[gibson335]

Over the summer I purchased a used Moratto built low powered Tweed Twin. Sounded out of this world but a clean tone was tough to come by loaded with Celestion Heritage 65's. So a kit from the Tubestore & a pair of Celestion Golds was sent with her to Martin Newall for a swap out (tubes/speakers) & a check up. Well got the phone call this morning she's not a 5E8A Twin but a 5F6A Bassman. Totally bummed out here folks... Was able to contact the seller & said he purchased it directly from Steve. He also mentioned it was Steve's personal amp & "why would he lie to me". The seller is refusing to return any money's & reiterated how great it sounded. Marty found issues with the output sockets, bias circuit, & currently biased way too low meaning tubes running cold.
He's made the repairs & swapped out the speakers already but this situation totally SUX^SS. I already own a couple of Marshall Bluesbreakers which are based on a Tweed Bassman so now I own 3 2x12 combos all with similar circuits & tone. A Bassman circuit with a Twin Amp nameplate FML.

 

[keithb7]

Advice on what aspect here? How to get the seller to fold? How to turn this 5F6A into a low Power Tweed Twin? Advice on how to get it cleaner sounding? Please elaborate.

 

[gibson335]

Should I sell it or contact the amp creator or get the seller to take it back/fold.....

 

[RBlakeney]

That sucks but it seems a bit unreasonable to try and get a seller to refund you after you've had an amp for 5-6 months.
Best bet would probably be to sell it and buy another amp.

 

[keto]

That sucks but it seems a bit unreasonable to try and get a seller to refund you after you've had an amp for 5-6 months.
Best bet would probably be to sell it and buy another amp.

This. Transactions of this amount $ done over internet, at least meet that way, are way past ‘should be anonymous to you’, imo. List it and go.

 

[LexxM3]

Best bet would probably be to sell it ...

... to @RBlakeney, obviously at a significant discount since it's such a crappy amp now .

 

[Budda]

List it, buy an actual tweed twin made by fender, enjoy.

 

[StevieMac]

So, the only aspect of the amp being Tweed Twin-like is the tweed covering and 2x12 configuration...otherwise it's a 2x12 5F6-A, correct? It sucks to have been misled, even if it was unintentional, but I don't see much room for correcting the situation this long after the fact. A reasonable seller might offer a 72 hr return period to allow for inspection and verification, but anything discovered beyond that would be yours to deal with IMO. Anyway, I'd simply return it to "stock" and list it as exactly what it is...and try to move on.

 

[RBlakeney]

... to @RBlakeney, obviously at a significant discount since it's such a crappy amp now .

38 bucks tops!

 

[fogdart]

Tricky situation for sure. Steve’s amps are phenomenal- he’s a genius with tweaking circuits to get the best out of them. Too bad about the confusion.

 

[laristotle]

Contact Steve and see if there's anything he can do?
At the least, verify what amp this is and try to determine where the confusion came about?

 

[gibson335]

Contact Steve and see if there's anything he can do?
At the least, verify what amp this is and try to determine where the confusion came about?

Was thinking about doing that but also listing it & ending the disappointment...

 

[laristotle]

Was thinking about doing that but also listing it & ending the disappointment...

Aye. But then the potential buyer may come back to you with the same situation.

 

[gibson335]

Aye. But then the potential buyer may come back to you with the same situation.

I would at least remove the nameplate & list it as a 2x12 Tweed Bassman.....

 

[Schmart]

There's not a whole lot of difference between the circuits of a 5E8-A Twin and a 5F6-A Bassman. I don't understand why you didn't get Martin Newell to change it to a Twin or as close as possible.

 

[fogdart]

The confusion probably stems from high vs low powered Twin. Isn’t the high powered Twin circuit the same as the Bassman? The difference being in the cab and speakers. Whoever sold it to you might have misunderstood the whole thing.

 

[gibson335]

There's not a whole lot of difference between the circuits of a 5E8-A Twin and a 5F6-A Bassman. I don't understand why you didn't get Martin Newell to change it to a Twin or as close as possible.

Sent that question/request to Marty what would it take to change the circuitry to a 5E8-A..... Let's see what he says.

 

[Schmart]

I think the Bassman style circuit would be the cleaner one, though. It's pretty neat that the amp is actually a low-powered version of a high-powered Twin.

 

[cboutilier]

I'd reach out to the builder in am attempt to get some documentation on what it is meant to be.

 

[WCGill]

The 5E8A and 5F6A are totally different animals with different schematics, layouts and transformers. The 5E6 Bassman is similar to the 5E8A Twin.