Fender Bassman Head

June 1967 Blackface Bassman 50, AB165 circuit. Born in the summer of love.

Some amps are like the menu at a Chinese restaurant - 200 things to choose from, but a lot of them suck and it's a pain in the ass. This amp's like the prix fixe menu at an expensive restaurant. It does one thing extremely well - it delivers pure beautiful tone. People who love features would give it a 1, people who like their amps simple would give it a 10 - so I'll give it a 5 and you can swing which way you like. But people who like lots of features just might change their religion to simplicity if they play through this.

You've read it below, it's got 3 knobs with which you can control how loud, how deep and how bright you desire your incredible, sweet and beautiful tone.

I play as occasion warrants it in pretty much all styles. This amp may not be versatile in terms of features, but it can handle any style if you use stompboxes and outboard effects. If you play metal exclusively, chances are you wouldn't even be reading this right now. But still - with outboard effects you could use it for metal.

It has 2 channels, separate, with no switching between them. This is actually a feature in itself, since you can play 2 instruments through it - which is very handy in certain situations. Also - if you use an A/B box then the separate channels actually become switchable channels. You can load whatever effects you like onto either channel and switch between them. You can run all your effects to both channels, set one louder, and use the A/B for a volume boost. You can run one clean and the other overdriven, for a more drastic switch from clean to dirty. You can mix it up any way you like with an A/B box.

There is no headphone jack, and there is more than enough power. With the volume on 2 through my Avatar 2X12, certain pitches made the windows rattle. It's definitely not an amp for apartment dwellers. Luckily mine's current home is in a rehearsal studio - otherwise, I would probably be frustrated at my inability to overdrive it at low volume.

If you read the reviews below, you'll see that you can also perform lots of modifications on these to tweak the amp as you like. I haven't really explored this yet, since i don't feel the need. But as other reviewers have pointed out, these amps are cheap enough that you could buy one or two and modify them in a multitude of ways.

I use this mainly with a strat, also with a guild starfire V and an ovation preacher deluxe. I run it into an Avatar 2X12 with vintage 30s. It suits my style extremely well, since i like to play with anything from pure clean tone to fuzzed out. I use effects to achieve different levels of dirt - and the amp really flatters them all. Like I said above, the distortion does not get brutal on its own - but it can be with the right effect. I'll say it again - if you love pure tone and you love effects, this is probably your dream amp.

Mine is noisy but only when i'm not playing. This never bothers me, since i have long had a habit of rolling back my guitar's volume when not playing.

Play a strat through this and you'll be the very incarnation of Leo Fender's wildest wet dream. Just the most beautiful clean tone imaginable. Amps were originally designed to run clean - it's just lucky that they don't when you turn them up. This'll start to break up a bit at around 5-7, and then when dimed driving quality speakers the distortion is just phenomenal. Not brutal, though it can be raunchy. It can be sweet and very musical as well. It's delicious.

But it's LOUD. Seriously loud. You will wrestle, as i did, with achieving that dimed sound at low volumes. I haven't tried using a power attenuator, because a good one would cost as much as the amp. But i've heard bad things about them anyway - that they fry your amp. Maybe some kind soul can email me with advice about this matter. Until I hear or experience otherwise, I personally don't believe there's a solution. A big part of tone is big sound, and a lot of the big sound comes from driving the speakers so they resonate in the cabinet, and you just can't do that with tube tone alone - you need volume. Nevertheless, with a quality preamp for gain you can pretty much get there at low volumes tone-wise.

It's working great after 36 years. If i keep servicing it regularly I'm sure it'll last a lifetime. It's built as solid as they come.

I bought this used. I go to a local amp tech for problems.

I've been playing for 16 years. I've played through all sorts of amps - Dr. Z, Matchless, all sorts of Marshalls, Bogners, Mesa, VHT, lots of others. Different amps have different qualities, but me, I'm a fender man, always have been. This amp will deliver Fender tone as good as it gets - which is very very good. I chose this one over other Fenders because I'm obsessed with value.

I hate paying too much for something and then finding out that someone else got something better for cheaper. That really gets me. It makes me feel ripped-off and stupid. On the other hand, I get very proud whenever I think about how much I paid for this amp and how tremendous it sounds.

For clean tone - it cannot be matched. It's natural overdrive is absolutely wonderful. It's only drawback is that it can't achieve that natural overdrive at low volumes. But if you use a preamp for gain, you can do almost just as well - like 90% of the way there. And if you like to use different preamps for different styles of gain, then this is the perfect amp for you.

