1960's Vintage Fender Bassman

Welcome to Talkbass, jean! Nice to see someone who recognizes quallity!

Sounds like your Fender may be missing some of the logos, but to roughly date it;

- Does the head say "Fender Electrical Instruments" or "Fender Musical Instruments"??? If the word "electrical" is used, you can assume it was made before April of 1965.

- On the tube chart, are the date code letters stamped in black or green ink??? In the fall of `65, Fender switched to green ink.

Those actual date code letters would really narrow it down. If there are any codes on the speakers, that could help, too.

 

Yes, welcome also. Is the face of the amp a dark brown, black, or silver? I would not advise using those speakers for bass since they may be Jensens and the guitar player guys will give you good money for those depending on the model.

If you don't mind, give us all the numbers you can find on the chassis, tube chart, and take the back panel cover off of the head and give us the numbers on the bottom of the transformers too. Look on the speaker baskets (metal frame) and give us numbers there too.

I will say that if it's a mid sixties model or even late 60's early 70's it should be checked by a tech who knows tube gear. It probably needs a complete cap job and maybe a retube.

Tapp

 

The face (control plate) of the head? In early `67 they started making some with that. If there is an aluminum strip around the grill, that would put it between 67 and 70. I was a little confused by your mentioning "blue" because Fender used a silver grill with blue in it, too.

Oh, well, the codes are the way to go.

 

Well, if it's a silverface we at least know that it's not older than '67. Actually Rick I think the last year of the aluminum drip edge is '69 but who knows, Fender used spare parts whenever they were found.

This may be one of those funky designs with cathode and fixed biasing implemented. Most people convert them to true fixed biased operation yet most of these are guitarists too.

Let us know what you find maybe we can narrow some things down for you.

Tapp

 

You're right, Tapp. That was supposed to be it for the aluminum edge. The hardcore Fenderites think there was some spill past 69 but I haven't seen it proved anywhere yet (I'm not that anal about months or a year or two except when it determines who was running the company).

I know what you mean about the spare parts. Some Fender guy, 35 or so years ago, says, "Hey, I found all these piggyback legs. Let's use `em up." Whammo! - the dating rules get another loophole.

jean - If your grill cloth has no silver, metallic threads, that helps put it at 67-early 68. After that, they started using metallic silver threads in it.