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.

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!

I got a '64 Bassman with the less common AA 864 schematic. Very cool amp. The most straightformward amp I ever owned! I only got the head, but I build a matching 2x12 cabinet myself with 2x12" Eminence Alnico's in it, sounds fab.
I usually use it with a mid 90ties Marshall JCM 900 4x12" A cabinet, and this makes the amp really sing imo.
The amp came with brand new GT 6L6 tubes (coke bottles) and GT Ecc83/7025/12ax7 and a Ecc82. It was also unmodded, which is a great feature for me.

The sound of this amp is powerful and round, less high and glassy then my "64 Tremolux head (for wich I bought the Bassman as a backup)
Since I play instro-Surf music (fender Jaguar and Jazzmaster), the Bassman suits my music style perfectly, but it sounds perfect with any pedal or effect. any volume under "2/3" is o.k., but when I turn it to "3" or "4"....It's glorious, all te way. I usually keep the the "treble" at "7" and the Bass at "5/6".
To my surprise the amp is quit as a mouse and this for a 41 year old amp! I do only use the "bass" chanel for Bass and the "normal" for guitar. The "50" watts anre great as well. It's really loud (especially with the Marshall cab) and I'm not in favor of most 100 Watt amps since they are mostly just way too loud for me.

So, far so great. The amp was serviced prior to my purchase, so all the electrolyte caps were replaced and most solder joints were redone, which is really a plus to play such an amp safely. I only had two electrolyte caps replaced, since they had the wrong value.
And as described before, it came fully retubed!
Since the tolex and speaker grill are still original and in great shape, I assume this amp was taken care of by it's previous owner(s).

Well after 41 years, I assume "customer support" is no longer an option, but a good tech is. I had it looked over by a friend tech two days after my purchase and he replaced two electrolyte caps and said the amp was in great condition and safe to play.

For me this is a great find, I used a "hacksawed" '75 Quad reverb (head only) and could not make it sound the way I wanted it to. So I sold it in favor of a Bassman and two days later I found this one (coinsidence? Or pure luck!) I'm all in for the Fender "Black face" sound, pure and original.The clean is superb and when used with any pedal it sounds like no other amp I ever tried.
I would hate to loose it or to have it stolen. I use it on most of my gigs and keep a close eye on it.
So fare, there is nothing I hate about it or anything I wished it had. All my guitars sound great on this one (from my Ibanez 440SII to my EKO 700 and everything in between)
After playing guitar for about 14 years and using many amps, I like this one as much as my "64 Tremolux. It's a bit different but it sure "rawks" This one is a keeper for me.

50 Watt 2x6L6 output tubes, 3 12Ax7s, 1 12At7 (in the driver position). Solid state rectifier. Two channels (Bass & Normal) with two inputs (1:High 2:Low), three knobs (volume, treble, bass) and one switch per channel ("Deep" on Bass and "Bright" on Normal). Back panel has a Power switch, Standby switch, two speaker outputs, and a power outlet to run effects (or a toaster if you want). No channel switching or effects loop. Just big tube tone! Three knobs and the truth! Nothing much happens before 3 on the volume knob. In small rooms, you will find yourself banished to the "under 3" zone and will probably dislike the amp. It sounds very thin and weak in this zone. As you hit 3, the volume jumps and you are rewarded with a fat clean sound that continues just shy of 4. From 4 to 7, you get relatively the same volume but more raunch as you turn it up. From 7 on--step back! This amp would be a perfect candidate for an attenuator like a THD Hot Plate.

I use a '98 American Telecaster w/Duncan '59 (neck) and Duncan Nashville Tele (bridge), a stock 2000 Les Paul Standard, and a '48 Supro Lap Steel. This is truly an amazing-sounding amp! Be warned: the Bassman is a brutally honest amp that will bring out every nuance (good and bad) in your playing. A well-maintained Bassman is the benchmark of clean electric guitar. It's not squeaky-clean like a Twin, or spongy like a Deluxe Reverb. It's fat and punchy. It sits right in the middle of the two: the clarity of the Twin with the warmth of the Deluxe. It can get quite raunchy when you crank it. These are loud amps that hold together well at high volume. They excel as the central building block of your tone. You can get as simple or complex as you want: Either stick a cord in the front and use your volume knob to regulate the raunch, or pile on effects (Bassman amps love pedals). As a bonus, it makes a cool low-watt bass amp (hence "Bassman"). Sounds great on harmonica, too.

