Fender Bassman Head

66 Blackface original owner.
Added a direct out for recording.
Tried a hot rod mod which sounded like crap so I removed it.

Ive has this thing forever. In the old days you couldnt give them away so I kept it. I originally had the matching cab with 2 altecs. I still have the speaks and a half Half a cab cut down to combo size. I use the head on a number of cabs. A 4 x 10" open back sounds real good cause you can crank it up and not be too loud. I record in stereo with this and a marshall. Between the two I get everything I need as far as sound goes. I rebuilt this one myself a few years ago cause the caps were leaking. Bass channels pretty weak now but I never use it anyway. Used it for countless gigs and never let me down.

41 years. Fender would have put themselves out of business if they had kept building something so well.
If you were to do mods on this I suggest the line out speaker emulator and maybe a revoicing of the mids maybe if you need it. But its better to just find the right speakers to emulate the tone FQ you want and just leave it stock. The Hot rod mods really suck unless you go all the way and have the tube bias modded as well. You can use pedals to get what you want from it. Keep it maintained and change tubes regularly and It will last annother 40 years.

na

This was my second real amp. I had an old moserite amp before this one but it kept blowing up. I have 5 or 6 others including a Marshall Sun Concert, Crate and others. I wouldnt mind having an Ampeg V2 again

If you have one of these keep it and take care of it. If you can get one snag it. Tube amps go for mege bucks these days. Within a few years you wont be able to touch the price on these.

1968 Blackface specs.
Total restore.

This 68 is the Best sounding Amp on the Planet (to me).
I've departed with my 74 Super Lead, 50 watt Plexi, Traynor YBA
& the list goes on. For tight Low end & not too much the Bassman
gets it done in every way.

For a near 40 year old Amp, I have no issues with it.

Fender's OK.

I've been playing 28 years & 22 of that touring, recording & all the other band guy bullshit. It took me a very long time to come back to a Bassman. Non Master Volume Amps are the deepest, clearest most transparent amplifiers on the planet. At times I run a pedal in front of it for some Hard Rock moments.
Why these Amps don't go for over $1000 is beyond me. Go ahead & buy all the Dr. Z, VHT, Matchless, Mesa Boogie amps you can find. An old Super Lead is Hard to beat for Killer tone, but these Amps have ended my search for my Tone. They take pedals with ease & have more punch than I can describe.
By the way Bandmasters sounds good too!
The Bassman is the Best Deal you're ever going to find for Incredible tone.

Blackface from 1962, great sound, not many features but that's just great: easy operating without any fuzz

love the unique character: deep, warm and very vibrant. Use it with a custom Tele and a 1970 strat.

Hey: it's vintage! needed to replace the caps, the tubes and added a new bias-pot, some pots where cracky, needed to replace them to: bu' its all point-to-point wiring on a turretboard, so no sweat.

never dealt with Fender for anything

have got some marshalls, some boogies, a few modern amps (ampeg) but this one is a favourit, love it in anyway.

1966 Black Face and two 1968 silver faces.
I aquired my first Fender Bassman head in 1997. It was a 1968 silver face. I paid $100.00 for it. A friend of mine owned it and he was desperate so I took advantage. In 1999, I purchased my prized 66' Blackface for about $600.00. and A year later I gave a another friend of mine $250.00 for his 68' Silverface! I have been using all three heads daisy chained together with 66' Fender 2X12 cabs. A Fender stack. I dont like Marshalls, they are too loud. I love the way The bassmans sound. All you got is volume,treble and bass! Thats all you need! I have extreme contempt for modern gear. If its not a Fender, I dont want to use it!!! They break up just nice when you go to about 7. But sometimes I'll crank em to 10....all three of them, when you play with a rythim section as loud as mine, you gonna need some power. Considering that my bass player also uses Fender Bassmans but he uses the big ass 135 watters! He uses two fender bassman heads out of two 2X15 Cabs! I wouldnt change a thing about the bassmans! to me ,they are perfect. I mainly play Fender Strats (mostly 62' re-issues) but I also have a tele,an Esquire,Gibson SG, and two 70's strats. Our music is blues based rock! but its very loud and heavy, not quite metal but too heavy to be called blues rock! I use the 3head,3 cab set up everywhere and anywhere we play. I love the look on peoples' faces as we stack the cabs on top of each other sideways. Sure! its a bitch to carry all that shit around but A. Cant beat the sound B. Keeps your ass in shape and C. Its not so bad when you have a dolly and a big dude for a roadie on the big US Tours! 50watts X 3 is good enough for me!

