As a much younger man I acquired a very early blackface bassman. All original, in good working order. I sent it to a certain amp guru in Pflugerville Texas to have it recapped and brought up to spec. I assume that "experts" know their job much better than I ever will, so my only instructions were "do what you would do if it were your amp, and make it reliable. I don't want it cheap, I want it right." He recommended a gain mod as well.
Got the amp back. Noisy, raspy, and losing volume suddenly . RCA tubes replaced by Sovteks. Large bill. Not happy. Sent it back. Came back 6 weeks later, sounding a bit better but still losing volume. Sent back AGAIN. 2 months later, no amp. Found out it had been sent to someone else! Since it was in the same town, I retrieved it myself. Guess what? Same problem. $300 later I have an amp that doesn't work. Guru's response?"There's nothing wrong with that amp."
Broke, dejected, and out of ideas, the amp sat for over a year. After reading about him in The Tonequest Report, I decided to send it to Todd in Nashville for a look over. He suggested removing the gain mod as he did not care for the circuit, repairing the sloppy solder job that was the cause of the volume loss, and restoring the original circuit. I had sent him some blackplate RCA 6l6's to check, he assured me they were in as new condition and agreed to install them. He also recommended a re-cap. Wait a minute...aren't those caps new?
"Sure they are, but I wouldn't use them. It's like putting cheap tires on your BMW."
After a little hemming and hawing and complaining that I would soon have the world's most expensive Bassman, I agreed to have it repaired. Todd then asked what guitars I would be playing through it, and said that he would optimize it for my strat at no additional charge. This would involve tweaking component values with a guitar slung over his shoulder until he got "the sound".
Fast forward to 2008. I now own a bunch of good amps and guitars(not braggin', just sayin') and the Bassman has been sitting unused in the music room for years. The other day I take off the cover and plug it in to a 1x15 cab and grab my 62 HOTROD strat. WTF! Why did I ever stop playing this amp? I regularly play through old Twins, a Tone Man modded Bluesbreaker combo with blue celestions and mercury trannies, a BFSR, assorted Valcos, a Vibroverb, a custom smallbox 50 watt, a Dumble clone, and others...this amp smokes them all! And it's just a Bassman, for cryin' out loud.
My take on all this? The guy knows amps, but just as importantly, he's got a great ear. Add in real customer service, and my amps will never go to anyone else...ever. I ran into him a year or so after he fixed my amp. He was opening up for Delbert McClinton with his original material, and then backing him. It wasn't a surprise that he sounded great. He actually remembered my remarks about "world's most expensive Bassman". Nice guy.
If this sounds like a fan letter, I kinda guess it is. But I rarely get excited about gear, and I figure this is the place to let people know when you stumble onto something really good. All my strats sound killer through this amp, and it handles P90's well too. Haven't run anything with HB's through it this time around, but I guess I'll get on that as soon as I'm done spouting off here.
I'm in no way affiliated with this guy...After all these years I'd be shocked if he remembered any of this. All I'm saying is...if you need an amp tech or some sound advice, you could do a whole lot worse. Like the guy I sent this amp to the first time. Now if you'll excuse me, I think it's time to break out an LP or a McInturff and see how this thing does with BIG pickups.
