Fender Bassman Head

1964 Bassman Blackface.
Current refurbish project.

I love the sound. I've played through a lot of different amps in my short time on this earth and love the sound my Bassman makes. When I got the amp it still had the original tubes in it. I've put in under wraps once it started making that crackling noise we all love when tubes/pots go bad. Unfortunately, I have not had the time and money to make the necessary repairs. It has become one of my side projects.

For a 40+ year old amp that was given to me, it was totally reliable. Even with the orginal tubes running. I'm sure once the refurb is done, it will be just as reliable.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing for 20 years and overall I love this amp...even in it's current condition.

Simple. 2 channels with deep/bright switches and volume, bass, and treble knobs. The amp has two inputs jacks for each channel, making it possible to connect the two... tonal bliss...

This amp has the best tone one could ever desire. It can handle almost any type of music so long as you have the right gear in front of it. I generally play blues or classic rock, but there are still times I find myself playing metal. I have an electro-harmonix pocket metal muff that gives this amp a very cool 80's thrash sound to it. It can do anything so long as you are willing to find the right pedal and guitar to do it with.

flip the switch and it goes.

it has no warranty, no support.

Great amps. I have two that have their own distinct personalities. My 68 is extremely clean and takes well to any pedal that I plug into it. my 66 tends to be more overdriven and loud. they are great with any Strat you plug into them and they have an uncharacteristically FULL tone that other vintage Fender amps do not have.

1965 pre-CBS AA864 circuit.
2 channel.
A pleasure to dial in.

My only other Bassmans have been the AB165
circuit. A 66, 67 & 68. All 3 sound incredible.
But not as good as this one does. I bought this amp
to do a quick flip & make a little cash.
I plugged it into my Top Hat combo cab & was brought to my knees.
I did the A/B with my TopHat Super Deluxe, Dr.Z Mazerati, Hiwatt
Custom 50 etc... This amp sounds better than all of them combined.
There's a reason why the Marshall JTM 45 is based on this amp.
It is the King of all Rock & Roll amps period!!
It breaks up at about 3.5/4 & only gets sweeter sounding as you turn it up. Sounds best through a 2x12 cab.
Notes just freakin bloom at any volume.

It's 43 years olds & still cookin.

i know some great amp techs to keep it running.

N/A

My SG & Tele sound killer through it. It brings out the best in any
guitar. I always jump the channels & love the way they blend.
You can still find one of these for under $550. If you like good old Rock music, have been searching for great tone & have shelled out thousands in your quest for tone, then pick one of these up. I play Rock & Roll, Punk to Southern. This amp makes it fun to play guitar. Every time I fire it up, it makes me happy. I'm not a fan of all Fender amps. The Bassman is my favorite.
There's some really killer boutique amps, but I've yet to hear one of those amps sound as dialed in as this one does.

Born in 1966 according to the markings on the chart. Two channel but I just use the instrument one. Very basic amp so I installed the Torres tube buffered effects loop which works nicely but I had to drill three holes so she's not mint now. I've let my lead guitarist use it and had a hard time getting it back and he wants to borrow it often. I bought this amp to butcher/experiment with and have replaced all caps and resisters as well as replacing the power supply diodes with modern FREDs. Replaced preamp tubes with nos Mullard Blackburn tubes and power tubes with matched TAD tubes Chinese tubes but there great tubes. I did most mods that are available on the net for this amp.

My guitarist uses EMG's in a modded guitar. I use a Schecter PJ bass through it when my SVT is sick or I'm lazy and don't want to be lifting the weight. Very clean and tight when you want it for bass and just add petals/effects or turn her up over 5 for the tube distortion the guitar players love.

Use it all the time without backup as it's very reliable and easily fixable. I have my stash of nos tubes if needed. I'm very annal about whose moving this so I do it all.

No warranty left on this beast. I will fix it myself if needed. Point to point wiring is the way of the past and the way of the future. Lots of stuff on the net for this amp and some great retailers for the vintage parts.

No one will be stealing this without my boot up there arse because as I already said I'm very annal about whose moving this around---ME.