These babies are in my opinion, tempermental. Some venues they sound great and in some other places, it wont sound as great but with a good ear for tone, a tweak of the knobs and youre in like Flynn. naturally their clean sound is beautiful! clear and crisp and when cranked to about 7 or 8, the tubes break up just right. and at 10, very muddy! but that aint so bad depending on what your goin for. All my Strats are stock, nothin fancy. stock pickups and if I want a little crunch or feedback Ill kick in the trusty Ibanez TS9 for the job!

The old Fender Bassmans are as reliable as the amount of attention you give to them. Like an old Hot rod, You'll put the pedal to the medle and dust every one off the line. But you have to rebuild the motor pretty much after every race. I have not had any truouble with my Bassmans (luckily) As Iam very careful while loading and unloading them. And I have a dude I take my heads to when something goes wrong. but so far so good! Four Us tours and no problems yet! Mine are all beat to shit! but they sound great! Dont need a back up coz I run 3 heads at once. but I do have a couple of 68 Bandmaster silver faces lying around just in case.

No customer support. You just gotta know people who love to work on old amps and are more than happy to work on yours. Support your local Guitar and Amp Guru!!!

I have been playin for about 17 years now and I have been using Fender since 1995. I started on Peaveys(They suck) then I went to Crate(Sucks even worse) I tried Marshalls(Bad ass but way too loud and expensive) My old Marshall had broken down during rehearsal one day before a gig and I borrowed a 1968 Fender super reverb and plugged the Marshall stack in to it and fell in love with the tone. But too much to haul, So when I bought my friend's 68 silver face for $100.00, I officially went to Fender as I also traded the broken Marshall head in for a 66 Fender Bandmaster, sounded awesome through a stack of Marshalls, but not loud enogh, the bassman was perfect! When I was a kid,I saw a pic of Pete Townshend in like 1965 or somethin and he was playin through a marshall stack and a couple of Fender Bassmans! Wow! If my gear got stolen, I would definitely go out and buy more Fender Heads and Cabs, But i sleep in the van with a shotgun with my Fender gear! I will kill any one who tries to steal my shit! There is nothin I hate about my bassmans! they are the shit! All I need is to get two more 66 Blackies and Im set!! Marshalls are great amps,as they were modeled after the bassman. But I dont like the heads! As far as cabs go,I do have a full on Fender wall, but If I had a chance to aquire two vintage Marshall stacks, that would be grand! But Fender through and through!

simple... rugged... reliable... this is the Ford F150 of amps. Features, fortunately, very few, and I like it that way

i like to have total control over the tone with my pick attack... and that's what i get with the bassman. It's interesting to me that even with all the cool amps i have in the studio, I always bring my bassman to the show. It's just such a simple, near-perfect design

mine is a lightly modded 68' and considering it's (slightly) older than me, and still kicks a$$... i would say HIGHLY reliable

I love fender amps... i have several (tone master, vibrolux, deluxe reverb), and i do use them all, but i have to say that if i had to pick just one to keep, it would be my bassman... if it was lost/stolen, i would most definitely get another, and that's one of the best things about bassmans... they are still the ultimate value out there.

1964 AA864 (the "good" blackface bassman circuit) Blackface Bassman Head. Hand wired, 50 watts all tube (well, it has a solid-state rectifier). Two channels - bass and normal - with voulume, treble and bass conrolls on each channel. The bass channel has a deep switch, the normal has a bright switch. Not a lot of features, but that's why it sounds so damn good! LESS IS MORE! I don't really use reverb, so I don't miss it, but tremolo would be cool...50 tube watts is more than enough for most venues.

