I've had a Fender BXR Dual Bass 400 for about 20 years. I bought it in 1990 or so, new, as a ex display unit and I've played hundreds of gigs with it. It's been very reliable.
I bought it to replace a Bassman 100 and it's Cab - the much maligned 4x12 Cab (both of which I still have, use and love). But that's another story.
I mainly play African Dance Music (Mainly Soukous). and I wanted a more modern sound than the Bassman.
With the BXR, I play through an 18" Trace Elliot Multistack 1182 Cab and a home made 12" reflex cab with the same wedge shaped profile. This mix works well. Both cabs are 8 Ohm and don't really strain the power amps of the amp too much. While an 18" and 12" are unusual, I get plenty of any frequencies that I want. I occasionally slap, but not enough to require anything else.
With this combination of amp and speaker cabs I can run full range or Bi-amped depending on how decent the room and stage sound. The bass and treble boost, EQ, crossover Freq. and Balance allow a lot of tonal possibilities. For years I simply used the "seagull" shape on the eq, but more recently have tried to turn my ears onto other tones.
I've never really used the patching options on the back in gigs but have tried various practice configurations but nothing really stuck.
The built in D.I. is a dream and has always worked well.
The Delta Compression on this amp is quite misunderstood. It is not for compressing the bass signal at all. It's there to save the speaker drivers. It is a limiter and it attenuates the signal if the Delta Compression detects square waves. Or at least that what the manual says! When it briefly kicks in, it doesn't sound like the pumping that is typical with "knee" type compressors. Instead, the effect is hardly noticeable and this may be why some people think the compressor is rubbish.
I run some sort of compressor in front as is typical. (Boss Bass Limiter pedal or a Korg A4 Bass ME)
Soon after I got the amp, I heard something rattling around inside. I opened it up and found one of the fuses had been bumped out of its holder. Simple fix.
Ten years ago the power cord open circuited at the grommet. Simple fix.
Recently I've had the speaker jacks replaced with some new Switchcraft ones. The original ones were getting tired.
I always considered that the layout of the BXR 400 was Fender's version of the very popular Trace Elliot amps in vogue at the time.
On stage the Amp is always able to deliver and I've never really run out of head room to compete with the other musicians.
When the Amp really warms up, after playing for an hour or so, the tone gets warmer, fuzzy, not really tubey though more like the Silicon is really enjoying itself. It's very pleasing but not obtainable by flicking a switch.
I bought it to replace a Bassman 100 and it's Cab - the much maligned 4x12 Cab (both of which I still have, use and love). But that's another story.
I mainly play African Dance Music (Mainly Soukous). and I wanted a more modern sound than the Bassman.
With the BXR, I play through an 18" Trace Elliot Multistack 1182 Cab and a home made 12" reflex cab with the same wedge shaped profile. This mix works well. Both cabs are 8 Ohm and don't really strain the power amps of the amp too much. While an 18" and 12" are unusual, I get plenty of any frequencies that I want. I occasionally slap, but not enough to require anything else.
With this combination of amp and speaker cabs I can run full range or Bi-amped depending on how decent the room and stage sound. The bass and treble boost, EQ, crossover Freq. and Balance allow a lot of tonal possibilities. For years I simply used the "seagull" shape on the eq, but more recently have tried to turn my ears onto other tones.
I've never really used the patching options on the back in gigs but have tried various practice configurations but nothing really stuck.
The built in D.I. is a dream and has always worked well.
The Delta Compression on this amp is quite misunderstood. It is not for compressing the bass signal at all. It's there to save the speaker drivers. It is a limiter and it attenuates the signal if the Delta Compression detects square waves. Or at least that what the manual says! When it briefly kicks in, it doesn't sound like the pumping that is typical with "knee" type compressors. Instead, the effect is hardly noticeable and this may be why some people think the compressor is rubbish.
I run some sort of compressor in front as is typical. (Boss Bass Limiter pedal or a Korg A4 Bass ME)
Soon after I got the amp, I heard something rattling around inside. I opened it up and found one of the fuses had been bumped out of its holder. Simple fix.
Ten years ago the power cord open circuited at the grommet. Simple fix.
Recently I've had the speaker jacks replaced with some new Switchcraft ones. The original ones were getting tired.
I always considered that the layout of the BXR 400 was Fender's version of the very popular Trace Elliot amps in vogue at the time.
On stage the Amp is always able to deliver and I've never really run out of head room to compete with the other musicians.
When the Amp really warms up, after playing for an hour or so, the tone gets warmer, fuzzy, not really tubey though more like the Silicon is really enjoying itself. It's very pleasing but not obtainable by flicking a switch.
. Because since there has been a year where i could hardly rehearse.. I decided to fix the crappy input jacks. Real easy job actually. That solder sucking tool became finally useful 
