Fender Vibrosonic Reverb as a Bass Amp

It's not a bass speaker and the open back cabinet is also inappropriate for bass.

 

At low volume, guitar amps can sound really good for Bass.

Unfortunately, a guitar speaker does not have enough Xmax (how far a speaker cone can move) to handle a bass at high volume, especially in an open back cab.

If you still want to use the amp, I suggest unplugging that speaker and hooking up a real bass cab, maybe sit it on top of a 4x10, which are pretty cheap on the used market these days.

Also, since guitar amp tone controls are voiced differently than bass amps, I would add a bass eq in your signal chain to compensate.

 

I played bass through a friend’s Vibrosonic when i was rehearsing with a pickup jazz band at a convention. It sounded awful, but it could have had a blown speaker. I also used a Fender Pro Reverb with bass speakers when I was in a low volume acoustic trio. It was okay but not ideal. The suggestion of using the Vibrosonic with external speakers might be worth a try.

 

It will work with an external bass cabinet but don't use it with the Jensen in the open back . It would sound pretty good with a bass cabinet and the Jensen might sound ok in the right cabinet but it would blow pretty quickly in that combo .

 

The vintage Vibrosonic that I owned in the early 90's never worked for me as a bass amp. It was all original and in mint condition. I hated to get rid of it, but I never had a use for it at the time. YMMV

 

Simply put it's the wrong tool for the job as a bass amplifier.

 

I played one guy through a '72 Vibrosonic Reverb with Bag End S15-D extension cab. I think I had an EVM-15L in the Fender. The gig was supposed to be a laid back background blues thing for a hotel grand opening, but it turned into an oldies/rock dance party by the second set. The Fender had trouble keeping up with the band at that point.