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The Fender Bassman 100T thread

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#721
Gigged tonight with my 100t into an Avatar b212 neo cab, with my Marcus Miller jazz bass. Incredibly warm sounding, but I love the way it responds when I really digged in. Just a real pleasant tube break up that I have never experienced before. Of course, this is my first tube amp, but what a great tone on the vintage side. Also used the overdrive channel for a song and I loved the way it overdrives but keeps a good bass response underpinning the ton
 
#722
I would love to get one of these heads.. I especially like teh idea of the 25 watt lower vol for recording and the silent speaker. BUT i fear the 100 watts would not cut it for my normal gigs VOL wise.. I play some rooms with TX Guitar slingers that use 50 and 100 watts Matchless or Marshall Plexi amps which can be ridiculously loud to todays standards..

I wish the 300 Superbass also had that 25 watt feature..
My buddy is out on tour with a major act right now using the SB300.. after using SVTs for years .. head told me the SVT sounded Honky compared to the SB300...
Looks like i need to go try one and see. I can always use an All tube amp... I use my Genz streamliner 99.9% of the time, especially when fly-dating.. But every once and a while an ALL tube head would just be what the doc ordered.
 
#723
svtb15 said:
I would love to get one of these heads.. I especially like teh idea of the 25 watt lower vol for recording and the silent speaker. BUT i fear the 100 watts would not cut it for my normal gigs VOL wise.. I play some rooms with TX Guitar slingers that use 50 and 100 watts Matchless or Marshall Plexi amps which can be ridiculously loud to todays standards..

I wish the 300 Superbass also had that 25 watt feature..
My buddy is out on tour with a major act right now using the SB300.. after using SVTs for years .. head told me the SVT sounded Honky compared to the SB300...
Looks like i need to go try one and see. I can always use an All tube amp... I use my Genz streamliner 99.9% of the time, especially when fly-dating.. But every once and a while an ALL tube head would just be what the doc ordered.
Click to expand...

I was a Streamliner fanboy too. After getting the 100t my SL 900 collects dust. Yea it's convenient but the sound of the 100t is just great and I can't seem to go back.
 
#724
My SL900 does pack a wallop.. Its destroys any SVT head I have had at soundcheck with headroom, and VOL...And is the perfect travel head when I do a Fly date.. I have had my SL amp in my suitcase all over Europe and USA.

But every once and while i would love to have an all tube amp.. And im not sure if the 100t would have that sort of headroom for me... But maybe???

But Im sure the SB300 would do fine.. I only wish the SB300 had that 25 watt switch down thing
 
#725
svtb15 said:
My SL900 does pack a wallop.. Its destroys any SVT head I have had at soundcheck with headroom, and VOL...And is the perfect travel head when I do a Fly date.. I have had my SL amp in my suitcase all over Europe and USA.

But every once and while i would love to have an all tube amp.. And im not sure if the 100t would have that sort of headroom for me... But maybe???

But Im sure the SB300 would do fine.. I only wish the SB300 had that 25 watt switch down thing
Click to expand...

It does have a DI for those really loud gigs where there's PA support.
 
#727
I realize that... BUT when you are on a stage with a GIT to your right that has a Matchless 100 and 412 and to the left a Marshall 50 Plexi and 412.. my main concern is not the the audience will hear bass,,, since i have a DI.. but that i will have enough clean headroom to hear myself the way that i like..... I can care less about the audience.. thats the FOH job..
I dont worry about anything that i dont have control over,, such as the FOH




Freddels said:
It does have a DI for those really loud gigs where there's PA support.
Click to expand...
 
#728
That is the key... The sweet spot....
When Pre tubes begin to roll over as the power tubes get to their spot..... then consistency... its a fine line....


Freight Train said:
If it were at all practical, I'd personally go with more cabs for extra stage volume in order to keep the easy-overdrive of the 100T, easy meaning not having to blow near 300 watts to get to that power tube o/d sweet spot.
Click to expand...
 
#730
Had a great gig yesterday with the 100T, played the 68 Jazz bass through it and it really does sing with the jazz. Played the P as well, still great but absolute magic with the J - the sound I have heard in my head for so many years. Used the vintage channel throughout into the neo 610, both volume and gain at six. Pure bliss.
You make a good point, Freight Train, about running extra cabs with the 100T to get more volume. With the three optional impedances Fender make it easy. I must try combining my Bergantino NV215 with the neo 610 when the opportunity arises. However I am still keen on getting a Superbass 300 - if only to look at! :D This is mainly because I do like my sound clean for 95% of what I play, and the 300 would guarantee I can get that at any venue although the 100T I am sure would still get most gigs.
Not in the least tempted to go to the 810 neo, I think that the new 610 is just the bee's knees and should comfortably handle the SB300 at any volume I would need. Like others I do wonder why Fender don't have a switchable power option on the SB300, but I still don't think that it would replace the 100T in popularity as the 100T is still so much more convenient and easy to schlep.
 