Built like a tank. I traveled coast to coast with mine for years without a backup and it never let me down--250 shows a year banging around in a trailer. Once in Philly, it fell off the stage face first 6ft. onto a concrete floor. I just picked it up, set it back on the cab and kept going!!

Easy to service. Any reputable amp tech has seen a ton of them and will know how to fix it and/or modify it.

I've owned everything under the sun, but I've kept the Bassman head and matching 2x12 cab (w/tilt back legs)all these years. I'll never part with the it! How can you beat a genuine point-to-point blackface Fender amp for such a low price? It's the best value around. Find one before they become too expensive!

I have an AB165 Bassman head and I assume it may be a '66'or maybe a '65. The amp is an enigma in that it provides you with two sounds that fit in any mix and with a bit of tweaking(and the right pedals)nothing is unreachable, tonally. Not the best for metal, tho.
It has two channels with Vol.,treb.,bass and deep sw. and bright sw. simplicity.Totally old-school! It needs only your input to bring a rich pallet of sounds that YOU finess from the guitar. It will let you be a guitar volume knob guy. Just like it was intended to be years ago.Vol. down; clean,,,,,,vol. up; rock out! ! Simple!

This amp shines with any pickup config. you care to imagine. Nothing sucks thru this amp!EVER!
I play bluesy rock and some country styles as well and the clean on this is stellar!It will cop the Stevie Ray thang if you got the chops to pull it off. No perceived noise if you keep up with filter cap replacements and just plain good sense maintainence. Easy as pie to fix and schematics abound. I like to call the distortion "clean distortion" because it's very transparent yet gain-ey and with sustain. Great string definition! It's not in the Boogie category where saturation is present but more of a total tube power section mojo.Once again,,,,,old school tech. reminding us of where it all began. In the studio, this amp rules the roost. The only thing that comes close would be a real-deal Marshall Plexi. But that would be LOUD!!!!! This is loud but not out of hand. The distortion is just plain perfect and not at all brutal, but more pleasing and supportive of the player. To get the BIG overdrive you need to go find your favorite pedals. Like many have stated here, it reacts beautifully to pedals of all kinds.AC Booster and Duncan Pickup Booster both are KILLER thru this amp!

It can only be broken by extreme abuse and that would be someting akin to dropping it out the 15th story of your apartment building! However, proper maintainence is always the kosher thing to do.
I replaced the(blown) output transformer with a NOS one and never looked back! The amp will last for ten lifetimes as long as it's maintained properly. Simple stuff like proper speaker impedence and just not dropping it are two really great places to start.

One guy said here that if Fender remembered making this amp, they would make a re-issue. How right you are ! ! They must not know that this is the amp that us old schoolers really love.Earth to Fender, come in please! !

Fender doesn't need to provide service as any quality amp guy can take one look in here and see how simple it all is and effect repairs in moments providing he/she's got the parts. Sprague is still around and they've proven to be the best place to look for replacing old parts. They're the best.

I've played for a living for 31 years and have played them all. Soldano, Mesa/Boogie, Matchless, Marshall,boutique, etc. I will have Bassmans in the house as long as I live, they are that good!
I love it's utter simplicity:Tone works like this;plug into bass ch.,,,,dime the vol.,treb.,and turn on the deep sw.,,,,,,,with the bass knob off, start playing your biggest power chords and start bringin' up the bass 'til you get this indescribable natural tube section compression and start rockin' out! ! ! SWEET and pure! REAL DEAL!!
The other ch. seems to have a cleaner intent and I can get a spanky jangly clean without batting an eye! Your guitars finest hour is here! !

1963 first year non-blonde. None of that deep switch crap, just treble and bass on both channels with a master presence knob. Bass channel is wonderful for recording bass with. I'll play my 64 non bound neck hofner 500/1 or my new ric 4001/c64 and it beets the hell out of any fucking swr or newer ampeg or that kind of stuff when it comes to getting a real sounding bass tone. Indescribably round and impressivley clear.

