Fender '59 Bassman Reissue

By now you know the features. Built in 1995. To me, this is the perfect example of why less is more. Great sounds from either channel or bridge them together for a really fat sound. You can easily set up an external loop for effects on one channel and dry signal to the other with the use of a Loooper or similar device. No loops, headphone jack, channel switching or any other interruption of signal flow from your guitar to the amp. Plenty of output for rock and blues gigs. Don't worry about being heard over your drummer. While I love some of the tricks of my Flextone lll, I couldn't hear myself onstage. Not a problem with this beast. Very controllable for any environment. I also prefer the solid state rectifier to achieve a bit more headroom. I can't think of anything I would add or change about the design inspite of it's simple layout.

Sound is the real reason you need this amp! Guitars don't loose their identitiy when you plug in. My PRS sounds great thru this as does my Tele, Strat, or 175. I use it extensively for classic rock, blues, jazz, and the occaisional country gig...no problem. It takes to pedals like a fish to water! As part of my less is more idea, I use a Barber Overdrive, Boss DD-2, Boss RV-3, Boss CH-2, and Tu-12H. Simple, very effective for live use and very little noise. I can cover a lot of sonic territory with little worry of tone, reliability, and quick set up and tear down time. It also seems you can't get a bad sound out of it no matter where the knobs are set.
As I mentioned above, the Flexlll amp is great in its own way and really is ideal in certain situations BUT....this is the real deal. Not only do you hear great sounds, you can feel the sound as well. The harder you push this amp, the harder it pushes back unlike modeling amps that don't seem to have the dynamic control of most good tube amps.

No bad issues here. I still take a back-up amp to most gigs just in case but so far I've never needed to use it. I've only replaced the occaisional pre-amp tube and had two speakers re-coned. If you gig a lot, I would recommend putting Minwax honey pine satin polyurethane on the tweed. Gives it some "aged" looks and a bit of protection.

Who knows? Haven't ever used them. I bought this amp on ebay. (They're a bargain and plentiful!)

I've been playing since the mid sixties. I've owned damn near everything worth having from Fender, Marshall, Sunn, Mesa, etc. Think I like this one the best for overall versatility, ease of handling, output, and reliability. Would replace it with another one of similar vintage if lost or stolen. Can't think of anything I hate about it. I looked a various amps before making the purchase. Used Marshalls (not as versatile), used Blackface Fenders (way too expensive), new reissue Fenders (didn't sound as good as the old ones). When a friend suggested I take his RI Bassman out for a test drive...phew...I knew it was the one. Now...repeat after me, LESS IS MORE, LESS IS MORE!

no idea when it was made, but it's gotta be somewhere in the neighborhood of the last 5 years, and for someone who almost exlusively searches out vintage.... i AM IMPRESSED holy crap!! has 2 channels reg & bright, i run it with my boss blues driver and a boss chorus and mannnnnnn... so sweet!. tube all the way and i gotta say traded in a mesa plus 300 bucks, and i aint lokin back!!

no built in distirtion which is fine but when i stom on the blues driver all hell breaks loose, i play everything from jazz to metal and it covers all the bases

simple enough wiring, no porblems yet but i don't anticipate it would be too hard to fix if some should arise.

??

10!!!!!!!!

Bright and normal channels, two inputs for each. Bright and normal volume, treble, middle, bass and precence controls that all go to twelve. Four Jensen ten inch speakers. Power is something between 40 and 50 watts, depending on what kind of a rectifier you choose: it can take either solid-state or GZ34 and 5U4 tube rectifiers. I replaced the solid-state rectifier with the 5U4 tube which has the least headroom. It's still a very loud amp and I can't really think of any situation where I would need more volume. If someone needs a crystal clear sound at a very high volume, Twin reverb is maybe a better choice. But with the solid state rectifier you canset the volume at about twelve o'clock before it starts to distort and at that point it's loud enough for any situation. I play Junior Kimbrough-style blues, some jazz and rock and it sounds great for all those styles.