Like a lot of semi-professional musicians, I'm not made of dough. If I had gobs of cash to spend I'd probably own a ton of amps and guitars and every effect pedal ever made. Even if I did, i'd probably still use this one the most.

I truly believe that these amps are hands down the absolute best value in the entire electric instrument industry - that includes guitars, effects and amps.

It boggles my mind that I was able to buy this for under $400. It boggles my mind that there are effects on the market that cost more than this amp did. Ah. . . the mysteries of supply and demand. Why this amp isn't in more demand is beyond me. You'd think after decades of being out of production that these things would cost a fortune considering the popularity of vintage equipment. Since no rock guitar gods are known to have used this as their primary amplification, I guess it just hasn't resonated among the masses - which is all to the better for those of us lucky enough to stumble on to them. As for me, if I was rich and popular and played stadiums, i'd be out there diming this thing every night. If I lost it, I'd buy another one, and it wouldn't cost that much.

It's immensely gratifying to me that I can acheive such a pure, superior tone for such a low price.

(Hint - i've gotta plug another company for those of you like me who are obsessed with value. I can't vouch for their bass cabs, but Avatar is a tremendous value for guitarists in search of a cabinet. Dave's out there in Idaho just waiting for your call. He must be a philanthropist to charge the prices he charges - thank you Dave! When I play this amp through an Avatar 2X12 it's more powerful than most other amps through 4X12s. You can load it with the speakers of your choice, choose your design. Superior sound - unparalleled value - and no, i am not one of his employees, nor do i know him personally)

I'd give this a 10 no matter what I paid for it. Since the overall rating is based on value, this beauty should really shoot off the top of the 1-10 scale.

1966 Fender Bassman Blackface head, matching 2-15" piggyback cab

Bought this from my old lead player band mate in 1971; he has wanted it back ever since! His reverb deluxes just don't pack it. I used it for years on gigs, first as rhythm guitar, then my 1966 P. Bass w/black nylon strings for that acoustic sound. have also blown blues harp thru it. Am rather astounded that I seem to be the only Bassman on this site with original 2-15' (Altec-Lansing) speakers! No, they are NOT too bassy. This thing is a powerhouse, and what I thought was an opinion clouded by the infirmity of years has only been reinforce reading thru these comments. Hard to believe it's only 50 watts (do they still say "R.M.S.?") This thing will blow out any big, noisy honky-tonk, and is rugged enough for outdoor performances, only watch out for shocks and reception of radio transmissions! You can get incredible feedback; turn it up, make a twang and wiggle the instrument gently into the speakers. It has that classic tube sound that cannot be replicated. It does have a hum. But I'm bald now, so who cares? When I plug in my Taylor 12-string acoustic w/Fishman pickup, the sound is amazing! and the FEEDBACK! WHo knows what the future potential of these amps will be with the next generation of instruments, boxes and players? The whole outfit weighs over 100#, and has been quite the workout when gigging up or down stairs. Have hauled it al over, from New Orleans to Canada. Need a large vehicle or wagon to transport this cab. Lotsa good memories. Like they say, why sell one of these when you could never replace it -- well, you could, but these don't bring enough to ever warrant selling it.

Has sat for years at a time without much power. But always comes alive when resurrected, and is now rolling again. The power cord was apparently stuffed back into the head cab too many times while in a hurr tearing down, packing up and moving out, so there is a burned spot almost thru it from the hot tubes. Replaced the pilot light last year, cleaned, and adjusted, and like I said, still hums, but who notices when you turn it up? I have played thru this thing starting i 1970, and don't look for it to ever konk out.

Who needs it? Any good old tube man can fix whatever ails, and the amazing thing I've noticed in recent years is the emergence of access to wonerful new tubes.

Been playing since this amp was new. If lost or stolen would try to duplicate it, except might have to consider 12" speakers. Unless I was playing the Tele, themight consider 10". What do I hate about it? Many a time I cursed its sheer bulkiness, but later realized that's maybe why its lasted so long and sounds so fine. Might try FX box someday w/ guitar, otherwise, I remain an anachronistic traditionalist, sold on the vintage tube sound.

Mine is a 1964 with the rare AA864 circuit, which features two independent, out-of-phase channels... one called "Bass Instrument" and the other called "Normal." The "Bass Instrument" channel has Bass, Treble, Volume controls and a "Deep" swith. The "Normal" channel has similar controls; only instead of the "Deep" switch it has a "Bright" switch(essentially a presence boost). Both channels have two inputs.

