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The Fender Super Bassman 300 thread

#2,661
Fab Savage said:
Sweet good to know - The room makes such a massive difference too of course and so many rehearsal rooms/gigs just exaggerate those lows in an ugly way, so a lot of my struggle is/was around that too.

Rod are you still running the bassman with the Fender Neo?
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Yep. Still mostly with just one Bassman Pro Neo 115 cab...sometimes both 115s. ..and sometimes with my NV215.
Yeah. ..DEFINITELY don't give up on it. ..fantastic amp. I've had no issues in the 5 yrs I've had mine.
I actually have difficulty NOT taking it when my V4B would suffice. ..it's just so big and thick sounding. Still a total love affair with mine.
 
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#2,662
Fab Savage said:
Haha nice description. Thanks Husky.

I actually managed to find a store that has one in my city (I live in literally the most isolated major city in the world) and after 45 minutes of watching the poor sales guy run around trying to work out why the amp was just spitting out awful static hum.....nada. He said they just moved the amp so it might have been a loose valve or something but either way not exactly confidence building. Still I havent completely given up on the idea of one of these yet, and Ill go back next week when they have sorted it out. Hopefully.
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Definitely go back for a second try if you’re wanting to hear it. That being said, I ordered mine unheard in person and do not regret it one bit. No issues to date.
 
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#2,664
I owned a Strategy and the SB300 at the same time. They sound very very different. I’m going to give you my honest personal opinion, with the understanding that these are two great amps and we each hear things differently.

The Strategy is extremely powerful and has a huge low end and an extended top end. I found it very modern and scooped. It has a number of voicings to choose from, and all but one are variations on a mid scoop. The remaining one is “flat”, but still scooped. It sounded to me a lot like the M9, but more scooped. It did not feel or sound like what I hear as “tubey.” There is a lot of eq, but the amp has a character and doesn’t stray too far from that. The preamp distortion sounded terrible to me, splattery and fuzzy.

The SB300 is very tubey, punchy, and fat sounding. It has the traditional Fender tone stack on channel 1, which is beautifully vintage sounding, nice and plump and organic. The other channel has preamp distortion which is decent but not great. Channel 2 also has an active semi parametric mid control, allowing you to get more middy modern tones. It can do a good replica of an SVT, an old Bassman, and a number of other sounds. Extremely versatile, loud, and MUSICAL.

I sold the Strategy a couple of years ago, and I still have the SB300. It’s kind of getting to be too heavy for me these days, but man, what a great amp. Between these two amps, for me the Fender is the winner hands down.

I also owned an SVTII at the same time as these two. The SVTII actually had the best default (“flat”) tone for me, and the most intuitive eq. But it’s HEAVY and not as versatile as the Fender.
 
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#2,665
smeet said:
I owned a Strategy and the SB300 at the same time. They sound very very different. I’m going to give you my honest personal opinion, with the understanding that these are two great amps and we each hear things differently.

The Strategy is extremely powerful and has a huge low end and an extended top end. I found it very modern and scooped. It has a number of voicings to choose from, and all but one are variations on a mid scoop. The remaining one is “flat”, but still scooped. It sounded to me a lot like the M9, but more scooped. It did not feel or sound like what I hear as “tubey.” There is a lot of eq, but the amp has a character and doesn’t stray too far from that. The preamp distortion sounded terrible to me, splattery and fuzzy.

The SB300 is very tubey, punchy, and fat sounding. It has the traditional Fender tone stack on channel 1, which is beautifully vintage sounding, nice and plump and organic. The other channel has preamp distortion which is decent but not great. Channel 2 also has an active semi parametric mid control, allowing you to get more middy modern tones. It can do a good replica of an SVT, an old Bassman, and a number of other sounds. Extremely versatile, loud, and MUSICAL.

I sold the Strategy a couple of years ago, and I still have the SB300. It’s kind of getting to be too heavy for me these days, but man, what a great amp. Between these two amps, for me the Fender is the winner hands down.

I also owned an SVTII at the same time as these two. The SVTII actually had the best default (“flat”) tone for me, and the most intuitive eq. But it’s HEAVY and not as versatile as the Fender.
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Thats great Smeet. Thanks for taking the time out to write that man. Im still running around trying to find a Mesa to test - if nothing else so that I can tick the box - but I think your description matches what I hear on the youtube videos in that the pre-amp gain on the Mesa 88's isnt all that pretty. I think the main thing keeping me semi-interested in the Mesa gear is the weight, but the I'd choose the Fender every time of the tone is killer.
 
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#2,668
Last couple of weeks I've been playing a five-string tuned EADGC through the SB300. The overdrive channel is pretty cool with this bass, as the extra high range of the bass, plus the distortion (well-controlled-- or "fuzz" as BrianVengeance has just now aplty put it) allows high diads and triads to sound a lot like an electric guitar, while the lows stay pretty firm. Turns out to be a very good combination, though I wouldn't have expected it-- a "vintage" tube type amp, and a"modern" E-C five string bass that moves a little away from the traditional role of bass.
 
