Marshall Bassstate B65 112 Combo

good number of Features

perfict

no its still good

thay bought it to mu house its hevy

real good amp

2001 made SS Bass Combo with 12" speaker. Active and passive inputs, effects loop and line out. Gain, Bass, Treble and 5 band Graphic EQ, compressor and master volume. I'm a blues harp player and DIY amp builder and was given the amp as it "didn't work" according to the previous owner.

I thought I might use the cabinet for an amp project. I decided to take a look inside to see if there was anything easily repairable.
These amps are constructed on PCB's that are relatively easy to access and remove. They need to be, as things go wrong with alarming regularity in the bass-state series from the reviews I've read.
1> The input jacks. The cause is movement of the jack breaking the soldered conncetion to the PCB. This causes intermittent loss of sound. It's a simple matter to heat up the solder joint and add a little more solder- problem solved.
2> The graphic EQ. A blow to the front of the control panel, or regular use can cause the solder joints of the sliding pots to come loose, resulting in the sound fading out and cutting back in again. Again the solder joints can be reheated solving the problem, or if you don't use the EQ, the whole EQ section can be unplugged inside the chassis, disabling it, and the amp will still work.
A simple mod to the the amp is putting push fit connectors onto the end of the speaker wires, to go onto the spade lugs of the speaker, instead of the wires being soldered on. It makes removing the chassis a bit easier for repair work.
The cabinet is MDF, and fairly solid. Because of the issues with the jacks and the EQ I wouldn't gig this regularly without some form of back-up. The amp currently serves as a bass amp for a small low volume jam, stays put most of the time and is OK in that kind of service.

The amp was way out of warranty when I got it. I'm no electronics genius, but I know which end of the soldering iron to hold. I can fix most problems easily enough, otherwise it'll become the cab for my next amp project.

I wish it has a 7 or 10 graphic eq. Besides that, there is hardly anything missing in this amp, considering its price and category.

Great sound, well definite, with enough punch and consistency even at high rehearsal volume. The sound shaping possibilities are quite good, meaning those eqs can actually lead to many interesting and specific sounds. The compressor is well usefull, specially with slapping. Parhaps this amp lacks some depth in its sound projection, which is natural as it is a 12inch woofer combo.
In conclusion, its a great amp for recording, practicing, playing small gigs or being used as a support amp. Its 12inch woofer is good because its faster than an 15inch one and has more bottom end then one of 10inch - quite versatil.

I hate Marshalls!! I had 2 of these, guitar amps, and both had had some kind of malfunction in a period of a year. After being repaired, they were breaking again.. Now I only use ENGL and Laney.
BUT THIS BASS COMBO IS AN EXCEPTION! It had never let me down and always worked 100%, even after being dropped and being all wet.

For this one, never dealt. For other marshalls, they sux.

Great sounding, simple and sturdy bass amp. I keep the best memories of it.

The B65 has the following controls: Gain, Bass, Treble, Compression, 5-band graphic EQ, Limiter switch, Volume, Power.
There are either an active and a passive input, it has an FX loop and a line out jack.
It is all solid state tech and has a 12" speaker.
I like the versatility you get out of the graphic EQ.

I use a cheap p-bass copy equipped with a Duncan SPB-3 quarterpounder and an Fender MIA Jazz Bass with stock pu's. I play rock & blues and it suit my stile very well.
What I like is that for its size it is surprisingly loud if you turn it up (Vol and Gain) but it keeps clean. with the gain all the way up there is not many distortion as long as you don't hit the strings like a hammer.
the sound itself is warm and reminds of a tube amp.

I would fully depend on it. I use it as a practise amp and for small gigs. Never had a problem. the clothing is broken at the side but this does not disturb me

Never dealt with Marshall, but the amp isn't available in Germany.
Found it in Switzerland, will have to go there if there is a problem

I've been playing Bass for three years now. Beside the amp and the basses mentioned i have just bought an Ampeg V4-BH head for gigs which I'll play through a friend's Peavey 410 Box until I'll be able to afford a cab myself. Would search for it again if it were stolen or lost, or go for an Ampeg solid state combo.