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The Fender Super Bassman 300 thread

#3,441
Greetings from the North,

There is just that special something that an all tube bass head brings to the sonic table. Yes I can get good sounds out of my class D stuff but as they say sometimes there is no substitute for the grumba of cubic inches or tubes. I've got to admit for the past few years I've spent more time playing Rumble stuff and it's great. Lite weight and it sounds good. But over the winter I almost got rid of my last cab that I bought new back in Teen Age. It's a Fender Bassman 412 'pyramid'. I refurbished it structurally in 2000 and during a snowstorm this winter I ordered 4 Eminence Basslite S2012. Installed them and Jackpot! With the Super Bassman 300 on top this sounds absolutely amazing. This will prolly be residing in my music room but I might take it out now and then. It may be big and clumsy but it's lost some weight and it now sounds bombastic!

So I thought I'd post a few pics of the SB 300 on top of what I've got.

Fender Bassman 412 (4 Eminence neo S2012)
Cadillac 115 (Faital Pro neo 15pr400) (originally Traynor TC115s :) )
Fender Rumble 115 neo

Rezdog

IMG_0971-2.jpg
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#3,443
The Faital Pro equiped cabs will definitely bounce the booty on the dance floor. No problems being heard or felt on or off stage. The cabs are ported in the corners. The sound is close to the Bassman neo 15 but with no tweeter. For what I do I don't need tweeters for R&B and finger funk etc. I like big bounce and clarity. They do great for Rock too but I've reassigned the 412 for that and it's awesome. One of the reasons I went with the Faital Pros was they were water resistant and we were starting to do more outdoor gigs in big lake country where the weather can change pretty quick. I've got rain covers for the SB300 lol. The others were the weight savings of the neo, sound, and a good deal at the time.
The Rumble 115 is a great cab. Won't go as loud or deep as the Faital Pro but wasn't designed to. But still for the small to almost medium size venue it works fine. It will give you the fullness of a good 15. I usually run it with a Rumble 200 combo that has a matching 15".

Rezdog
 
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#3,444
Hi folks!

I’ll admit I didn’t read the 173 pages of super-bassman300-talk but I have two questions for you.

Are there any general rules or guidelines regarding the vintage channel volume and the master volume? I’m looking for a big clean sound. (Playing a P-bass with flats)
Last few gigs I cranked the master volume and was controlling more on the vintage channel volume knob but I think it wasn’t the best idea …I turned them both down for the last show and it was a lot better.

I feel like I’m turning them up just randomly and hoping it sounds good and that’s not the way I want it to be.
Any simple ideas are welcome.

And the other thing is that is it normal to hear a loud hissing when the OD channel is on and the master volume is cranked up? It doesn’t do that with the vintage channel.

Thanks!

And it is a great amp!
 
#3,445
ericsmith said:
Hi folks!

I’ll admit I didn’t read the 173 pages of super-bassman300-talk but I have two questions for you.

Are there any general rules or guidelines regarding the vintage channel volume and the master volume? I’m looking for a big clean sound. (Playing a P-bass with flats)
Last few gigs I cranked the master volume and was controlling more on the vintage channel volume knob but I think it wasn’t the best idea …I turned them both down for the last show and it was a lot better.

I feel like I’m turning them up just randomly and hoping it sounds good and that’s not the way I want it to be.
Any simple ideas are welcome.

And the other thing is that is it normal to hear a loud hissing when the OD channel is on and the master volume is cranked up? It doesn’t do that with the vintage channel.

Thanks!

And it is a great amp!
Click to expand...


If you want a clean sound, run the Master higher and the Gain lower.

My approach with a big tube amp: Adjust the Gain for the desired tone and feel. Set the volume with the Master. This requires some experimentation on your part to discover how the amp responds to different gain levels.

The best level to run varies by the model of amp and your tone goals. Many preamps get darker and a bit more compressed as you turn the Gain up. If you really crank the Gain, you may push the preamp into drive territory. If you really crank the amp, you will also push the output section into compression or drive territory. So, you may want to dial the Gain back a bit as the output section starts to transition and create its own compression and drive.

For heavier distortion, I generally prefer pushing multiple sections into OD, rather than pushing one section into massive overload. Keep in mind, with a 300W tube amp it's going to be pretty loud before the output section starts to transition.
 
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#3,446
I get some hiss running master up really high and using the OD channel. Seems normal.
For big, loud and clean I'd try going in through the attenuated input. That pretty much prevents the preamp stage from overdriving and gets more range on the channel volume knob, easier to tweak it. Ultimate clean would be attenuated input into OD channel with blend at zero.
The vintage channel seems to stay cleaner if I stay nearer to the flat setting bass 0 mid 10 treble 0. The further away from that I go, the more dirt I get.
 
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#3,447
And the vintage channel is the ol Fender tone controls.
Bass 2, mids 10, treble 2 for a "flat" tone.

I usually have bass at around 4, mids 10, treble 4 or so.
My gain/ channel volume, and main volume are random.... what sounds good.
Think I've done ther master up full then channel volume for level. And this works well for the vintage channel imo. But I've definitely switched em round with good results.

The modern channel can, of course, be run totally clean, no drive.
If I'm using the drive, my modern channel mids are set pretty low in frequency, then bumped up a bit in level.
This helps the drive sound a bit chunkier imo.

Enjoy!
 
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#3,450
Kerplunk said:
It's in the specs of the manual.

Vintage Channel Bass: 40hz. Mid: 400hz. Treble: 4khz.
Overdrive Channel Bass: 80hz. (Deep 640hz) Mid: 200hz - 3-3khz Treble: 4khz (Bright 6khz)
Click to expand...
Thanks, I had it at one point and lost it over the past few years. For some reason, my brain was convinced it wasn't listed for some odd reason so I didn't look up a pdf of it.

Appreciate it!
 
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#3,452
johniecid said:
Just curious if anyone has found what frequencies the EQs control? What range for the mid sweep on the OD channel?
Click to expand...

Kerplunk said:
It's in the specs of the manual.

Vintage Channel Bass: 40hz. Mid: 400hz. Treble: 4khz.
Overdrive Channel Bass: 80hz. (Deep 640hz) Mid: 200hz - 3-3khz Treble: 4khz (Bright 6khz)
Click to expand...

johniecid said:
Thanks, I had it at one point and lost it over the past few years. For some reason, my brain was convinced it wasn't listed for some odd reason so I didn't look up a pdf of it.

Appreciate it!
Click to expand...


On the Invalid Link Removed, under the Suport tab, is the link to the Super Bassman manual. :thumbsup:
.
 
#3,454
audiorep2 said:
Why , oh why did they not provide Speakon outputs ????
Click to expand...

Right or wrong, it's sort of a tube thing. Off the top of my head, the only tube amps I have with speakONs are my Ashdown CTM 300 and SmallBlock 427. Even better, both of them have combi connectors so they accept speakON or 1/4"

The AD200B is still in production and has 1/4" only. The Mesa Strategy Eight:88 is recently discontinued after a relatively short production run. It was rated for 465W...1/4" outputs only.

Just remembered, the Sadowsky SA200 has a speakON and a 1/4" output. So 3 models out of approximately 30.
 
#3,460
I’m selling my Mesa Prodigy to get either a 100t or super bassman. I’ve been reading all I can and still have so much to read but have yet to find the answer to a question I have.

Does adjusting the bias cold or warm really affect the sound? If so please explain the effect on tone.
 

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