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Fender Bassbreaker?

#21
At a thousand bucks, I'd just let 'er rip until you cooked the voice coils of the stock Celestions. Then call Eminence and ask for their suggestions, or you could do that first. Eminence Basslite S2012's, ask for them by name. ;) With a semi-open back, they'll do you proud every time.
 
#22
Spectrum said:
That's the problem. The fact that it is a combo is part of the attraction. Oh well. I guess you'd need to close the back up and put tougher speakers in it.

Too bad they didn't call it a "Guitar Breaker". Probably attract too many Pete Townshend wannabes.

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They sell just the heads, too.
 
#26
Oh geez give it a rest. Leo took those "designs" with originally no modification from the RCA Receiving Tube manual suggested circuits when he had a radio repair shop. Today's Fender has nothing to do with Leo Fender and the line barely survived CBS's attempts to modernize the designs for greater stability.

Bill Hughes (Ex. Ampeg engineer) did more for Fender Bass when when he worked on the Bassman 300PS long long time after Leo sold off.

The Bassman's were kind of a low power garage band unit, if you were serious on stage you were running Showmans. Neither of which survived long enough in my stable.
 
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#28
B-string said:
Oh geez give it a rest. Leo took those "designs" with originally no modification from the RCA Receiving Tube manual suggested circuits when he had a radio repair shop. Today's Fender has nothing to do with Leo Fender and the line barely survived CBS's attempts to modernize the designs for greater stability.

Bill Hughes (Ex. Ampeg engineer) did more for Fender Bass when when he worked on the Bassman 300PS long long time after Leo sold off.
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THANK


YOU


I wonder what @Linnin thinks of the old MusicMan amps...
 
#30
B-string said:
I would like to hear the "spin" on FMIC miss-treating and not taking seriously a recent engineer more capable of designing Bass gear than anyone they had since Bill Hughes. They let him get away instead of utilizing him and producing serious bass gear.
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Or how the early Fender amps were most certainly built to a price point instead of being built to a spec. Compare an early Bassman to an early Ampeg B-15 and it isn't even close.
 
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#31
Linnin said:
Fender says it's a 'semi-closed' back, so yes just pop in a pair of good sounding 12" woofers and off you go. I'm partial to Eminence Basslite S2012 Neos. They'd be cheaper than a separate cabinet.
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Can someone who is smarter than me explain this whole "semi-closed" thing? I'm just seeing an open back design with some ports that may or may not be tuned.
 
#33
Actually for a bass guitar amp the '59 Bassman sucked harder than just about anything. He was lucky that failed design was embraced by guitarists. But what does reality have to do with anything here. The B15 was and is the most recorded BASS amp. NO Bassist wants to record through a '59 bassman on its own.

I'd rather fart into a 55 gallon barrel than suffer a '59 Bassman.
 
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#36
Linnin said:
Indeed! the '59 Fender Bassman blew the B-15 ampeg away! And continues to do so all these many years later. Now that's staying power and the shear genius ogf Leo Fender!
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Thanks to the miracles of duct tape and lead based solider, I put my brain back together! Now...


Are you sure you're not a guitarist? Because the only people who I know who would take a '59 Bassman over a '63 B-15 are guitarists.;)

This is in no way a slam on Fender amps, past or present. The Twin Reverb is a surprisingly good bass amp (connected to a proper cab natch), the Super Bassman is my choice for a 300 Watt tube head, and the Rumble line is remarkably good (even if I do consider it a poor man's MB series), but in so many ways, the B-15 predicted what bass amps would become over the lifetime of bass guitar. It eschewed the scoopy Fender (nee RCA) tone stack that is great for guitars and horrible for bass for a James tone stacked ripped straight from the best Hi-Fi designs of the time (and now!). Instead of building the OT to the lowest cost point a la Fender, they used oversized output transformers to minimize distortion. In fact, the whole trend of bass amps being "flat at noon" can probably be traced back to the B-15.


That said, if you like the tone of a '59 Bassman. By all means enjoy it:bassist:! I sure won't be taking it from you!:thumbsup:;):laugh:
 
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#37
B-string said:
I would like to hear the "spin" on FMIC miss-treating and not taking seriously a recent engineer more capable of designing Bass gear than anyone they had since Bill Hughes. They let him get away instead of utilizing him and producing serious bass gear.
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I'd like to hear said engineer's take on his experience at FMIC rather than yours.

Fender may not be the hip brand here on talkbass nor the preferred tonal palette of many players, but they've been putting out some pretty good bass amplification the last couple of years. To imply otherwise shows bias.
 
#38
steamthief said:
I'd like to hear said engineer's take on his experience at FMIC rather than yours.

Fender may not be the hip brand here on talkbass nor the preferred tonal palette of many players, but they've been putting out some pretty good bass amplification the last couple of years. To imply otherwise shows bias.
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Who are you guys talking about? I'm not cool enough to keep up with all the Fender gossip/snobbery/hate/what-have-you around here, that's one reason I started this thread.

I agree that the recent tube bass amps by Fender are very attractive from the demos I've heard.
 
#39
Well I do apologize for mucking up your thread. A local marketing ad boy stepped in invoking the name "Leo Fender" like the man has had anything to do with his name on any product since 1965 from Fender. That man (Leo Fender) was one of the first to bring amplification to to modern instruments from his radio repair shop in the 1940's. Mis representing products of the past serves no good purpose especially when folks are still living that lived with equipment from those days owned and gigged them.
 
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