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The Fender Super Bassman 300 thread

#3,661
flatwound62p said:
Not as young as I once was and I never play places gig enough to need the juice I get from the Super Bassman. I'm still not ready to let go of the greatest bass amp ever built, but looking for an alternative. A forum search for Vase amps tells me rodl2005 might appreciate my latest attempt at finding a rig that can sound somewhere near as good but without the weight.
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Very cool. 👍👍👍👍

What are the controls labeled? Mine had 'bass' 'guitar' and 'accordion' written on my ol Vase.

And, please, tell us about it?
 
#3,662
1stchopper said:
Just received my new SB300. Playing through it this AM noticed channel 2 is quite noisy. Gain and blend completely to zero and it sounds like a hiss or waterfall, turning tweeter up a little bit accentuates the noise. The vintage channel is dead quiet. Any ideas or suggestions to resolve this. It's new so it can go in for warranty work which is good.
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Agree with @1stchopper

1st port of call for erroneous unwanted noise in all tube amps, is always pre amp tubes
As in, check, swap, re-seat type of thing
 
#3,663
rodl2005 said:
Very cool. 👍👍👍👍

What are the controls labeled? Mine had 'bass' 'guitar' and 'accordion' written on my ol Vase.

And, please, tell us about it?
Click to expand...
Just boring Bass and Guitar inputs on this one! Its a Vase Dynabass. Like an early 60s Bassman with that same tone stack, two 12ax7 and a pair of 5881 for the output. Bass and Treble both on zero is the flat setting.
It's amazingly original inside for a 50+ year old amp. When I bought it I could only find one cap that looked like maybe it wasn't original. But it hummed really bad so it went to my tech for a new power supply cap. Now it's dead silent at idle.
I usually run it through one Ampeg cab with a JBL k140 in it. Sounds like a cross between a Bassman and and a B15, really nice but it's only something like 30 watts. Which is enough for me to gig with my band if I use two cabs but we always share backline when we headline. It's always a "heck yes" when I offer up the Super Bassman but I think I might have a hard time convincing another bass player to share my monster 30 watts.
Keeping my eyes out for an 80 or 120 watt Vase Bassman, which have the same preamp. I do like this one and I love that I can carry it with one hand but I seem to have gone from one extreme to the other. 😆
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#3,664
flatwound62p said:
Just boring Bass and Guitar inputs on this one! Its a Vase Dynabass. Like an early 60s Bassman with that same tone stack, two 12ax7 and a pair of 5881 for the output. Bass and Treble both on zero is the flat setting.
It's amazingly original inside for a 50+ year old amp. When I bought it I could only find one cap that looked like maybe it wasn't original. But it hummed really bad so it went to my tech for a new power supply cap. Now it's dead silent at idle.
I usually run it through one Ampeg cab with a JBL k140 in it. Sounds like a cross between a Bassman and and a B15, really nice but it's only something like 30 watts. Which is enough for me to gig with my band if I use two cabs but we always share backline when we headline. It's always a "heck yes" when I offer up the Super Bassman but I think I might have a hard time convincing another bass player to share my monster 30 watts.
Keeping my eyes out for an 80 or 120 watt Vase Bassman, which have the same preamp. I do like this one and I love that I can carry it with one hand but I seem to have gone from one extreme to the other. 😆
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What a beauty! A piece of history there.
I THINK mine might've been a 80w one.... man it was so long ago, but I seem to remember there being 4 power tubes. Can't remember whether they were 6CA7, EL34'S or 6L6 type tho.
 
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#3,665
Bassi5t said:
The distortion on the SB300 is great. I loved pushing the first tube on the vintage channel so that no matter where the gain was it still had drive. Then dial up the gain to where it would drive a bit more and you’re good to go. I liked the vintage channel to be my favorite. I wish they made a head with just that channel.
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Why? Can’t you just use the vintage channel? Genuine question as I don’t have this head (yet?)
 
#3,667
rodl2005 said:
The 2 channels are quite different. Some like the vintage channel and what it brings.
You CAN just use the OD channel but it's a different flavour of great.
The vintage channel is possibly a li'l more touch sensitive
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In "touch sensitive" I'm meaning here that the vintage channel will sort of change tone depending on how hard you pluck.

Whether that's going from clean to growly, growly to dirty, dirty to distorted etc
 
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#3,668
rodl2005 said:
The 2 channels are quite different. Some like the vintage channel and what it brings.
You CAN just use the OD channel but it's a different flavour of great.
The vintage channel is possibly a li'l more touch sensitive
Click to expand...
I get that but I was asking why buddy wished they made one with *only* the vintage channel. He could just only use that channel…
 
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#3,672
Loring said:
What detriment to having the second channel? Do you guys think it’ll be cheaper?
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I suppose it'd be a little cheaper and lighter weight.
I love my Super Bassman and wouldn't change a thing really.

I love having the active/ drive channel there, and usually set the booth channels so I can switch between the two. Mostly with a hefty amount of overdrive set on the drive channel.
The mid frequency control, imho, is the important feature with getting a great drive tone too
 
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#3,673
Played 2 sets tonight. First with a power pop band, second with a hardcore punk band. This amp never stops surprising me. For the last 6 months I've mostly lived on the modern channel, but for the power pop band I started using the vintage channel after we added a 2nd guitar which fills out the gain in the set so I don't feel like I need to, and my god it's so punchy and full.
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#3,675
IMG_5397.jpeg

This evening I played a baseball stadium opening day outdoor event w/no pa support. I chose to bring this Rottweiler over a smaller class D single speaker cabinet.

Two things:
First, the SB300 really is touch sensitive as others have recently discussed above. Digging into really adds a gutteral bark to the note, hence the nickname Rottweiler. And two, the reserve power means there’s no struggle playing outdoors with no pa support.

Lots of fun.
 
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#3,679
flatwound62p said:
Probably not. The transformers and output tubes (and the space they need for air to flow around them) take up most of the space. The weight difference wouldn't be much more than the weight of your average stompbox.
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The 100t is only slightly more shallow though it is 1/3rd the power. Makes me think the layout of the preamp makes a difference on size (as well as the look they are going for). There are a number of tube heads that are smaller and/or lighter with the same, or more power. Also I sometimes get paralyzed/fidgety with too many options. 🤣
 
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#3,680
Is it possible to connect two amps with eg a switch to one cabinet? I have a Super Bassman with a Neo 115, but sometimes for quick practicing or playing with headphones, I would like to have an additional class d amp head. Is there any way, to connect eg a Rumble 700HD and the Super Bassman to the Neo 115 cab? I know, I could just switch the speaker cable to whichever head I am using, but I am looking for a lazier solution ;) and space is limited, so another cab is not an option for now…thanks for any ideas!
 

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