Help me find a running mate for my AOR

[willypilgrim]

After like, 8 or 9 years, I'm back into playing heavy music again. I've got a new doom / psych/ noise project going, and have been buying up gear for the last month for my wife (bass / vocals) and I.

I have an AOR 50 watt head that I intend to get setup /biased for KT77, which I think should slightly up the wattage. Thus far, I've been running it just on the edge of breakup (although that turns to pretty broken up once the volumes are maxed out with band volume), then hitting it with a Abominable Hail Satan Dlx. Sounds pretty nasty.

On it's own,the AOR isn't really loud enough of course for what I'm doing. My goal is to run that along with a second amp, with likely cabs of 6x12 to one amp and either 2-2x15 or 2x15/4x12 to the other.

I'd like to have a custom Dunwich on order within a year or so, but for now, I'm looking at a few options in the 300-600 or so range and wanted to pick peoples brains here a bit, mostly because of fender bassman model complexities.

The last few jams, i've played through borrowed amps rather than my AOR:
A few times I used an Ampeg B25 into an emperor 4x12. I basically turned every knob all the way up, and engaged the ultra lo switch. it sounded awesome. very noisy, and the distortion and feedback at times made me wonder if I was going to blow it up. definitely was not loud enough, but it sounded sick.

The last time, I used a sovtek mig-50. same general concept, everything turned all the way up, except treble. presence knob was up. Also sounded pretty good. Way less out of control sounding than the ampeg, but also the noise was more manageable. I found myself using my fuzz pedal a little less with this one as the natural distortion when maxed was pretty solid in the mix and was using the fuzz more as a flavor for different song sections.

I've also played through a reissue model-t that belongs to another dude i'm playing with. not crazy about the sound, but jesus christ is loud compared to all the other amps i've been playing.


All that said, I don't mind using pedals for distortion, but i think I also can really dig the 50 watter driven all the way up thing, and I'm assuming two amps of them with enough speakers should be plenty loud.

This brings me to a few options currently available locally:
'67 50 watt silverface bassman - says it has a non-original power transformer that appears to be for a '70 twin or showman. replaced caps. supposedly has been 'blackfaced' and full bias. newish jj's.
'67 50 watt blackface bassman - all original, rca tubes, 2 prong cable. says there is some hum.
70s bassman 135 - obviously a different animal than the 50 watters. ultra-linear, and more watts, so it's gonna be cleaner, but I also wonder if it might sound great paired up with a fuzz and the aor.
sunn 200s - not local, in a city i used to live in. a friend would be able to pick up and ship, but that of course is complicated and extra cost. also, dude is just 'fielding offers' on the amp, so he might be expecting crazy prices. back when i was playing in a hardcore band, v4's and original model t's could be had for like 500 bucks pretty easy, so i'm not trying to go nuts and pay like 900 for a 200s. ebay seems to indicate they can be had for 350-500 occasionally though. I've never played one. how would it compare to the other options mentioned?


Another option was adding a 100 watt aor when one comes up, but i feel like it's more fun to have something else.

Thoughts are appreciated!

[WeHuntKings]

The bassman would be a good idea, particularly the 70s one.

Try to find a peavey rockmaster. I ran one in stereo with my AOR 100 set for cleaner sounds while the AOR was set to kill. Ran fuzz into the rockmaster when I wanted to get REALLY heavy. Heavenly.

[ShaunNecro]

V4, just do it. They are obscenely loud for a "100" watt amp, since Ampeg was very conservative with power ratings. Also they sound amazing.

[legbear]

The 50 watt Bassman with the RCA blackplates might surprise you at how loud it can get.

[frigid midget]

I really like the sound of a food blackface 50 watt head too...

But if the lack of headroom is what bugs you about the AOR, you might be dissapointed by the bassman. Don't get me wrong though, again, they're really great amps, and loud as fuck too...But imo the bassman just lacks the balls you need for really heavey stuff. I'll admit, I never tried one through loud and efficient speakers, which when you crank the amp, might reduce the farty flubbyness a bit...

[Iommic Pope]

Bassman for the win.
Have a Mig50, same basic architecture, big clean sound, loves pedals (especially Ape Blasters).

Other option is you get a slave amp (like a carvin T100, those are good) and use it to drive more speakers with the same overal sound.

[willypilgrim]

Well, I pulled the trigger, but I went for the wattage of the 135. We'll see how I like it, the price was good enough I can probably unload it pretty easy if for any reason I'm not into it. I have a feeling that using it jumpered with a 2x15 and 4x12(?) should be pretty sick.