Bassman doesn't have any modern features like channel-switching or effect loops but it's a great design and can be used in many different ways. For example you can plug into either channel and use the other as a effect channel by taking the signal from the second input of the same channel, going through the effects and plugging into the other channel. This way you can adjust the straight volume and effected volume separately.

I traded a Music Man Silhouette guitar and a Colorsound Fuzz-Wah for it and haven't looked back. Reverb and tremolo would be nice, but hey, nothing's perfect!

I've been playing it with a 52' reissue Tele and they really are a good match. I spent some time figuring out which channel sounds best with that particular guitar and found out that it's the normal channel that suits my style best. The bridge pickup is way too trebly in the bright channel and the neck pickup may sound a little thin.

This amp is capable of producing quite a lot of low-end mass so you better beware not to piss off your bass player. The mids are lovely transparent and the highs are absolutely beautiful. Great dynamics, kind of like a grand piano. It's a amp that sounds like you and your guitar at their best, so if you have a good solid guitar and chops to match you are rewarded with total sonic heaven, but if not, the amp will certainly help to you learn to play better even though it can be a little frustrating in the beginning, because it makes your flaws mercylessly audible.

I used to have a 65' Bassman head and a late 80's 4x10 Fender cabinet and I compared them side by side and liked the the reissue combo better. The vintage head was a little cold and not as transparent as the combo, which was quite a surprise.

For pedals I have just a TS9 with the TS808 mod and a AD-80 analog delay and they're just perfect for this amp. I used the Visual Sound Route 66 with the 65' head rig and it worked really well but for some reason it didn't suit this combo. So if I want some extra boost I just open the volume. Less is more!

Point to point wired, everything neatly laid out and a all components are changeable so everything that can get broken can be fixed. Haven't gigged with mine yet so I really don't know but legends tell that these are one of the most reliable amps ever build. The craftmanship is as good as anything, simply top notch!

No experience.

I've been playing for 16 years and this is the amp I should have bought in the first place. Generally I prefer combos to stacks and Fenders has the sound I hear in my head. If stolen I might consider other Fenders, maybe the Super Reverb reissue or even Marshall Bluesbreaker combo or some boutique design, maybe one with reverb. That's the only thing this amp doesn't have but generalli I think you REALLY don't need it if the basic tone is good enough. If I could change something about it I would add the reverb and tremolo though.

Four inputs: two for normal channel and two for bright one, each one with a little more db than the other. Normal channel vol., bright channel vol., presence, treble and bass. That's it. If you buy this amp, you're not expecting any channel switching, high gain switch, just an AMAZING good sound. Other cool feature is that you can put the original tube configuration in it, and replace the stock solid-state rectifier by either of two possible types of rectifier tubes.

I have guitars with the following type of pick ups: Duncan JB and Jazz on the neck position, Filter-tron classics and Jazzmaster pick ups. This amp has one of the best clean sounds that I've ever heard. It has an incredible presense and sound projection. It's just as noisy as any other tube-amp. This amp can do any type of rythms you can imagine, but it stands out doing clean ones such as rockabilly, country, blues and pop. It works well for rock too, and that's exactly what I play, just plug an pedal in front of it and here I go. This amp is loud, and, if you play single coils, you gonna have to turn the volume knobs up to 7 (depending on the pick up) to start getting an overdriven sound out of it. However, with my Duncan JB equiped guitar, it distorts at 4 - because I have replaced the original solid-state rectifier by an 5U4 tube, in attempt to lower this wattage a little bit. After that change, the amp sounded a little brighter too. Haven't tried the other type of tube rectifier yet. I also haven't turned the volume knob up too high because I'm a bedroom player...

I never gig and I really don't know how to tell you whether you can depend on it or not in a stage situation. I did it twice and everything went pretty well, but, you never know... Have been having it since November/2001 and only changed power tubes once.

Never dealt with the manufacturer.

Been playing for 15 years. Been a metal kid, brit-pop and now I play early Bowie, Neil Young, Sex Pistols, Stone Temple Pilots and post-punk (Sisters of Mercy, Cult, Cure, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry etc.).