Two inputs, straightforward 6L6 powered push/pull design. This amplifier was the basis of Jim Marshall's "Plexi" series. Beautiful point to point handwiring. I own two of these beauties, a '64 blackface and a '68 silverface, using NOS RCA 6L6s. IMHO I sometimes think the metaphors "buttery" and "creamy" were coined for this amp. At 50 watts it's more than loud enough and reliable as all get out. Have owned both of mine for fifteen years with only regular maintenance required, tube replacement and such. The blackface has had the filter caps replaced as they were getting dry

The sound is amazing as always. Would never suit a metalhead or a thrasher, but was never intended to. It's a blues/blues rock amp and has carved its name in rock and roll history. I use it with a Highway One Strat, a Les Paul Goldtop with P-90s and an ES-335. My pedalboard is quite simple. Original Crybaby-->Fulltone Fat-Boost-->'83 Ibanez TS-9-->Choralflange-->MXR DynaComp. I play butt rompin' rock n' roll ryhthm n' blues. This amp sings. Excellent growl, good mids, nice and chimey when used clean. I use it with two custom built slant cabs, one with two good ol' Celestion Vintage 30 Greenbacks, the other with four Greenbacks.

These things are workhorses. I take both when I gig but have never had to swap out, but I learned a long time ago, the hard way, never gig without a backup. I had them thoroughly gone through when I got them. They've never given me any problems. They're tanks.

If you like a clean little power house to build your sound on this is it. If you're a button pusher and knob twiddler, move on, she ain't got alot of them. What she does have is clean, pure, transparent, unadulterated tone for days. Rock on! Would replace immediately if lost or stolen. Silverfaces can be had fairly reasonably. Be prepared to shell out some serious coin for pre-CBS blackface models in good to mint condition.

Well, I'm totally flabbergasted. An old friend of mine gave me this cruddy looking Fender amp many years ago, because a friend of his gave it to him for some reason, an my buddy passed it on to me. Last year, while cleaning out the basement, there was this piece of ****sitting in the corner by the the furnace. So I looked at it, discovered it was a 1964 Bassman head, Blonde. So, I refurbished it, new tubes, Winged C, new caps, etc. And built a new cab for it using 10" Webers. Just fired it up tonite, and it sounds awesome!
Great stuff Leo!
Dave Nightingale

I have a silverface made in 1973,it has a sparkling clean sound,too clean actually,so I added substitute tubes,groove tube makes a 6l6 adaptor to use el-84,a smaller european tube that pushes the amp into overdrive,however cutting the output in half... 22 to 25 watts,and using a strat with hotrails with a pre-amp in the boost mode,makes this amp tolerable,without the need for a distortion device<yuck>,with a 2x12 celestion cab is all thats needed for small venues,for larger venues I use a Mesa Engineering amp<the ultimate>

Fender amps are single dimensional...they are clean,and clean,I have a hotrail loaded strat,and a DImarzio x2n and a super distortion in an Ibanez...with stock tubes it has to be turned up to 7 before it starts to distort....el-84s sound better but the overall power is cut in half

This amp is very reliable,and hasnt ever given Me any trouble,I would use it without a back up <small venues>

I've been playing 30 years,and had this silverface 22 of them...
I love it because it never fails,if it were stolen or lost I'd buy another one,preferably a blackface ,I also own a Mesa Dual Rectifier Tremoverb<the best amp on the planet>,although Mesa's founder even said they wouldn't be there if it werent for Fender,also would love to have My old Marshall 50w plexi Handwired amp<it was stolen> back...My Bassman 50 was the replacement,and as different as they both are ,the Fender is alittle more versitle, Buy One you will love it

'65 Pre-CBS Blackface. First one produced of the year! The Coveted AA-864 circuit. I use it with an Avatar 2 x12 cabinet with a Celestion vintage 30 and a celestion G12(I think). I absolutely love how simple this thing is. Two channels, one bass and one normal and 3 knobs on each side. I love not having to worry about messing with controls for a while until I get a good sound. Just crank up the volume and play. Starts breaking up around 4 or 5, gets real nice and creamy around 6,7 and at 10 just kills. Is 50 watts so it can get pretty damn loud, but you can still get distortion without killing everyones ears. Theres no reverb, but I picked up a VanAmps soul-mate reverb unit and that really does this thing justice.

Amazing. How these things are so damn cheap while the Deluxe from the same era go for over 2 grand is beyond me. Sounds better than anything I've ever played or heard. I play mostly blues-based rock and this is perfect for that. My set-up is a strat and a bunch of effects into this. I've got a Captain Coconut, a VanAmps reverb, a Keeley compressor, a keeley-modded wah, and a bunch of other stuff and it responds great to everything. I really just like it plugged straight in though. Its got that great Fender clean tone, but has kind of a marshally distortion when cranked. Very ballsy and incredibly thick. Seriously best bluesy distortion I've ever played. The marshall curcuit was actually based on this circuit. I like this better than any marshall I've ever tried though. Even at high distorted volumes there is incredible clarity. Every note is clearly defined and it doesnt get all mushy or flabby. Distortion pedals sounds pretty bad compared to it, I don't care how nice it is. Surprisingly, its not noisy at all even when cranked up to 10.