On the back of the amp, it has two speaker out jacks -- ideally should see a 4 ohm load, but can handle a 2 ohm load effectively. Also, has power and standby switches. Runs on 2 6L6 power tubes (usually, these things came stock with RCA Blackplates... the holy grail of tubes! Mine still work fine! Hurray) and three 12ax7 preamp tubes, and one 12at7 phase inverter tube. This model is solid-state rectified.

Interestingly, the Bass Instrument channel has an extra gain stage than the Normal channel, which pretty much looks like other Fender blackface circuits of the era... sans the Reverb and Trem.

I am using a 1952 RI Telecaster through a variety of effects (PE Overdriver, Keeley Blues Driver, Boss TR-2, Electro Harmonix Small Stone, Korg Toneworks Dynamic Echo, Electro Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb, DOD Performer Chorus) into the Bassman, which is driving a custom 2x12 cabinet with Reverend Alltone speakers.

I play in a band that performs its own brand of Byrds meets Television meets Roxy Music at usually mid- to large-sized venues.

My Bassman suits me very well. It fattens up the Tele, yet still retains the Tele's punch and clarity... *loves* pedals and can sound very mean or very charming. It's solid as a tank, easy to operate, and looks pretty cool to boot. Perhaps this is why the Bassman is the quintessential iron horse of all amps, and one of the most versatile and universally accepted rigs of all time for all sorts of music. Everyone from the Beatles to Hendrix to Social Distortion to Wilco to Steve Albini has used one of these. Want blues ala SRV? It can nail it. Want QOTSA sounds? It can nail it. Pretty much fits the bill, whatever the situation.

I have found my amp to have a decent amount of clean headroom; really doesn't start to break up until about 6 or so; and really cranks around 8. Given I usually use dirt boxes for my dirt needs, I keep it on about 4 -- at which point is very loud... even in a rock band situation.

My amp is getting near 40 years old and still has the original tubes. Nuff said.

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I've been playing nearly 20 years. This is my second Bassman. The first, which was stolen, I reviewed here years ago... and mistakingly believed it had reverb. If only I knew then what I know now... as I went through in order from that amp to this one: a Hot Rod Deluxe; a Marshall JMP MkII; a Mesa Boogie Maverick; a Hiwatt DR-504; and finally came full circle back to this guy.

Perhaps one of the legendary amps of all time for rock and blues applications. It kills me that these things can be had for under 500 bones. Truly one of the most bangs for bucks ever. I love my amp; and hopefully soon will buy another... and another... and another...

1965 Fender Bassman Head. Two Channel. "Deep" switch on bass channel, "Bright" switch on regular channel. 3 Knobs per Channel.
Volume, Bass, Treble. Its really honestly all you need.

This has the best overdriven sound ever. I have a Mesa/Boogie DC-5 head too, and it cant really get a good "overdrive" sound. It can do distortion though. But thats not what i wanted. This has it. Turn the volume to 10, Treble to 8,9, or 10 and bass to about 6 or 7. I like the regular channel the best, and turn the bright switch on. The best overdrive in the world. Better than Marshall, who ripped off the design for this.

Well, one time it shocked the shit out of me. I touched the top of it. Im gonna try to get this thing grounded. Other than that its fine.

I doubt fender even remembers making these. If they did, they would do a reissue. But you can find the blackface ones like this for like $300 if you try. These are probobly some of the best sounding ones ever made. You will have to pay for all of the service, but its worth it.

This is my favorite amp ive ever played. Really good for a Jimmy Eat World type sound. I have a blue stratocaster with a duncan jeff beck in the bridge. Sometimes i use a Pro-Co Rat Pedal for distortion but thats about it. The Rat is one of the best pedals ever so, and this is definitly an amp that sounds good with pedals. But this amp sounds incredible turned up to 10.

