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The Fender Super Bassman 300 thread

#3,361
Oh, I did find a new use for the Super Bassman. So far at gigs I've managed to pull down ceiling tiles and knock optics of the bar wall. Well, to test my amp before the gig I took it into my garage. It's not connected to the house so it's more of an outbuilding. Set my amp up and looked to see if I could find that darn mouse that chewed through a pillow and the handle bars of my sons scooter. Didn't find it. Started to play at gig volume to make sure all was working. Finally saw the mouse. Obviosuly the bassman was too much as it ran out of the garage. Good thing is I found how it was getting in and managed to block the hole. So you can use to to get rid of pests as well as rock a gig! Lol.
 
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#3,363
Here's the other video showing the weird orange light on stand by that doesn't even appear every time on stand by. The lights here were going solid for a few seconds and then flashing. It tends to do that a few mins after being turned on. As mentioned previously I took at least an hour and a half (That's when I left the stage and at that point still wasn't staying solid all the time) to 2.5 hours when I got back on.

 
#3,364
Ferengo said:
I used the vintage channel the whole gig. Ran that channel at 5 and the master at 3/3.5. I don't think that's pushing it but I guess it's subjective.
Click to expand...
No that's pretty good, standard, whatever, in my books anyway.
I'll sometimes have the master up on 7 or 8, and vintage channel on 4. Gets a lovely furry edge
 
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#3,365
Glad you finally got to rock it :) You have all sorts of weirdness going on with the bias display. It'll be interesting to see what Fender suggest.

Also, I have to say you're making me a bit edgey with amount if times you put it in an out of standby. I only ever do it once and would wait a few minutes before repeating it if I needed to. I've had old valve amps that got upset and blew fuses by doing that so it's probably ingrained in my brain :oops:
 
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#3,366
flatwound62p said:
Glad you finally got to rock it :) You have all sorts of weirdness going on with the bias display. It'll be interesting to see what Fender suggest.

Also, I have to say you're making me a bit edgey with amount if times you put it in an out of standby. I only ever do it once and would wait a few minutes before repeating it if I needed to. I've had old valve amps that got upset and blew fuses by doing that so it's probably ingrained in my brain :oops:
Click to expand...

Ha ha. I did think that it probably wasn't best doing that but it's not the norm for me to do this.

So Fender did get back to me today. They said it's likely some caps and/or the ribbon cable needing replaced. I'm sure this has been done before but they are going to call the store and discuss with them as they will have a record of it. I'll need the amp this weekend then not again until halloween. So there's time in between to have it looked at.

It did rock out on Sunday. Was so glad it didn't let me down. I just don't know when it's going to do it. Well I do know it will be within the first few minutes if it does but I don't know if it will do it, lol. I did order a Rumble 800HD as a backup just in case but the Bassman has never failed to get me through a gig as yet, even with it's issues.
 
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#3,371
My SB300 sometimes has minor noise and a few pops within the first minutes of startup. In my case I figure this is the auto-bias performing its diagnostics, and adjusting the bias if needed. I figure there’s noise associated with this procedure and it’s working as designed, so I’ve never worried about it.
 
#3,372
mattwear said:
My SB300 sometimes has minor noise and a few pops within the first minutes of startup. In my case I figure this is the auto-bias performing its diagnostics, and adjusting the bias if needed. I figure there’s noise associated with this procedure and it’s working as designed, so I’ve never worried about it.
Click to expand...

I think at the stage I was at the amp had been on for about 30 mins at very low volume, I'm talking about 1. I may try popping it into stand by after the first set on Sat and see what happens. I never remember it popping before at gigs so that could be a warm up thing.

In saying that all the issues I have seem to potentially be related to it warming up. If it cuts out then it's usually in the first few mins. The bias doesn't go solid green for a long time, so it's not warming/biasing up correctly. If the pop goes away when it's warmed up then it could also be related I guess. Could all be stand by related to I suppose. Man, amps these days are complicated :laugh:
 
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#3,373
In ferengo’s case, perhaps the new valves are still bedding in, and the auto bias has been chasing them around, not always getting the settings right causing that shut off?? Hopefully after some hours have been done on them at reasonable volume they’ll settle in and the auto bias issue will sort itself. Fingers crossed.
 
