Fender Bassman 200

It's nice to have an amp that doesn't have so many knobs that'll have you messing messing with it for half an hour while trying to get the sound you want. Just straight forward features that'll have you playing right away. The only feature I wish it did have is a distortion channel (but hey I have a pedal for that).

I play an active yamaha bass and with the passive/active switch in or out the amp seems to handle the bass well (at reasonable volumes).
Also unlike other reviews I've read I think this amp has pretty good bottom end. I play in a metal band and this amp gives the thick, brutal tone I need for it, while at the same time I have no problem getting over the drums, our rhythm guitarist's 120 watt 212 combo, and our lead guitarists 120 watt 410 half stack. AT home I like to practice jazz, and while this amps contour feature is pretty good. I still prefer to use my gallien-kreugers clean tone for that. This amp is meant for giving a thick warm (but still pretty clean) tone. rather than a super clean tone or "trademark" tone (which I'm not a big fan of for at home alone practices).

This amp can probably hold its own at a gig (haven't gotten a chance to use it at one yet) but MAKE A NOTE if your planning on using this amp at a gig; if played at a very loud volumes say 4-5 hours the amp will begin to clip, I would bring a back up amp just in case something were to happen (but very unlikely).

never had to deal with fender

I've been playing for a few years now and I've had the oppurtunity of meeting people far more experienced than me, who have taught me both about music and about the equipment you use. and I have to say that this is a very fine piece of equipment for almost any genre or type of gig that will meet your musical needs (whatever they may be).

As many amps now days, too many controls! Why add on lots of nobs when all that is needed on a bass amp is a good strong clean signal with 3 EQ controls. The compressor is a nice add on but just another control to mess with.

Lots of high tones, not much bass unless you cuts the highs and pump up the bass EQ. Then it gets very muddy. Lots of hiss. trnage random pops.

Total failure. Horn keeps going out, blowing fuses, probably because the amp goes into clip mode when ever you plug in the cord after it has been on a while. No loss though, it is a bit too trebly to start with. Not a good rock sound. Cabinet has NO baffle insulation and is way to shallow for good low end response.

Fender like most companies require the original sales reciept to honor warranty work. In this day and age I see this as way to hide behind responsibilty. If the product is registered once, a computer data base should easily justify the warranty history and qualifications.

I wish I would have found this report site before I bought this. It seems like these amps have a defect in engineering. I notice any smilar complaints. This rally sours my Fender relations and the word gets out with the net. I see Fender has had it's share of other issues with there newer amps too. Mexico saves them money ih the short term.....

i believe its a 2004... got it new... sounds sweet.. versatile.... all that.....

play it with a fretless jazz fender.. and a fretless music man... WHEN IT WAS WORKING FOR THE FIRST 40 HOURS I PLAYED IT... IT WAS DREAMY.... NOW IT MAKES ONE SOUND... A VEEERRRRY LOUD BUZZ...

I TAKE CARE OF MY AMPS... i play at levels that do not overload any of my amps.... EQ is normally flat to slight bass boost and let my basses do the work.... ive never had an amp die ... until now... it has about 40 hours of play time.. not a scratch on it.... then .. in the middle of a set.. without clipping except for very occassional flashs on the rare bass chord or hammered E...... it just began to make a full volume level buzz.. even with the volume off..... TOTAL CRAP!!!!! seriously the most fragile worthless thing ive ever bought..... it had the gain about 6-7, volume at about 7-8.. with a passive bass.... and DIED!!!.. does RADIO SHACK MAKE FENDER'S AMPS NOW?

havent dealt with fender ever before.... it would still be under warranty.. but i doubt i ever even submitted it.. cos.. well.. i buy quality equipment and treat it exceptionally and normally the warranty expires before i get a ding in the tolex.

fender made an exceptional stool.

I bought this amp in 2003 and use it as my gig amp on weekends (mainly hotels, clubs etc)and for parctice in the studio during the week. At home I use a 40 watt pratice amp from Ashton ( a cheapy).

The features are well documented in other reviews, so I'll not boor you with them again. However I have found it has enough controls to tweak the sound to a way in which you like it. In particular, the room balance control has an amazing effect depending on the accoustics of the venue. For those of you who gig, you will know that each venue has a distinct bearing on your sound. Needless to say, this control is very useful.

The 200 watts has more than enough grunt for the venues we play.