I run this head through a THD 2x12 cabinet loaded with 2 8ohm Eminence speakers - a Wizard (like Celestion G12H30) and a Governor (like Celestion V30). They're wired in parallel for a 4ohm load. I use either a Heritage H-150CM or an 80s Jap. Fender '62 Tele Custom reissue. With this setup, I've finally found the sound in my head. The clean tone is sparkly and swirling with just the right amound of spank. It's just about the perfect base for really any type of tone. This amp takes pedals like a champ; I run an EH Graphic Fuzz and a Maxon OD-9 for dirty sounds. By itself, the amp is pretty clean (I had it biased a little cold for more clean headroom). Past 4 or 5, you get a bit of vintage crunch, but nothing over the top.

They don't make 'em like they used to! I recently had the power supply rebuilt (it had the original filter caps) by Mike Purkhiser (www.purkhiser.com). Schematics for these amps are readily available. They're pretty simple inside; a competent tech should have no problem with just about anything it'll ever need. Besides tube changes, I don't expect it to need any work for years. I do gig without a backup.

Yeah right. This is a Leo era amp. Fender doesn't even know how to make amps like this any more. Find a schematic and a tech.

What a great amp! This is one of the few Blackface Fenders that are still affordable. Not a great bass amp (only 50 watts), but stellar for guitar.

I have a '66 Blackface Head and though it's features are simple they serve their purpose completely.

Two channels. Each with 2 inputs and Volume, Bass and Treble. I disagree with the whole 'MORE MORE MORE!' features mentality. An amp is to 'amplify' your sound, not create it. If you want onboard FX and all that other 'makeup' this amp is not for you. I use a ton of stomp boxes, so I'm not just closed minded to effects, I just want an amp for what it is.

I use a Fender Jag and a Standard Strat. Mostly British Rock-esque music (Radiohead, Doves, Manics, etc) and I can get pretty much any sound I need with this amp. My only complaint is it's a little too bassy for me, but I'm using a 2x15 cab so... that's more than likely why.

Below 3 it's fair to say that you're hurting for ton. It still sounds good, but if you know how good it can sound you'll be sad when you have to play it at this volume. From 3 to about 5 you can get really rich clean tones if you use the volume on your guitar to further tweek.

You can get a variety of sounds but they generally aren't very slick. Which is what I want. It's an honest amp and it's made me a better guitar player for sure. A lot of others have commented and I couldn't agree more, this is not a metal amp. This is a rock amp.

If you crank everything it sounds awesome. I use a tube screamer and ds1 for distortion and am pretty happy with the results...

So far so good. For a while I needed new tubes quite badly, but they held out. I've blown a few fuses too, but that's my fault entirely. other than that, this thing is solid. Weighs a ton too!

I would have a backup if I could afford one, but that's just part of my mentality.

N/A as it's so old.

I would replace this amp instantly if it was stolen or lost and kill those responsible. (myself if lost)

I've been playing for 10 years and when I tried one of these amps I was instantly drawn in. It's the sound I've been hearing in my head all along...someday I might find a better amp, but I'm not currently looking. In the process of amp shopping I tried a Deville, Twin Reverb (great amp, but not as raw as this one) and a bunch of other amps. I was using a Marshall Valvestate before this (which I obviously hated).

I use a vareity of effects (pitch whammy, huge delays/loops, phase shift, filter mod, trem) and the amp translates these well. I think the 'slick' effects (pitch, phaser, etc) translate well through it as the 'fakeness' of the effects and the honesty of the amp create a fair middle ground.

I've heard of some modded to have a master volume switch on the back...that'd be a great idea for smaller rooms/clubs because you do have to have volume to get the sound right.

It's a 1966 blackface bassman. Has a "bass" and "normal" channel each with a treble and bass eq. No effects loop, no reverb, and nothing else. I love this amp because of the lack of features. Very straight forward.

This amp sounds gorgoues. It's exactly what you would expect from an old fender amp. Great glassy clean sounds, very very warm, and extremely round. I'm using a gibson les paul custom through it and i can probably get any sound out of it i want except "brutal" sounds. This is not an amp for metal. This as an amp for tone lovers.

As far as tone, i've found that i needed to run a tubescreamer to get it to where i wanna rock, but a good attenuator would be just as good if not better, considering that the natural gain on this thing when pushed is very classic rock and very raw. I love it to death. I also need to use a eq pedal at times to make up for the lack of eq on the amp, but the amp pretty much delivers on every account with or without pedals.

