Pulling on a knob is rocket surgery so I could see his reluctance to do that.......................
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Fender Bassman 500 Head
- Thread starter Thornton Davis
- Start date
I had a decent session with it. It's a really good amp. good bottom to it, etc. You really have to try one out to see if it's for you. I'm glad I got it.
Thanks for your feedback. Glad you're loving the amp. Unfortunately, there's no-one within a 200 mile radius of my home, here in the UK, that stocks this amp so trying it out for myself is going to be no easy task! I'm relying, at the moment, on very limited YouTube footage and opinions of people like your good-self here on TalkBass. Another factor i have to consider is the ridiculous price in the UK - the cheapest is around £730 (approx $1140)!! If you could give me your thoughts on the overdrive, i would appreciate it. Many thanks.
I had a decent session with it. It's a really good amp. good bottom to it, etc. You really have to try one out to see if it's for you. I'm glad I got it.
The Overdrive Channel really has a great Gain, and Blend on it. I like it as much as the Overdrive on the Super Bassman I had. It's very quick, and easy to get the settings you want on either channel. I was ready to go for another Super Bassman, until I was able to try out the Bassman 500.
Great. That's what i was hoping you were going to say. Now i just need to find £700!! Cheers. Enjoy your amp.
Thanks, I really do believe I made the right choice for the 500, over the Super. If you do get the 500, I hope it performs for you as much I think these amps are capable of.
I used the Fender Bassman 500 Friday night at an outdoor festival and it sounded great! I played with the distoration channel with a bled of vintage channel and distoration. A lot of complements on the bass tone. I used the gk 412 under it was plenty loud.
I used the Overdrive Channel today with the Am. Std. Precision. A couple of settings, and now I prefer the Overdrive over the Vintage Channel. A great working amp.
I have been using the v2 rumble and it has the 500 watt ice class d amp also. It is loud enough for any situation with two 15 cabs. I sure would not take it back because of a red light flashing. But i am 40 + years old and dont worry about lights i just jam that mofo. And play in a jam band with a clean guitarplayer a organ and drums. No distorted stuff to try to cut through. I want to check the bassman 500 out!!!!!
I wear XXL size gloves my hands are huge & I sweat like a mule on stage. Pulling & pushing knobs on my old Mesa 400+ was a problem this is why I was concerned.Pulling on a knob is rocket surgery so I could see his reluctance to do that.......................
The knobs on the Mesa 400+ are fairly large but it does sound like you have legitimate concerns. Perhaps using Jazz Bass style volume control knobs would help, such as Mesa does on some of their amps?
I am looking to downsize from my SB300/810 neo to a more manageable carry weight and I am thinking about the Bassman 500 with a couple rumble 410s.
How much am I going to miss that all tube bliss? Does the 500 sound like an anemic version of the super bassman?
- Apr 3, 2003
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- Editor-in-Chief, Bass Gear Magazine
From the little bit I heard at the past couple of NAMM Shows, I would say that the tone will be rather similar (with a little EQ), but IME, you just can't capture the feel of output tubes in a SS amp, so you need to expect that. In general, though, I think your idea is a great one. The Bassman 500 with two Rumble 410s should sound great!
I'm using the Bassman 500 with a Rumble 4x10 and a Rumble 1x15 and it sounds amazing, especially the overdrive channel. To be fair, i've never tried one of the tube-powered big brothers, so i'm not in a position to make direct comparisons. All i know is that it sounds great, everybody tells me it sounds great. It's a fraction of the cost of any tube version and, possibly most appropriate to you, it is so light it's actually possible to lift it with your little finger! My tube-using guitar-playing bandmate is seriously jealous!
That's what I'm talking about. I'm really tossed between the Bassman 500 and the new Orange OB15-00. Both can do classic tones and overdrive. The fender is more familiar and has a ton of extra features (dual channel, effects loop, etc, etc)
I am loving my Bassman 500. It is non-stop awesome.
I'm using it with my Fender 215 PRO cabinet.
It still blows my mind that this thing puts out 500 watts and weighs almost nothing.
I'm using it with my Fender 215 PRO cabinet.
It still blows my mind that this thing puts out 500 watts and weighs almost nothing.
The bassman 500 is really great sounding, good enough for a tube junky like me to play out (love the light weight) but like any SS power section I do miss that "punch" or "heft" that tube amps have. I seem to gravitate towards the overdrive channel, seems to sound more tube like then the clean or vintage channel.
Funnily enough, i was looking at buying the Orange OB1 when i stumbled across the Fender Bassman 500! I was torn between the two for a while. The Orange was considerably cheaper and is certainly a cool amp. Having tried both amps, i decided the Bassman would give me more tone options. The OB1 has a rasping, almost fuzz-like overdrive whereas the Bassman's overdrive is more subtle but has more "grunt". Having an entire channel dedicated to overdrive (with an extensive range of tone-shaping controls) gives the Bassman a clear advantage over the OB1 whose overdrive tone is entirely dictated by the overall main channel settings. All you have control over is how much and how ferocious you want the overdrive to be. Also, the OB1 is way heavier than the Bassman, although still quite manageable. Hope that helps.
Also been going back and forth between this and the OB1. I think I've decided on this, and pairing it with an ampeg 212av. Thoughts?
