The Fender Super Bassman 300 thread

[Ibycan]

well in theory, the Fender 115 Neo has 2 parallel inputs so you can have one head on each input, but I would be careful since the SB needs a load. so make sure you only have one head on at one time to be safe. which kinda defeats the purpose of not having to get up since you have the change the input cable as well unless you are running two input cables out of your pedalboard for example.

 

[G-Dog]

well in theory, the Fender 115 Neo has 2 parallel inputs so you can have one head on each input, but I would be careful since the SB needs a load. so make sure you only have one head on at one time to be safe. which kinda defeats the purpose of not having to get up since you have the change the input cable as well unless you are running two input cables out of your pedalboard for example.

But, in actuality, that's an excellent way to damage both heads at once! Magic smoke galore! Doesn't matter if only one head is turned on at a time, both could be damaged. How efficient!! Why not just skip the speaker cab entirely and use one cable to connect the two heads to each other directly? That's essentially what you're doing with the cab in the middle.

 

[Ibycan]

But, in actuality, that's an excellent way to damage both heads at once! Magic smoke galore! Doesn't matter if only one head is turned on at a time, both could be damaged. How efficient!! Why not just skip the speaker cab entirely and use one cable to connect the two heads to each other directly? That's essentially what you're doing with the cab in the middle.

Right that's why I said in theory LOL. no way I would try that. I just get my ass up and switch between the SB and my Bassman 800.

 

[edoe]

What would be the best way to connect the SB to the following device:

1) Eich DBC 400R

Its a bass seat and has following festures:

Would I need to connect it through the speaker output and adjust the impedance level accordingly or would I have to use the PreAmp output or the XLR Output?

My main speaker is the Fender 115, which I still want to use and hear

Kinda scared to blow up my SB or one of the other speakers

 

[edoe]

An alternative could be to use a seperate bass amp for that seat, like this one. In this case, I would just use the PreAmp out of my SB, right?

 

[flatwound62p]

An alternative could be to use a seperate bass amp for that seat, like this one. In this case, I would just use the PreAmp out of my SB, right?

View attachment 7223676
View attachment 7223677

I think using the Pre amp output would mean you have no signal going through to the SB power amp section, so no output sound from the SB. But it should work fine if you run it from the Tuner Out.

 

[panama]

Hello again fellow Super Bass Wo/Men! Had a lovely album release set for my friends solo project. Been helping him play his songs live and the Super Is SUPER.

 

[Rocksolid]

I haven't played mine in a bit, but I visited the Tokyo Fender Flagship store while on holiday this week and played some basses thru the SB300 in their amp room. Very tasty!!

 

[panama]

And another one from this weekend! My punk band's label did a showcase at a vintage clothing store. Ripper of a set with some good friends, including Mr. Bass Man.

 

[RobertAuCoin]

Recently, I replaced the two original preamp tubes (GrooveTube 12AX7's) on my SB, with two new GrooveTubes. As far as I can tell, these are the same model of tubes that came installed on the SB from the Fender factory, except the new ones are no longer made in Russia.

Now the Vintage channel sounds great again, but the Overdrive channel sounds like a waterfall of hiss, even at very low volume settings. So, I was thinking maybe the replacement tube in V2 was bad, and I tried again replacing the V2 tube with another new one -- but that has made no difference. Hiss central city.

Any ideas for troubleshooting or possible causes? Changing the overdrive Gain and/or the Blend makes no difference at all, but adjusting the Mid control does increase or reduce the hissing.

 

[flatwound62p]

That is weird, strange that changing the blend makes difference to the hiss, that suggests V2 isn't the culprit. V2 is only used for the OD dirt so it isn't in the signal at all when the blend is set to zero.

Are you sure you are swapping the correct tube? In this photo V1 and V2 are the two tubes hanging downwards with the metal shields on them. V1 is on the left and V2 is on the right.

And here is the block diagram.

 

[flatwound62p]

Auto bias the rescue! I had a big hum develop and a solid red light showing for one power tube. Grabbed the tubes I had on the shelf from when my tech changed the full set a few years and tried plugging them in the bad spot one at a time. First one was red but the second one gave me a full row of green lights. Back in action without having spend a squillion dollars. Winner

 

[RobertAuCoin]

V1 is on the left and V2 is on the right

Yeah, those are the new (replaced) tubes. V2 got replaced twice. And yes, sweeping the blend or the drive level has no effect on the hiss.

 

[flatwound62p]

Typo from me, should say it's strange that changing the blend makes NO difference to the hiss.

What happens if you swap V1 with V2?

If you put your current V2 into the V1 slot and it doesn't make the Vintage channel hiss I would say you can be confident it isn't that tube causing the issue.

 

[panama]

Fun gig last night at a brewery. Used an Ampeg 410he that another band brought and it sounded pretty good. Not as good as the fender 410 neo or an Ampeg 810, but good.

 

[Rocksolid]

My SB300 comes out of hiatus this weekend for a gig with a rolling stones tribute. Can't wait. Shure wireless into vintage channel. That's it.

 

[mattwear]

My SB300 seems to have a faulty preamp. I had just started using the amp in vintage channel mode for a couple of minutes when it made a popping sound and stopped working. However, when I switched to the overdrive channel, it still worked fine. I didn’t give the amp much warm-up time before playing, so I suspect a tube may have failed.

According to the schematic in the user manual, the 12AX7 in V1 is part of the input stage for both channels and is used in the vintage channel. The 12AX7 in V2 is dedicated to the overdrive channel only. That seems to rule out V2 as the cause—and possibly V1 too, since it feeds both channels.

Other than my stupidity, any ideas what might be the cause? Thanks!

 

[flatwound62p]

My SB300 seems to have a faulty preamp. I had just started using the amp in vintage channel mode for a couple of minutes when it made a popping sound and stopped working. However, when I switched to the overdrive channel, it still worked fine. I didn’t give the amp much warm-up time before playing, so I suspect a tube may have failed.

According to the schematic in the user manual, the 12AX7 in V1 is part of the input stage for both channels and is used in the vintage channel. The 12AX7 in V2 is dedicated to the overdrive channel only. That seems to rule out V2 as the cause—and possibly V1 too, since it feeds both channels.

Other than my stupidity, any ideas what might be the cause? Thanks!

12AX7 is actually two tubes in one bottle. Half of V1 is common to both channels and half of it is only used in the vintage channel. I'm out of my depth here but I guess it is possible for only half of a 12AX7 to go faulty? I've had preamp tubes in other amps make a loud pop when they go bad.

If you swap V1 and V2 around the problem should switch channels and you will know to blame your current V1.

 

[mattwear]

12AX7 is actually two tubes in one bottle. Half of V1 is common to both channels and half of it is only used in the vintage channel. I'm out of my depth here but I guess it is possible for only half of a 12AX7 to go faulty? I've had preamp tubes in other amps make a loud pop when they go bad.

If you swap V1 and V2 around the problem should switch channels and you will know to blame your current V1.

Thanks. I’ll try swapping them around to see if the fault moves to V2.

 

[mattwear]

I swapped the V1 and V2 tubes around and the fault remained the same… so it’s not the tube unfortunately. Both tubes have two filaments glowing beautifully.

I’ll need to take this to the tech.