I use two Fender Jazz basses for our gigs. A Marcus Miller Signature IV (which has active pickup with a switchable onboard preamp) and a '75 reissue (Passive Pick ups).

The music we play is 50's, 60's and 70's rock n roll ( The type that makes your toes tap). I use two basses for a variety of sounds as we start out with quieter type ballads and progress into harder stuff as the night progresses. The active/passive switch on the amp is therefore very convenient.

I love the sounds and its cappacity to make the floor vibrate!

Never had a problem. No need to use a backup.

Not needed any customer service

As you can see by the price, we pay too much "Down Under" for quality gear.

If I could afford it, I would buy a valve amp to get the "warm and fuzzies" when playing.Maybe a Marshall head n cab ??? Ahhh dream on...

This is an update to my review of the Bassman 200 (see Rob 1-19-2001. SO far the features have bene great.

Sounds Great.

This is where I am REALLY DISPAPOINTED. In Spring 2004 , the amp started buzzing. I took it back to Long and Mcquade Steeles Ave Toronto location and they fixed it, it was a bad input jack. They said it wasnt covered by Fender Warranty. THEN last month it started to Buzz again. I tapped the top cabinet and it stoped. A FWE DAYS agao, it started buzzing NON STOP. I opened up the unit and it turns out there was a BROKEN SOLDER JOINT on one of the main capacitors. I resoldered it and fixed it myself. Im concerned about the rest of the solder joints, I suspect these amps have build problems.

CRAP : They dont even honor the warranty !!

Im using this amp daily, also for gigs once a month - still sounds great, but reliablity is in question.

This 200 watt amp was made by Fender in late 2000. I came across it in Summer 2002 in Mars Music Co. It was out on the floor and was the only one they had. However, it had just been pulled out of the box the week before I bought it.
The amp has a single 15" speaker and a small horn. The brightness due to the horn can be adjusted in the back with an L-pad. The amp accepts active and passive basses in the same jack via a push-button. It has a 3-band parametric eq and a room brightness adjustment. The room brightness is really nice, as you can dial in your sound, and then only adjust that knob for completely different environments. It keeps your sound largely intact. There is also a push-button "Enhance" which dumps a lot of brightness into your sound. It adds a lot when you want the extra sparkle on your snaps and pops.
The amp also comes with a built-in compressor, which helps somewhat. If I had some more money, I would rather use a different compressor, one which I could better control. Rounding out the rest of the fton controls are the mute button and the limiter button. I never use the limiter, as the bass doesn't really have enough power to warrant it.
On the back is a small panel with a tuner out, an effects loop, and an XLR-out. The XLR is pre-eq I believe, but I'm not sure on that. There's also a knob to adjust the level going out the XLR. I wished it went to 11 as it was never powerful enough for the sound ops.
The bottom line is that this is a great package containing everything the basic and intermediate bassist will want.

I play an ESP LTD B-304 4-string bass, it has active EMZ pickups and bass/mid/treble eq. The body is very heavy, and as a result, the sustain is huge and the deeper freqs really come through. When I was demoing the unit in Mars (may they rest in peace), I just loved the bright setting because my bass lacks somewhat in that area. I could pop and snap the strings and it sounded so beautiful. I also loved the single 15, how it sounded really great down low. The amp is pretty responsive to your bass, and reproduces your sound with a lot of clarity. The 15 handles quite a bit of rumble and oomph down low.
I was able to play a wide range of styles with this amp. It doesn't particularly like the punchier basses (Ibanez, etc.), but it treats any other bass just right. I play a jazzy style most times, but I also rip through praise & worship, blues, bluegrass, and some of the more fusion sounds. However, it doesn't like rock too much. I wonder how much of that is merely my playing style. Also, it feels that there is a small "hole" in the sound, right about the C area, where the 15 doesn't seem to want to keep up.
The main problem with the amp is that the sound dulls out as you turn it up. There is a definite sweet spot on the amp (gain: 5ish, volume: 4ish). Anything above it starts to turn into a really terrible fart sound, anything below it sounds thin. This makes playing at band practice and small concerts uncomfortable, as everyone is looking at you wondering why you sound so bad. Fortunately, the perfect volume is right where I like to practice at.
As far as playing it at a venue, I wouldn't bring it anywhere now because I can't turn it up without it sounding terrible. I played once a week for a year in a small setting (40-50 people) and it did just fine though. I didn't plug in to the sound board because our speakers couldn't handle the bass. As a stand-alone unit it performed decently well, but it didn't like competing with other amps.
The amp is underpowered as far as I'm concerned and can't handle a medium or large gig. I've compared it to other 200 watt solid-state amps, and this one is definitely significantly quieter than the rest. Also, every time I used the XLR output on the back to send my signal to the sound board, the operator had me turn it up. It was never loud enough for them.