Well it's coming up on it's 40th birthday and i have never had a problem with it. Been using it for recording, gigs, rehearshals, for over 10 years now and it's never given me a problem except for power tube failure which of course is common with tube amps, but have'nt even had that problem happen often enough to complain at all

Never used them, will probably never have to

Right now i am using an Orange Rockerverb 50 head as well as the 66 bassman. Both heads compliment each other very well. I do use the Orange more than the bassman, I only use the orange because i've decided to give my bassman a little vacation after working for 10 years. I probably like the Orange more, but always find myself using the bassman for numerous other situations. If it were stolen, i would feel pretty empty for awhile considering that its sentimental value to me is through the roof.

Features??? This superb piece of vintage gear has the best of all possible features - it's a 1965 Fender Bassman, Blackface AA165 circuit, with the original RCA Blackplate 6L6GC power tubes (and yes, believe it or not, 40 years later they are still very much alive and in good serviceable condition!). I won't rehash the other technical specifications and hardware details -- you can read about them on one of the many other Bassman reviews on this site. Versatility?? Not having any bells or whistles at all, it's an absolutely honest and straightforward amp. It's as versatile as the versatility that YOU bring to it via YOUR FINGERS. Conversely, it will not artificially hide your shortcomings. As a classic rock and blues player, this amp provides everything that I need -- TONE, TONE, TONE, power, singing sustain, and did I mention...TONE! I paired this head with a custom 2x12 (Celestion Vintage 30s) closed back, 4 ohm cabinet from Avatar (which really fits the bill quite nicely). In fact, the Avatar cabinet is covered with black tolex and has Fender-style sparkle grill cover - the overall visual effect of the Bsssman with this cabinet is simply stunning.

This amp was bequeathed to me a number of years ago (thanks Johnny, I know you're smiling now!) but BAD BAD BAD on me, it sat around and gathered dust since then. Having finally hooked up with an expert and reliable amp tech (Chris Ivan in Kettering, Ohio), the old Bassman finally received some much needed (and long overdue) tender loving care. The end result? An absolute TONE MONSTER -- one of the best sounding amps these 50+ year old ears have ever heard. My chronic "mid life tone crisis" is finally over -- and how many guitar players can honestly say that? My primary axe is again (now that I have the Bassman) my Strat Plus (now with blocked whammy bar and Lindy Fralin Blues Special pickups) and has never sounded better. Each of the five pickup selector positions is articulate, well defined, and classically Strat sounding. And the quack is back and better than ever. The bottom end is tight and punchy (some of this is probably due to the closed back Avatar) while the top end is both bright, clear, and full sounding. I've yet to find a setting that degrades into any type of mushiness / mudiness. Someone in an earlier review called the Bassman sound the "Jesus tone". AMEN BROTHER!!! Other adjectives that come to mind are rich, lush, and vintage Fendery tone. With 50 watts of power to play with I've got all the volume I'll ever need. Gone are the days when I felt the Strat tone was thin and wimpy. My Milk Box compressor has been relieved of duty. Even with those low-medium output single coil Lindy Fralins, I doubt the volume knob will get much higher than 4 to 4.5 in most of the club venues we perform in. The Bassman begins to break up very tastefully and very linearly at that volume setting - and REALLY begins to sing and sustain. And by simply tweaking the Strat volume pot back a hair I'm immediately back into a nice clean zone again - with very little volume dropoff. Not surprisingly, my effects chain closely mirrors the simplicity of the Bassman - floor tuner, Voh Wah, Tubescreamer -- that's it now! The Bassman graciously accepts these simple effects inputs, adds it own tonal magic, and puts out some very wonderous sounds. My only slightly negative comment is that without reverb they sometimes sound a little dry to me - but that may be just a personal taste kind of thing. I may decide to add digital reverb to the chain at some time in the future - but only a splash. I also frequently play a humbucker equipped Guild Bluesbird AAA -- talk about overwhelming, in your face, full tone. I previously described the Strat as sounding "lush" - the Bluesbird sounds "LUSH" through this amp and creates a whole new sonic category -- the Celestions really begin to growl with this combination. I'm absolutely convinced that should I ever crank the volume knob, I could wind up knocking my house down. So...can I give a 10+ for this category?

