Fender Bassman 1200 Head

There are a ton of bells and whistles for this amp. It was originally sold under the Sunn name. Fender bought the Sunn name or company and tried to sell products with the name but they didnt do very well so they took most of the Sunn products and put the Fender brand on them instead. This amp has some really cool features, the best is the compressor, which is foot switchable. The EQ is also foot switchable and so are the two channels. The tuner out jack is really cool. The line out jack is nice to.

This amp has an un-colorized bass sound. This is the sound that I am looking for because I am a gigging cover musician. I want an amp that I can sound close to any bass player that I want to emulate. I have lots of pedals and effects processors that I hook up to it. If you are looking for an amp that has a signature sound, like say the wall sound from a Ampeg, or the throaty sound from a Warwick, or the thump sound from Harke, then look no further. Because you will not get any cool overdriven sounds from this amp. But if you like to hear your bass's natural sound, while still sounding like it came out of a bass amp as opposed to standard amplified, then this amp is for you. This is really designed for the professional bass player, as opposed to someone who doesnt really play out much and is too easily impressed with the cool sounds of those signature model bass amps. Its really nice when you own a lot of basses and effects and like to play with the sounds. This amp reminds me a lot of the Carvins, which also do not have a signature sound, which would be my 2 choice.

I had a power drop problem and had to bring it in to get it fixed. Fender/Sunn paid for it under the warranty.

Nice people.

I brought this amp because the good write up it got in bass player magazine, under the Sunn name. The magazine said that it had a nice deep tone. Bass Player is not a very liberal magazine like some of the other guitar magazines out there, so they are pretty careful to endorce bad products. So I always saw it in a local music store chain just sitting there not hooked up. Everytime I went to test it, the salesperson always tried to steer me to something else. After one year, I saw that it still was not hooked up and I expressed interest. The salesperson, the same guy over the last year, said that it was never a seller (gee, I wonder why?) and offered me a deal on it. So I bought it without even testing and playing off it. It turned out to be a great amp that is very powerful. I would buy it again definately!!!

(Quick Note: The price I paid for this amp was kind of a one-in-a-million deal. I got it basically brand new, but if you want one new the best price your going to find is probably at best $900, and more than likely $1100+)

This is a 2002 (year of introduction) bassman 1200 head. The head features a dual tube premap, two channels (normal and overdrive with gain control), independant volume controls for each channel, channel mixing, -6dB switch for active basses, deep (low) mid notch (mid scoop) and bright (treble) on/off enhancement switches, low and high boost/cut knobs, independant 10 band graphic eq with on/off switch and gain trim, independant low and high compressors (divided at 400 Hz) with gain trim, low/high compressor mixing, compressor on/off button, tuner only (mute) button, effects loop, XLR and 1/4in Line out with speaker simulator, pre/post eq. line out selector, tuner out, footswitch (controls chanel 1 and 1/2 mix, graphic eq. on/off, and compressor on/off), 4 parallel speaker outs, and, of course, 1200 watts of Class A solid state power at 2 ohms

I play a fender precision and a fender jazz bass. They are both upgraded in one way or another (including pickups for both). I play rock music, though I like to experiment and occasionally play blues/jazz, funk, and anything else that is good music and that the bass guitar is suitable for.

This amp is quite amazing. The amount of sounds you can get on this thing, without the aid of effects, is bordering on the obscene. The two channels offer a variety of sounds ranging from warm and clean to a very vintage sounding overdrive. The tube preamp adds tons of character and warmth to the sound. I even had some guitar playing friends plug into this amp (on my Avatar 4x10 cab) and they thought it sounded like a classic fender tube amp (and it about made my ears bleed with guitar sounds coming out of it, it was so loud!). The sound is much sweeter than the sound I had from my old peavy combo, and even compared to a hartke hybrid head, and right up there with an AMPEG SVT in the same price range (1000-1500 dollars).

As I said I like to experiment on occasion, and this definitely gives me the tools I need to do so. The only downside is that the process of going from one sound to another can be complicated. For instance, if you want to use the mid notch to switch to more of a slap sound, you have to do that on the amp itself. The footswitch only controls channel, eq, and compressor on and off. If you want to set the amp up so that quick footswitch adjustments are all that is needed to switch your sound, you will have to spend some serious time knob tweaking. If you're patient and like control, this probably won't be an issue. Otherwise, expect to add a separate signal processing/effects unit to take care of all of that. Considering this amp is meant to be mounted in a rack anyway, that would probably be your best bet.

Overall it's sound is perfect for rock and just about anything else you play bass on. The tubes really bring out the nuances of your bass (not a good thing if you play a crappy bass!), and lend a wonderful amount of warmth that is uncommon on powerful solid state amps in my opinion.

I haven't owned this amp long enough to say anything about this. Once I have, I will post again, and probably put some actual ratings on here, too.

Haven't dealt with Fender yet.

I've been playing bass for a few years. This is my first truly performance level amplifier, though I've needed one with my band for a while now. Power wise, I've spoken to many people and this is more than you will ever need for small/medium gigs, and can easily power several bass cabs (I know people who use 350 and 400 watt heads to power up to three 4x10s and/or 1x15s...you do the math for 1200 watts). The power level is professional grade and definatly up to performance levels. Since I was getting by with a 150 watt combo before this, I can safely say this is more power than I'll ever need, and if for some reason I am playing gigs big enough to require more power, I wouldn't need to read online reviews to help my in my purchasing decisions, that's for sure!

Anyway, as I said, this is my first high end amplifier, which is why I did not put any numbers on this review, as I don't yet believe I'm experienced enough to give valid ratings. After I have more time to test out more gear, I will certainly do a follow up. What I can say, though, is this: This amp sounds great compared to the fender bassman 400, any hartke amp I've tried (3000, 3500, and 7000 series), and an SVT that cost around $1000, though I don't remember the model name. I don't know a single person who plays through and amp anywhere near this power level, either, and when trying out cabs I was able to shake things off shelves using a 4x10 and 1x15 (fender bassman cabs, actually) with the amp set no higher than 3 on the master volume (out of 10), and no clipping, distortion, or eq applied. My friend at the store who was helping me try out cabs (and who is always bragging about his rig) stared for a moment and, somewhat under his breath, exclaimed "NO F***ING WAY...". So, yeah, like the fender site says, this amp has serious power.

So, I will continue to put this thing through gigs and garage hell, test it's reliability, shake some more things off walls and crack another glass window (Avatar bass cabs rock!), and report back here when I have more experience with it and more experience with other amps in this price/power/performance range to compare it to. At this point, though, I'll just say that I couldn't be more pleased with it.