For about a year, this amp treated me well. After that time period, all hell broke loose. I noticed a large amount of extra hiss developing in my sound after 14 months or so. In order to remove the hiss, I have to bang the top above the power switch area and it goes away for a while. I haven't been able to pin down what causes it, other than sitting around for a while.
I don't think the amp is constructed very well, it doesn't hold up well when carried around in trailers, the back of trucks, etc. I've had to tighten the screws holding the amp to the wood several times. Over time, the power cable plug in the back lost its hold, and now it slips out with impunity. I have to be very careful where the amp is so that there's no stress on the power cable, or it will just fall out.
Even when the power cable is in, the connection is usually loose, and it sounds like it is "half-way" on. It sounds significantly quieter, and the only way to get it to stop is to fiddle with the cable and try to jam it in farther. Somewhere in the area of the power rectifier is a part that buzzes regularly when I play. I've tried messing with the plug to see if that's causing the buzz, but it's some component inside.
Overall, the amp just hasn't stood up well to major gigging. 2 years of weekly performances have taken their toll on the poor thing. I do not expect it will last much longer, even after a good repair job. Given the choice, I would rather play my backup than this one, but I don't have a backup, so I'm stuck with this one until I can afford to replace it.

I have not contacted Fender yet because I can't find my original receipt. I'm wondering what they will tell me they can do. Even if they will repair it for me, if they won't do it for free, I will probably try to sell the amp or stick it in a closet somewhere.

My initial views on this amp were very positive, but after spending 2 years getting intimate with it, I am very unhappy. The quality of the construction is very poor, and it will not hold up to normal gigging abuse. At this price, you'd be better off spending the extra $120 or so to get a cab + head unit that are sturdier. Also the sound quality is unacceptable at higher volumes. In comparing the amp to other 15 + horn setups, I like many other ones better. I am also more interested in hearing myself than feeling it. Thus, my next amp setup will probably be a 4x10 or 8x10 cab.
For the beginner that doesn't want to sound wimpy, this is a great choice to start off with. For anyone else, look elsewhere.

I bought the amp new in 2002 for $495.00 from a local Phoenix music store. I liked the user friendly settings on the pseudo parametric equalizer which provided the immense variety of voicings I need between the two commercial bands (rock & jazz) that I play with locally. I've played bass in bands for 33 years and only owned Fender and Peavey with Fender being reliable and tough for packing and un-packing. This amp is solid state but not too pricey and a comfortable size. Room size adjust was particularly affective as an additional feature along with the XLR output which every club I play would prefer you use through a mixed system?

I use a jazz style SX from Rondo (incredibly good sounding guitar)with Blue steel strings and also a hollow body Ibanez Artcore bass for more jazzy sounds using flat wound Dean Markely's. 70's & 80's cover tunes plus latino (Santana) and jazz are the basic music types I play in addition to Sunday gigs playing progressive Christian music every week. I soon found the 220 watt output to be weak and thin when running at standard "mid" levels (compared to an Ampeg amp) and ground distortion noise was very evident notably straight through the XLR output to the sound booth (made them & me VERY unhappy!!!!!) The second week a line fuse blew for no reason (certainly not from abuse or driving at max. levels?) and soon became a maintenence NIGHTMARE!!

Over the bitter course of 16 months of ownership I had the amplifier in the Fender repair shop five times (each time for a new, serious problem.) Blown fuses, screeching bad grounding conditions, annoying his and extremely loud random "pops" through both the speaker and the XLR line out!!!! Wow, what a "pig"!!!

The warranty is five years but who cares when you've got it in the shop all the time?! All my repairs were under warranty but no repair lasted long and each time the problems just got worse. Looking at the list of troubleshot parts it soon became clear the shop was "guessing" and had no clue what to fix?? When they "reflow all solder joints", you're in deep shit and that's just what the design of this amp turns out to be unfortunately!!! Fender (to add insult to injury) took four weeks replacing my amp (at my request) with a new factory unit. Guess what?????? They sent a new one that worked worse than my "lemon" with screaming ground his a deaf man could have heard at first power up. NO MORE FENDERS FOR ME!!! I got a full money refund back and bought a new AMPEG!! DON'T BUY A FENDER BASS AMPLIFIER unless you're crazy!! They've lost quality control and don't seem to give a darn. Although I've been a life time Fender fan, this soured me for LIFE!!! NEVER again!!!!!!!!!