I'll probably baby my new baby for a while until I develop a better feel for its reliability. I think that it will do fine but after all, it's coming up on its 40th birthday this September. I suspect that the key to its reliability will be regular and proper maintenance. In any case, I NEVER gig without backup equipment - amps as well as guitars and PA gear.

Unfortunately, at this point in time, vintage blackface amps seem to be long lost, distant relatives of the modern day Fender Corporation. Yeah...they share the same name but that's about the extent of their relationship. Also having a couple of Fender "reissue" amps, I now realize that there really is no comparison whatsoever with the Real McCoy (sorry Fender -- but I still love ya). So...you'll need to provide your own "customer support" -- either by yourself if you're so inclined or through a good amp tech. And I just can't say enough good things about my tech (again...Chris Ivan, here in the local Dayton area).

I picked up my first guitar the same year that this amp was born. With my own kids now grown and with career pressures subsiding, I resumed pursuit of my musical passions a few years ago. But as I've accumulated gear, I've also struggled mightily in my search for that elusive classic tone that was planted deep in my brain during the late 60s. With the Bassman, that crisis is now behind me -- and although my Blues DeVille, Super Reverb Reissue, Vibrolux Reverb Reissue are all good amps, they now take a back seat. The Bassman has turned out to be my personal Holy Grail of tone (why on earth didn't I do this years ago!!!). And with only three controls to worry about, even I can "dial it in" properly -- what could be simpler? In fact, I am so smitten by this amp that I'm already looking around for another one to become my backup. I guarantee you that as soon as i run into another one of these, it'll be coming home with me! Again - this category gets a 10+!!!!

This was orginally a Silver Face model head (I think around '69 to '71) that I received in a trade for some other gear. The amp sounded great but the box was beat. Eventually, I came across an empty pre-CBS head ane Blackface panel that I mounted the chassis into.

Oringially, this amp was used as my effects amp in a Tri-Combo set-up for my chorus and echo feed from my main amp- a Music Man 100RP with a 12" EV 12-S speaker. The Bassman powered a Music Man open back cab with another 12-S EV.

After a while, someone played me a recording of a live show that was recorded from one mic back at the soundboard and I noticed that although onstage I thought there was a good balance, between the three amps, acousticaly at the back of the room, the Bassman was the dominant sounding amp.

Eventually, having grown tired of lugging three amps, I ran the follwing set-up on just the Bassman- Guitar into the second jack of the Bright Channel with a Y cord out of the first jack. One Y went to an Ernie Ball volume that fed my pedal board and then routed to the first jack of the Normal Channel. The second Y went to another Ernie Ball volume that fed a Rockman Utralight- with the chorus switched off and full distortion- that fed a Boss NS-1 Noise Gate and on into the second jack in the Normal Channel. The Bright switch was on for this channel.

This fed the Music Man cab with the 12-S and allowed me to blend the amounts Fender Bassman chunky clean, chorus/delay and crunch/distortion that I wished to have.

Leo probably never intended it for a set-up such as this but over the 10 plus years that I regularly used it, it never failed and received many compliments regarding its versitlity considering its low-tech make-up.

I've used mainly a '62 reissue strat as well as a "bastardize" tele with single and double coil pickups and have played everything from over-the-top Rockin' Soul to Lounge and Country Club Music through this rig.

It sounds great at any volume setting above 2- thats where it kick on- but fro about 4 1/2 to 7 is the sweet spot. Noise is not a problem ans long as the Noise Gate is on the Rockman.

This set up has produced a wide varitey of sounds for me over the years. I have even substituted my Roland GR-30 in with excellent results.

I have never had a problem with this amp. The tubes still test out over 90%. It's an amazing amp.

N/A

These days, I have been using a Rivera Concert for something different- the power supply for the Rockman has a bad wire and hooking up less feeds isn't so bad either- but I'll always have this Bassman- if it were lost or stolen it would be like a pet or something- irreplaceble.

This is simply a great amp!