BassmanPaul

Doesn't your practice amp have a headphone socket for silent practice? Many do.

Remind me to take a day trip to Halifax and visit.

The version I played through was the 2x10 version. I was impressed how well it handled the low B of my six.

I played though one at a jam here in Toronto. it handled everything my six string threw at it. it was the first Fender bass amp I actually liked.

Pperhaps a shave and a haircut might help!! LOL Just kidding Bro.

@Bolo It is a beautiful bass but I'm more of a tradition kins of guy. Mt favourite instrument I my Tung Oiled Koa lined fretless six string. I'll never part with it!

Just for interest, why not B, E, A, D, G as a normal five is tuned?

I had one for a short time. I found it to be a fair amp but not suitable for my needs. I traded it to a friend for a Peavey 400 amp. I shipped that to a young bass player, at my cost. Sadly he never responded to say that he received it.

sulk! I'd love to attend one of those but, alas, I'm too far away. 🥲

I was looking through my copy of Jack Darr's Electric Guitar Amplifier Handbook. Bathroom reading y'know! It has vintage schematics and more up to date amps. It's interesting and fun to see how the older guys designed amps. It even has designs run directly from the mains, no power transformer! Yikes!!! It is an education seeing how they tried to get more power. Some designs use two output transformers and two output stages connected together to drive one speaker load. It shows the original schematic for the mighty SVT with its power tubes with an anode/plate top cap. I'd forgotten about that version. LOL

Thank you for clearing that up.

Just to correct for accuracy the tube is a 6L6GC the letters after the number are important. 6L6 was a small metal clad tube used in low power often Single Ended power circuits. 6L6G was essentially the same tube but with a glass bottle. 6L6GB was an an updated version with more Plate dissipation. The 5881 is in this sub group. 6L6GC is the latest version of the tube able to produce up to 50W odd per pair in fixed bias. I believe that the 7027 is a more powerful version of the 8L6GC. It's also able to handle a higher plate voltage. I would mention that every schematic I have seen of the V4 series amps are using the 7027.

That's what the gain control is for.

I looked into the 7027 output tubes this amp uses. I was gobsmacked just how much they are going for. This is in North America. I hope you can find a better price when the need arrises for replacements.

Does the amp have a gain control? if yes turn it up.

I bought a Blonde Blackface Fender Bassman new with it's matching 2x12. It looked wonderful leaned back on its legs. It lasted one night and I returned it the next day. The combination was horrible. That was in 1968. Edit to add : OP you should check for a place to buy 7027 tubes. I don't know what the supply would be like in the UK.

Hey Buddy they ain't sequinned!

Well Fender do short circuit the output when no speaker jack is inserted. I still say that the correct tap for the load is best all around. Any thing else I see as abuse. in an emergency you could get away with it and I've done so myself many times. It's not something I recommend as a regular basis.

I agree. If you can push your finances a bit, the Rumble 500 is a good amp. The first Fender amp I ever liked.

In my mind any newly designed amplifier for bass should be capable handling a 2Ω load.

With a tube amp it's best when running a load that matched the tap on the OPT. It's more reliable that way.

Just a comment if I may, Tubes do not fail by sitting idle, they fail after much use. What might happen is that the pins corrode a little and reseating the tube cures that.

On the subject of that Precision, it went through many changes. At one time it had EMG active pickups. I shaped a PCB to fit into its control cavity. I then designed `a seven transistor pre-amp with the Bass and middle controls using fixed resistors at what would be centrer. The treble I brought out in the place of the tone control. Volume in its usual place. For power I used a TRS output jack with a positive voltage on the ring. This was supplied by my amp whose input jack, also TRS, provided 1mA at 48V. For other uses I built a couple of adapter boxes. One contained a bunch of 9V batteries in series to provide the supply. Another allowed me to plug into a microphone input of a mixer and take advantage of Phantom Power. it all worked amazingly well and allowed me to get some real brightness from the Rotosound wire strings I was using. The soft metal of the Fender frets. eventually ended the experiment as they wore down too quickly. I changed to GHS Brite Flats ground down wire strings which solved the fret issue but by then I had acquired a Warwick Streamer which became my primary bass until I graduated to instruments with six strings. As for the Precision I rebuilt it back to stock.

Nice catch! I meant to mention the fuse change. DOH!

I still love my '63 Precision though it doesn't get played much any more. I met my wife in 1968 in Liverpool playing that bass so I'm very sentimental about it.