tremolo3 wrote: Why would you go from AB165 to AA864?
I didn't like the AB165 sound honestly, Plus I got the amp for $250 and it sat in my garage for 10 years. There's a bunch of crap in it that sucks tone (IMO) and it was pretty harsh. I know everyone likes the extra stage of gain, but I really wanted that classic glassy AA864 sound. Mind you I am exclusively a guitar player through this amp (currently, though I'd love a J-bass).
I also put in a variable Negative feedback loop by adding a 50K pot in series with that 820R that the AA864 uses. Its a popular mod and I really like it, when I turn up, you can roll the negative feedback out and it sounds pretty raw. It also just went in the death cap switch hole, so I didn't have to mutilate the old girl to get another knob.
The next step is adding the other half of the tube to the bass channel for a total of 4 gain stages!
That way I'll have my "Blackface" tone on normal chan, and then 2 extra stages of gain on my bass channel.
I don't consider the silverface era Bassman amp to be highly collectable, but they certainly are going up in value like everything else. I keep all the original components and I don't drill holes in the original board etc. It's a sweet sounding amp, and my SG really sounds fat through it. It of course takes pedals like a boss as well.
Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 1:22 am
on burstbuckers, they are such good pickups.
). Deluxe reverbs seem to be pretty crazy on price always.. Twin's are cheap because nobody wants 85 watts anymore.