I just use it for recording bass. I play guitar trough it non stop. bass channel has one less gain stage in its circuitry then the ''normal'' channel, thus less amount of breakup. Cant do wrong with the bass channel with a strat or tele or 335 or whatever you plug in to it. Unbeatable blues character on that bass channel. Starts to breakup around 4 or so with strong sinlge coils or good humbuckers, 4 is quite loud. Normal channel yields a brighter more 'excited' tone due to the extra gain stage and different voicing from the bass chan. It will begin breaking up at 2 or so if you bang the heck out of the guitar, not quite my style. But the fact it does this further enhances its versitility. Turn him up to 5 and you got enough fender type o.d. to sing for days. Ive taken bot channels to 10 a few times. THe bass channel is very warm with a beautiful high end breakup character. The normal channe l is overwhelming full and bright and everything in between. I dont even have to mention the picking dynamic wonderfulness this amp supplies. The bass and treble knobs are kind of interactive and quite usable but the presence knob just awakes that 3 demensional high end (should you feel inclined to do so) like a good fawn ac30 has. I got it from a cool sotre in reno that has since changed a bit. It came with its matching 2x15 cab but the 2x15s were nowhere in sight. It was filled edge to edge with one JBL 18 inch chrome dome, i belive its a d130, its been a while since i ripped the back off. WOW never better for bass, and unbelievable for jazz blues or anything (sorry numetal need not apply....get a lesson on tone and musicality please) Im not sure the ohmage but it matches quite well with the head 4 ohms, right? Truly a cool setup. Try one if you have the oppertunity.

never had a problem. Ive swapt many tubes thru it and have realized this amps potential by doing so.

nope too old. I would never bring an amp to the guy everyone here in vegas takes there's to, cowtown. Anybody know of a legitiate and honest amp repair man in vegas? I sure as hell dont.

wonderfull. sorry for the spelling its quite late. Thanks for reading this 'rant'

My Bassman head is circa 1965-66 and though I am completely in love with it, I can only give it a 3 for features. No reverb, no vibrato/tremolo, no FX loop, no presence and no master volume. Two channels, one for bass and the other labeled 'instrument' with volume, treble and bass controls for each but no channel switching. Bass channel has a deep switch while the instrument channel has a bright switch. In a time of amp modelling, cabinet simulation, on board multi-fx, endless tone shaping, etc... This old relic has little to offer in the way of bells and whistles and that is exactly why I love it. SIMPLE. For me, the perfect amp would have a control panel like my late 1950's Fender Tweed Champ, only one knob, on/off-volume and instead of numbers, the panel would say 'More' with an arrow pointing clock-wise. There are no additional features that I want and my only real wish is that I could get all of that TONE at a lower volume. 50 watts of vacuum tube power is far more than enough for my needs. But yes, this is no feature filled tonal magic show.

