Bassman 10

jdubbass38 · #1 04-06-2011, 10:38 AM

I found a Fender Bassman 10 in good shape, how do these work for bass? I know alot to the bassman's are loved by guitar players but this one has a closed back, not sure if it makes a difference.I am thinking it would be a great practice/small gig amp with the tube sound. Has anyone played thru these?

Thanks,

Justin

4Mal · #2 04-06-2011, 10:45 AM

Yep and if the gig is VERY small it will work nicely. Not a lot of bottom and certainy not much clean headroom but if you can live within the constraints, there is some gucci tome in there ... I see those for $450 around Portland from time to time. bassman heads seem to pull more dough

WINGS012345 · #3 04-06-2011, 10:49 AM

At low volume they are ok for bass. In a live situation with a full band it will distort as you turn it up. I have the Fender bassman 50 watts. What I have done that works well and is loud. I bought a digitech BP 355 bass pedal. It has modeling amps you can choose. One of the Models is a Fender bassman and A showman. I plug my guitar into that and then the pedal into the amps input and I have tons of volume. I cant turn the Bassman up past 2 its so loud and sounds great. I used it at a gig with a full band. 450 seat banquet hall and it was way loud. We always use PA support but our stage voulume is loud and I was only on two the whole night. It could have went much louder. Without the pedal, you can do that. it distorts at 3 or 4.

Downunderwonder · #4 04-06-2011, 11:09 AM

What year is your bassman 10? I'm thinling its a wee modern practice combo??? "Bassman" is a well used name. I've got a bassman and it wasn't even made by Fender.

EricssonB · #5 04-06-2011, 11:26 AM

Bassman 10.

Is that what you're talking about?

sammyfallen · #6 04-06-2011, 12:01 PM

Love them for home practice and recording. Couldn't cut it live. Imo, It has some of the finest tones on the planet if proper use of volume is followed.

jdubbass38 · #7 04-07-2011, 10:08 AM

yeah, thats the one. 410 silverface, I believe its the 50watt also, I will have to check the year.

Downunderwonder · #8 04-07-2011, 10:17 AM

My 50w "bassman" makes enough to gig a little loud in a small bar without drums. Add drums and it would just be "there" with no dynamics, unless it was cafe jazz.

jdubbass38 · #9 04-13-2011, 10:35 AM

I ended up getting it, the tone of this amp is awesome, channel 2 has more bass and using the bright switch, it has a lot of definition. I am surprised how well this amp produces bass, I know bassman’s are great for guitar but again this one has some lows for a 50watt 410. I am finding that I can turn up past 8 on the knobs and still get a great clean tone. Most likely not enough for a big gig but if I ran it thru the PA it might get the job done. So far it’s a great practice amp!

Thanks for all your help on this,

Justin

Downunderwonder · #10 04-13-2011, 10:57 AM

Sure looks like it hasn't left the studio, nice find.

JTE · #11 04-13-2011, 11:55 AM

COOL! I was a Fender dealer from '77 through '88 and we came to the conclusion that there were two totally different Bassman 10 production lines. Those amps either sounded great, or putrid. I've never heard anything in between. We even had two with sequential serial numbers that were polar opposites- we used both cabinets with either chassis, tried them into different speaker loads, swapped tubes, everything, and still one chassis sounded great and the other was awful.

Note that these are NOT the Bassmans revered by guitar players. By the time Fender developed these amps they'd determined that they were trying to make clean bass amps. The Bassman 4x10 amps that guitarists love were the original tweed ones (and reproductions) that had open-back cabinets. The Bassman 10 is a much larger cabinet which is sealed at the back and ported at the front, and had (slightly) better bass speakers.

As Downunderwonder says, "nice find". Enjoy!~

John

tekhedd · #12 04-13-2011, 12:39 PM

Wow, that bassman looks ridiculously clean. Sweet.

I have pretty much the same model (the 50W) that looks like it's been through the war. Great tone, and it's very groovy as long as you don't want an amp that a) gets loud, or b) fits in the front seat of your honda. And my speakers need reconing. Or replacing... Or both...but it's a very special amp.

jdubbass38 · #13 04-15-2011, 10:21 AM

I see that their is an ex speaker out, can you run another cabinet?

Downunderwonder · #14 04-15-2011, 01:00 PM

I'd guess you woul dhave to change the ohm selection thingie wiring to do that but it wouln't make any more noise anyway.