Blackface, so Mid-late 60's. Versatility? Well, it can get really good clean and distorted sounds by working the guitar volume.No channel switching. Totally stripped down...volume,treble, bass and a bright switch that I leave on. It's perfect for me in that I despise trying to figure stuff out on an amp and I really hate lots of dials, buttons and switches. So for me,the absence of all that inspires a:

This is my third one.I sold the two before this one to move on to other amps and try out as many as I could afford. A noble endeavor but after all these years I've come to realize... I'm never letting go of this one! They are just about my all around favorite and I've got a bunch. Great clean and distorted sounds and to my ear, Fender's version of a Marshall only with a sweeter distortion. Good for lots of types of music and just a real pure sound and lots of fun to play. Nice dynamics and it has that real squishy feel to it beneath the fingers. I really love that! They are cheap too. The heads run around $300-$350 and you can usually find a cab around for the same amount. Thats alot of amp for $600 and with a pedal or two, you've got a really great sounding rig. Soft or loud these amps sound great and they look really neat too. Fender Piggy Backs are my favorites...but I digress. Crunchy,smooth,sweet...sounds like an Abba Zabba Bar but it's really an accurate way of describing an under rated gem of an amp. Don't delay,do not hesitate...go now and buy one no,two... and be happy that you have made the right choice in your life for once. They are a great value in a very crowded market full of reissues and feature laden trash that in the end will only leave you empty and confused.

Rock Solid. I haven't even changed the tubes it came with 6 years ago.

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LIke I said...simple, great sounding amp that looks really cool and never screws up. If you are a techniphobe like me, but love to play through something old and great, this is a great choice.

I own a 1966 bassman head run through a marshall 1960-A, It is a very simple yet very versitile amp. I play a lot of funk and rock and there is no better amp in exsistence for this. I pretty loud for being a 50 watt amp. Although there's no mid knob you can still mess with the bass and treble to get some different contour sounds. It has a master volume knob also installed on it and I use Groove Tubes 6L6-B's.

This amp amazes me everytime i plug into it. I use a Fender standard Stratocaster. When you crank the volume it sounds super aggressive, and you can also get awesome clean on it. Sometimes I use the bass input with the volume cranked to 10 and it give a really rauncy out of control distortion great for old school punk and other rock. For funk, rock, blues or anything else but metal there is no better amp to get.

The amp has no major problems after 36 years. I woludn't even have to think about a backup amp for a gig.

Not sure, never needed it.

Nothing better, very few flaws, I use my strat with this and an BOSS OS-2 and a crybaby and there's no tone I can't get.

1968 SILVERFACE BASSMAN HEAD, 2 CHANNELS. ONE BASS, ONE NORMAL, ITS PLENTY OF POWER FOR CLUBS AND PRACTICE.

I PLAY A PRECISION THROUGH IT AND IT DRIVES A HARTKE 410 TRANSPORTER &A HARTKE 210 TRANSPORTER AND GIVES ME THE BASS SOUND THAT I COULD NOT FIND WITH OTHER MANUFACTURERS. IT IS VERY VERSITALE AS I USE IT FOR GUITAR PLAYED THROUGH 2 TENS AND IT GIVES A NICE CLEAN SOUND. THIS IS PERFECT BASS HEAD.

DUE TO ITS AGE I BRING A BACKUP(HARTKE 2000). IT HAS NEVER BROKEN DOWN

I'VE BEEN PLAYING OUT FOR OVER 20 YEARS IHAVE USED THIS EXCLUSIVELY SINNCE 1993. IT WOULD BE TOUGH TO TRY TO REPLACE IT. VERSITILY IS ITS KEY. I TOOK IT ONCE TO A GUITAR REPAIR SHOP AND THE OWNER OFFRED ME $100 MORE THAN WHAT I PAYED FOR IT. HE SAID THAT MY CUREENT AMP WHICH WAS A GK WOULD NOT LAST 25 YEARS(AT THE TIME IN 1993) AS THIS FENDER WOULD NAD HE WAS RIGHT.

'69/'70 Fender Bassman .Simple as written above, but that doesn't mean it isn't versatile.

I play a Westone Spectrum FX. Don't laugh I know all about '58 -'60 Les Paul Standards and so forth, but I love it. It has humbuckers of course. Neck through design allows for sustain etc etc. Anywho, this little $200 Silver Face (black faced) head with mismatched Sylvania-RCA powertubes and RCA preamps just simply has killer, holy grail type tone. Again don't laugh. In front is a TS-9 and the distortion is rich and girthywith a tiny bit of chime and some sparkly finish. I playedlast night at 6 or 7 volume and I fucked up thesong because I was so into the tone. The TS-9 plays a large role, but without on volum 4 the beast is Fender clean. On ten it will punch you square in the chest.

Knock on wood: bomb proof

Techs are all over the place.

I have been playing since '86 and I highly recommend this amp. Go get one now!! Sell your second Marshall and by 10 bassmans.