If it were stolen and if I had a lot of money, I would buy an Vox AC30, but those are heavy and the Bassman sounds almost as good clean and is way lighter. Yeah, maybe. There's nothing to hate about it. You might want a very good distortion pedal or another high gain amplifier to balance the Bassman's excellent clean sound.

Finally, a damn good sound like this for this price, you won't get anywhere else. I've tried all other Fender amps before buying it: Twin, Twin Reverb reissue, Hod Rod, Mesa/Boogie Blue Angel (no longer in production, I guess), Marshalls etc. Only the Vox can be better clean-sounding than the Bassman, to my comparisons.

I bought this "new" from one of the guitar shops in Denmark St, London in 2002. It was obvious that it wasn't new; unless they'd bought it and left it in a leaky storeroom for a couple years. I'd seen an original in another London shop, but wasn't prepared to pay #2,500 for it. However, they let me fire it up and I played a single p90 Les Paul special. I was struck how it overdriven it was at a relatively low volume and was hooked and started looking for a re-used reissue through the papers and online sales sites. Thats how I came across this one. I paid #800, which was #300 below advertised price for a new one, so considering it looked weathered, I was happy.
I love the simple volume, bass, middle, treble, presense. I've rated this 7 as although it doesn't have overdrive or any effects, it still does what it's supposed to do and does it very well.

I play both humbucker and p90 Les Pauls and love the sound of both. However, it didn't overdrive like the 50s original -I found out the original was an earlier model with two rectifiers, it was rated about 30w. Anyhow I had a Torres power soak fitted to mine which involved some re-engineering. The speakers were hard-wired to the output transformer and Barry Vine, our UK Torres franchisee,changed this to an input jack arrangement so I can plug the power soak in when I want to drive it hard at home. He adjusted the resistors inside it to suit my requirements and I'm very happy with the results. Wonderful overdriven sound without upsetting my long suffering neighbours. I also use a Full Drive II to add some overdriven variety. I've used Boss Distortion and Vox overdrive and they all sound amazing. I've changed the solid state rectifier for a valve one. The best way to describe the sound is to refer you to Neil Young going for it on Weld.
I recently bought the fender 63 reissue tube reverb tank off e-bay which takes the flatness out when jamming at home.

Held off fitting the power soak until the amp was out of warranty and have had no problems.

Not needed them yet.

Been playing 20 years. Had Marshals but got turned onto Fender when I bought a 40w Fender Blues Deluxe. The Bassman reissue just knocked me out and I can't stop playing it. Adding the power soak was a success, though I had to pay #80 to have one custom made for me. The Bassman has a 2 Ohm load on the output transformer so don't use one made for 8 or 16 Ohm (e.g., Marshal Powersoak) or you'll stuff your amp. I coated the tweed with Shelac which toned it down a bit and has added some protection. I love this amp and have found my sonic soul mate. If I lost it I would buy another and do it all again.

Didn't really have a chance to have much of a play around with the settings. I was only using this amp to test out a guitar in the shop. I was so impressed that I decided to write about it here! Seemed to have everything I needed.

WOW! Now I know ppl have said that this isn't meant for Metal but dear god, it can be! I was testing out an SG in the shop earlier today and the guy put me through this. He stuck an MXR distortion through the front and this has got to be the best sound I have ever heard! I cracked that biatch right up! Now I've played a few amps in my time - mesas, cornfords, peaveys, laneys and at the moment I own a Marshall TSL 100 stack with a PRS custom 22 and a les paul studio.. The sound on this was so good that I am considering buying it and using it as a practice amp! Seriously, awesome sound!!

I hear from others that its pretty damn reliably? Didn?t have a chance to kick it about so can?t really comment?

n/a

Well this amp really blew me away! I was given my own little room to really crank this fucker up, and I really did? I came out with my ears ringing? I don?t think I would change my TSL for this purely because I rely on the three channels too much. Just goes to show, to you rock & roll fans ? this is amp is very versatile!!! I probably will end up getting it, but just for studio/home use!

