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Fender Bassman 100T Chapter 3

#41
edwinhurwitz said:
I am curious about the styles of music being played through amp. I'm mine can easily be inferred from the pic.
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I play everything from Prog rock, to jazz, to surf punk with mine and it works great for everything I use.

I run all my higher end basses through the vintage channel exclusively, and haven't touched the tone controls since I initially set it up.

Always kind of bugged me that I had that advanced active channel just sitting there unused, but after recently picking up a killer little Gretsch Jr. Jet II (G2224), its stock pickups needed a lot of help, so I decided to try messing with the active channel to see if I could breath some life into that bass.

Not only did the 100t deliver a killer sound in spades, I am quickly becoming VERY attached to the unique tone of these cheap pickups modified by the Bassman.

So much so, that I have decided to shelve the whole idea of upgrading the electronics, and am just going to run the bass stock. I am now worried that if I replaced the pups with TV Jones hardware, I might lose this funky unique tone I am getting out of the bridge pickup. Never heard anything quite like it! :)

I recently watched a gear related interview with Chris Squire and learned that the bridge pickup on his classic 1964 Rickenbacker 1999 (4001) bass has always had something wrong it. He never bothered to get it fixed because it ended up creating much of his unique tone that even Rickenbacker has been unable to duplicate!

He said that he worried that if he replaced that pickup with a normal one, he would loose his classic sound!

Something to be said about funky pickups sometimes! :)
 
#42
Another great report for the 100T with the Bergantino NV115 cab after practice with one of my bands last night. They couldn't believe it was the same head. More growl grind, presence and punch than with the neo 610 I was using. The NV115 has a real symbiotic relationship with the 100T. If you get a chance take your 100T into a Bergantino dealer and try the combination out. It really is quite stunning.
 
#43
Tim1 said:
Another great report for the 100T with the Bergantino NV115 cab after practice with one of my bands last night. They couldn't believe it was the same head. More growl grind, presence and punch than with the neo 610 I was using. The NV115 has a real symbiotic relationship with the 100T. If you get a chance take your 100T into a Bergantino dealer and try the combination out. It really is quite stunning.
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Cool!

Personally, I am more than happy with my sound with the 410 Neo, but it is good to know that you have identified another great sounding option other than the Fender cabs.

Personally, I love the look of the black and silver STACK, so I would never consider a mismatched rig, especially since the tone is fantastic for what I use it for. :)
 
#44
Not "mismatched" at all - the Bergantino has feet on two sides so you can sit it horizontally and the 100T is a great fit on top of it. As you may know, I have tended to favour my Super Bassman 300 over the 100T for gigs, but this is making me reconsider. I will gig the 100T into my Bergantino NV215 in a bigger room this weekend and report back.
Bottom line, listen with your ears, not your eyes - although I must admit the bling appeal of the matched Fender rig is not insignificant ;).
 
#46
Yeah I got that, but to be honest the Bergantino combination does actually look pretty cool from an aesthetic point of view too. While the Fender/Fender combo undoubtedly sounds and looks great ( and I have used it many times), the history and benefits of successful amp/cab mixing and matching is well documented throughout Talkbass.
 
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#47
liam_g said:
I think he means mismatched in aesthetics, not dimensions. No grillcloth.

Liam
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BINGO! :)

Yeah... I was talking aesthetics only.

I'm not gigging with mine, so I can't speak to how my combo would perform in a balls to the walls situation. It may be lacking in that department for all I know.

I never turn mine up much past 5 on the master, and for recording that seems to be loud enough to get my sound.

I've learned over the years, that once you reach a point where you can't find anything to complain about with your sound, that is when you need to stop fiddling! ;)

This is why I haven't touched the knobs on my vintage channel for 2 months. All my high end basses sound fantastic with the tone settings I ended up with, so no need to keep knob twiddling.
 
#48
Tim1 said:
Yeah I got that, but to be honest the Bergantino combination does actually look pretty cool from an aesthetic point of view too. While the Fender/Fender combo undoubtedly sounds and looks great ( and I have used it many times), the history and benefits of successful amp/cab mixing and matching is well documented throughout Talkbass.
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No doubt!

Nothing wrong with experimenting to get YOUR SOUND! The 100t is such a STAR, that I have no doubt that different cab options will pull a different mix of that great tonal character out of the amp! :)

You can add me to the list of players in this thread who have said in one way or another that buying the 100t was the best gear buying decision they have ever made! Certainly ranks up in the top 3 for me, right below my 1957 Hammond C3/Leslie 122 and my 1977 vintage minimoog Model D which i bought new in Dec. of 76.! :)
 
#49
I agree with you totally. So many features - I don't normally use the overdrive channel, but it does add so much extra versatility when used just as a tone control. I sometimes wish Fender had not put in the autobias facility as issues with it have clouded what a great amp this is.
Down here the distributors have only imported the 610 and 810 cabs, apparently on Fender's recommendation that the 100T be matched with the 610 neo and the SB300 with the 810 neo as preferred options. I enjoy the SB300 with my 610 very much, but I wonder whether perhaps the 410 is a better combination with the 100T as it allows you to drive the amp a little more in medium rooms? This may be a part of my enjoying the NV115 so much - the other part is that I have always preferred sealed cabs with tube heads. I have to say, though, that when I received the neo 610 cab from Fender I AB'ed it with my Bergantino sealed 610 and preferred the Fender cab as it seemed more versatile at both frequency extremes. It is a funny world we bassists inhabit :).
 