Sounds? Holy smokes! For me, this old girl has got The Sound. Of course the sound is a package deal and the package includes the guitar, strings, pick-ups, fx pedals (if any), the Bassman ( the type of tubes you got in it), attenuater (if any), speaker cabinet (open back or closed) and speakers (make, model and quantity). I play a Fender Strat (early '80's Japanese model) loaded with Duncan Vintage Staggered Strat PU's neck & middle and a Duncan Hot Rails bridge PU, strung up with .010 Ernie Ball classic nickel strings. I also use an old Fender Tele Deluxe also loaded with Duncans, 59 neck PU and JB bridge PU, same strings. In the past I had a Fender Lead with a Di Marzio Distortion bridge PU, same strings. No fx pedals. The Bassman itself is loaded with the later heavy duty type 6L6 tubes and all 12ax7's for the remaining tubes. Finally, a 4X12 closed back speaker cabinet loaded with Celestion G12-85 speakers. I find this amp to be outstanding for 60's and 70's blues based rock, especially the 70's hard rock. The tone is HUGE, just big and full and makes driving rythmns come alive. This baby can snarl, roar, grunt, scream, grind, rip and pump. Back off the guitars volume a little bit and/or lighten up on the pick hand and she plays reasonably clean while remaining quite full sounding. Grab a power chord and slam your hand into it and she'll make the speaker cones look like they're going to jump out of their frames. (This may have something to do with me switching out the 12at7 phase inverter tube for a 12ax7 for a little more gain and also these amps had solidstate rectifiers instead of a tube.) Yes, she packs quite a punch and can be plenty aggressive. At least with the guitar/string/pick-up combinations that I plug into her. If you got the touch you can coax all kinds of tones and textures out of her. My touch isn't that controlled yet she still gives me what I want. I'm sure, in the hands of a skilled guitar player, there are many more tones, moods, textures, etc., available at the finger tips. As for me, I could jam on ZZ Top, old Bad Company, AC/DC, 'Allright Now' (Free), Derringer, Pat Travers, Cream, etc... all day. All this praise having been poured out for the Bassman, I must also include that in the 1980's, when guitar FX racks the size of large kitchen appliances controlled by remote pedalboards so vast they would have their own zip code if they were stationary were the ticket for any guitarist wanting a gig, the poor Bassman just couldn't cut it. It failed miserably at the highly processed guitar sound. Also worth mentioning is that I found my way of playing my guitar changed as I learned how to work with the Bassman. Learning to play on low wattage, channel switching, master volume amps could not prepare me for playing a cranked up non master volume tube amp. The Bassman is an on going learning experience that I wouldn't give up for anything. I much prefer power tube distortion to preamp distortion. Oh, settings, I typically run the volume up around 8 or 9 and adjust the tone controls to sound the best for whatever stage or room I'm playing. After that I use my guitars controls and vary my touch. I give my Bassman a 9, though she is totally awesome I got to leave room for the possbility of finding something better.

When first purchased, this amp was at the bottom of a stack of Fender Bassman, and Ampeg V-4 heads. It smelled like beer and cigarettes with plenty of stains, dings, rips and other assorted minor cosmetic damage. But for $125, she still worked,... barely. First up, I opened her up and found the tube sockets for the power tubes looked like there had been a nuclear melt-down in them. Obviously there had been a catastrophic failure in the past. The power tubes were mismatched and I believe it was the screen grid resistors on the power tube sockets that were charred black. (One actually dessintigrated when touched.) A schematic, a fresh bunch of tubes, a couple of carbon composition resistors and a good cleaning and she's been going strong ever since. It must be understood that with a tube amp tubes must be replaced from time to time if you want to keep it sounding good. Tubes are like spark plugs in your car. Neglect to change them and your once powerful car runs like crap. Tubes may degrade slowly so you may not notice anything for a while, just one day you say to yourself, "Man, the old amp doesn't quite sound like she used to." and then you go shopping for a replacement. You got to keep good quality tubes in this and any tube amp, especially if you crank it up. Anyways my Bassman has been dependable for almost 20 years and she's just as beat and ugly as the day I bought her. It was never my intention to restore her.

Customer support for an old amp bought used? Plenty of amp techs in my area who do tube stuff but I don't know if I trust them with my old girl. I know enough about electronics, so if anything goes wrong I'll fix her myself.

I started playing a little late, at 22, and have been at it for more than 20 years now. I have been unfaithful to the Bassman a few times. In the '80's I tried a massive rack of stuff and quickly learned that I was lousy at learning how to use it all. (I sucked as a high tech guitar player and was considered by many a loser guitar player for a few years. That rack stuff also left me hundreds of dollars poorer.) I still have a Marshall JCM 800 Lead Series head, it sucks. I keep it as an electronics hobby, something to modify and tweak when there's nothing else to do. There's also my Sovtek Mig 50 that is falling apart, it never could compare to the Bassman and it too is now an electronics hobby. My low wattage baby is my Supro 16T with its quirky 6"x9" speaker. She's another tone monster. And my special, a late '50's Fender Champ that was found in a dumpster. Absolutely a timeless classic. In my world, guitars get played through simple, non master volume tube amps turned up to the point of power tube distortion and then controlled at the guitar by touch and the guitars controls. The Bassman's magic is not only the tone and texture of the sound it produces but also and equally important, the physical feel of the air it moves. You not only hear it, you feel it. The punch in the air, the tingle in your ears, the roar and growl vibrating in your stomach, it's more than merely audible, it's an experience, it's rock-n-roll, it may not be the thing for you, but it's just what the doctor ordered for me. If I ever lost this baby I'd either buy another or build a clone.