I've played for 33 years and now own an Ampeg BA115HP amp and LOVE it!! If I still owned the Fender amp., honestly I'd "pay" someone to steal it!! Nothing but a maintenence nightmare and poorly engineered. If you see one........keep walking. I'd highly recommend the Ampeg amplifier line. The only design draw back I've noted about some ampeg combo amps is that 1.) they have a fixed line chord instead of one that can be removed and 2.) they use a hard wired fuse "buried" inside of their amps. Heaven forbid I blow one on the job but so far I've been lucky. It was one of the tough decisions I had to make but I went for the Ampeg sound and reliability history.

The amp has good controls that become very useful. It is very versatile and can play most of anything with little tweakings here and there. The effects loop is great. I gave features an 8 because there is no extension speaker outlet, and to be honest with you, the amp isn't loud enough to play in more of a bass oriented band. I use this band every weekend and practice with the band with it.

The amp has a great sound when the volume is not high. On high volumes it clips and distorts the sound. When the tweeter is turned high it hisses. Also, when I have my back treble pickups on, it hisses. If you turn all the controls down to zero, its got a great sound for slap. Once again, its not good on high volumes.

After a month, the speaker faulted due to a problem in the fuses. My local guitar store told me when I needed it to be done and I said in 2 weeks for a show. They laughed at me and told me it would for sure be done by then. As it turns out the amp needed a new speaker and it took a month to fix.

Took extremely long to fix the amp.

Ive played for a littler over 6 years and this is a good amp for lighter bands. If it was stolen or lost, I wouldn't buy it again because of the power it lacks. I would prefer to go to G-K or SWR.

Manufactured in 2000. Fenders new line of bass amps with some more modern features. inputs for passive and active electronics.
Very versatile 15" with adjustable horn in a movable combo. Effects loop. lots of controls to tweak your sound. Seems pretty powerful but medium venues and larger need XLR direct to the board help but thats the sacrifice for not hefting huge bass cabs around.

Pretty nice and clean 15" gives some boomomg low end and has very usable controls. Very versatile for mant styles.clean bass amp with a very nice sound for the money.

Gigged with it regularly its still like new.
Highly dependable. need no backup.

Dont know...never needed them.

Been playing forever and purchased many amps but this is my first bass amp purchase. There are nicer amps out there but not brand new in this price range that sound like this. Compared it to a few others in its size and price and it seemed to be equal or better for less $. Fender needed to improve their old line of bass amps and they did it with this one. For a better amp in its categorie you must spend much more or buy used. A brand new Fender Bassman amp for $599.00 total! Great deal!
Reccomended for someone needing a portable bassamp that can do it all and not break the bank buying it.

The Fender Bassman 200, is the best amp that I have ever seen a heard. It can easily handle any music style thatI play into it. ie Rock, Jazz, Blues, Punk. It has a variable input that accomodsates both active and passive basses. It also contains an effects loop that I find very handy connecting my effect boxes, or sending the signal to my older bass amp for more sound. This amp has gobs of power. In fact, I have to turn myslef down at times, which makes me smile, because with my older amp, I was always maxed out and my guitarist would always say "Turn up man, I can't hear you". It's powers by solid state circuitry, that makes it easier to maintain than the tube amps.

The combinaton of my pickups in my bass (Yamaha) and the Fender Bassman 200, make my bass sound great, almost like a Fender Jazz Bass. The low end is fantastic with lots of foundation, the midrage is great to bring out the body of the sound, and the treble is crisp and clear.

I can depend on the Fender Bassman 200 always. I would not need to bring a backup amp with me, maybe a spare fuse or two but thats it.

Has not broken down. Not needed as yet (hopefully), but with past experince on Fender products, should last a lifetime.

I have been playing bass for seven years. I own a Black Yamaha four string bass with 2 passive pickups. I insist on Whirlwind cables, Boss effects units, and Ernie Ball extra heavy strings. If it got stolen (heaven forbid), I would get another one in a heartbeat. I love almost everything about it, but I wish it had wheels on the bottom to roll around.