#50
Tim1 said:
I sometimes wish Fender had not put in the autobias facility as issues with it have clouded what a great amp this is.
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Agreed Tim. If it weren't for the autobias, I would probably have chosen the 100T over the V4B. I still may go to the 100T if I don't love the V4B when I get it. I have a 30 day trial period, and the dealer sells both. I do love the tone of the 100T in all the clips I've heard. Plus my very first bass rig was a Bandmaster, so I have a soft spot for Fender.

Cheers,
Liam
 
#51
liam_g said:
Agreed Tim. If it weren't for the autobias, I would probably have chosen the 100T over the V4B. I still may go to the 100T if I don't love the V4B when I get it. I have a 30 day trial period, and the dealer sells both. I do love the tone of the 100T in all the clips I've heard. Plus my very first bass rig was a Bandmaster, so I have a soft spot for Fender.

Cheers,
Liam
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Seriously?

I LOVE that feature! As an owner of over 1400 NOS tubes of all shapes and sizes, I love being able to just take a quad of 6L6s and match them on GM readings and H-K level alone and let the amp bias match the tubes for me.

I deliberately put some shady tubes in there to see if it could detect the bad H-K level on two of them, and damned if it didn't go RED on those two tubes immediately and shut them down!

You guys don't know how valuable that is! If I had put those in a classic Bassman, it would have likely smoked the amp!
 
#52
I just don't trust the technology. Granted, TB is a small sampling of the overall bass community, but there has been about a 13% failure rate of the autobias feature according to the poll in the other thread. Just don't trust it. Would rather buy matched quads of tubes and have simpler circuitry inside the amp. Just my opinion and feelings. Others will vary. ;)

Cheers,
Liam
 
#53
Yep, I had my own reservations about the autobias from the start. However both my Super Bassman 300 and 100T came from the first runs, both have been gigged hard over the past year or more and I have not had a single issue with either.
 
#55
Its actually not that complicated a circuit and is microprocessor controlled. Really not much to go wrong with it, and if it works for the first 30 days of use, chances are slim it will ever fail on you.

I personally think all the hand wringing over this feature is kind of silly. As someone who has lost two amps to failed power tubes, I think the feature is fantastic and frankly, long overdue!

Mine has been fine, and I don't loose sleep over any future issues. I will be VERY surprised if it ever goes south on me. You are far more likely to loose a cap or transformer than have an auto bias circuit failure.

My two cents based on what I have been able to learn about the feature from Fender techs.
 
#57
liam_g said:
You can think I'm silly all you want, but it doesn't change my opinion. Long overdue perhaps, but I won't trust it until it's a more proven technology.

Liam
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Actually, the technology it uses is 20 years old! ;)

Like I said, not much to go wrong with it. I can understand how you personally would be leary of the feature based on your problems with it, but that is like refusing to use vacuum tubes because one failed on you in the middle of a show once. ;)
 
#59
Obviously, no amount of facts about this feature is going to change YOUR mind. Whatever. Don't see what you have to gain by refusing to learn more about something you seem to be afraid of for no good reason.

This is for everyone else out there. Especially those who might let the Chicken Littles scare you off this great amp...

Just to give you some stats on how many different 6L6s my amp had to contend with during my tube rolling experiments...

Total number of brands tested: 8
Total number of quads tested: 16
Total number of different tubes auto-biased: 64

The only tubes that the amp balked at were known to be borderline bad or confirmed bad on my Triplett 3444 tube tester.

I not only was searching for the best sounding 6L6s to use, I was also testing out how sophisticated the auto-bias circuit was at detecting bad tubes. It never once shut down a tube that was good, and was able to successfully match quads that were known to be out of range of each other, which adds a lot of value to the feature.

I would still always try to put a closely testing quad in there, but it is good to know that it not only can detect bad tubes BEFORE it allows the circuit to open to the power amp, it also can allow you to use a set of tubes that you would not normally put together.

It was even able to run hybrid quads of multiple 6L6GC brands.

In one test I ran a quad consisting of 1 GE, 1 RCA, 1 Tung-Sol and 1 Sylvania.

This quad didn't sound as good as a single brand set, but it matched them and the amp performed fine at full volume with these in there.

Good enough for me! :)

My hat's off to whomever at Fender designed the auto-bias system! :D

I know a lot more about this stuff than most of you guys, so you can also take that for what its worth as well. I wouldn't let this feature stop you from buying this amp. If it sucked, I would have said so. I don't work for Fender and would have had no reason not to call them out if the feature was funky.

P.S. My amp has about 360 hours on it now. No problems with any of it. :)
 
#60
Yep, this rather confirms what the local Fender rep said to me - that it is a chip (microprocessor) that fails and won't reprogram itself. Since it can't be reprogrammed at their repair workshop they have to wait for Fender to send a new chip. It is, I believe, a quick replacement once you have the part available. He said Fender USA have been excellent in providing support. I took the implication from our discussion that Fender had fixed the problem in newer runs (as you might expect). Makes you wonder why Fender doesn't make a few thousand spare chips and send a couple to each repair shop to keep on hand. As I said, it seems that if you have had no problem after a few months it should be fine........:hmm:
 

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