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#2,669
BrianVengeance said:
I treat the drive on the modern channel as more of a fuzz, and that has improved my opinion of it considerably. It isn’t bad by any means, just not the end all of dirts. Comes more into its own at volume and with some boost in front of it. Speaker breakup on the OBC115s helps too.
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Plutonium244 said:
Last couple of weeks I've been playing a five-string tuned EADGC through the SB300. The overdrive channel is pretty cool with this bass, as the extra high range of the bass, plus the distortion (well-controlled-- or "fuzz" as BrianVengeance has just now aplty put it) allows high diads and triads to sound a lot like an electric guitar, while the lows stay pretty firm. Turns out to be a very good combination, though I wouldn't have expected it-- a "vintage" tube type amp, and a"modern" E-C five string bass that moves a little away from the traditional role of bass.
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Yeh I imagine the 2nd modern channel will have a decent OD capability due to the blend feature but given that, by and large, it is still pre amp gain it wont be the worlds greatest breakup. Sounds like it may be much more musical than the Mesa pre amp gain though. Ill probably try and run it through a sealed cab with less driver area so I can push the tubes a little harder towards saturation.

My favourite distortion ever has been from my Marshall when it approaches its power tube output limit, but sadly at 400W that rarely ever happens in the 'real world'.
 
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#2,671
I snagged this baby today. Too good of a deal to pass up.
 

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#2,675
Fab Savage said:
Yeh I imagine the 2nd modern channel will have a decent OD capability due to the blend feature but given that, by and large, it is still pre amp gain it wont be the worlds greatest breakup. Sounds like it may be much more musical than the Mesa pre amp gain though. Ill probably try and run it through a sealed cab with less driver area so I can push the tubes a little harder towards saturation.

My favourite distortion ever has been from my Marshall when it approaches its power tube output limit, but sadly at 400W that rarely ever happens in the 'real world'.
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Yep. ..the OD channel. ..with its blend and sweepable mid frequency control. ..it's VERY adaptable. ..you can use it totally clean or dirty it up as much as you like. But, yes it is from the pre amp tube/s (I swapped mine out for some 5751s.... which have it a 'slightly' sweeter drive sound - to my ears at least.
But one of the BEST things about the amp. ..imo.. is that it'll do 8/4 & 2 ohms safely.
I use it at 8 ohms -into one Fender Bassman Pro Neo 115 cab - most often. .. and thus I can do as you say re yr Marshal VBA400... run it harder into the smaller speaker area. ..and get into power tube drive more easily. Luckily these Bassman Pro Neo 115s handle the power ok. But running that vintage channel hard with a bit of grind happening, is just glorious
 
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#2,676
rodl2005 said:
Yep. ..the OD channel. ..with its blend and sweepable mid frequency control. ..it's VERY adaptable. ..you can use it totally clean or dirty it up as much as you like. But, yes it is from the pre amp tube/s (I swapped mine out for some 5751s.... which have it a 'slightly' sweeter drive sound - to my ears at least.
But one of the BEST things about the amp. ..imo.. is that it'll do 8/4 & 2 ohms safely.
I use it at 8 ohms -into one Fender Bassman Pro Neo 115 cab - most often. .. and thus I can do as you say re yr Marshal VBA400... run it harder into the smaller speaker area. ..and get into power tube drive more easily. Luckily these Bassman Pro Neo 115s handle the power ok. But running that vintage channel hard with a bit of grind happening, is just glorious
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Yeh sounds awesome man. I have an Ampeg PH 115HE but Im not sure how it would go taking on the Bassmans power. My only other speaker config at the moment is an NV412 but it is just way too efficient and loud to make the amp work hard lol.

I was considering getting an NV212T but those neo's look very cool. I honestly wouldnt have considered ported options otherwise
 
#2,678
Fab Savage said:
Yeh sounds awesome man. I have an Ampeg PH 115HE but Im not sure how it would go taking on the Bassmans power. My only other speaker config at the moment is an NV412 but it is just way too efficient and loud to make the amp work hard lol.

I was considering getting an NV212T but those neo's look very cool. I honestly wouldnt have considered ported options otherwise
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While I liked the tone of the pf115he I found (mine at least) them to not handle a great deal of power b4 farting. Ymmv of course. 2 stacked was fine, but with one, I found it wasn't handling my needs. ...where the Bassman Pro Neo 115 does easily.
 
#2,679
Fab Savage said:
Haha nice description. Thanks Husky.

I actually managed to find a store that has one in my city (I live in literally the most isolated major city in the world) and after 45 minutes of watching the poor sales guy run around trying to work out why the amp was just spitting out awful static hum.....nada. He said they just moved the amp so it might have been a loose valve or something but either way not exactly confidence building. Still I havent completely given up on the idea of one of these yet, and Ill go back next week when they have sorted it out. Hopefully.
Click to expand...
I wasn't able to find one in Brisbane, although one store did have a 100T in stock that I spent a bit of time with. So I ordered the Super Bassman without ever having played through one. Best amp-related decision I ever made. Helped that a mate runs a store that's a Fender dealer and gave me mates rates too!
 
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