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Fender Bassman 100T - chapter 2

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#521
Jawbone said:
I went through a lot of Class D amps trying to find one I like for home/studio use and finally gave up relying on the reviews to sway me. But knowing what a true tube amp could do and the honest discussion by many 100T owners here I took the plunge. Great, great amp!! A sure keeper.

I only use it at home and in the studio at the moment and 25W is more than I'll ever need. I change it every now in then to get the grunt of 100W but the 25W is substantial - way better than the Ashdown Little Bastard 30W.

If anyone is reading these post on the fence this amp is phenomenal if you want a "portable" tube amp. Granted it's not an SVT and many people seem to too think it will duplicate or "it's" supposed to be a small SVT but it's not - it's a "Fender Bassman". And it sounds like a damn good Bassman. I have both and they're both great amps.

So glad my Class D quest is over - I was trying so hard to make them something they could never be - but the Bassman delivers.
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After two months of use I decided to role the tubes. Went with a matched set of Winged C power tubes and a new Phase Inverter from Amplified Parts. Still in burn-in phase but the 100T biased perfectly in less than a minute. The amp tone-wise just went from "Good" to "Best" in my opinion. The notes are definitely clearer and richer harmonically and there's a deeper tube vibe I'm feeling.

For $150 this upgrade was well worth it.
 
#522
chrisan2 said:
i was at a fender seminar last night and i told the importer my sb300 was going good now after its bias pci had been replaced, [see my other posts in the sb 300 thread] he said yeah fender was "resetting" them to address the issue, which was also happening on the super sonic guitar heads , and it could only be done in the factory
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What did he mean by "resetting" them?

As long as they're fixing the ones that have already been sold and the ones in the pipeline now, then it should be ok.
 
#523
he didnt really say , or know, what the reset was, maybe something to do with a adjustment with the voltages that the bias adjusts, i was left with the impression that my one was sent back for resetting and they sent out one that had already been done, an exchange type setup
 
#524
NOLA Bass said:
So, I'm on the fence. The studio is set for May 10-12. Should I upgrade the tubes on the 100T?
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Reading through some of the older post I haven't caught up on, but don't know if you ever satisfied your curiosity or not - but I replaced the power tubes with the Winged Cs (bases on earlier comments) and "ooh mamma" what difference - note are sharper and clearer just to name a few of the subtle changes.

Put the Groove Tubes back in just to make sure my ears weren't deceiving me and the bland, blanketed, cloudy, muddy tone was back. Not to say it wasn't good but the sharpness of the notes is what stands out above all - and there is a little more meat on them bones...not cheap but for me a great upgrade.
 
#526
I have one of the first 100Ts off the production line (purchased in New Zealand February 2012) so it would have been in the first run off the production line and I have had no bias issues, and similarly my October 2012 SB300 has been fine to date. Not sure what that means, whether or not there has been a QC issue or faulty component or what with some heads. I have never used the user bias adjust hot or cold, but did replace the tubes in the 100T with the bias readjusting correctly.
It would be useful to know whether, if it was a faulty ribbon cable as in Chrisan's case, Fender will be offering an upgrade to all owners (unlikely I know). Since most of us seem to be having no problems I would hope that it is an issue affecting a limited number and not likely to be a long term problem i.e. if the amp has been fine up to now can we assume that all will be well? To keep things in perspective it may be only a minute proportion of heads affected since we can count on one hand the number of members who have posted with a problem. It would be nice if Fender had someone on this forum who might comment on their behalf.
 
#528
Great to hear Chrisan2 :thumbup:

Hey, any of you lucky Bassman 100T owners / users used the Super Bassman too?
Can the 100T have a virtually identical tone to the SB300, but just less headroom? Is the power section, running 6L6's, imparting a different tone or feel?
I'm staggered at the SB300's "hammer in a velvet glove" thump, & it's warm, tubey lush-ness (is that a word? :confused: ) &, not that I could afford it, but, if the 100T's got that too.. Wow!
 
