Fender Bassman.. only for guitars?!

Sgt Baker · #1 01-18-2011, 09:18 PM

Yo dudes, I was talkin to my local luthier, who is currently sellin a 77 bassman, and I was quite intrigued. But he kinda steered me away, saying it should only be played by a guitarist, this true?

C.Linton · #2 01-18-2011, 09:18 PM

No, it's not.

christw · #3 01-18-2011, 09:20 PM

Not true at all. The open back cabs of some are certainly not ideal for bass playing but I've run a Geddy through a '59 Reissue and got some good sounds out of it. I don't recommended cranking any of the open back Bassman amps with a bass. You're liable to hurt the speakers.

Edit: Shoot, that's a head, right? Ignore any of the stuff I was yammering on about. Yeah, it's good for bass.

bassplayer8953 · #4 01-18-2011, 09:24 PM

I played bass for several years through a 70's era Fender Bassman (100) and it did fine. They are a bit "thin" sounding, by today's standards. But a bass EQ pedal & compressor, + some decent bass speakers, & you're there.

There are other amp heads that are probably more suitable for "modern" bass, but the Bassman can be made to work, the same as almost any amp, with the right pre-...

will33 · #5 01-18-2011, 09:28 PM

Not true at all. They sound great on bass although you will run out of power or "oomph" on bigger gigs unless you have a lot of speakers. I really like them for the "warm but clean" round thumpy sound. You can get louder with them if you don't mind the grit.

rjs6700 · #6 01-19-2011, 12:17 PM

I use a 76 Bassman 50 for practices/jams all the time. Tried at a gig once and ran out of clean power.

zachoff · #7 01-19-2011, 12:19 PM

I loved the tone of my Bassman 135. I'd say that a Bassman 50 would be all but unusable in a loud band, but the bigger ones should be fine.

CrUiSeR · #8 01-19-2011, 12:52 PM

Your bass, speaker cabinet and 99% of the audience will not know what you're pluggin' in to

Basshappi · #9 01-19-2011, 12:56 PM

I had a Bassman 100 silverface that was my favorite bass amp. I ran it through an Acoustic 2x15 cab. If it hadn't gotten stolen, I'd still be using it.
I recently played through one with a 4x12 closed back cab and if I had the money it would be sitting in my house right now. I still have the Acoustic cab and I think those 2 cabs together with that amp would be my tonal nirvana.

True, it isn't going to keep up in a super loud band but in the situations I play in now it would do a-okay.

Cheers!

lonote · #10 01-19-2011, 01:00 PM

I sometimes use a Silver Face Bassman 50 along with a sealed back 1 X 15" cabinet and I get raves every time.

electracoyote · #11 01-19-2011, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sgt Baker

Yo dudes, I was talkin to my local luthier, who is currently sellin a 77 bassman, and I was quite intrigued. But he kinda steered me away, saying it should only be played by a guitarist, this true?

Too funny.

DiabolicLow B · #12 01-19-2011, 01:09 PM

I used a late 70's Bassman 50 for a few years when I was really into vintage equipment,
It sounded great at "bedroom" levels but with a band or at a gig forget it, it ran out of gas pretty fast!
I fixed it up last year and sold for almost four times what I paid for it.

michael_atw · #13 01-19-2011, 01:11 PM

I've owned a '68 Bassman for a couple years - I like it because I can use it for both guitar and bass. It's a vintage-y bass sound, so if you're into that it's right up your alley.

tangentmusic · #14 01-19-2011, 01:12 PM

The Bassman amp was obviously originally built for bass.
Blues guitar players really made them popular back in the day for being able to get "that Blues thang" goin'

Spencer! · #15 01-19-2011, 01:15 PM

My '63 Bassman is the perfect recording amp. So much depth and clarity - it sounds surprisingly modern for an amp almost 50 years old. You better really like distortion if you use it on a loud gig though...

GeneralElectric · #16 01-19-2011, 01:21 PM

I use an Ampeg B25B which has the same amount of watts (55) and I use it for gigs all the time. If people don't crank their amps for tiny little venues it works fine. If I play anything bigger, I just mic it up.

FWIW I love the old Fender Bassmans.

MDFreeze · #17 01-19-2011, 01:25 PM

NO! If your luthier told you that, find a new one.

BigOldHarry · #18 01-19-2011, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sgt Baker

Yo dudes, I was talkin to my local luthier, who is currently sellin a 77 bassman, and I was quite intrigued. But he kinda steered me away, saying it should only be played by a guitarist, this true?

Only? No.

But a '77 bassman is not a good amp for bass. Heck, it's not even a good amp for guitar - To do it right, you need an OLD bassman to get that big, brown guitar tone - 1977 was pretty much the low-point for Fender amp building...

But will it amplify a bass? Sure. It just won't sound very good.

essentre · #19 01-19-2011, 01:28 PM

I've played through one before, not bad. If the price is right I'd say go for it

agreatheight · #20 01-19-2011, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sgt Baker

Yo dudes, I was talkin to my local luthier, who is currently sellin a 77 bassman, and I was quite intrigued. But he kinda steered me away, saying it should only be played by a guitarist, this true?

Fender Bassmans of a certain era are revered by guitarists (not sure of the years) - for a specific set of sounds they sound quite nice with the guitar. A good number of boutique builders base their designs on this design.

Now, can you play one with a bass? Yes. But, like others have noted, it's not going to be too loud, and even at moderate volumes you aren't going to have much headroom. For recording, maybe I could see the appeal.