The Fender '59 Bassman re-issue is almost a perfect re-creation of the original. Two channels bright & normal. A no frills perfect sounding amp for bass. Yes!! I said a Bass. I'll fill you in later on that. 45 watts of tube power and you WILL get more head room if you replace the tube rectifier with a solid state. Beautiful tweed covering with an oxblood grillcloth. Top chrome panel with checken head knobs. Four 10" alnico speakers My amp was made in 2002.

As I stated earlier, I play a '51 Precision re-issue through this amp & what a beautiful tone. The only problem that I had is that it is just not loud enough for modern standards. I have to put a mic to it & have it come through the P.A. I play in an authentic rock & roll band. Leo had the right idea back then. About 2 months after I got this amp I got an old Gene Vincent CD and his bass playr had the same setup. The only amp that might give it a run for it's money is the old Ampeg B15 for tone.

I only used this on a couple of gigs. The amp has never broken down

I have had various Fender products for over 15 years with no problems.

I've been playing for over 20 years & if your are looking for a vintage look & tone this is perfect. If it were stolen or lost I would look for another. it has vintage written all over it.

Made January 1991 - standard features - the blue alnico's - bought it second hand but it looked like new, the guy never gigged with it. Is that gonna change now!
I still love my vibrolux but since I don't like guitars in monitors I needed something "bigger" for festival stages.
Play mainly blues, from jazzy swing to dirty boogie and rock.
I use an outboard fender reverb. Sound fantastic, but it means more carrying, so I wish Fender would fit one standard in.

I use all kinds of guitars, often with p-90 pu's. from expensive gibsons to cheap chinese squires, and they all sound great on the bassman. If you have to choose: go for a cheap guitar + bassman: much better then an expensive axe + ome cheapo amp.

I think the Bassman is one of Fender's most reliable amps

Been playing for 20 years. For smaller clubs I prefer smaller amps like Deluxe, Vibrolux, Blues Junior, but for bigger venues Bassman is the Man, no question about it!

No frills amp -bright and normal inputs- tone controls. This is a re review now I have had the amp for over a year

If there is a "classic" sound, then this amp has it. I play a Telecaster and Gretsch through it..two different sounding guitars. I run a patch cord from the normal to the bright channel and mix the volumes to get different sounds -work brilliantly. The more you turn it up, the better it sounds. the Tele screams through it, while the Gretsch just pumps out huge bottom notes. Country and Rockabilly styles

Gigged for a year with it -not one problem. total confidence

Never needed support apart from ordering an amp cover from a Fender dealer -no problems.

Played for 30 years had tens of amps and apart from an AC30 Vox, nothing else compares. It truly is a classic amp -all those guitar tones you hear on records are there. I've never had so many people at gigs come up and rave about the guitar sound since I've been using this amp. I've used the same guitars through Marshals, Peaveys, Laneys -and all of a sudden, someone has switched on the
"real guitar sound" switch -its called a Fender Bassman.

2004 fender 59 bassman
this amp is perfect
not alote of option doesn't need them

I play a hofner 63 reissue, fender jazz bass, rickenbacker 4001
I play classic rock and its perfect.this amp will nail those mccartney revolver/sgt pepper sounds.i bought it to play guitar thru.
i have been playing bass thru a ampeg svt stack and a vox ac50 thru a t100 cab and this just sounds better to me.I play out with this amp once a month. put an sm57 mic in front run thru the pa and i am plenty lound for any club i play in.i'll use my ampeg for outdoor gigs.alote of musicians including myself think these are the holy grail of guitar amps well let me tell you they are also the holy grail of bass amps.

been playing 32 years.to much! gibson,taylor,martin acoustics
gibson,fender,epiphone electric guitars.Fender,hofner and rickenbacker bass guitars.Fender,marshal,badcat,vox,ampeg amps
oh yea, and an old 1970 U.S.A. model washburn