Fender Super Bassman reliability?

[cb4]

Hey All.. I'm thinking about buying a Fender Super Bassman! Can anyone share info on the reliability of the head on the road in the back of a van? It's a pricey amp and I don't want to spend all my time hauling it into the repair shop. Tubes are expensive and their are a lot of them in this amp...will I have to change them every year or can I go 3 or 4 years before changing them?
I am also considering the Bassman 800 as there are fewer moving parts and it's lighter. I suspect it won't sound quite as good.
And lastly, can I run the Super Bassman through 2 x Fender Rumble 210s? the 210s are 350 watts continuous. I plan to use 2 of them stacked for 700 at 4ohms.
Thanks

 

[abarson]

And lastly, can I run the Super Bassman through 2 x Fender Rumble 210s? the 210s are 350 watts continuous. I plan to use 2 of them stacked for 700 at 4ohms.
Thanks

Page 2 of the manual has a table of what speaker loads can be connected to the Super Bassman.
Page 5 of the manual lists the output as 300W into 8Ω, 4Ω or 2Ω @ <5% THD.
https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10001/OM_2249000000_Super_Bassman_Owners_Manual_ALL.pdf

Each Rumble 210 is an 8 ohms load and each one has a maximum rating of 350 watts. If you use two Rumble cabinets, the total load will be 4 ohms and each cabinet will receive about 150 watts (half of the maximum 300 watts that the amp can deliver), which they can handle easily.

Personally, I wouldn't want to take a tube amp on the road, even in a good case. I'd be much more certain with solid state reliability. Tubes are scarce now with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and you might not be able to find one quickly for repair.

 

[Nighttrain1127]

Some Tube amps are several decades old and still running the original tubes. They are not as fragile as some would have you believe. If you allow the head to cool down before you move it and get a very good suspension road case there is no reason the Bassman could not last for years with the original tubes in it unless you run it at Max Vol constantly. People that have not had the same tube head for many years like to tell you that tubes need to be retubed every year. Like anything else if you push it to it's limits constantly it will need more maintenance that one used more reasonably. As for running 2 210 cabs depending on if that 350 watts is the thermal rating of the cab or not will be the factor that tells you if they will hold up or not. Some 300 watt tube amps can put out more than twice that for short periods with no damage to the amp but would destroy speakers not up to the task.

 

[Goatrope]

I haven’t had mine on the “road”, but as a local cover band player, I’ve logged over 500 gigs on mine since buying new in 2018.

A short time after buying it, maybe 4 months, I had one of the tube auto-bias LEDs go orange, so I replaced a pair of 6550 power tubes to clear that LED back to green. I never noticed a difference in performance while the LED was orange, so who knows.

Since then, it’s been perfect. I have a padded cover for it, and put it in the trunk of my car. It doesn’t get moved by anyone but me, so maybe my example may not be the best data point, but hope it helps.

 

[Michedelic]

Hey All.. I'm thinking about buying a Fender Super Bassman! Can anyone share info on the reliability of the head on the road in the back of a van? It's a pricey amp and I don't want to spend all my time hauling it into the repair shop. Tubes are expensive and their are a lot of them in this amp...will I have to change them every year or can I go 3 or 4 years before changing them?
I am also considering the Bassman 800 as there are fewer moving parts and it's lighter. I suspect it won't sound quite as good.
And lastly, can I run the Super Bassman through 2 x Fender Rumble 210s? the 210s are 350 watts continuous. I plan to use 2 of them stacked for 700 at 4ohms.
Thanks

I’d suggest getting a roadcase, with wheels, preferribly, or some sort of tilt snd roll function, but with plenty of capacity for high density foam. What major metropolitan area are you near?

 

[AGCurry]

Some Tube amps are several decades old and still running the original tubes. They are not as fragile as some would have you believe.

I can't speak to the reliability of this model, but in my experience tube amps are every bit as robust as any other design. I travelled all over the country in the 1970s ... Fender and Peavey tube amps in the back of a school bus, without a signal road case. I don't recall a single instance of a tube needing to be replaced. Now if one falls out of its socket, that's bad.

 

[Bill Whitehurst]

I would imagine they would be as reliable as any other Fender tube amp.
Thousands of them have been working since the last ice age.

 

[denton57]

I run two Aguilar 2x10’s with my SVT and it is awesome. Similar if not same wattage as yours and I’m sending 300 watts into them. I haven’t had a need to go above 10:00 on the volume so far even on an outdoor gig.

I had the 100T for a bit and it was a great sounding head. Always wanted to try the SB 300 but they were out of stock when I went with the SVT a few months back

 

[rodl2005]

The Fender Super Bassman 300 thread

Had mine since '12 all good. Terrific actually. Favorite amp

 

[cb4]

Thanks for all the intel everyone.
Still gotta wait til April ‘23