Fender Bassman Compact 115 Combo

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i play a prezi 83 with aktive pu??s. its a very easy to use bassamp. just have a treble, a middle and a bass-nobe. Compressor i think u can forget, the master is fine but the disortion-sound is terrible in my opinion. The clean busssound is simply great. not pure gold, like egoheads like to play. it is better, it is pure bass. not more not less. i love it.

last week i solder a broken pin under the powerplug on the board. thats all.

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i start playing this amp 5 month ago. all is fine

I have always loved this amp. It was the 1st amp I ever purchased. I bought it new about 1983. I've used it for my up-right bass in jazz, Dixieland, gospel, country, & bluegrass bands. I, personally, have enjoyed the compressor on the amp because w/ acoustic basses, some notes are louder than others & this feature has leveled out the volume on certain boomy notes. It adds tons of sustain to notes if needed in a slow ballad, too I've also used the amp w/ my P-bass & have enjoyed an awesome funk sound out of it. Even though is doesn't have a seperate tweeter, it still delivers highs very well. It has been used on several recordings through out the years. Amazingly, it has never been in the shop. A friend of mine put casters on it when it was new & this has helped save my back. I have used this amp consistantly since its purchase up till about 18 months ago when I purchased the Fender Bassman 400 which offers the active/passive option for the acoustic bass & also a new electric bass I purchased w/ active pick-ups & a low B string. There simply wasn't enough wattage to push the lower sounding notes on the Bassman Compact. Currently, I mostly use the amp for practice in the basement & it just has such a meaty sound, I can't see myself parting w/ it anytime soon.

My favorite sound out of this amp is when I am playing bluegrass music w/ my acoustic bass & w/ Fishman pick ups mounted on the bridge & Model B Acoustic Bass Preamp. There is no feedback problems whatsoever & it accurately duplicates the sound of my bass. Depending on the size of the gig, I'll play direct or put a mic in front of the amp for a more wide spread audience. For bluegrass music, I'm going for a very clean, pure sound, therefore, I have no desire for any pedal effects.

Currently, I think there is a screw that has come loose inside & it rattles when it gets picked up sideways. Very recently, it has developed some kind of short in the wiring where it needs a little pop on the top to get sound. Once it connects inside, though, it stays on w/ out cutting out as you play. This will, obviously, need some attention in the near future. But, hey, after about 22 years of service, I'd say it still qualifies as a "hoss".

The warranty was 5 years, I believe, but was never used.

I started playing cello in the 4th grade. Doug Kellner was my orchestra teacher. I have enjoyed various styles of music throuhgout my whole life. I am 43 years old & God has blessed me tremendously. I can't imagine my life w/out music.

Made in the early - to mid 80's - solid state, 50 watt combo amp. Has a silver face and the old-style knobs with the big flange around them, but it's not an old amp. I guess it was only made for 2 or 3 years, wasn't a big seller, and they discontinued it. I've only ever seen but one.

Feature: left to right, Volume, Bass, Mid, Treble, Compression, and Master controls. The compression knob has a little red light so you know when it's working. There's also a red light on the power switch so you know the whole amp is on. Two inputs. Pre-amp in and power amp out jacks in the back. You can also unplug the speaker and run the amp through another cab, if you care to.

Other features include. Handle (for carrying). Little rubber feet (for when you stop carrying it and put it down). Tolex covering (for catching against the edge of something, tearing, and having to repair with duct tape). Fender nameplate (for unscrewing and replacing with something else if you have something else that looks cool).

The fanciest thing it's got is the compressor, and the compressor's pretty much worthless, but what else would you really want out of it?

I usually use a Squier P-Bass, through any one (or sometimes two) of a half dozen or so different distortion pedals, but I've borrowed basses too, and they've all sounded about the same though it.

It sounds incredible, but you have to turn it way way up before it does. Like all the way up, just about. No lower than double 7's. It has enough bass that it sounds like a bass, but not enough to feel through the floor, and you have to keep the treble down or it gets clicky sounding, but it has the rawest, most killer natural distortion ever. And adding a Big Muff or something to it is awesome. It's really angry and a little bit broken sounding, while still warm and "real" sounding - but unfortunately, not incredibly loud. It'll just barely keep up with drums and one or two guitars in a living room-sized club or a party in someone's basement, but beyond that it'd better be miked or you're just going to be standing there looking like a fool.

The compression cuts so much volume (and doesn't do much for the sound anyway) that there's absolutely no point in using it, with one exception. I once ran a line out from this amp to the input of a hundred-watt all-tube Bassman Combo, and turned them both up as loud as they would go. Turning the compression up to around 4 or so helped tone down the distortion a little bit, so it sounding kind of like the bassline in "Breed," by Nirvana. Otherwise it's a worthless add-on.

But it does come on a little by itself, even turned to 1, if you've got your amp all the way up or hit a note really unusually hard or something. That might be an ok thing

It was 10 or so years old when I bought it, though it had barely been used, and it was another six until it stopped working on me, and that was a broken wire or something like that. It took another six years to break it again, and though I haven't taken the time to look at it/have it looked at, on account of I've been borrowing other people's louder amps, I suspect it's the same deal, since it'll still drive an external cab if you disconnect its own speaker. And it's been in a car accident, fallen off two or three stages, been pushed down a flight of stairs, been climbed on, jumped off of, and played at balls-out full volume pretty much the whole time, so yeah, I'd say it's a pretty rugged amp.

I just wish it were louder. Even half again as loud as it is now would be good - twice as loud would be totally awesome. The couple of times I've run it through a 4x10 cab make sme think it would have been better of with that instead of 1 15 in speaker. But hell - it would sound better if it were an SVT, too, but it ain't. It's not an amp I ever intend to get rid of, if that says anything. It's an amp I wish I'd insisted we use the times my bands've recorded, because it may not have a terrible lot of low-end, but it sounds like how I sound when I play. It's a killer amp for playing alone. It's a helluva nice indie & punk rock amp. It's perfect for the electric bass player in High School Band or a Church Choir. But it falls just short in the volume department. No two ways around it.