM 20 is a small 1-15 combo amp that uses two 6V6 output tubes with a balanced output transformer acting as the phase splitter. IIRC it hailed from the late '70s.

According to TFAFG, the Bassman 10 (with four CTS 10" ceramic speakers) was made during 1972-1982, starting with silverface cosmetics and ending with the '80s-version blackface cosmetics. The Bassman 20 was made 1982-1983 with the '80s-version blackface cosmetics and one 15" speaker.