Well its over 40 years old and still in great shape so I think that says something. I think a good reason for this is the utter simplicity of the unit. Theres practically no wires runnin around in the back and everything is super clean. I feel confident gigging without a backup. Now why CBS had to fuck everything up after they bought the company is another story...

I wouldn't count on it.

Pretty amazing. If you like shit that sounds really good, then you'd probably like this. You just really can't go wrong with any Fender blackface amps and for what I do this amp is the balls. Gets distortion at reasonable volumes but also gets really loud. Very responsive. Super simple. I've been playing for about 5 years and have played a ton of amps in that time and this kills any newer amps I've tried. Some of the boutique ones are nice like Orange, but this is much cheaper and I like the sound better. Theres a reason that people still talk about these amps. Seriously every time I play this amp for someone they're blown away. If something happened to it, I'd be pretty damn pissed and when I'm done crying my troubles away I'd save up some money to buy another one of these.

My Bassman is a 1968 Silverface that I bought from a music store in 1989. I removed the tattered tolex and oiled the pine wood, but kept the silver metal trim around the grillcloth. It looks beautiful.

I use this amp for many instruments. I have a Fender American Jazz and a MIM Jazz fretless. Both sound like heaven through this head. I leave the Bass and Treble settings at "5" and play through the Normal channel. I also play harp (Shure Green Bullet with CR element and Astatic JT-30 bullet mics)through the Bass channel. I also play keys (a 1976 Rhodes EP and modern Roland boards) and EWI through it. It sounds incredible for all of these without adjusting the EQ. I just plug and play. It's essentially noiseless and sweet in every way. I find that it has lots of volume through my Ampeg 210H (8 ohm) and Peavey 210TX (4 ohm) cabs. For small gigs I'll just use the Ampeg cab, for larger gigs I'll bring both cabs (running in parallel at around 3 ohms - no problems whatsoever).

I have a good tech nearby that I call on when needed, but it has only required basic parts replacement (tubes, caps) one time in the last 18 years and that was just a precaution - replacement before any failure. It has never let me down at gig. I send a signal through a DI (Aphex Bass Xciter right now, but I did use a PEavey EDI from the speaker output for years) to the PA when necessary.

No opinion - no way they would help.

I can't believe that anyone could pick up this head for under $400. What are people thinking? I have used tons of gear throughout my long years and keep coming back to the bassman. Most recently I picked up a Traynor YBA200 200 watt bass head. Hated it's searing mids and couldn't come close to the same sound I love from my Bassman. The Traynor did have incredible volume and was built nicely, though.

Probably made in 66. 2 channels. There is a master volume now in the second input hole of the normal channel. I can now play with overdrive in both channels one fendery one marshally sounding. The bass channel is the marshally one. I usually run a roger mayer pedal voodo vibe into both channels. I run a 2 x 12 traynor/yorkville cab that has been recovered with a fender grill cloth that looks kinda like the original cab but curves slightly. I put in thumb screws and it tilts back with fender legs. Celestion speakers inside. Plenty of power. I wish it had reverb but it doesn't really need it. The anp was modded by the last owner so the cab was in stereo. I returned it to mono 4 ohm.

Perfect for blues and blues rock and pop. Nice and grindy never buzzy. Good with strats and controlled feedback without pedals with a es 335. With a 335 Grab a note and it will take off in a nice way. Nice shimmer. At high volumes which i never get to play at it is very loud but tube toned. Every time I look for a new amp that might give me a better sound I think about this one and usually don't think about buying anything else. I do have a few other great amps like a boogie dc3 and a a matchless spitfire clone by ed giller that sounds great also. And a couple of 50 and 60 gibson amps. The bassman is the one generally gig with now.

I changed the pre amp tubes to the new 12ax7 tung sols. nice tubes. Grindy but with enough briteness if you want. the 6l6s are fenders seem to sound just fine. I may try some old 5881 tung sols soon. Or may some of the new ones. NOS tubes are nice but aren't necessary for a great sound in this amp. Hasn't been serviced yet because it sounds great.

Fender and this amp? I don't think so. As they say any good local amp tech can take care of this.

Ive been playing 43 years. since 10. If it were lost or stolen I'd buy another one. Maybe a 59 ltd bassman. But that would be less controlable. Compared to everything out there this amp is a 10. There are other 10's but so is this . Your sound is in your amp not just your hands. Work on both. I very seldom need to use an ooverdrive pedal with this amp. The only thing I don't like about this amp is I don't have an original cabinet.