#3,374
mattwear said:
In ferengo’s case, perhaps the new valves are still bedding in, and the auto bias has been chasing them around, not always getting the settings right causing that shut off?? Hopefully after some hours have been done on them at reasonable volume they’ll settle in and the auto bias issue will sort itself. Fingers crossed.
Click to expand...

On Sunday night it was constantly on the whole night. When we were off it was in mute, not stand by. As mentioned when we came off after 1.5hrs it was still blinking but when I came back an hour later it was solid. So it can do it.

Do valves take time to bed in? I've had valve amps in the past for guitar but never anything with a bias system. They just worked but I'd never know if they were bedding in or an issue was happening as there was nothing to tell me otherwise.

The Fender tech has been in touch with the local store and seems knowledgeable on this particular amp. So I have confidence that I'll get my amp back working 100% again. So it'll be dropped off on Monday. I'll let you all know how it goes but it might be a while before I get to use it at full volume to test it.
 
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#3,375
mattwear said:
In ferengo’s case, perhaps the new valves are still bedding in, and the auto bias has been chasing them around, not always getting the settings right causing that shut off?? Hopefully after some hours have been done on them at reasonable volume they’ll settle in and the auto bias issue will sort itself. Fingers crossed.
Click to expand...

Sorry I miss read that. You're saying it's bedding in and potentially causing the shut off. Could be but it did do it prior to the new valves, though not doing it as much now. That said if valves were on their way out and could cause this then the same could be said if bedding in was an issue perhaps?
 
#3,377
eff-clef said:
Are any of you Biasing cold? I'm wondering what the tone is.
Click to expand...
First time I've even touched the hot/cold bias buttons was last gig. Think it was the lighting at the rear of the stage, made me thin think it was on the hot side. I "adjusted" it .... really just put it to cold then, realizing my error, put it back in the middle position.

So, no, I've not tried it cold. Nor hot, but I may do next gig.
Tbh, it sounds so good, I just leave it.

If I do remember to adjust it, I'll post here fer sure
 
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#3,378
flatwound62p said:
Assuming you're running speakers in parallel using the extension cab socket on either the amp or one of the cabs, that should work out at a 6 ohm nominal load. I'd go with 4 ohm option. Although I'd probably be too scared to run mixed impedence cabs myself, that's over-cautious me :cigar:
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rodl2005 said:
First time I've even touched the hot/cold bias buttons was last gig. Think it was the lighting at the rear of the stage, made me thin think it was on the hot side. I "adjusted" it .... really just put it to cold then, realizing my error, put it back in the middle position.

So, no, I've not tried it cold. Nor hot, but I may do next gig.
Tbh, it sounds so good, I just leave it.

If I do remember to adjust it, I'll post here fer sure
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've only used mine as "Sundays Best" with the 610 cab and bias set on normal. It sounds great, but was wondering if setting cold will give me more clean head room. My main rig is various M.A.S. ( Big E) speakers with an older Markbass 1200 watt SD1200. I've got a boner to used it again because I see it all covered up and it drives me CRAZY to see that beautiful Tube rig($3200 worth) just sitting dormant.
 
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#3,379
Just a little update on my amp. Still not fix and doing it more regularly than once in a while after a capacitor re-do. So Fender are taking it back to have it looked over. I'm not sure if it's away yet but last time I knew it was boxed up and ready for their return label to be stuck on it. Once I have it back I'll let you all know how it is and if I find out what the issue was I'll post that up too.
 
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#3,380
i'm chiming in here cold without reading any of the previous pages, so perhaps i missed something, but talk about these big tube amps needing a break in or hinting that electrical glitches or other defects in performance are normal or should be in any way excused, is totally wrong. i've owned several big tube jobs, fender & ampeg, and played many, many gigs. aside from rare major tune ups, they should fire up, play 99% perfectly, then be turned off and taken home, ready for the next gig - EVERY TIME. if that isn't what you're getting, you should be raising hell with your vendors 'cause them amps is busted.
 
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