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Fender Showman (brownface vs blackface) for bass?

OldSchool50

OldSchool50

OldSchool50
Supporting Member
Mar 15, 2013
1,753
1,200
Connecticut
#1
I realize there have been quite a few threads discussing the Fender Showman for bass, with many opinions and disagreements. I currently have a 66 Dual Showman that I think is a pretty decent bass amp with the right cabinet. So the Blackface issue is settled for me. But I wonder how the early 61-62 Brownface circuit compares for bass. I picked up a very nice original 61 Blonde/oxblood tone ring 12-inch cab. Just beautiful and with a modern Eminence bass speaker (4 ohm) it sounds very nice with the 66 DS.
TO satisfy my need for aesthetic balance, I'm considering a 61-62 Showman in blonde to match the cab. WOuld the 61-61 be a decent bass amp or would I be better just getting a blonde cab for a blackface, since I know I like the tone. This amp might do small gigs but more likely stay at home as practice eye candy. Here's the cab
Anyone have experience with the 61-61 circuit. Any reasonably informed opinions welcome, experience or not.

DSCN4971 copy.JPG
DSCN4969.JPG
 
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#3
CL400Peavey said:
IMHO, those are guitar amps and cabs. Lots of other better options out there for the price that will offer you better tone and performance for bass.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not sure there's much difference circuit-wise between a Fender Dual Showman head and a Fender Bassman head of the same vintage, other than the reverb...but I'd probably say the same thing about the Bassman anyway: They're guitar amps, and you can find other amps better suited for bass. But, having said that, when I was playing both guitar and bass in the same band (1970s) my rig was a Fender Bassman 50 head into a Fender Dual Showman 2x15 (JBL) cabinet, and it sounded wonderful for bass.

(It also sounded really freakin' wonderful for guitar.)

Only caveat was you couldn't really crank it up to bowel-rumbling volumes when playing bass through it...though I believe that was more a limitation of the speaker cabinet than the amp.
 
#5
Showman's are good bass amps, before 360's and SVT's they were one of the big boys in town for bass. I had a 67 black face Showman head and cab which was pretty loud and sounded good for bass. Have you ever though of getting one of the bigger double 15" Showman black cabs that came out somewhere around 1966-67? That's what i had and it sounded pretty good
 
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#6
[QUOTE="Have you ever though of getting one of the bigger double 15" Showman black cabs that came out somewhere around 1966-67? That's what i had and it sounded pretty good[/QUOTE]

the size of that 2x15 is impractical for my use these days. Just too darn big. Maybe in a studio setting for practice. From what I hear, the 115 tone-ring showman is a very good compromise, with excellent bass tones because of the construction. I have to say, I"m impressed with the 112 tone ring.
 
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#8
bobyoung53 said:
Showman's are good bass amps, before 360's and SVT's they were one the big boys in town for bass. I had a 67 black face Showman head and cab which was pretty loud and sounded good for bass. Have you ever though of getting one of the bigger double 15" Showman black cabs that came out somewhere around 1966-67? That's what i had and it sounded pretty good
Click to expand...
Did it have JBL D140F drivers in it?
 
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#9
John D Harris said:
Did it have JBL D140F drivers in it?
Click to expand...

No it had D-130's in it when I got it, the surrounds were gone from sitting in a barn and I destroyed them trying to fix them so I bought some cheap Rat Shack 15"s which sounded actually pretty good with that set up. I wish I had had the D-130's reconed but i was a kid and didn't know any better. i had them re-coned later on and used them. I had D-140's in 2 Sunn 2000S cabs later on though.
 
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#11
Splicing in external power to a Showman or Bassman was everywhere in the Bay Area.
Mesa Boogie started with repowered tweaked Princetons.

You may want to try out any of the Alembic pedals, that's the Showman circuit, with your choice of tube or Class D power. Whether you want to go big warm tube or fast class D attack is your deal.

Fender circuits are tweaked RCA designs out of a book, with a Fender tone stack.
The $ spent on a Showman is fine if it does what you want, but spend some time exploring before you buy.

I'd want a modern cab, which can have vintage voicing, with more power.
 
#12
In the late 60s I had a DS 2x15 cabinet with the stock JBL d140s. If I played loud, the cabinet back would rattle something fierce. In 1969 I got a SUNN 200S cabinet with JBLs. WAY better. Not since 1969 have I even remotely considered using any Fender stuff of that period for bass.
 
#14
I recently sold an early blonde Bassman with the 12" tone-ring cabinet. Mine was rare in that it had a tube rectifier (Fender switched pretty quickly to ss as I understand) and it also came stock with the twin reverb output transformer to match the 8 ohm impedance of the tone-ring cab. I still have a similar '61 Bandmaster with 2x12 cabinet, all original. How do they sound? Much better as guitar amp - they sound great for guitar. I never liked the tone-ring cabinet - it was not very loud and broke up quickly. I did have a '66 Blackface Dual Showman that I used to use. It was ok - had good tube sound but was not very flexible. As others have said, I think you can do better for less dollars today.
 
#17
I used to own a brownface (blonde/oxblood) Bassman. Those amps have no bright switches but add a presence control that affects both channels. This really changes the sound. Trying to describe it in words is pretty useless, you really have to hear it.

BTW the original cab for that Bassman was also a 1-12", but no tone ring. Not great bass cabs by modern standards but at lower volumes they have a nice sound.
 
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#18
I have a 65 Showman with the tone ring cabinet. The tone ring cabinet is a real difference maker it enhances the low end to make it a great bass amp. I have a 61 Bassman with the single 12 cabinet and this head is my favorite. I can get way more sounds out of it than the showman. I can get a real grinding tone out of the normal channel that is much more like an early Marshall than a Fender. People that weigh in without experience on this topic cant give you the total picture. I often use the White Bassman with a single 15 Bag End cabinet and believe it or not it is quite loud, in fact it is as loud as the showman.IMG_1775.JPG
 
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