#529
Rod, I own both. Now bear in mind that I do like a clean tone and loads of headroom, which is not everyone's taste so I am not putting down the 100T but for my purposes the Sb300 is first choice. While the two are very similar the 300 has more punch and weight to the notes, as you might expect. Since we share similar amp histories you might understand it when I say that with the 300 I do not miss my svt2 nonpro or svt vr as the 300 gets so close to them as well as all the fendery tones etc of the 100T. I often wonder if it is because you have 6550s in the 300 as opposed to sl6s in the 100t. The 300 just seems to have a little more midrange punch available to it to my ears. As I said, others may not need or prefer this.I even used the sb300 for a quiet 3 piece wedding gig recently, although the 100t goes into the studio and sits in my lounge for practising.
 
#530
Agree with u re the Super Bassman being a SVT-VR & SVT II KILLER! :cool:
I'll keep anymore gushing re the SB300 to its thread tho.
Interesting about the comparisons, thanx.
The Traynor YBA300 I had sure has plenty of "weight" to it's notes & that's full of 6L6's - 12 of em:eek:
The abilty to have two channels swayed me to beg my local into getting a Bassman in. Now I'm indebted to em-damnitt!:mad::D:(
 
#531
The whole reason I bought the 100T is that I love power tube distortion with a touch of preamp overdrive. The 100Ts 100 watts means that I can get some nice power tube distortion without blowing the doors out of whatever building I'm playing in. My 70s SVT is just too loud to distort power tubes in any venue I play in. The same would be true for the Superbass 300.

I replaced my stock 6L6s with SED WINGCs with a low bias number. SED WINGCs because I have always had a good experience with full tone and long life. They are definitely fuller than the stock GTs. The low bias number means that there will be less headroom with more breakup at lower volumes. Which is what I'm after. To be honest, I have never noticed a huge difference on breakup with lower biases, but it is there if you listen for it.

As for preamp tubes, I replaced the stock 12AX7s (a.k.a. ECC83) with JJs. I have tried every possible 12AX7 or 12AX7-like tube in my preamp sections and JJs definitely have the chunkiest (more like power tub breakup) than any other. Elextroharmonix 12AX7s also break up nicely. I highly highly highly recommend JJ's in the preamp section if you intend on using the overdrive knob on this amp.

As for distortion/overdrive, I typically use it with my mix of 50s, 60s and 70s P and J basses. I don't necessarily go for an overdriven tone with my newer active basses.
 
#532
Like brookexx I too have replaced the power amp tubes in my 100T with Winged Cs ant JJ preamp tubes. It is a great amp indeed but, as I said, for my purposes the SB300 has just a little bit more weight and punch behind the notes - even at lower volumes. That said, the 100T has the obvious advantage of weight, the recording option post power tubes and of course earlier power tube grind.
They are both superb amps, I can confidently recommend either depending on need.
 
#533
I like my clean tube power, heck, I love pwr tube OD too, but 90% of the stuff I do, I need that clean (ish) tube push. So the Super Bassman was the obvious choice of the two.
That & the fact the price difference wasn't great.
I usef a Fender Studio Bass (200w) also, & that this amp sometimes runs outta clean headroom in my bands, pushed me in the 300w direction.
Still, I'll always wonder how the 100T would do me.... :D
 
#535
The Super Bassman 300 is more than the 100T. And by that I mean more in everything. It's just that it's also MORE than I need for where I play.

Surely it works well even at lower volumes but the 100T is able to get to the sweet spot much quicker and considering that the largest venue I play is 300, it's perfect for me.

I did play an outdoor festival last weekend and used an Ampeg SVT through a 810 Ampeg Fridge and it was awesome - but it would never work for my tone inside a club. You'd hear nothing but loud thump with NO tone.

There is a season for everything.........and a product to match. Find the one that best suits your greatest need and learn to tinker with the knobs and be happy. Put your gas in the tank!!!
 
#538
Day 1 in the studio!

ImageUploadedByTalkBass1368221338.532781.jpg
 
#539
I've been extremely happy with my 410 neo/100t pairing as well. I've been using it for a rock musical community theater gig that opened last night. sounded quite nice. full and punchy too. Only using medium volume on stage so not really getting into a lot of tube break up but still quite pleasing. I don't believe I'll be flippin' this rig any time soon.
 
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