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The Fender Super Bassman 300 thread

#2,221
Just back from a couple of weeks on the road down the east coast of Australia. The Super Bassman and Neo410 performed flawlessly. Although a few of the shows were a DI before the amp, which bugs me a bit and seems to make lugging the head around pointless. The last show in Sydney the bassist from another band had the Bassman 500 (he also has a Super Bassman at home), which I tried out for that gig. Similar sound in a much lighter package, and with the head being DI'd (before the amp, or using the onboard DI) there's really not a lot of difference at front of house. Might be a good option for a touring head in the future. Anyway here's a live shot. Not sure what is sitting on top of the head.

DSC02892.jpg
 
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#2,223
Altho my local- where I bought my Super Bassman - now has a Bassman 500 I've not tried one. ...BUT. ... I can't imagine it having ANY of that lush sweetness the SB300 has. ....as no power tubes. I'm pretty dang sure it ain't getting it from the one 12ax7......!!!
Cool shots. And I ain't piling poop on the BM500 just that I'm not being swayed unless summink in the time space continuum shifts mightily ;)
 
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#2,224
rodl2005 said:
Altho my local- where I bought my Super Bassman - now has a Bassman 500 I've not tried one. ...BUT. ... I can't imagine it having ANY of that lush sweetness the SB300 has. ....as no power tubes. I'm pretty dang sure it ain't getting it from the one 12ax7......!!!
Cool shots. And I ain't piling poop on the BM500 just that I'm not being swayed unless summink in the time space continuum shifts mightily ;)
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I'm more talking front of house Rod, where using the DI on the head is pre-power tubes. As far as I'm aware both heads have the same pre amp/tubes. Agree that on stage/mic'd up the 300w of tube power can't be beaten.
 
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#2,225
I played my Rick 4001 through my SN300 and fEARful 1515/66/1 last night at rehearsal for the first time. It was amazing! The amp seems to fatten the Rick's tone significantly. There was just more sound "there".

It seems that whatever bass I play through it sounds great. The 335 sounded awesome last week, as does the Precision any other time.

SO glad I bought this amp!
 
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#2,227
SB300 coming out to play again this weekend after a quiet wedding gig last weekend, where I took my newly acquired NV115/ TTE500 rig.

Played around with my effects thru the SB300, and I gotta say that the Aguilar Agro Pedal thru the vintage channel sounds awesome, and really really close to the OD I have dialed in on channel 2.

Are there others out there using an OD Pedal that gets really close to the OD of the SB?
 
#2,230
A year or so ago I had a problem with my SB300 where it would occasionally have a sudden and dramatic drop in volume after about twenty minutes, or once it had warmed up. I'd turn it off for a while then on, and it would come back to life and mostly run fine, sometimes not. Intermittent and a real pain. I thought it could be the auto bias problem.

The amp went back and forth to the fender tech who checked the tubes, the auto bias etc, but was first unable to fault it. Eventually after hours on the bench the problem was discovered to be simply the preamp out jack or power amp in jack contacts needed cleaning, or replacing. Can't quite recall but a really simple thing and a quick fix. I guess when heated these connections became prone to failure somehow. I think putting a jumper cable between pre out and power in can be a quick fix in the field. Mine is proper fixed now and has run faultlessly since.
 
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#2,233
mattwear said:
A year or so ago I had a problem with my SB300 where it would occasionally have a sudden and dramatic drop in volume after about twenty minutes, or once it had warmed up. I'd turn it off for a while then on, and it would come back to life and mostly run fine, sometimes not. Intermittent and a real pain. I thought it could be the auto bias problem.

The amp went back and forth to the fender tech who checked the tubes, the auto bias etc, but was first unable to fault it. Eventually after hours on the bench the problem was discovered to be simply the preamp out jack or power amp in jack contacts needed cleaning, or replacing. Can't quite recall but a really simple thing and a quick fix. I guess when heated these connections became prone to failure somehow. I think putting a jumper cable between pre out and power in can be a quick fix in the field. Mine is proper fixed now and has run faultlessly since.
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My SB was doing this. I swapped pre Amp tubes then remembered my Mesa Big Block had a similar issue that I solved by cleaning the effects loop contacts. I was about to send it in to Fender but DeOxit fixed it right up. No problems since. It's strange because the amp was built three weeks before I took delivery. I guess the parts had been sitting around for a bit.
 
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#2,240
Tim1 said:
Just to throw in another option the SB300 is a great match with the Barefaced Four 10, and they will even put the matching grill cloth on. Just saying.....
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I have a SB 300 on the way -- it's been a five-week wait through Sweetwater so far, but I am supposed to have it by the end of next week-- that I intend to pair mostly with my Barefaced Four10, which has the silver cloth grill.

Is that BF silver cloth grill a more-or-less direct match with the SB's silver cloth, or is there a closer match to the SB300 that they will put on as a custom thing?

The regular BF cloth grill looks pretty darn close to the SB based on photos, but of course that can be deceiving.
 

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