C2C BassDude (Fender 5B6 Tweed Bassman Preamp)

MichaelW

MichaelW

Well-known member
Build Rating
5.00 star(s)
I can't believe I never posted a build report of this.
I had every intention to, and thought I did.

I just pulled this out again after sitting on the shelf all year and just floored at how great it sounds!

This is the early 50's 5B6 version of the Tweed Bassman, not the more familiar 5F6A circuit.

I'm not a Fender expert so I can't tell you what's different about the circuit. (@Tassieviking would be able to tell you! :p)

It goes from a lovely pristine clean tone to a very round and almost fuzzy overdrive. I think this would be affected by what tubes are in there but at the moment I have a 12AT7 in V1 and a 12AX7 in V2.

I'm using it as a true preamp running into the fx loop return of my Frenzel DP525 that's currently running a set of Tung Sol 5881's.

I think where this pedal shines for me is in that gorgeous Tweed clean tone to edge of break up. From there I can goose it with an overdrive pedal.

When I ordered this board, @vigilante398 had stopped selling drilled enclosures. While I don't think 2 preamp tubes really require a lot of venting I decided to come up with some way to vent a 1590bb.

This is what I ended up with.

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I used pipe screen that I cut up and hot glue to affix it to the inside of the enclosure. From the inside it looks like a "twatwaffle"....:ROFLMAO:...But it looks pretty cool from the outside.....
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Highly recommended build! Between this and the Particle Accelerator I've got all my Fender sounds covered!!
Great job Nathan!
 
He does some very cool pedals and I think you have done this one justice! I do worry that the knobs end up very close to footswitches, but I guess it wouldn't really be problem for me because I'm unlikely to be gigging with one anytime soon. I'd love to hear it!

Of course being modelled after the 5B6 it should really have octal tubes in it. 🤪
 
Nice build, it looks good and now I'm gonna have to try mine with a 12AT7 tube as well.
The vents are there to show off the glowing tubes but are not really needed for ventilation since it is just the preamp section, not that much heat but I will always use vents anyway.

I think he Bassdude is a clone of the 5D6-A or the 5E6 Bassman, both have the same preamp circuit that matches the Bassdude, the main difference is that originally they came with 12AY7 tubes in V1 and V2.

I am currently modding a Bassdude PCB to be a JCM800 preamp, I found a JCM800 1959 circuit that can be made on this circuit board but I just have to handwire the tone pots and a few capacitors and resistors between the pots to make it right.
You can also make a JTM45 on this PCB with some modding but I haven't tried it yet myself, I hope to get around to it later in the year though.

I love using the drill and paint templates that Nathan has made for all his PCB's and they come up great as well, I get mine from Tayda but you can get them done all over the place if you look around.
Cheers
Mick

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I may have to use the Tayda drilling service for my next C2C build. Have you built the Tungsten yet? I'm on the fence with that one. Aside from the XLR out, I'm not sure how much difference there is to the Particle Accelerator. @vigilante398 ?
 
MichaelW said:
You're a terrible salesman........
Click to expand...
No arguments here.

The only real difference if you ignore the XLR output is that the "amp output" of Tungsten actually comes from the non-inverted output of the phase inverter, so you're getting an extra output buffer stage on the end. The main reason this could be important is if you're running the preamp direct into a power amp with a lower input impedance and need a buffer to match up with it.

If you're not using the XLR and you're running into a high-impedance input like an amp, there's no reason (in my opinion) to get Tungsten over Particle Accelerator.


Unless you just want to give me money. Obviously that's fine.
 
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