1966 Fender Bassman

icabod · Post by **icabod** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:09 am

A nice big diaphragm mic like an EV RE20 would be good for that, and boy that amp is in nice shape Peter, I'm envious! haha

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:56 am

I used to have 2 of those! A black face & a silver face. The black I gave to a good friend & the silver I sold for $100. I bought both for $75 each. I think they both needed new caps.
The black wasn't quite loud enough for a decent bass stage volume, awesome guitar amp though, & the silver was too thin altogether.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:07 pm

That's a nice looking amp Peter. I believe it's called just a Bassman, later on when they added more power to them they started calling them bla bla 100's etc. The problem with the original bassman heads for bass is that they just don't have the power especially for the lower notes, they distort a lot. My own pet theory is that the reason 60's bass players played up high so often on the neck is because of the low wattage amps they had to put up with back then, the low notes were just lost when the amps krapped out so to cut through they played the high boomy notes which is a pretty cool style to me. Even mic'ed the bassman's are pretty useless onstage unless your band plays at a very low volume. I do remember being 14-15 years old and seeing Fender Bassman's though and thinking wow, look at that big amp!

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:08 pm

Yeah, Showman's are nice heads Jeffrey, I had a silver faced Bassman a few years ago and it had a nice sound to it

revolver323 · Post by **revolver323** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 2:07 pm

It's a shame that band volume levels ever rose to the point where a Fender Bassman is no longer loud enough for live performance but I know what you mean. Forty years ago when I started playing clubs, a Bassman was plenty loud enough. In fact I ran my volume no higher than 3 for five years. Around 1970, things got out of hand and I had to get a 200 watt amp that I ran on 7, and it still got lost behind guitars and keyboards. The biggest problem with the Bassman wasn't the amp, it was the players. Most bass players I knew unfailingly cranked the amp's bass knob up to 10, turned down the treble and cranked the volume to 7 or 8, then wondered why their basses distorted and ******* out on low notes. I never ran my bass control higher than 3 but put treble at 10. Using a P bass with LaBella flats, I had a killer sound that had clarity, punch and bottom. And my band played without vocal monitors because we could actually hear ourselves sing through the PA columns. Amps weren't miked, nor were the drums. Even then, club owners thought, of course, that we were too loud. Onstage volume should not be problem these days, but I know it is. With the distortion and amp modeling technology available today, there's no reason onstage volume should be high. I'd even go so far as to use electronic drums if it keeps stage volume down, although I admit I like the feel and sound of real drums -- and I like to feel the bass as well as hear it. In my church, we're going all direct next month -- no amps, electronic drums. It will be the first time ever that I've played "live" without an amp. Although we'll have in-ear monitors, I expect to miss feeling the bass. That's pretty funny, really, because what annoys me more than anything is having some idiot with a 500 watt amp and a subwoofer in his VW Beetle sitting beside me at a red light. Maybe I'm just an old maker of flatulence

rob · Post by **rob** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 12:58 pm

I haven't yet put a down payment on the Bassman head (I sure hope it's still there next Saturday). While browsing "Fender Bassman" on Ebay, I found a Bassman silverface head that was from a guy near me. I chose not to bid, I want the blackface '66 head from this other guy instead. So I emailed this guy on Ebay, and he said he'll let me have the matching speaker cabinet to his Silverface for $100. I tried it out, and sounds excellent. So, I can't wait to get my hands on that Blackface.....

rob · Post by **rob** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 3:51 pm

BTW, I checked out one of the speakers in the cabinet today, and found nothing on the back of the magnet and frame of any brand names. The magnet looked like a flat plate. I didn't take too much time looking at it. I was wondering, are these original Fender speakers? Anyone have these?

milo · Post by **milo** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:06 pm

Did the speakers have blue Fender labels on the back of the magnets? Fender used a couple of different speaker suppliers and only Jensens ever had their name on the labels as far as I know.

You have to look for the manufacturer and date codes to determine who made the speakers. There should be a number like 465-834 and another number like 12L5-2 or something along those lines. The 465 number in my example above is the manufacturer's code for Oxford and the 834 refers to the speaker being made in the 34th week of 1968. The 12L5-2 is the speaker model: a 12 inch speaker and the rest referring to the manufacturer's power rating and naming convention.

I don't have my link handy but if you post the numbers the manufacturer can usually be determined. They are probably Oxford, Utah, or CTS if they are original. Sometimes the numbers are under the blue "Special Design" labels.

My favorite amp at home right now is a 1964 6G6B Bassman through the small 2x12 cabinet with Weber 12F150 replacement speakers. It sounds killer with a 1964 Reverb Unit.

Good luck

admin · Post by **admin** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:21 pm

Bob Young: Yes it is a Bassman but with a 50 watt rating. My error in referring to is as a Bassman 50.

rob · Post by **rob** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 7:44 am

I quickly looked at one of the speakers last weekend. There was nothing on the magnet that I saw. I'll look at both this weekend.

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 8:12 am

I think this thread belongs under our Tube Tech Forum and I will be moving it there shortly.

A successful move.

rob · Post by **rob** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 9:06 am

I was wondering where it went to. I think it's a good move also.

I've noticed a lot of pictures I've seen of the Bassman 2x15 speaker cabinet shows the speakers side by side. My cabinet is a bit taller, with the speakers in a diaginal position. (The cabinet is supposed to be for a '70's Silverface Bassman, so I've been told.) Is this supposed to be a Bassman cabinet, or do I have something else?

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 9:23 am

There were a number of different configurations for Bassman cabinets over the course of time, including side by side, one on top of the other. I have not seen the diagonal cabinet first hand, but it seems likely to me that such a configuration surfaced in the 1970s.

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:41 am

Jeff said:

... Fender used a couple of different speaker suppliers and only Jensens ever had their name on the labels as far as I know ...

My c. 1969 Bandmaster Reverb's 2x12 cabinet contained speakers with "Fender by Utah" or similar labels on them (I bought this new in 1969/1970, so they were factory original). Also, Fender used JBLs, which, of course, have JBL labels on them.

I think the diagonal speaker arrangement occurred when the "Master Volume" era started around 1972-1973; Fender Twin Reverbs with the MV have diagonally arranged speakers.

scott_s · Post by **scott_s** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:34 pm

Robert, so did you buy it or not?