#732
I play the Fender 135 late 70"s Bassman, with my early 70"s Fender telecaster bass, it matches realy well with a 4x10 cab, but when you crank it hard the growl can get a bit too much, would dig a new 300Fender head but its a shame they didnt make a 200wat cause thats all the punch l need cause lm not playing stadiums!
 
#733
Frankly I don't think there's a huge advantage in going to 200 watts instead of 300 watts. If you want a decent leap in headroom/volume over the 100T you probably need to go to 300 watts. My Orange AD200 is louder than my 100T but not appreciably so, while my SVT VR was significantly louder then the 100T in terms of clean headroom. I am still sure that the 100T stays clean without breakup way louder than the old bassman 100 and 135.
It makes good sense to me to own the both the 100T and the Super Bassman 300 with a 610 neo cabinet, if circumstances warrant it and finances can afford it. The 610 neo should handle both heads and is not too over the top in size/stage presence for smaller gigs. Plus it has that great vintage retro look with a Bassman head on top of it :D. Since both the 100T and Super Bassman share the same preamp you only have to become comfortable with one EQ system, then can recreate your tone easily at the right volume for the gig/venue by taking the appropriate head. And the tone set up is so versatile on these new heads, well worth taking the time to learn all the different options and sounds available.
 
#734
Tim1 said:
Chrisan, years ago I had a Bassman 135 and got rid of it precisely because of the breakup issue. IMO, as I have posted before, the 100T is a significant improvement over the 135 in this area - I don't know how they do it as the power amp tubes are the same, but do it they do. It was a significant factor in my purchasing the 100T and returning to Fender amplification after a couple of decades.
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My guess is the power and output transformers. The trannies in this new Bassman 100t I have here look much beefier than I recall the ones in my old bassman being.

My memory could be off, but this baby's got some nice beefy iron in there which can make all the diff in the world!
 
#735
Freight Train said:
...And from decades of experience I know manufacturers will sometimes rush things out before they're fully beta tested in order to make the next big trade show. Don't really think Fender would do that with this series as it seems nothing but top-of-the-line to me, but again it's happened to manufacturers bigger than Fender. If you want to live on the bleeding edge by being among the first to buy into something, you have to accept the fact that some unforeseen bugs might be popping up.
Click to expand...


True enough, but I understand that Fender put a few of these amps out on tour with their endorsers and flattened a few bugs that way before they released the amps on us :-)

James
 
#737
Freight Train said:
I think you'll find most (all?) of us here that have a 100T gave up on the idea of anyone ever having one in stock to try, so instead just dove in head first and bought one. But I haven't heard of anyone yet who didn't enjoy the dive.
Click to expand...

I lucked out - my local independently-owned music store :-) just got one in on Wednesday. I tried it out yesterday (Thursday) and bought it! 100t with a Neo 15 - exactly what I was looking for!

It's a great rig.

James
 
#739
Well, I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a 100T with a 115 cab, but the store told me Fender is out of stock till late November, and I should expect mine early December. Looking forward to working with it after reading this thread- lots of great info here.
 
#740
bushwhacker said:
Well, I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a 100T with a 115 cab, but the store told me Fender is out of stock till late November, and I should expect mine early December. Looking forward to working with it after reading this thread- lots of great info here.
Click to expand...

I've been playing around a bit more with mine today. I just got the 100t with the Neo 15 last night.

First: Pics!

http://photobucket.com/bassman100t

The silent recording switch is awesome! I ran it into my Apogee Duet and into Logic. I got a killer, grindy tone, ala Photograph by the Verve Pipe, using Channel 2 set to 4-8-5-7-3.5-1.5-5.9-6. YBMV. (your bass may vary). Mine's got a single passive pickup.

I've not been able to get this kind of "real amplifier" sound recording direct. This is just super! I'll be having more fun with this thing this weekend and maybe some sound clips will be forthcoming if I'm not too carried away just exploring the possibilities.

James

PS: I bought mine @ True Tone in Santa Monica - Dave there said these Fender amps are indeed in real tight supply, so your store isn't poopin' ya. They really are hard to get. The one I bought wasn't even in his stock for 24 hours, and he had it on order for some time. He got a Super Bassman with a Neo 610 at the same time (two days ago), and I'm wondering how long it will last :-)
 
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