2 channels bass & normal

Strat types. some with treble position humbuckers. I had to replace to fiber circuit board. It had Fender diease " crackling " around the notes. the normal channel is stock except for .22 orange drop caps a 10k mid,and it the output is wired like an AA864. everyone wants to buy it because it has that "thing". I use an old vox 4-12 cab w/ Celestion 70`s and some times a Crate 2-12 w/vintage crate celestions.
4-12`s will always rule the roost. It`s just the way it is.
the right pedals and you can do any thing with it.

Still playing with the dirty channel.
It`s totaly rebuilt so it can`t fail for awhile.
I`ve got a hybrid fender/marshall preamp for the dirty side and it is
just hot enough. I just need a little more bass. When I finish maybe I`ll make a drawing if any one really wants one.

built in 1967 ? I`m the warranty

Iv`e been playing over 20 years. I once had a blackface super and sold it. ( young and dumb! ) I couldn`t replace the sound so I got this amp, some books and went for it. Had to get that old fender vibe with better bass and a gritty dirt channel. Yea, with some sweat equity a smart man can make a cool thing that`s his own. Nobody really sounds like me, ( can`t buy it , gotta make it )and to me that`s really cool.

1966 blackface bassman head with a few mods.i use this for bass and guitar. two channel 50 loud watts watts i added a 4-8 ohm output transformer, el34's for another 15 true clean watts free of charge, midrange controls on both #2 inputs, bumped up the bass switch capacitor to something the size of the top of your thumb, converted the bass channel to one inspired by the '62 white bassman bass channel. this was the only fender amp that ever used this type of preamp circuit; it's called a cascode(not cascade)style preamp. part of what it does is that the treble control is not really a treble control as we know it, but a fixed frequency (center, or 5 is "flat") which you can dial in more or less of, completly independent of bass or midrange, unlike every other fender amp ever made.(the brown vibroverb, pro and concert are similar in some respects). this is very very cool, and takes a while to get the hang of. but once you do... and when i hit the now useful bass switch it's very very fat without eating up a lot of headroom. this channel is useless for guitar, but for bass it's something else. it also breaks up completely differently when you wind it up, sorta like a busted limiter. this is a characteristic of this type of design and does'nt sound very good. but within it's range of clean it'll shock the hell out of you. also the volume control is very interactive with the treble control, giving you a huge range of sounds. for example with treble on 4 or 5 you can get the volume up to 7 or 8-1/2 with no break up for a very fat reggae dub tone. treble on 7 (very bright)the clean volume maxes out at around 4 or 5. dial in bass to taste. for more punchy fender bass amp stuff go to the guitar channel, still with a lot of bottom (most bass players only use this channel because the bass channel is kinda wimpy on it's own; not mine any more!)and a really great clean guitar channel as well. the 10 rating is for the amp with the mods done. these amps stock are still a great value.

ah, my baby. this was (still is) my workhorse bass amp for many years.i can't tell you how many bass players have come up, looked and said "oh, a bassman. how quaint! or some such thing. then i'll ask them to sit in, and they go "holy shit!" i'm getting about 62 clean watts out of it; my tech really had to talk me into the el34's. i wanted 6550's(they will barely fit) but he said that the design of the fender power transformer was such that the design of an el34 will squeeze the maximum clean out of this amp without hurting a thing, and give me far better low end than a 6L6. he was right; there's no lower mid bump; very linear deep bass with a sweet (not shrill at all) top end that even works great for guitar. a single 15 cab with an e/v 15B was what i used mostly back then, now believe it or not an old acoustic 6-10 cab(6 24ohm 10's) that i stuffed and sounds amazing. i prefer 15's for bass (be a real man!) but this 6-10 just kills. two single 15's will cover any gig i've ever done, and is actually too much for most. it's all about efficiency; 60 or 100 tube watts is all you really need, with a bit of planning.

please...

playing 30 years, bass and guitar. i don't play bass like a guitar player (which is really hard to do;i've worked with a lot of great old school drummers who don't mince words,believe me).a ri p-bass with labella jamerson flatwounds. no di's, please! mike the damn thing if need be. these days i work as a guitarist and bring the bassman as a spare for both me and our bassist, who's had to use it when his swr has gone down. he loves it. oh, once i went with a friend to a music store and hooked up his '69 marshall 50 watt(1st year metal panel) and then my bassman to a marshall 4-12 cab. (remember, i've got el34's). you would not believe.... anyway, this is just my little testimonial to an amp that that has given me much satisfaction thru the years, and real old school bass tone to die for.