02-05-2018, 08:49 AM
I thought I would circle back and bring this thread to a close. After several weeks of delay and distraction, I had some friends over for a music session yesterday, and finally heard a bass through the 835.
The bass itself was a J-P hybrid, as are many low-dollar basses these days. When the evening began, about the began, about all I could say was the the amp effectively played bass frequencies. A bunch of walking bass lines based on standard blues progressions. It was fine. To this end, my thought was "OK, if my son has a friend over from the school jazz band, he'll be able to play." But I finally got the bass player to shift to the bridge pickup and roll the tone up, and it was a lot more fun. It's a pretty bright amp, and when when he started slapping the strings it really popped. I liked that a lot.
I didn't really expect that in an amp of this vintage, so there you go.
One further comment: when I was setting things up prior to their arrival, I was going from amp to amp (three amps: 835, M15, and a home-brew) with a guitar to make sure they were all working and there were going to be no surprises. I was really surprised how much richer the 835 sounded as compare to the M15. Not sure why. I strongly suspect that it's a speaker thing: the M15 still has the original Jensen in it - I forget the model but it's one of the one's with the really small ceramic magnet. Definitely not the same as a C15N. Both amps have great glass and have been serviced to spec, so I think that the speaker is a major player in the tonal difference. Of course, the M15 has tremolo, and that was popular.
So, my final thought is that this is a pretty cool amp. I put a lot of work into bringing it back to life, but it seems like it was worth it.
The bass itself was a J-P hybrid, as are many low-dollar basses these days. When the evening began, about the began, about all I could say was the the amp effectively played bass frequencies. A bunch of walking bass lines based on standard blues progressions. It was fine. To this end, my thought was "OK, if my son has a friend over from the school jazz band, he'll be able to play." But I finally got the bass player to shift to the bridge pickup and roll the tone up, and it was a lot more fun. It's a pretty bright amp, and when when he started slapping the strings it really popped. I liked that a lot.
I didn't really expect that in an amp of this vintage, so there you go.One further comment: when I was setting things up prior to their arrival, I was going from amp to amp (three amps: 835, M15, and a home-brew) with a guitar to make sure they were all working and there were going to be no surprises. I was really surprised how much richer the 835 sounded as compare to the M15. Not sure why. I strongly suspect that it's a speaker thing: the M15 still has the original Jensen in it - I forget the model but it's one of the one's with the really small ceramic magnet. Definitely not the same as a C15N. Both amps have great glass and have been serviced to spec, so I think that the speaker is a major player in the tonal difference. Of course, the M15 has tremolo, and that was popular.
So, my final thought is that this is a pretty cool amp. I put a lot of work into bringing it back to life, but it seems like it was worth it.